This past week the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office held a press conference on the Genesee Human Oppression Strike Team (GHOST) arrests made since March 12th. Sheriff Chris Swanson named the 17 individuals arrested for various crimes involving alleged child sexual exploitation.
https://nbc25news.com/news/local/genesee-county-sheriff-has-arrested-17-alleged-child-sex-predators-since-march.
One man was a Burton firefighter who served as a former police officer with multiple agencies in Genesee County. When arrested, Matthew J. Hyde, 40, had two loaded guns, a police ID and a police badge for a department he was not associated with. https://www.wnem.com/news/sheriff-releases-more-information-related-to-ghost-operation/article_0e4f78ca-e245-11ea-897e-43b8690fb3d2.html.
City of Burton Mayor Duane Haskins, who previously served with the Geneseee County Sheriff’s Office, said that Hyde was suspended without pay from the fire department. He noted the damage to society as a whole when someone with a badge acts without integrity and observed that when someone pins a badge on their chest above their heart, most trusted servants act with honor and integrity to protect and save people.
Sheriff Swanson continues to hold press conferences about his GHOST team operations so that child predators and traffickers will “know there’s a watchdog out there” and asked those who violate minors to “get professional help and not harm another child.”
Hyde’s attorney, Frank Manley, who has handled several GHOST team cases said “Nobody is for the exploitation of minors.” But in the OCCK case I think you would have to agree that in Chris Busch’s case his attorneys created a situation with judges that paved the way for the continued exploitation of minors. These attorneys include Carl H. Leiter, R. Keith Stark (who handed Busch off to Jane Burgess two days before my brother was abducted), and Jane Burgess. And of course their sole duty was to their paying client, but you should read some of the bullshit Burgess slung at sentencing for Busch’s numerous CSC’s about her model citizen client, and her unnecessarily cruel cross-examination of one of the victims. The judges let the rich boy off easy.
Genessee County arrested Busch and Greg Greene in January 1977 for Criminal Sexual Conduct with minors. They got Greene, but Busch–with his Oakland County connections, was a free man after his father posted $1,000 (down from the initial $75,000). Busch then kept a couple of Oakland County courtrooms busy with his other CSC charges, which were all handled with probation, allowing him to continue his predation and sex crimes. In the ultimate score in favor of the violation of minors, Oakland County officials and police as well as the Michigan State Police, tucked the OCCK case in bed with Busch’s huge, rotting body on November 20, 1978. Problem solved.
No, you will never see a GHOST in Oakland County. How about in November you Oakland County voters get a bad ass like Sheriff Chris Swanson in office instead of your good old boy Mike Bouchard? With an annual budget of $163 million, it doesn’t seem like there’s room in the Oakland County sheriff’s budget for investigating human oppression. But that stuff never happens in Oakland County, right?
Just read about the trusted man in blue who turned out to be a pedophile. So all of a sudden a logical possibility occurred to me. Did Chris Busch have access to any of his family money? Could a cop have posed as a COP, demanding that a kid get in the car? And could said COP have been paid by Busch for delivering a child? Back then even 10K would have been half a year’s pay as a police officer.
And I forgot the most important part – could this have been a fact that accounts for complete failure of LE to get after these crimes?
I think there is a good chance of this. Don’t forget, a witness saw Kristine Mihelich with a police officer at the 7-11. Berkley police were merciless for decades with this man, who was a mere witness. His story is addressed in The Kill Jar, Children of the Snow and The Snow Killings.
Catherine,
Thanks for the wealth of historical information you have provided the public on your blog.
On your recommendation, I read Marney Rich Keenan’s book, The Snow Killings.
Clearly, much went on outside of the public eye with respect to the OCCK, and Marney’s book is an enormously valuable resource.
I found some sentences absolutely jaw-dropping (e.g. pages 97-98, Kindle edition):
“In all, (Cory) Williams identified several hundred men belonging to a structured organization, sharing kids for their sick pleasure. The organization was broken up into “cells” in the major cities and the leaders of each cell had appointed seconds: lieutenants and sergeants all down the chain of command.”
“Those who were being serviced by the ring included local politicians, labor leaders, auto executives and one now retired U.S. senator from the Detroit area.”
Presumably, Williams was referring to someone who was a Senator during the 1970s when the killings took place or, just perhaps, either during the 1960s or 1980s.
If this claim by Cory Williams is accurate, the list of suspects is short. Michigan had only five different Senators between 1960 and 1989.
Philip Hart (1958-1976)
Donald Riegle (1976-1994)
Patrick McNamara (1954-1966)
Robert P. Griffin (1966-1978)
Carl Levin (1978-2014)
McNamara died so long ago (1966) that I find it very unlikely that even Cory Williams (working for 2010 onwards) could have found plausible evidence that McNamara was a member of such a pedophile organization.
The sentence above also appears to imply the senator is still alive (“now retired…”).
Hart died in 1976 and Griffin in 2015. So, if the Senator really is still alive, that would leave just:
Donald Riegle (1976-1994)
Carl Levin (1978-2014)
For what it’s worth, Riegle was from Flint, not Detroit.
Of course, the reference to the Michigan Senator might not be accurate. Maybe, Cory Williams was referring to some Michigan State Senator (a lot more of those) or to a member of the US House of Representatives.
This claim is potentially of great importance but, for that reason, it should be examined very carefully and confirmed.
Best Regards,
John McCormack
You are right, John. In the FOIA documents concerning the investigation in the Cass Corridor, a Michigan Senator is openly named by one of the men being interviewed. I have to go back and find the passage. The man recently died; no wife or kids, just nieces and nephews. It will take me a while to locate this. I was never privy to any information about the client lists or the details of the pedophile/child porn hierarchy and never saw these documents. I just remember the open mention of a Michigan legislator in the investigative files provided in a FOIA response.
Jack Faxon. I have to find the mention in the investigative narrative.
I also raised an eyebrow on the mention of a Senator being involved when I first read the book. Wouldn’t you know it, Jack Faxon lived in Birmingham as well. And founded a school. There’s a link for you below.
I think the complex, sort of organized crime style structure to this underground organization – and the idea that some form of it is still running today – might be what has so many of the guys involved in this case so afraid to talk. It’s their own sick version of the mob.
https://thejewishnews.com/2020/01/13/former-state-sen-jack-faxon-dies/
Very interesting, Jeff. Thanks a lot. Just one sentence from a posted comment on Faxon’s obituary,
“He was a consummate public servant of the highest caliber, and during his tenure in the Michigan State Senate, he was once the fourth most powerful elected official in Michigan, acting as President Pro Tempore of the Senate.”
Another interesting – and disturbing – tidbit. The school he created and was headmaster at was mostly for exchange students which strikes me as, shall we say, rather convenient.
Also, this little sick cherry on top…
https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/0,9309,7-387-90487-517021–,00.html
It seems like this is a name that deserves far more examination/scrutiny when looking at the larger manipulations of power going on behind the scenes during this period. If Faxon was on the list in the 70’s – as we now know he was – he kept operating quite openly around kids for decades after and plenty of folks who knew better just let it happen. Same as a certain weasel of a suspect still singing away at his church (and on YouTube). You’ve got a nexus in Oakland County – and weirdly in Birmingham specifically – of power players in government and business all with aims that have nothing to do with the truth.
So gross. See my next post and consider if Faxon was such a statesman.
Thanks again, Jeff. So, Faxon was on the Appropriations Committee? That’s the group that decides which schools and special programs get money and in what mounts. It would have given him a lot of leverage with schools in the state. He would have found it very easy to “recommend” people like himself as teachers and administrators. I noticed rereading his obits that “lymphoma” was his official cause of death. Lymphoma is often AIDS related. So, yet another “gift” he may have been passing on to his young charges.
Oakland County(IFONLY!)needs to do this!(HumanOppressionStrikeTeams)! ALL of this country needs to do more of this!! Put these sick fs away(And that includes the hired freaks that are paid to kidnap/abduct kids to hand them over to these ChildSexTrafficking rings/pornographers/PedS)! They think they can take what is not theirs to take(for their own SICK purposes). How many kids disappear every yr due to these child sex predators/pornographers/rings? WHAT is being DONE to bust up these rings/catch these sick child rapists/predators(that obviously think that the rules of society don’t apply to them and no child is off limits to them). You see posts of “have you seen this child” etc. but What is Being done to PREVENT abductions from these sick perverts before the fact-to get them off of our streets?! These sickos think they can’t be touched by the law. They think they are uncatchable-Why? because WHAT is actually being DONE to CATCH, APPREHEND and INCARCERATE the OFFENDER(for longer than mere weeks/months)?! What is Being DONE to CATCH and BUST UP the Big Guys at the top of the Freak Ladder?-then Climb Down from There!
And then there are the Sick Freaks that abuse their own kids and also use and trade their children so as to allot them the means to rape other children held within these rings/circles.
Rehabilitation/Therapy? When are they going to stop giving these sick Predators of our children a pass/slap on the wrist and realize THEY ARE NOT “REHABILITATABLE”!! THEY CAN’T BE FIXED! They only get worse! GET(and keep!)THEM OFF OF OUR STREETS, NEIGHBORHOODS AND OUT OF SOCIETY! Who will OVERCOME this sick INDUSTRY?!