6 thoughts on “1977 Year-end news round up.”

  1. Cathy – if I understood your previous posts correctly – McKinney was a close friend to the Coffey’s. The Coffeys lived across the street from you on Yorkshire. Timmy was close friends with the Coffey boy and McKinney would have seen Timmy regularly while there. If these statements are true, I have two questions: Is it the same childhood friend of Timmy, Coffey, who was the lie detector gentleman that ran into the other lie detector guy who basically said he knew who killed Timmy? Then Coffey told your brother and some light was shed on the case? Secondly, you said that no one from any LE reached out to you regarding McKinney’s death and any whether McKinney had any connection to your family (like he knew Timmy). Pls clarify. Thank you.

    1. You understand correctly. Patrick Coffey was a cousin of Tim’s friend and when his father passed away Patrick and his siblings lived with our friends the Coffeys for a few years. It is a fact that in 2006 Patrick had a conversation with Larry Wasser in Las Vegas that broke open this case. But you know that because you have been paying attention to this case for a long time. Divine intervention? Energy work? It happened. When a book was being written about the child killings (published in 2011) and the child sex rings operating in and around Detroit, your old friend was mentioned rather prominently. That’s when I started asking questions. I was dear friends with one of the Coffey kids. She wept as she told me (2009 or 2010) that John McKinney was at their house all the time, ate dinner there often, and surely Tim and he would have crossed paths more than once at their house. She asked “why didn’t you say anything?!” (Same question a detective asked me.). Why? Because I didn’t know McKinney from a hole in the wall. I had left for college six weeks before his murder and I sure as hell was not reading The Birmingham Eccentric or following the Detroit-area news. Further fact. The oldest Coffey sibling worked for McKinney and left that employment in 1973. When I say no one in LE asked us if we knew, recognized or had heard of John McKinney, I mean just that. Police and FBI asked us every little detail of our lives–friends, coaches, priests, teachers, neighbors, activities, schedules, my dad’s clients, possible enemies, everything. But another murder happens six months later and there is some sense (as reflected in the news articles) that the guy has a shady side and nobody asks us about him? I can see police missing the connection between McKinney and Yorkshire Road, where we and the Coffeys lived because even though they interviewed many people in McKinney’s inner circle and polygraphed quite a few, the bigger picture may have been missed. I do take issue with the failure to properly pursue a possible connection between McKinney and the child killings. And I would be happy to detail why that is the case.

      1. Wow. Just wow. Incredible synchronicity. I am very thankful that you and your family continued to document and pursue this case. If i remember correctly the Coffey’s were part of the birmingham eton park hockey league. I remember all too well what it felt to be an 11 year old boy going to Pembroke at the time of your brother’s murder. This case has haunted me to this day.

  2. I’d like to know the connection between the Hastings and McKinny. I’ve read numerous things about them being connected. Possibly John or Mike working at McKinnys gallery? Possibly Hastings mother connected to Mckinny? I find it quite intriguing that Mckinny was friends with a Coffey and was at the Coffey house which was across the street from you guys. Just another coincidence. The puzzle being put together.

  3. JN, the name Hastings is never mentioned in the McKinney investigation. None of them come up in interviews of gallery employees or friends/associates. Were they on the client list for the gallery? No mention of the client list, either. I agree, the proximity with McKinney is intriguing. And as I have stated a number of times, the eldest Coffey sister called police numerous times over the decades (I don’t know the first time) to suggest they look at McKinney in the OCCK case.

  4. The pedo cop fromFranklin Village first in the death scene of Chris Busch is too much to swallow. I dont believe that was chance. Pls keep up the fight.

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