Oakland County could not have been a better pick for child predators in the late 1970s. Society did not realize, nor would it accept the fact that white collar men engaged in organized pedophelia and that Oakland County had a solid customer base. People in Oakland County thought they were safe after the wave of white flight. Police departments dealt with traffic issues and property crimes, not child abductions, sex crimes or murders. There was one community after another, teeming with kids who felt safe. There was an opportunistic prosector at the helm, who along with his chief deputy, felt they were destined for higher office–the White House, in fact. They were about 40 years too short of a public that would accept the way these men did business. Their focus was on moving up, not dealing with the stain of the OCCK or the intricacies of assisting in a serial killer investigation. We live with their failures and misdeeds to this day.
If you’ve read Guarded by Jackals: Predators, the Public Officials Who Protected Them and Resolution of Michigan’s Most Notorious Cold Case (2024), https://www.amazon.com/Guarded-Jackals-Predators-Officials-Resolution/dp/B0DJ88HBJV/ref=monarch_sidesheet_title , you know that the county prosecutor, L. Brooks Patterson, was a manipulative politician who rarely stayed in his lane. For a time, Patterson was spearheading the “task force,” or at least was the opportunistic “spokesman”/manipulator until shit got real after his office crossed paths with Chris Busch and Greg Greene and soon after another kid (my brother) was snatched from Birmingham. Then LBP and his chief deputy were all too happy to dump everything in the lap of Robert Robertson at the MSP–a man who had no experience in homicide cases, at an agency with a chip on its shoulder and a culture of opacity.
The summer after my brother’s murder, there was an open conflict between Patterson, local police departments, the MSP and the then Oakland County Sheriff, Johannes F. Spreen. Spreen was a career police officer with the New York City Police Department and Police Commissioner of the City of Detroit before being elected to three terms as Oakland County Sheriff.
On August 2, 1977, The Detroit Free Press reported on a speech Spreen presented to the Southern Police Institute Alumni Association where he blamed fragmentation and inter-departmental jealousies for hindering efforts to track down the Oakland County child killer. Read his sadly prescient warnings of why this case might never be solved in the press coverage of the kerfuffle, which apparently blew over with little or no reflection or course correction:
Spreen reflected on his time as OCS in American Police Dilemma, Protectors or Enforcers (2003), https://www.amazon.com/AMERICAN-POLICE-DILEMMA-PROTECTORS-ENFORCERS/dp/0595269826/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3J0YJBRT09W3W&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.eh65up9snmNleg1Dzyg07u3izTKRg5uu5XjYher03uyHXhlTtDqvGWd2VDkWVPjVMPnot3Q_ss2u1Q1caJOVYz1A2GomtBinRbqvWD43DuZPuhS2dLOJKm-jymLXt5uVSSWBHGD144ZLiXUXvCoixRdle-g_UmK1IAK2qH0ZugqN3dlFggdW_y3SCdipy4g-5du1dSYsPP72z4tzWbzC7UVHbYc8m2gwXOQFNaQfZYE.an7WC7FOijq0-I_c81HhI1TvDRqDUKAVtDiwxNtLHvE&dib_tag=se&keywords=American+Police+Dilemma&qid=1728735713&s=books&sprefix=american+police+dilemma,stripbooks,146&sr=1-1 .
Spreen explained that “[t]here were problems in New York when I was there and there were problems in Detroit but there were more problems when I was sheriff.” (Page 229). He stated “I have regrets regarding Oakland County. One of my biggest regret is that I could not accomplish many things I believed in for better law enforcement just because I was seen as a Democrat in the predominantly Republican county.” (Id.). The chairman of the OC Republican Party had urged Spreen to run as a Republican and warned him that if he ran as a Democrat, none of his programs would be funded. (Page 231).
It’s clear that Spreen got the squeeze in the OCCK investigation. In many counties across the nation, sheriff’s departments are instrumental in working on cold cases. The sheriff’s department in Cook County, Illinois, is but one example. https://www.cookcountysheriffil.gov/departments/c-c-s-p-d/unidentified-victims-john-wayne-gacy/ . But Spreen was a D and Patterson was an R. That’s all that mattered.
So what to make of the bad blood between the OCS and the MSP? What to make of the fact that the current OCS, Mike Bouchard, is an LBP acolyte of the highest order, has denied having any OCCK documents in response to my FOIA request (https://catherinebroad.blog/2021/07/23/worlds-fastest-foia-response/ ), and participated in a fraud by secreting OCCK case files at his office for previous prosecutor Jessica Cooper, so she could protect the files from FOIA requests?
Word on the street is that the sheriff’s office may have withheld evidence in the OCCK case from the MSP. That’s not so hard to believe now, is it?
And now I read that Bouchard’s office is advertising its cold case unit online, with a specific tip line (or direct diversion line) for the child killer case:
The Cold Case Unit is comprised of retired, dedicated veteran detectives and prosecutors who are willing to volunteer their experience and time in order to solve criminal cases that have gone cold. The main objective of this group is to review and investigate homicides and other major cases that were violent in nature and, through modern technology, establish leads that may help solve and close the cases. Interested persons may contact the Sheriff’s Investigative and Forensic Services Division (IFS) Cold Case Unit at 248-858-7155 or email coldcaseunit@oakgov.com for further information.
Note: For tips or information related to the Oakland County Child Killer case (1976-1977), please call 1-888-TURN-1-IN.
https://www.oakgov.com/government/sheriff/law-enforcement/investigative-forensic-services
Do you think this group of retired, dedicated professionals keeps in contact with the MSP or the OC Prosecutor’s Office? Do you think the sheriff’s office under Mike Bouchard can rise above professional rivalry/animosity with the state police or work with a prosecutor they view primarily as a Democrat? Do you think any of the dedicated professionals working on the OCCK cold case have read Guarded By Jackals? How do they operate without access to the MSP paper “case files”? How do they propose gaining access to evidence so it can be retested? Do they have access to withheld evidence?
Perhaps the tip line can be put to good use. Instead of haranguing me with pedantic mansplaining about the Zodiac Killer, the argument that there is no such thing as a snuff film, the fact that police blew off suspect John Hastings, speak to one of the dedicated professionals at the OCS about your theories. As a matter of fact, take everything I have written about John Hastings and let the dedicated professionals muse over it. While you’re at it, let them know that there are survivors of the Michigan child sex/porn rings who can fill them in on how men whose names are right there in the FOIA documents (let alone what the MSP and OCP withheld) trafficked kids even if they were not themselves pedophiles. How they made bigger and safer money running kids instead of drugs. And men whose names are right there in the FOIA documents who were in their late teens who were paid to have sex on film with kids and who may have crossed paths with the OCCK victims during their captivity. Some of these people are still alive.
Don’t lash out at me–discuss your theories and issues with a dedicated professional. They are apparently waiting for your call.