I think it is safe to say at this point that no one will ever be charged in the OCCK crimes. I think this has less to do with poor policing than with public corruption. The bigger crime here is public corruption and I believe it continues today, four decades after four young suburban kids were murdered. And, given the hands-off approach of Michigan officials (with the exception of Wayne County, MI) and the Detroit bureau of the FBI, there’s a very good chance we will never fully understand the lengths public officials and police went to in Oakland County, Michigan, to put economics and reputation ahead of child welfare. When you think about it, this is the most blatant example of public corruption one can come up with.
Public corruption is a breach of trust and confidence in government and can tarnish virtually every aspect of society. Police corruption is a part of public corruption. It is an abuse of trust by officials, often with the help of private sector accomplices. For example, a corrupt state polygrapher could “pass” someone on a polygraph, allowing a predator to go free and kill again. Or someone might take money and make some ropes and the original of a pencil drawing disappear. Or a police department or prosecutor’s office could agree to stop investigating a suspect to avoid tarnishing its own reputation due to investigative errors.
The FBI describes this as a top enforcement concern. https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/public-corruption. It can involve the passing of money or actions taken to protect an agency’s reputation. There are many examples of society’s disinterest in child welfare that can include a “wink and a nod” from prosecutors. https://www.ecpatusa.org/blog/2018/12/7/the-ordinary-complicity-that-puts-all-children-at-risk. As this article points out, it is easier for society to point at the monster rather than reflect on how our culture allows these monsters to succeed.
Agencies–even the FBI–are looked at more carefully today. An example is the scrutiny being placed on the FBI for ignoring or slow-walking victims’ allegations in the Larry Nassar case. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/09/05/inspector-general-reviews-fbi-handling-nassar-case/37721107/. While it is beyond dispute that USA gymnastics and Michigan State University were complicit enablers in the Nassar sexual assault cases, the Inspector General’s office of the DOJ has said that at least 40 girls and women said they were molested over a 14-month period while the FBI was aware of other sexual abuse allegations involving Nassar. Somebody noticed.
Consider this 2014 article from The New Yorker Magazine and ask yourself if this man would have done anything humanly possible to keep his suburban enclave from earning a reputation for kid-fucking and worse. Anything to make the OCCK case go away:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/01/27/drop-dead-detroit
You might have had to travel from Birmingham to Detroit to catch Deep Throat at a theater in 1972, but if you wanted to order up a young kid to sexually abuse? Well, you could stay right in Oakland County for that action. Don’t like the implication? TOUGH SHIT.
Has anyone thought that this could just be a regular joe that worked in oakland county lived in wayne countyand was totally overlooked during this although was turned in
Yep. But what agency is going to do the heavy lifting to figure that out at this point?
Has a name joanne mathews valerie mathews or lloyd mathews ever been in any conversation
Not as far as I know. Anyone else????
Ran it through a search of every doc I have and every email. The only Mathews or variation is Todd Matthews who ran the original website at Dreambook on the OCCK and Helen Dagner’s account of her time with John Hastings.
Cathie,
Is there a reputable hypnotist that you know that I could pay to let me undergo regression to 1977? I am a skilled artist and maybe I can see the license plate of creepo in regression, I dunno? I am willing to try and willing to pay for it too. I would love this criminal caught and I saw him and his car for many minutes, and he looked just like the sketches I did and that were in circulation. I know in my heart of hearts it was him ( the OCCK) and he may have had an accomplice in same field trying to beagle me out. Let me know if you have a trusted hypno?, and again, I will pay for it in an effort to help.
I don’t know of anyone, Monty. Anybody out there know of a good hypnotist who specializes in this kind of regression? I remember your story. It is terrifying.
Cathy
Maybe what this case needs is a movie, that seems to be the only way the public pays attention.
Det.Corey Williams would have come the closest since 1976 and there has never been more press coverage than now,and still no arrests.
One thing is very clear, these crimes did not occur in a vacum, the amount of human filth in Michigan right up until today makes me glad I’m not living there.The vast majority are white so called men as well .It reminds me of what Aileen Wournos went through in her childhood, apparently society didn’t like the outcome with that one.
The ones who could provide answers don’t want to,Sloan,Lamborghin,,etc etc
The one person who still surprises me is Gunnels there is no way he doesn’t read this blog and know the hell the families have gone through,and yet nothing but silence and more meth or crack or whatever it is that helps him keep the devil at bay.It would take Vince about 10 mins via email to set the record straight and it could even be done as a hypothetical and anonymously.
Matt
Gunnels is a coward. So is his brother, Paul. I would have cut Vince some slack because he was a victim and a lure, until he had my Dad and brother come to Kalamazoo to meet with him and his AA sponsor. In some twisted version of the amends process, Vince spoke in front of his sponsor to tell my Dad and brother he had nothing to do with the child murders. That he was a victim of Chris Busch one time. That’s it. Total bullshit.
Ken Bowman, also a victim of and lure for Busch and Greene, spoke honestly with Detective Williams about contact with Busch and Ted Lamborgine. As late as February 2019, Bowman called Birmingham PD and gave information about Busch, Greene and Gunnels. Bowman grew up in Flint with Gunnels. The statement says, among many other things: “Bowman stated that Gunnells [sic] was easily manipulated by the other kids and adults. He said Gunnells was the type of kid who would do anything if you dared him. Bowman stated that Gunnells was a little slow and a ‘follower.'” Also: “Bowman thinks Green made Gunnells kill Chris Busch, but didn’t give details as to why.”
Gunnels will never be honest. Never.
SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE FOLKS IN BACK
It’s all about corruption. There are so many dead ends in this case that always seem to lead back to some cop or community leader saying they’ll do one thing, then in fact doing something different behind closed doors. Even the way you found out about the Busch polygraph test was due to someone compromising their professional integrity “for a friend”.
The simplest explanation for why this case was not solved, is that somebody was compromised or bribed or blackmailed in some way, and prevented others from doing their job correctly. The possible spectrum of malicious, cynical, and hurtful behavior within that fact could be very broad, but in short, everyone who reads this blog knows that somebody was definitely covering up for someone else in the OCCK case. It’s just a question of figuring out who was covering up for who, and how many people actually knew about it.
The narrative in SE Michigan has always been, that Detroit is corrupt, and the suburbs are on the up and up. It’s never been true, and it’s an oversimplification, but the racist tropes shrouded in “business talk” and midwestern charm help offer a distraction from discussing real problems in the region – ones that we can only fight regionally, in fact. Brooks Patterson (and the generation of white business leaders he represented) also helped frame this narrative of “corrupt violent city, shining safe suburbs” in his long career, and we still live with its ramifications today.
(See Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent about how gov’t and business community setting the frame of which narratives constitute “acceptable discussion” in the media has proved to be an effective method of propaganda.)
In practice, it’s not hard for corruption to happen in a suburban gov’t or police department, with smaller staffs, smaller budgets, and WAY less oversight than a big city. Especially back in the 70s when the region was not as sprawled and infrastructure / govt in the inner burbs was not as robust as it is today. It’s not hard to imagine that the OCCK clusterf*ck actually involves a few different “cover ups” at different levels and for different reasons. From the local PDs , to the county, to the folks who lost all that evidence in a “flood” somehow….seems like lots of players have reasons for this NOT to be solved.
That’s an interesting theory that Gunnels killed Busch. I would think there would be plenty of motive on Gunnels’ part, namely ruining Gunnels’ life by molesting him and getting him involved in other horrors. Regarding Green ordering it, maybe Green figured he would get out of prison easily for molestation as was proven numerous times prior. But if his involvement in the OCCK ever got out, then he might actually be locked up for life. So, killing Busch kept the secret safe. Not to mention that Busch had mouthed off previously to LE about how he would like to capture kids with another person, described ‘hypothetical’ locations he would pick up the kids that just happened to correlate with the locations of the first 3 victims, had artwork hanging up that any normal parent would find horrifying,etc. Maybe Greene viewed Busch as coming unhinged, about to spill it all, and wanted him taken care of.