A reader found the following Report to the Legislature on “parolable lifers” in the Michigan prison system. See page 28, top of page.
The reader also points out that his MDOC entry does not list any supervision requirements. I guess people are on their own to see if they are living in the same hood as a registered sex offender, same as always. Harmless old man, right?
One thing I forgot to write about concerning the December 1992 article mentioning a possible link between Kaplan’s CSC cases and the OCCK murders. That was in 1992. In 1978 there is not one word uttered in public about the “suicide” of Chris Busch and the diorama of evidence surrounding his dead body that screamed “I am the child killer.” Whether he was or why someone might try to pin these crimes on him was never investigated.
We all know a man like H. Lee Busch could pick up the phone and call Bloomfield Township PD and Prosecutor L. Brooks Patterson and keep this quiet. Maybe Motown VP John Kaplan (also an Oakland County resident) didn’t have the requisite pull to keep this speculation about a link to the OCCK case out of the press in his son’s case.
I don’t know if police ever ran Howard Kaplan’s name and photo by the parents of Mark, Jill, Kristine and Tim. He was 21 at the time of the murders. Did they have any connection to this guy? Did he look familiar?
I do know nobody ran the name Chris Busch or his photo by any of the families. Even after finding that freaky scene in his bedroom alongside his rotting corpse. It was a lot more than police uniforms that could be worn to trick kids. People who attended the Busch death scene were instructed to say nothing, “to be cool,” and that was that. Very uncool. And when his name resurfaced decades later, police did not ask the public to come forward with any information about Chris Busch. “Open investigation–can’t talk.” But why wouldn’t they ask for the public’s help once he was back on the killer roster?
He should have died in prison for the crimes we know he did commit. But instead he cruised around Michigan and on his final night, got wasted on vodka and tucked into bed for his last rights-between-the-eyes.
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Inmates always have conditions of parole and Michigan lists them. They are public. Typically, they the usual : no negative contact with police, no use of drugs and alcohol, etc. However, they can add specifics, like attend anger management and so forth.
Looking a little deeper, Kaplan’s father was quite influential in the record and recording industry throughout the nation. I don’t see any association with Motown Records, unless it is through an affiliated subsidiary. And if Howard was an adopted son, he adopted Howard before the age of 3.
John Kaplan purchased Pan American Distributing Company and renamed it Pan American Records. This led him to create his own recording studio, Sensation Records in Detroit.
He couldn’t get stores to purchase his tunes until he hit on the idea to persuade radio stations to play his records. This created a market for them and forced stores to carry the records. This also made Detroit the leading city around the nation for breaking records.
He then created 2 other record distribution companies and sold all 3 to Handleman & Company in 1963. He became an executive vice-president for Handleman until he retired in 1983. He also was a part owner of a successful race horse in the early 1970’s with other influential Detroiters.
While at Handleman & Company, he associated with and around some interesting people.
The Handleman Company was one of the major CD distributors in the US for quite a few years. The executive offices were at 1055 Maple Road in Clawson, Michigan.
The chairman, David Handleman, got involved with many community groups. These included the United Foundation, Oakland University, University of Michigan, and the Detroit Institute of Arts. If he was into art work, his office was only a 5 minute walk to the home of John McKinney.
But his favorite community group was Interlochen Music Camp. A friend of his was on the Interlochen Board and he invited Handleman to join. Handleman was on the Board from around 1970 to 2004. During some of these years he was on the Cranbrook Board of Governors.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2025/08/02/utah-senate-pres-stuart-adams/?fbclid=IwY2xjawMAyo5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFsSkpWZGg5TE5xeXkyZXNxAR5SX590J2WCjKMZWPph9TQz_razCHW4IFgjNZ52rdMmEvWzkD6LIAvdRSq0hA_aem_OWUqcyYemew0ucI0-Qxm0w – this is disgusting