In 2014 my Dad agreed to meet with a man who wanted to tell him his theories about the OCCK case. They met and spoke and there were two witnesses to the conversation that took place. I will refer to him as John Doe. Doe has since died.
I remember my Dad telling me about this meeting; telling me some of what Doe said made sense (if you understood the larger reach of this case, not the pre-packaged law enforcement bullshit being tossed to the public off and on for decades), but the man was a mess. Physically and emotionally. My Dad said the guy most definitely seemed sincere. He shared with me the letter Doe wrote, along with his written addendums. The man had asked for silence, and we obliged. (Like anyone would listen anyway.). Having gotten the overview from my Dad and working against the rage I had that my Dad had to meet with unknown people when the MSP was not doing squat on the case, I started to read the documents.
I’m not going to lie, I fucking gave up. More shit that was too little, too late; unprovable even as lots of it made sense in a sick way. Maddening. Disgusting. Hopeless. Another example of someone coming forward, unloading and feeling much better about that, while the rest of us feel immeasurably worse. Here’s some info, y’all figure it out in your spare time. There are mentions of financial need, although no overt request for money. Another reason to discount it.
Because the guy asked for confidentiality, I ditched the documents and forgot about it. As I went through old files this week, I found them again. The man was dead of “natural causes” soon after the meeting with my Dad and the other two witnesses. My Dad stressed that Doe seemed physically quite ill when they met. One of the witnesses confirmed this with me today; said it was no surprise he died soon after because he looked very sick. I never rule out thugs and assassins from the Cass to Oakland County from that era. Some are still around and still protected, I’m sure. Either way, the man is gone and part of what he appeared to want was for his information to do some good. I am going to post the documents here.
One witness to the conversation told me it was hard to get past the fragmented story, how crazy it sounded, the lack of specifics and the man’s failure to answer direct questions. He apparently broke everything down rather than answer a simple question and was not willing to discuss or admit many things. He seemed to be evasive, incomprehensible and not credible, according to this witness. As you will deduce after reading the documents, he clearly had stuff to hide. I won’t be able to answer the many questions you will have after reading this. Your guess is as good as mine.
Clear as mud! It sounds like he implying H.Lee was a participant. What’s up with the different font, hmm…
Meaningless diatribe, Mentions money more times than a bank manager.
I think your father was right to discount this essay.
Offers no specific information only the perp would know.
In all likelihood the perp or perps were incarcerated or dead by 1978 or 1979 so no further crimes.There doesn’t seem to be any similar crimes after that period that match the occk.
I’m sure Greg Greene knew and told people like his cell mate, Why is this information still being held by MSP?.What possible difference would it make to continue with the coverups forty years after the crimes in which all the perps are dead and most of the victims as well.
If we look at similar crimes they don’t tend to be part of a conspiracy but of one or two players.
If it is Busch and Greene how did they know one another prior to the crimes and for how long?
Where and when did they meet.
Greg Greene must have numerous files both from prison as well as state hospitals.where are those files today.
What does the FBI make of these crimes and who may be responsible.
If we look at similar crimes against adults there are always crimes leading up to the series where mistakes have been made and the perp was caught and served time and learned from these mistakes.It is impossible for me to think that the perp or perps in this case never made a mistake.If they made a mistake who was it that got away, that person would be key in identifying the likely culprits.
Sorry for my own diatribe,
Matt
CB and GG met at a bar. CB’s nephews lived in the same neighborhood as Greene and Gunnells.
Do you happen to know where and in what capacity Greg Greene was employed during the killings.
I already know about Busch and the Scotsman and the retirement home but I can’t find any info on where Greg was employed if at all.
What possible difference would it make? Well if Fishers and Briggs’ were involved that could make a difference. Like getting demoted from your job or getting found stiff on the side of a highway. Some of these people think g. d. Detroit is the almighty center of the universe. Like we care about their sexploits. We DO care about these crimes!
A thought . . .was the writer’s young brother, the invalid, a victim of these bad people? Ruined for life either physically or more likely mentally??
The man is intelligent and educated but possibly clinically paranoid. I’m not too quick to discount the letter as rubbish. I want to know about the Fisher, as in chassis by Fisher and Fisher Building, family and the Briggs family. Is that Briggs as in Briggs and Stratton engine? Could it really be possible that the history of these families is impregnable? Could one of the Fisher dudes have participated? I think that level of prominence and wealth would be required to seal all the lips for eternity
Yeah, a lot of maddeningly vague bits and pieces, but also a few things that do make you go hmm?
I agree, the family names of Fisher and Briggs were huge back in the day in regard to power and wealth, and therefore, interesting to see brought up. IF it is one of them, it’s easy to see a depraved family member running with a family/family members like the Busch’s and other relatively powerful families in the area/region.
And that in a nut shell, is why this case has been sold unbelievably “air tight”. Lots of money and power that are buying/ensuring silence, right on down to rogue and crooked authorities making sure others are silenced/jailed/suicided before things can leak out. . Just reminds you of the massive, tangled web this case is seemingly a part of.
Like almost everything with this horror, yet more questions than answers. And more pieces to see if and where they fit in this F’d up puzzle.
Ugh, we always seem to be posting the same things over and over.
Bitamoney, this guy was implying that some “black sheep” descendant of Walter O. Briggs (1877-1952) and one of the Fisher brothers (of Fisher Body) was tagging along with Chris Busch in the Cass corridor. Walter Briggs made a huge fortune building car bodies for General Motors in the very early 20th century, something like the Fishers. And, among other things he owned the Detroit Tigers for much of the middle of the 20th century. And one of the daughters of Walter O. Briggs (Elizabeth 1907-2002) did marry one of the Fishers and even had a nephew named Basil “Mickey” Briggs. But none of her sons (surnamed Fisher) and none of grandsons qualified as “black sheep” like Chris Busch or the other Cass corridor characters. They were either much older or much younger than Chris Busch and half had moved away to California by the 1960s.
This memo strikes me as just “free association” by some very troubled person with a serious substance abuse problem.
Mickey is the attorney John Doe refers to as the “fix it” guy. He died in April of 2019. Although he is not named in the writings, my Dad did recognize the name and told me so. Because later in life this guy was “of counsel” for the law firm my Dad had been a member of for many years. Of course he was.
Well, yes, Mickey was a lawyer and from a socially prominent family. It isn’t hard to imagine why “John Doe” would have heard of him. What I can’t find are any “black sheep” that Mickey would have been “riding herd” over.
I think John Doe was just a kook.
Maybe so.
Hey John. Not so much. Turns out Basil “Mickey” Briggs was Everell E. Fisher, Jr.’s attorney. How do I know? BECAUSE HE IS LISTED AS THE ATTORNEY ON ONE OF THE FOUR FUCKING TIPS CALLED IN ON EVERELL E. FISHER, JR. IN THE OCCK CASE. The tips are fucking shocking and each one includes handwritten cop notes saying “related to the GM Fishers.” One of the tips was called in by a DETROIT COP. Saw this with my own eyes. And you know what? Everell did have a place on Burt Lake at one point. Sounds like a pretty big fucking black sheep if you ask me. And someone who needed an attorney on call.
Senior had a townhouse in Birmingham. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66048668/detroit-free-press/
Catherine, Mickey Briggs was not a cousin of Everell E. Fisher (either Senior or Junior) as stated by “John Doe.” They have no ancestors in common.
Much more puzzling though is that I couldn’t find any mention of him anywhere on your blog before last night but maybe I just missed that. Similarly, he isn’t mentioned in either Marney Keenan’s book nor in Reuben Appelman’s.
Did you get this intelligence on Everell Fisher jr. in the last couple of weeks? If there were four shocking tips on this character then please post those on your blog.
If he wasn’t a “person of interest” back in the mid to late 70s, he probably ought to have been.
Correction. I was wrong about Mickey Briggs and Everell Fisher junior not being cousins. The latter’s mother was a Briggs.
I was not aware of this information until this past week and am asking my sources for permission to post. Tell me how you are connected, John. You seem quite concerned about the Briggs and the Fishers. Am I reading this wrong?
I don’t know any Briggs or Fishers and have never actually lived in the Detroit area though I visited it a number of times over the years. When I first read the “John Doe” document a couple of weeks ago however, I got very excited. I thought the reference to Briggs and Fishers was an analytical break in the case for your blog readers.
Because the Briggs and Fishers were rich AND prominent it would be much easier to find information on them online and (as in my case) without access to special files or databases. One member of the extended family is currently a Detroit Congresswoman.
And, indeed, a simple Google search turned up a ton of references to Charles T. Fisher 2nd who married a daughter of Walter Briggs. “Intetested” above evidently came across the same information on the web. I even spent money on ancestry.com to get more information on the their children and grandchildren. Having then created a box and arrow exhibit of that part of the two families (fairly large on its own) including “Mickey” Briggs, I followed up every child and grandchild of Charles T. 2 and Elizabeth Briggs. I had to rule every one of them out, however. The ages and places they lived were all wrong to have been part of the Birmingham/Cass Corridor gang.
So, I felt I had just gone down a rabbit hole and wasted time.
It didn’t occur to me that a brother of Charles Fisher 2 would ALSO have married another daughter of Walter Briggs but that is what is what happened. They were also easy to miss because there are far fewer references to them online than to their older siblings and so are far down the list of search engine hits. I would have needed to have known there was a person named Everell Fisher and I didn’t know that until your post about 48 hours ago.
I have to say, Everell Fisher jr. looks like someone who should have been examined very closely. But there is virtually nothing about him on the web except for something on ancestry.com that may not even be accurate (showing him once married to a “Vida Blue Ott.” ). There isn’t even much on the web about his parents either apart from Everell Senior’s obit (thank you Kat) and a single mention of the mother and father in a very long IRS case from the early 1960s having to do with what expenses relating to horse breeding were legitimate deductions.
It is probably significant that Everell jr. lived at such a physical (and probably social) distance from his relatives. I have to believe that, having spent the early 1960s in a psychiatric institution, he wasn’t going to be included in any of the activities that got his relatives in the society pages.
But, he would still have been a beneficiary of one or more trusts established by his grandfathers. And that explains the connection to Mickey Briggs, the trusts and estates lawyer.
Catherine, I don’t know any members of the Fisher or Briggs families but I have read books on the OCCK killings and much of your blog.
So, I was actually quite excited a couple of weeks ago when you posted that rambling account by “John Doe.” In that otherwise vague and confused narrative were two names that I had not seen mentioned before; either by you or by Marney Keenan or Reuben Appelman or any of the other journalists who covered the case.
And because the Fisher and Briggs families were both very rich and prominent, there would be a lot of information about them on the web relating to their lives decades ago. Indeed, a simple Google search turned up the marriage between Charles T. Fisher 2nd and a daughter of Walter Briggs (Elizabeth). “Interested” above found the same wedding notices.
Pursuing that marriage allowed me to create a complete family tree for them, including nephews (e.g. Mickey Briggs and Elizabeth Briggs Fisher) and their children and grandchildren. I even signed up for ancestry.com access to fill in any holes I couldn’t fill through search engines.
Unfortunately, none of those children or grandchildren looked like they could have been candidates for membership in the Birmingham/Cass Corridor gang. Either their ages and/or the places they lived (California, Connecticut, Maryland) were all wrong.
So I felt I had gone down a rabbit hole and wasted a lot of time.
What I didn’t realize was that a younger brother of Charles Fisher 2 (Everell senior) ALSO married a daughter of Walter Briggs (Susan) but that is what happened. They were also easy to miss because there is far less information about them on the web and appear quite far down the list of Google hits on Briggs-Fisher searches.
Even knowing the name Everell Fisher, though, there isn’t much to find about them online. There is Everell senior’s obit (thank you Kat) and a single mention of the couple in a very long IRS case from the early 1960s about what expenses relating to horse breeding would be legitimate deductions.
There is virtually nothing online about Everell junior apart from a reference on ancestry.com that might not even be accurate. He was listed as once having been married to a woman named “Vida Blue Ott.” Perhaps just another “beard.”
With the information you and Marney have divulged in the last 48 hours, though, it now seems clear that Everell junior was someone who should have been examined closely. But, he left very few footprints that people outside of 1970s law enforcement could have found. I doubt it was just a coincidence he lived at such physical (and probably social) distance from his prominent relatives. And after spending the early 1960s in a psychiatric institution, it isn’t hard to guess why he would not have been included in any of the activities that put his relatives on the society pages.
Nevertheless, he would have been a legal beneficiary of trusts established by his grandfathers and I think that explains why Mickey Briggs had some sort of oversight responsibility over Everell junior.
Basil M. Briggs, a Southfield attorney who is the son of Walter 0. Briggs Jr., the industrialist whose family owned the De-trolt Tigers baseball team. Basil Briggs’ aunt is Jane Hart, the widow of Sen. Hart.
Cathy, I wanted to share this obituary with you of the man who attempted to take me in 1977. The obituary explains the close proximity he was to Cass Corridor. I am so thankful I was able to get away from him. Back then, no one listened to kids.
Melody Stepanenko
>
Melody, do you want to email the obituary to me?
Reading that was exhausting. I can see why you gave it up. And, I confess to scanning after awhile. I noticed remnants of tone and wording of a former Topix poster. Looking back, that poster seemed to have a break with reality at some point and posted paranoid delusional things sometime after 2011.
What is frustrating and almost impossible is trying to extrapolate the bits that seem likely and fit them into the larger picture. But there is no question that Michigan is a sewage dump of depravty that disguises itself well. The myriad lakes and easy access to I-75 to ferry back and forth takes advantage of the anonymity of city as well as the anonymity of seclusion on the lakes.
While that was exhausting to read and the guy was paranoid as hell, there are bits of the story that are credible. Back in the day, Charles T. Fisher or CT Jr married Elizabeth Jane Briggs. They had 6 kids, 2 girls and 4 boys. I think the eldest son was also Charles Fisher III and he died in 2014. He was the CEO of NBD Bankcorp. The other 3 sons are not mentioned anywhere except in sr’s obit of 1958. Every geneology site has the family tree locked down on the male side. Could be a coincidence or not. Not sure why law enforcement couldn’t find it the same info.
I noticed that, too, Interested. Locked down and internet seems to have been scrubbed. Another coincidence.
Also, the man says he started formulating a plan to come forward in 2010. This is after Lamborgine and Lawson have been sent away for child rape and after the 2009 press disclosure of the Chris Busch/Larry Wasser information. I wondered if maybe someone had died in 2014 that would make it easier for this guy to come forward. H. Lee and Chris Busch were already long dead.
Interested, I am sure law enforcement could find all that information. But none of it would cause anyone to suspect any of the sons of Elizabeth Briggs Fisher. Two of her four sons had moved permanently to California by the time Christopher Bush moved back to Michigan from Switzerland in 1970 and both of those were married with children. The other two were also married with children. How likely do you think it was that Charles T. Fisher III, CEO of the National Bank of Detroit, would have been cruising around the Cass Corridor, not only in the company of a complete loser like Christopher Busch but “submissive in excess” to Busch as well?
Extremely, extremely unlikely on all counts. But in general (and I am not talking about these people in particular), “married with children” might have worked back then but we know better than to take that at face value now.
Everell “Ev” Fisher was back in Michigan by 1973 and opened a gallery in B’ham, along with a design center.
Everell, jr. wasn’t a son of Elizabeth Briggs Fisher. He was a nephew, however. Elizabeth ‘s younger sister also married one of the Fisher boys. Unlike Elizabeth ‘s well-known family, that second Briggs-Fisher family left very few records accessible by web searches.
I added this fact, John, because Everell Fisher Jr. also was in California with his cousins. Dig deeper my friend, I’m way ahead of you.
There are a few specifics.
Clearly John Doe believed that Deloitte, Haskins and Sells in the Guardian Building had a powerful connection to a ring of criminals. (“Send the bill Haskins and Sells in the Guardian.”)
Cathy, did your father ever have any reason to wonder if any of the partners at Deloitte, Haskins and Sells had any connection to Mickey Briggs, the Fisher Family or the Busch family?
John Doe also wrote that Chris Busch was murdered after confessing to his killer. OK, we all suspect he was murdered. But interestingly, John Doe asserted that Busch’s name came to the task force’s attention after a tip from “Al Capece”.
I have found no record of an “Al Capece” in Michigan.
However, that is the second mention of a tipster named “Al” or “Allen”, the second of course, being the taped caller to Bruce Danto.
Same man?
I don’t know, but it is not all that far-fetched. Both “Al” and “Allen” were determined to alert the OCCK task force about a male suspect whom they described as homosexual, violent, dangerous and connected. A suspect of whom both Al’s were clearly intimidated.
John Doe believed that “Harry and Mutzy Levenberg” at the “Anderson” in the Cass Corridor opened “a lot of doors” for him with the (DPD) because he was the “right kind of guy.” John Doe believed that the “perps” were very close to the Cass Cab Co. and hung around the seedy bars on the Corridor.
The Anderson Gardens, once owned by Harry and Ruth Levenberg, was lauded as recently as 2018 in the Detroit Jewish News as the best place to get chili in Metro Detroit. It was also dead center of the strip of seedy bars, precisely the place to hang out, if one wanted to pick up street gossip.
https://digital.bentley.umich.edu/djnews/djn.2018.04.19.001/85
My point is that our writer added a detail here that is entirely plausible and checkable, and true.
The Anderson is visible on the left of this photo from the 1970’s:
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Zo8cdhY6ABfwXkqsojkWGHQzRdg=/0x0:904×600/1320×0/filters:focal(0x0:904×600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6062011/48577_2_vmc.0.jpg
Paul Joliffe, I have a couple of thoughts.
Deloitte Haskins & Sells was one of the then Big Eight Accounting firms (now just the Big Four and the successor is Deloitte & Touche) and a lot of businesses and people used Deloitte services.
Haskins & Sells would have a had more than one office in the Detroit area.
The “Send the bill to Haskins and Sells in the Guardian” makes be think that Deloitte was the administrator for a Trust Fund set up to benefit one of the pederasts, presumably the “Old Money” one or possibly Busch or even John Doe himself.
“Al Capece” may have been a nickname and John Doe may simply have misspelled it. Capisce? in Italian means “Do you understand?” and sounds like “capeesh” in English.
One more comment:
It turns out that Anderson’s Garden was ordered closed a Wayne County Circuit Judge in 1976 because “prostitutes openly solicited customers inside the bar.”
“During the four-month circuit court trial of Anderson’s Garden owners harry Levenberg and Jack Schon, police testified they had made more than 160 prostitution arrests in the bar during a 3 1/2 year period before the trial.
Citizens who live near the bar had complained vigorously that the bar was a haven and place of operation for hookers. County Prosecutor William Cahalan filed charges against the bar as a result of the complaints.”
Remarkably, the state Appeals Court reversed Wayne County Circuit Blair Moody on April 20, 1977 because “Moody was not justified in using a state nuisance law to shut down the bar. interpreting a recent Supreme Court opinion, the appeals judges said that a bar or other establishment is a legal nuisance only if sex acts are performed on the premises. Solicitation, they said, is not a sex act.”
Assistant County Prosecutor Maura Corrigan said “the reversal of Moody’s decision came as a surprise because a different group of Appeals Court judges recently upheld the closing of Saksey’s Lounge, Woodward near Seven Mile, another alleged prostitute bar. Those judges used the same nuisance law rejected in the Anderson’s Garden case.”
Detroit Free Press, April 21, 1977: “Hookers Hangout Bar Can Stay Open” by Robert Ostmann, Jr. Free Press Staff Writer
So, John Doe correctly named a bar, awash with cops and hookers (genders unmentioned), owned by men who, incredibly, had enough pull at the state Appeals Court level to continue to operate in the middle of the Cass Corridor as late as the spring of 1977.
John Doe may have been a wreck at the end of his life, but he specifically identified not only the bar, but also THE OWNERS, who did indeed enjoy some sort of insider protection at a very high level!
I wouldn’t write his story off just yet.
The second picture in this link shows Cass Corridor from the mid-1970’s featuring Anderson’s Garden on the left.
https://detroit.eater.com/2016/2/17/11025240/new-shag-bar-detroit-willis-show-jazz-cass-corridor
Apparently it was a six-year long struggle to close Anderson’s, despite years of public picketing and pressure. That place seemingly had some card to play with authorities.
The Circuit Court Judge. Blair Moody, whose 1976 decision to close Anderson’s was then bizarrely overturned by the state’s Appeals Court in April of 1977, was immediately named to the Michigan Supreme Court.
Hmmm. (A payoff, somehow?)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blair_Moody_Jr.
Anderson’s was the subject of intense public pressure and picketing for years before it was finally shut down for good in 1981.
https://twitter.com/detroitstreetvu/status/968665448932921344
John Doe on page 18 named the bar, “Anderson’s” and the owner, Harry Levenberg, as the type of place where “all this service with a phone call or a simple whisper in a bar.” (page 5.)
Disjointed, rambling, confused, incoherent, a mess?
Yes, absolutely.
Did he manage to identify the most likely ground zero, a place protected at a high level for years?
Yes, John Doe, in his own pathetic way, did exactly that.
Det. Cory Williams mentioned somewhere in his research a Michigan senator was involved with the Fox Island ring at that time. Not a stretch to think all the sicko’s knew and looked out for each other. If true, could support the idea of a Michigan Supreme Court position for a favorable lower court ruling.
Thanks for this information, Paul.
I spent yesterday in a semi-simmering rage. If there is one obvious thread to this story, it is that one of the big reasons the OCCK case was never solved is that doing so would have butted up against the pedophiles operating with impunity in Oakland County. A David Norberg? Disposable–dirty freak from Detroit. But someone in the suburbs?! Can’t be!! The LA Times was quoting a prosecutor from Michigan in June of 1977 and telling the world–pedophiles are not all dirty old men–some are rich well-connected. A pedophile can’t have a wife and children! WTF?!
Do I think this man, who was a wreck at the end of his life, did a bunch of research to backfill his story to include a “well known” attorney so he could toss that in, too? Fuck no. Are you telling me no one with the last name of Fisher ever lived on Burt Lake, especially after 1975? Are you telling me no one with connections to this pedophile ring wound up dead under suspicious circumstances? As another reader observed, it’s a miracle the Busch maid (the one who showed up and tried to gain entry to the home where Chris Busch was rotting in his bed) survived.
Is this man’s story completely unbelievable? Or is it more likely that no one wants to consider the possibility that this shit was going on?
Married with children means nothing. In fact, for self-professed Pederasts (boy-lovers) like Gerald Richards (he was) and Walter Breen (he was, albeit it was all a farce), married with children was supposed to be ‘normative’ for the not-homosexual, not-bisexual, hyper-macho sexual ‘mentors’ of young boys, they believed themselves to be!
But, “protecting each other” may be too straight-forward a concept. Personal loyalty? Once Richard’s goose was cooked, he showed no trace of that in his haste to rat everyone else out. Starchild and Grossman plotted to embezzle Shelden’s Trust monies even before Shelden fled the country.
They would all lie, cheat and steal to protect “what they need”, however – and no doubt so would any unnamed associates they might have had in positions of real social-political-financial power. No individual is indispensable – if they screw up, get caught, go down, then they were stupid and weak. Why waste invaluable “favors”, trying to save them?
But, protect your access to “what you need”, protect the flow of “what you need”, move mountains to ensure that SOMEONE keeps bringing around those pretty young things from “the wrong side of the tracks”, the kids with attitude that you delight in inflicting corrective discipline on? (Or whatever floats their particular, perverted, personal boat).
That, makes sense to me.
The Fishers owned property on Burt Lake which happens to be about forty five minutes from Charlevoix.
https://www.stonefuneralhomeinc.com/obituary/Daniel-Fisher
Kat, this Fisher is not one of the Fisher Body Fishers. Just a guy who worked for Sears for 36 years. Fisher is a pretty common surname.
The last of the Fisher body brothers passed away in 1972. John Doe would have to be talking about a family member of one of the brothers. Without a family tree for this man i don’t think he can be ruled out. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_Body#Fisher_family
Cathy – What’s your email? I want to send you some information on this. I did some research.
catherine.broad@yahoo.com
Catherine, I don’t know any members of the Fisher or Briggs families but I have read books on the OCCK killings and much of your blog.
So, I was actually quite excited a couple of weeks ago when you posted that rambling account by “John Doe.” In that otherwise vague and confused narrative were two names that I had not seen mentioned before; either by you or by Marney Keenan or Reuben Appelman or any of the other journalists who covered the case.
And because the Fisher and Briggs families were both very rich and prominent, there would be a lot of information about them on the web relating to their lives decades ago. Indeed, a simple Google search turned up the marriage between Charles T. Fisher 2nd and a daughter of Walter Briggs (Elizabeth).
Pursuing that marriage allowed me to create a complete family tree. for them, including nephews (e.g. Mickey Briggs and Elizabeth Briggs Fisher) and their children and grandchildren. I even signed up for ancestry.com access to fill in any holes I couldn’t fill through search engines.
Unfortunately, none of those children or grandchildren looked like they could have been candidates for membership in the Birmingham/Cass Corridor gang. Either their ages and/or the places they lived (California, Connecticut, Maryland) were all wrong.
So I felt I had gone down a rabbit hole and wasted a lot of time.
What I didn’t realize was that a younger brother of Charles Fisher 2 (Everell senior) ALSO married a daughter of Walter Briggs (Susan) but that is what happened. They were also easy to miss because there is far less information about them on the web and appear quite far down the list of Google hits on Briggs-Fisher searches.
Even knowing the name Everell Fisher, though, there isn’t much to find about them online. There is Everell senior’s obit (thank you Kat) and a single mention of the couple in a very long IRS case from the early 1960s about what expenses relating to horse breeding would be legitimate deductions.
There is virtually nothing online about Everell junior apart from a reference on ancestry.com that might not even be accurate. He was listed as once having been married to a woman named “Vida Blue Ott.” Perhaps just another “beard.”
With the information you and Marney have divulged in the last 48 hours, it now seems clear that Everell junior was someone who should have been examined closely. But, he left very few footprints that people outside of 1970s law enforcement could have found. I doubt it was just a coincidence he lived at such physical (and probably social) distance from his prominent relatives. And after spending the early 1960s in a psychiatric institution, it isn’t hard to guess why he would not have been included in any of the activities that put his relatives on the society pages.
Nevertheless, he would have been a legal beneficiary of trusts established by his grandfathers and I think that explains why Mickey Briggs had some sort of oversight responsibility over Everell junior.
Catherine, I don’t know any members of the Fisher or Briggs families but I have read books on the OCCK killings and much of your blog.
So, I was actually quite excited a couple of weeks ago when you posted that rambling account by “John Doe.” In that otherwise vague and confused narrative were two names that I had not seen mentioned before; either by you or by Marney Keenan or Reuben Appelman or any of the other journalists who covered the case.
And because the Fisher and Briggs families were both very rich and prominent, there would be a lot of information about them on the web relating to their lives decades ago. Indeed, a simple Google search turned up the marriage between Charles T. Fisher 2nd and a daughter of Walter Briggs (Elizabeth).
Pursuing that marriage allowed me to create a complete family tree. for them, including nephews (e.g. Mickey Briggs and Elizabeth Briggs Fisher) and their children and grandchildren. I even signed up for ancestry.com access to fill in any holes I couldn’t fill through search engines.
Unfortunately, none of those children or grandchildren looked like they could have been candidates for membership in the Birmingham/Cass Corridor gang. Either their ages and/or the places they lived (California, Connecticut, Maryland) were all wrong.
So I felt I had gone down a rabbit hole and wasted a lot of time.
What I didn’t realize was that a younger brother of Charles Fisher 2 (Everell senior) ALSO married a daughter of Walter Briggs (Susan) but that is what happened. They were also easy to miss because there is far less information about them on the web and appear quite far down the list of Google hits on Briggs-Fisher searches.
Even knowing the name Everell Fisher, though, there isn’t much to find about them online. There is Everell senior’s obit (thank you Kat) and a single mention of the couple in a very long IRS case from the early 1960s about what expenses relating to horse breeding would be legitimate deductions.
There is virtually nothing online about Everell junior apart from a reference on ancestry.com that might not even be accurate. He was listed as once having been married to a woman named “Vida Blue Ott.” Perhaps just another “beard.”
With the information you and Marney have divulged in the last 48 hours, it now seems clear that Everell junior was someone who should have been examined closely. But, he left very few footprints that people outside of 1970s law enforcement could have found. I doubt it was just a coincidence he lived at such physical (and probably social) distance from his prominent relatives. And after spending the early 1960s in a psychiatric institution, it isn’t hard to guess why he would not have been included in any of the activities that put his relatives on the society pages.
Nevertheless, he would have been a legal beneficiary of trusts established by his grandfathers and I think that explains why Mickey Briggs had some sort of oversight responsibility over Everell junior.
Sorry this appears twice, John. The comment showed up in the spam folder and when I “approved” it showed up twice. Afraid to delete because I might lose the comment entirely.
No problem, Catherine.
No problem, Catherine.
Sisson and Charles T. Fisher, Jr. Were members of the board of directors of the Detroit Tigers along with State Senator Philip A. Hart , W. Dean Robinson and Everell E. Fisher.
Mrs. Hart is Janey Briggs.
Mrs. Robinson is Grace Briggs
Mrs. Everell Fisher is Susan Briggs
Mrs. Charles T. Fisher. Jr. is Elizabeth Briggs.
Thanksm Sheri-Lyn, that is very useful.
well he certainly had somethings going on and on his mind based on that letter
WTF? This guy has Disassociative Personality Disorder – There is at least 3 different people in there! Is this ” Allen”?!?! Jesus, I need to research The Fisher’s!!!
Here’s an obituary that details Fisher family members:
Monday, Feb, 14,-1985 GREATER MIAMI DEATHS Briggs Services To Be In Detroit Services will be held in Detroit for Mrs. Walter 0. Briggs Sr., 72, widow of the late manufacturer and mother of Walter 0. (Spike) Briggs Jr., owner of the Detroit Tigers, who died here yesterday. Mrs. Briggs, an annual winter visitor, had been here since early December in her home, Walbri Villa, at 5151 Collins Ave., Miami Beach. About six weeks ago, she suffered a heart attack. Following a recurrence Saturday night, she was taken to St. Francis Hospital where she died early Sunday. The body was sent last night to Detroit. At the bedside when Mrs. Briggs died were her daughter, Mrs. Everell Fisher Jr., of Detroit, and son-in-law, Mr. Fisher, and the Most Rev. Allen J. Bab-cock, auxiliary bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, who were visiting here. The bishop, a family friend, administered the last rites. It was he who administered the last rites to Mr. Briggs at the time of his death in Miami Beach three years ago. ‘ The bishop will officiate at requiem mass Wednesday in Detroit. The family has a private mausoleum in that city in which Mr. Briggs is interred Mrs. Briggs was a member of the Indian Creek and Bath Clubs of Miami Beach and the Ever glades Club at Palm Beach. Her late husband was one of the fast-dwindling group of men who built America’s automobile empire in the early 20th century and a moving force in the industry for almost 50 years. He was founder of Briggs Manufacturing Co., makers of auto bodies. Mr. Briggs was one of the founders of the Bath Club at Miami Beach. Among other founders were Fred A. Poor, of Chicago, former Gov. James M. Cox of Ohio, and the late Harvey Firestone. Mr. Briggs also was a founder of Indian Creek Country Club. In addition to membership in these clubs, Mrs. Briggs was a member of Bloomfield Open Hunt, Grosse Pointe Club, Bloom- field Hills Country Club and Detroit (Mich.) Club, all in the Detroit area. Mrs. Briggs, the former’ Jane Elizabeth Cameron, was wed to Mr. Briggs in 1904. Surviving are the son, Walter; four daughters, Mrs. W. Dean Robinson, whose husband is president of Briggs Manufacturing Co.; Mrs. Charles T. Fisher Jr., Mrs. Everell Fisher and Mrs. Philip A. Hart Jr., and several grandchildren. Mrs. Briggs was a native of Muskoka, Ontario, Canada. vived by two other
The Fishers definitely had property on Burt Lake: FISHER EVERELL EDWARD. Sept. 17. 1979.
Husband of Susan Briggs Fisher; father of Everell Edward Jr of Burt Lake, Mich., Peter J. Fisher ot Cheboygan, Mich., and Mrs. James Philips of Annapolis, Md.. brother of Mary V Fisher and Thomas K. Fisher; also survived by four grandchildren. Mast of the Resurrection at St. Hugo of Ihe Hills Church, 2215 Opdvke Rd., Bioom-fleld Hills, Thursday 11 a.m. Memorial tributes to St Vincent and Sarah Fisher Horn, 27400 W. 17 Mile Rd.. Farmlngton Hills, Mich. 41108 For turtner information, can tne wm. k, Hamilton Co., 644-6000
Thanks, Sheri-lyn. This man and his associates need to be investigated for real. This is a glaring gap in the investigation.