In between lies and twisted statements, Gerald Richards explained to a Chicago Tribune reporter investigating child pornography that around 1968 he left the porno shop he was working at and started his own mail order child pornography business. This surely supplemented the income from the first “nonprofit” this monster created in 1970 to gain access to children.
By 1970, Richards, his wife, and Mr. and Mrs. Richard Mugridge had formed a nonprofit to bring safety instruction and religious studies to area schools using the “media of magic.” In an article that reads like a prescient roadmap for much darker schemes, Richards explains he came up with the idea for school outreach after he “was contacted by several area businessmen to provide such a service.” I just bet you were, Jerry.
In 1976, Richards and his friend Frank Shelden were indicted for raping a young boy from Port Huron. Richards, who did not have a private plane, was arrested in July 1976 and pleaded guilty. Shelden, who did own a private plane, fled the country, evaded justice and I’m sure continued to offend until his dying breath.
We don’t know that anyone has been able to definitively link Brother Paul’s Boys Nature Camp on North Fox Island with Oakland County. If they have, they are keeping that information for their own purposes. However, it is indisputable that N. Fox was never thoroughly investigated. Francis Duffield Shelden’s blue blood lineage (Shelden/Alger families) certainly meant strings could be pulled and legal problems disappear.
M.F. Cribari describes Shelden’s lineage and the obviousness of a “staunch wall of cemented protective power” for this black sheep of blue bloods in her book, Portraits in the Snow, The Oakland County Child Killings . . . Scandals and Small Conspiracies (Outskirts Press Inc., 2011, p. 178-200). This cement wall would extend to any of Shelden’s patrons of the upper-crust/heavy-hitter variety or anyone who overlapped with Oakland County, and would be cause for treading lightly and making sure that the client/patron list went MIA.
But a mid-level freak like Gerald Richards was totally expendable. He was described in the Chicago Tribune as “one of the Midwest’s leading child pornographers and the worst kind of pimp”–a “flesh peddler who fed off the young,” who filmed, processed and sold child pornography and sold his models to pedophiles. Chicago Tribune, May 15, 1977, p. 20.
He served the low end of his 2-10 year sentence at Jackson Prison and unbelievably enough, was back in The Times Herald with his now father-son magic act. No mention of his prior “employment” or his stint at Jackson.
By 1988, Richards was arrested again, this time for selling child porn through the mail. I guess he really couldn’t conjure up sufficient income through magic. He told investigators that he had merely been setting up a sting to entrap purchasers. Although the Wikipedia page on N. Fox Island states Richards killed himself in 1998 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Islands_(Lake_Michigan) –see Criminal History section), a reader consulted Richards’ death certificate which states he died of “upper gastrointestinal bleeding” due to “portal hypertension” after a lengthy hospital stay.
I thought the researcher’s (see yesterday’s post) description of Gerald Richards was spot on:
I am on to Gerald Richards. He was a little man with big aspirations and a voracious need for attention, so he left a long trail in the local media (as his father had before him). He complicated everything because he needed a structure to operate in and, as is evident in his Senate testimony, he intellectualized and rationalized to the point of delusion. He must have loved cavorting with the “big rich predators” but he was way in over his head and they used him and threw him away. It’s a tale worthy of Shakespeare!
From a reader
That he was a manipulative, delusional liar was evident from his comments to the Chicago Tribune in 1977, as well as his later testimony in Washington, D.C. Manipulative liar was the least of his heinous traits. The Tragic and Most Heinous Tale of the Double Life of The Great and Evil Richeli.
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Amazing read.
Thank you for Sharing.
Richards’s death certificate states he died of “upper gastrointestinal bleeding” due to “portal hypertension.” He had been in the hospital 2 weeks before his death. I think we can rule out suicide as his cause of death.
I should have known better than to trust Wikipedia. And I suspect he was too much of a coward to take his own life. Thank you.
This is my first post.
I wanted to mention the following:
A Newspapers.com search shows—this is an obituary—“Times Herald,” in Port Huron, Michigan, reported Monday, January 31, 1994 that Gerald S. Richards died at age 53 on Saturday, January 29, 1994. (This is on Page 16. In my search, I entered “Gerald S. Richards” followed by, for year, “1994” and, for location, “Michigan.”)
The report notes a survivor being his son, David. (I read the son, in one of the links, David was born December 8, 1971. That would have made the son age 22 when his father died.) It also says Gerald “owned a book store in Port Huron.”
That article about Richards and his son, being groomed as Richards’ replacement for M.F., in his magic show, was VERY disturbing. Richards’ replacement for M.F., in how many ways? The fact he’s also 13, made me want to scream!
I hope to God he didn’t abuse that boy or make ‘images’ of him.
That was the topper of a few very disturbing days wading back into this part of Michigan “history,” which I am not well-versed on but cannot deny. When I first saw that article, I had to look away at the image of his son, which had the same powerful effect on me. But “looking away” can no longer happen in this evil case and the many horrors surrounding it. I realize there was no internet back then, but jesus christ, here is a convicted pedophile, relatively fresh off of a prison stay for criminal sexual conduct with a child, and testimony before Congress about his involvement in child pornography and the “boys nature camp” getting press about his goddamn magic shows tailored for KIDS! The world is so fucking upside down and tortured in Michigan during that era. Frankly, I’m not sure much has changed there.
Did you see this article from the Times Herald in Port Huron dated May 5, 1976. Not long before his arrest
Richards to Seek Commission Seat
Richards commission seat Gerald S. Richards, 35, of 1115 Lyon St., Port Huron, announced today he Is a candidate for the position of St. Clair County Commissioner in the Fourteenth District. Richards, a Republican, is seeking the nomination in the Aug. 3 primary.
The seat Is now held by Russell L. Gibbs, also a Republican. Alan D. Cutcher, 35. Port Huron, is a Democrat running for the seat.
The Fourteenth District includes a northern portion of the City of Port Huron. Richards Is an instructor in the physical education department at St. Jo-soph’s School, Port Huron. He also is a professional magician. He is active in youth work, and serves as director of a private tutoring and health service for children.
Richards is a graduate of St. Clair. County Community College, Anderson Schooi of Physical Therapy, and the Extension Services of Hern, idem University, College of Naturopathy. He formerly worked as a warehouse clerk with the St. Clair County Road Commission, and as an administrative assistant with the St.
Clair County Economic Opportunity Committee. He is a member of the American Counselors Society. Michigan Naturopathic to seek Rutted E. Sowrer Gerald S. Richards Commissioner candidate Association, Third Order of St.
Francis (Anglican Rite), and Harry Cecil Ring 22, International Brotherhood of Magicians. He married the former Judith Jahr. They have a son, Roy-David..
Thanks, Drew.