It was not until after my brother’s abduction on March 16, 1977 that witnesses stepped forward to describe possible suspects. Two days later, police released a composite drawing of a person initially described as a “person of interest,” then a suspect. There were no composite drawings of suspects specifically tied to the abductions of Mark, Jill, or Kristine.
Most people remember seeing two or three composite drawings released in my brother’s case over the next year or so. The case files contain many more composite drawings.
Take a look at this rather mind-blowing collection of 28 composite drawings in the OCCK case, collected, organized and annotated by a reader. Amazing questions and amazing work; thank you.
The work will be updated as additional information is learned.
Here is the associated FOIA document concerning the hypnosis of witness Doug Wilson (my brother’s abduction on 3-16-77):
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Second page, middle top sketch with light hair looks like Gunnels to me.
I see Arch Sloan, Greene, and Lamborgine, too.
But I’m extremely biased.
#8 has to be Lamborgine
SM, I don’t remember ever seeing that sketch (second page, middle top sketch). I see it now, and I better understand why John Wayne Gacy’s name was mentioned at times in this case. Not that I ever believed he was ever involved.
What a mess . Difficult to know what to make of it. Likely by design.
Really important to again consider Doug Wilson’s phone call and written statement to my dad. See this post from August 29, 2020: https://catherinebroad.blog/2020/08/29/who-looks-most-like-john-wayne-gacy/.
Also this one from February 4, 2013: https://catherinebroad.blog/2013/02/04/thank-you-doug-wilson/.
In my opinion, Wilson proves the FBI is dirty in this case. I don’t believe the Wilson composites were ever released to the public, or the LeMans information with the partial license plate. Wilson was a car designer–the man knew cars. No–they kept up the Gremlin circle-jerk.
I still ponder now if McNamee had a car matching Wilson’s description at the time or partial. McNamee sure seems to match the sketch along with Hastings. Anyone know McNamee’s neighbors at the time that have good memories?
I believe you are correct. The FBI does appear to be dirty. I believe this is true with both the composites, and the car (Lemans vs. Tempest/Skylark/Gremlin).
The documents you reference indicate the Wilson’s own statement to your father (as well as the books mentioned on slide 7) says that the younger man wore a baseball cap. Then, under hypnosis with Dr. Donald Rossi (a psychologist who had in the past worked with MSP), FBI SA Mort Nickell, and Lt. Jack Kalbfleisch, a sketch was drawn of the younger man without a baseball cap, and displays a completely new hair style. How would Wilson know this hair style if he only saw a baseball cap covering the top of his head?
I have to ask the same question for the Doug Wilson sketches on slide 7 that was also on slide 2. Are these sketches, an attempt to make the suspect look like someone specific?
So how reliable is this sketch on slide 7, knowing they were all done in the presence of only law enforcement personnel? It reminds me of the polygraphs given to Busch & Greene in Flint just two months earlier.
To complicate it more, I’ll let Dr. Rossi’s own words say more. A February 3, 1981 article in the Royal Oak Tribune says;
Rossi, director of the behavioral science section of the Michigan State Police, said hypnosis helps restore memory “Hypnosis is no guarantee of truth.” he said. “it’s possible for persons to lie while under hypnosis. That’s why we never hypnotize defendants. They may have a motive for not telling the truth” Rossi said several safeguards are taken during “investigative hypnosis” to insure (sic) that the memory of a victim or witness isn’t “contaminated”.
“Persons in a hypnotic state are extremely suggestable” he said. “That’s why we insure (sic) that the hypnotist knows nothing about the case beforehand. We wouldn’t want him to inadvertently suggest something that may lead the witness to recall something that was inaccurate ”
In my humble opinion, I find it hard to believe Dr. Rossi never heard of the case on the date of this session.
I came across this today .. thought it was too interesting not to share .. though you may have already shared it .. I can’t remember if you did or did not so my apologies if you did .!
https://www.change.org/p/honor-the-forgotten-boys-of-north-fox-island-with-a-memorial/u/34007135
I appreciate the work that went into this.
An interesting read on the details about #18 (page 4). I reviewed the post and Cathy’s comment from April of 2013.
https://catherinebroad.blog/2013/04/22/composite-drawings-from-foia-documents/
Cathy states:
“A boy was approached by a man in the Hunter-Maple parking lot the day before my brother was abducted (so this would have been Tuesday, March 15, 1977). The kid didn’t come forward immediately. I don’t know the timing. It could have weeks later. A composite was drawn based on this boy’s description. To my knowledge, this particular composite and the incident on March 15 received no publicity. I have been told numerous times that Berkley Detective Ray Anger had possession of this composite. I learned of this other abduction attempt on 3/15 during discussions with a retired detective over the past few years. I assume one of the above composites from the MSP files is the composite drawn based on the boy’s description.”
I would be curious to know at what time of day this occurred on March 15. If sketch #8 is the man from March 15 at Hunter-Maple Pharmacy, it is very similar to the man on March 16 at Hunter-Maple Pharmacy. If it is the same man for both days, that would mean that this man was hunting in this particular parking lot for 2 days to find a child. Unless he was following a particular boy on both days, and the first boy also led him to the Hunter-Maple location.
In addition, the Royal Oak Tribune stated on April 7, 1977 that Oakland County Sheriff deputies were patrolling the parking lot at Hunter Maple Pharmacy until their shift changed at 8:00 PM on March 16, 1977. They missed the King abduction by 30 minutes. These deputies were part of a special Crime and Accident Prevention team. For the prior 6 weeks (approximately February 24, 1977 to April 7, 1977) the sheriff assigned 7 deputies to an experimental program in predominantly urban areas of South Oakland County not usually covered by deputies. Their assignment was two-fold; preventing accidents by concentrating on more dangerous intersections, and preventing crime by patrolling where the department believes it is likely to occur. These patrols only responded to serious matters (officer in trouble, burglary in progress, etc.). One of the program’s biggest backers was Birmingham Police Chief Rollin G. Tobin.
This leads me to a lot of questions.
Why is there no newspaper account, police investigation, or FOIA document of the March 15 event?
Who was the boy on March 15, and was it a friend of the King family? Why not interview him again today?
Did the Sheriff’s department know about this attempt on March 15, which led them to be at Hunter Maple on March 16? Or was this just a ploy by Sheriff Spreen to obtain additional deputies? Can deputy patrol records or notes be found for these 2 days?
Was the man in the sketch (#18) aware of this shift change, or waiting until they left the scene?
I’m sure we all can think of more. One thing I know for sure, nobody in Mikey’s department will put down their doughnut to look.
THAT – but also, why are there so many iterations/sketches of Marjorie Hoffman’s witness account? There are four different sketches from her witness account over weeks taken from different precincts. One, was this normal back then? And two, wow is that a good use of time and resources – especially when MSP did it twice? We have known since the 1950s that witness accounts degrade over time. Further, she would have very likely have seen other published sketches which would lead to “memory contamination” which is also something we have known about prior to this case. Subjecting her to hypnosis, where the mind goes into a reconstructive state where it seeks to fills the gaps, cannot help be influenced by other published pictures.
What infuriates me is all the wasted time and resources here.
I saw that too. Six days after the original composite (#1), an MSP artist depicts their version of the suspect with no mention of it in the case file (#2). Then the same witness is under hypnosis and we have another different person (#3). Then on slide 2 (over 34 years) a completely different person is depicted (#8).
This is probably why MSP will no longer talk. They keep failing in their attempts to doctor the record and look professional.
It is also why they continue to quote six figure amounts for responses to FOIA requests on, for example, one man. Been told over the past few years that they have a computerized list of people with tips called in on them. But there is no way to link that person to the literal file cabinet/box.
I believe any outsider who has seen that complete mess of unorganized files or the chain of custody of the evidence in this case would confirm my belief that this agency has much to hide and should be ashamed of its handling of this case. Yeah, Patterson corrupted it, but the MSP was the perfect hand-off.
Michigan sucks.