Sometimes someone relatively new to the OCCK case and my blog will write with incredulity at the missteps and the ignoring of serious red flags in the case. Like the failure to investigate (or at least the burying of records concerning) the evening visit to Manley-Bailey Funeral Home in Birmingham by a man who stopped by to view Tim’s body. To pay his respects, I’m sure.
Police asked my parents the next morning if a relative had driven from out of state, arriving well after dark, who might have come by the funeral home to ask to spend time saying goodbye to Tim. That was the story the man told the funeral director, who thankfully refused his request. No, that was not a relative. At a minimum, that was a sicko.
A few years ago I contacted the Birmingham Police Department about whether there might be a report filed there about the visit from this man to the funeral home. The funeral director, who was the parent of a son who had been friends with Tim in his younger years, would probably have called B’ham PD. This commander, unlike his lying and complicit predecessors from 1977, was very helpful. He said he thought everything in the case had been sent to the MSP, but he searched anyway. This is how we ended up with the additional notes and records in the 1992 “revisit” of suspect John Hastings. Most everything had indeed been sent to the black hole at the MSP.
The current Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, again unlike every one of her pathetic predecessors, has shown us a series of mercies over the years. One of these was to help us view the photos taken at Tim’s funeral from the state police without paying the equivalent of two decent vacations for this luxury.
Police believed the killer (the lone killer, right??) might try to attend the funeral services of his victims. We knew about the photos from Tim’s funeral because we had to go through them and identify the people we knew in the photos. I think this was FBI.
I believe photos were taken at at least two of the other three kids’ funerals. And we know, thanks to a reader, that L. Brooks Patterson and Richard Thompson attended the vigil for Mark because they signed the guest book. Copies of the pages were right there in the FOIA documents. Now that there was some idea of the freaks who were involved in these crimes, had anyone gone back and viewed these photos?
At least some of the men involved in these killings had to be sadists. A sadist would show up at Manley-Bailey. A sadist would attend some part of the funeral rituals.
An investigator from the OCP was allowed to come to the MSP and take photos of the photos. Yes, you read that right. The MSP is described in Marney Keenan’s book as treating survivors like criminals (The Snow Killings) and I have seen no evidence that they really ever do otherwise. Fuck these siblings who want to look at the long abandoned photographs taken at their brother’s funeral.
The OCP provided us with the photos of the photos.
I did not post them at the time–they took a big chunk out of my hide. Turns out the funeral home was under surveillance–but apparently only during daylight work hours. The photographer got plenty of photos of my family arriving and leaving the funeral home.
Those poor people who walked into that building did not walk out the same. And there’s photographic evidence of that, but not of a man who walked up to that same door under cover of darkness to attempt to spend time with a corpse.
During the day they also got a few photos of men crossing the street near the funeral home. No doubt randos who were jaywalking during lunchtime. Who knows?
The photos from the surveillance of the funeral sucked. There were next to no shots from inside the church, although the entire balcony was filled with t.v. station news cameras. A sadist (or a priest) could have blended in with the packed rows of the church.
As I said, the photos sucked. Take a look for yourself:
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I put bird seed out today to remember Tim, Mark, Jill, Christine.
I have 100 reactions to all of this, from the guy at the funeral home at night with no record of being questioned to families having to beg for photos.
I will keep it short though.
1. I was a kid in the 1970s, color film was mainstream by then (I think?), why no color photos?
2. What do the numbered people mean? What about the circled or notations by some people? Why are there girls/women noted?
3. I see at least 2 dudes who look like sketches I’ve seen here before. But I am looking for men who match a sketch or mugshot so I am completely biased.
4. Everyone in the 1970s looked shady. My own family photos included. Facial hair, longer hair, the sunglasses.
5. Is that a Gremlin with a hockey stick stripe?
6. Did LE ever say if anyone in the photos stood out to them?
I feel something after looking at these photos so I can’t imagine how you and your family felt looking at them considering you all lived this day in real life. I am very sorry there is no closure and no truth for any of the victims’ relatives and friends. Sending you good vibes.
1. No idea about the color versus black and white. 2. Numbers, circles, notations relate to who we knew/didn’t know. The five of us didn’t look at the photos at the same time, as I recall. 3. One of the men, photographed a number of times alone in front of/near the church, was Bill Schaffer. He knew my brothers because he was a sports team photographer. Go figure. https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/2013/07/03/birmingham-man-facing-federal-child-porn-charges/
He did know my family and told investigators who were investigating the 2013 charges that he had attended Tim’s funeral.
4. Yes, the longer hair styles, stupid side burns and shady looks (compared to today) were very common. 5. I think that is a blue Gremlin with a white hockey stick stripe. 6. LE didn’t say jack shit to us. Maybe they ran some things by my dad, who knows? We were just stupid teenagers to them.
And thanks for your kind words.
I just hopped back on to say I meant no disrespect saying everyone in the 70s looked shady as though you and your family and friends looked shady that day.
I think I have it ingrained from 1970s childhood that “bad guys” in new stories always had long hair, sideburns, shades, and those jackets with shearling trim.
I also just described how 99% of the men in my family looked in the 1970s.
AND WOW! about the sports photographer. Yuck. I wonder if he was the one at the funeral home the night before. I think he looks like a less nerdy version of Gerald Richards. My pedo radar went off when I saw his first photo.
It looks like there are a few other people and cars the cops focused on that day too. If they took photos at the other funerals, too bad they couldn’t release everything. Someday, there should be some sort of truth and reconciliation between LE and the families—hell, the entire public about this.
Because the dogs got called off and the protection of those that caused the call-off continues to this day, investigators have never taken the approach taken in many other ancient cold cases that have hit the wall. Hey, let’s be completely transparent, let’s do whatever we can. No one will ever be charged in these cases, don’t kid yourself.
I used to think that the protection was of H. Lee Busch. But it goes well beyond H. Lee. Just like I thought the protection of Epstein’s Zorro Ranch (never searched, just like N. Fox was never searched) was due to the late former Governor Bill Richardson. It goes well, well beyond Richardson.
Truth and reconciliation is not the goal here. Keeping the lid on and once again riding out this latest round of publicity and questions with plate-spinning are the goals.
Someone wrote me anonymously many years ago and asked if I would settle for my family knowing what happened, and end of story. The answer is “fuck no.” Sign the equivalent of an NDA in my brother’s homicide case? Eat shit.
I saw your dad speak many times, his pain was evident.
I’ve always wondered about your mom and how she held up, if at all. Bless her heart.
She basically died the night Tim was abducted.
I can’t describe the intensity of emotion I feel as I look through these. I see faces I recognize, looked for faces of some who are no longer with us and scrutinized the shady looking people. It all made me so morosely sad but equally enraged. We all were royally fucked by LE in Oakland County. Thanks for clarification on the above questions (I was asking them as well). I can only imagine how gutting having to beg for these pictures must’ve been, then look through and relive those days again in a never ending hell loop. And, still no closer to the creep who showed up at the funeral home that night. I just can’t make it make sense.
Going through the photos kicked my ass. More so than when we reviewed them soon after Tim’s funeral. I knew the MSP would be a holes about it. I didn’t post the photos at the time because I knew how they would affect decent human beings like you. Chris recognized Schaffer. The only thing I saw that seemed somewhat significant was a camper parked near the church (near the hearse) that was similar to the description of a camper Arch Sloan drove. I mentioned it to the prosecutor. But of course the license plate was not visible and because the photos were in black and white, the color was unknown.
When a reader wrote to ask about the visit to the funeral home, I decided to post the photos. Again, they get many shots off of our family at our darkest hour and not one of some freak who would of course show up after dark.
It doesn’t make sense because we believed the company line back in the day and that prosecutors and law enforcement were engaged in a good faith effort to solve these crimes. No one wants to believe predators would be protected over children. That someone would command the protection of bigger fish like Shelden, his associates and his paying clients/customers and that law enforcement at the highest levels would capitulate and prosecutors would go easy on a freak like pedophile Chris Busch.
The Epstein/Maxwell case proves how dangerous it is to ignore the bigger picture. And once someone sells their soul in response to an order to protect a criminal–a pedophile–no way are they coming clean. Now all efforts must be directed at keeping the lid on the case.