Mark Twain observed that “[h]istory doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.” This is a corollary to philosopher George Santayana’s observation that “[t]hose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The bottom line is that historical awareness helps avoid repeating bad outcomes. Here we have rhyming Detroit “mansions.”
The first, from the 1970’s and probably before, was the “Mansion” at Canfield and Third Street in the Cass Corridor. As described in the narrative report of then Det/Sgt Cory Williams of Livonia PD, someone who lived there in the 1970s explained the Mansion was a place where some pedophiles lived and who were “making movies of the kids there.”
Read about this Mansion in the pages below (entry dated 1-3-06):
Bob Moore and Lou Fix probably couldn’t have afforded Flood Law PLCC or Zupac Law, but there was no need for attorneys. Ike McKinnon, then head of the sex crimes unit for Detroit PD, apparently gave very few fucks about sex crimes against kids in the Cass. (See page 30, lines 1-2, above; page 31, lines 40-44.) He thought the pedophile Richard Lawson was one of his best confidential informants ever, which in reality provided Lawson sex crimes impunity/immunity and apparently netted drug convictions which back then were a much bigger deal than child rape and CSAM production/distribution.
Decades-old child rape allegations against Richard Lawson and Theodore Lamborgine were finally being investigated by Livonia PD and were successfully prosecuted by Wayne County. Both got life sentences and Lawson has since died. Getting these two off the streets, even decades later, was a huge victory for the Universe. They probably victimized thousands of boys. They were brutal and cruel predators. Hell is too good for them.
Almost 50 years later, another mansion linked with CSAM made it into the news at the end of 2024, this one about eight miles north of the Cass, in beautiful Palmer Woods. While there are no allegations of the creation of CSAM at this site, still history indeed sometimes rhymes.
The home of defendant Joshua Ronnebaum was described in mid-December as “a majestic Tudor-style home next door to Detroit’s largest home, the Bishop Mansion.” It appears that Ronnebaum, his husband, defendant Brian Tacon (listed in initial reports as a Huntington Woods resident), and another man lived in the majestic home.
As previously described, defendant Lincoln Erickson, a medical doctor from Oakland County, was also arrested by the FBI in charges related to the other two defendants:
According to federal documents, conversations on Ronnebaum’s phone allegedly showed Erickson and Ronnebaum discussing wanting to travel to Thailand and sexually abuse children together. Court documents quote one message from Erickson as reading, “Love being a pedo.”
The FBI alleges that Erickson shared in messages a fantasy about having a relationship with a man where they would raise a child together that they would abuse and groom “from baby to adulthood.” Messages also allegedly included Erickson stating he knows a father who allows him to sexually abuse his 3-year-old son.
https://pridesource.com/article/detroiters-arrested-in-child-exploitation-case.
So it seems Erickson’s “fantasy” in 2024 kind of rhymes with Chris Busch and Greg Greene’s “fantasy” in the 1970s. Hopefully the FBI will investigate the claims of abuse of his friend’s 3-year-old. And hopefully the FBI will figure out if this was all part of a pedophile ring, in addition to receipt, distribution and possession of CSAM. Otherwise there will just be more rhymes.
On the face of it, the Tudor must seem so, so far away from the Cass Mansion, in theory if not in distance. There weren’t any catered garden parties at Bob Moore’s house of horrors. But in reality, there really isn’t much difference.
Failing to understand and acknowledge what happened in the Cass 50 years ago is why the Tudor–in a much nicer neighborhood–could fly under the radar until the FBI swept these men up in their sting. With the exception of the Epstein/Maxwell case, the FBI doesn’t care if you wear a suit and tie or a stethoscope to work. That doesn’t work as well in federal court.
We’ll see what happens.