Did you check out the comments to my blog post of January 30, 2026?
Yes, the Leelanau Enterprise was quite the chatty little newspaper. A reader who has done massive amounts of work collecting background on many of the people whose names appear in this blog, sent this compilation of writings from the Enterprise from 1944 to 1975. They include connections between Frank Shelden and the Grosvenor and Niessink families, as well as with several other families.
Leelanau Enterprise articles (1)
They show, among other things, that Shelden attended his friend’s daughter’s graduation from Interlochen on June 11, 1970. No big deal, right? Did he help pay Mary Grosvenor’s tuition/fees at Interlochen? Did families in Northern Michigan help protect Frank Shelden? We don’t find the answers to those two questions in the writings, and no one ever asked.
Jeffrey Epstein was a camper at Interlochen the summer of 1967. Epstein was 14 years old and played the bassoon. He attended that summer on a scholarship and returned as a major donor 23 years later. Nothing here connects Epstein and full-time student Grosvenor, nor does it connect Epstein and Shelden. But it does connect Shelden to Interlochen through the Grosvenor family.
It does put Epstein’s and Shelden’s feet on the ground at Interlochen. It is not a stretch to say that men like this would exploit any connection to young people (or their siblings). We know Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell did. Sharks smell blood; it’s what they do. Even generous sharks. But we know very little about the generous, high-society Frank Shelden.
The geographical silence that consumes Northern Michigan has been pierced by the Interlochen report on sex predators who were employed there, and the Epstein connections. The obscenely manicured silence that has always surrounded monster Frank Shelden will be pierced as well.
One day the backassward omerta at top rungs of the Oakland County prosecutor’s office of 1976-1978 may be pierced as well.
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My opinion, but, I absolutely believe he was and still is protected by all the families who benefited from his “friendship.”
I think unfortunately that there are victims in these families. And that is sad and I feel for them.
I will say again that the pages and pages of handwritten notes I have tracking these articles (I am less organized than the other person researching the Leelanau Enterprise who sent them to you—it takes a village to raze a pedo, though! I hope everyone gets my play on words) shows Shelden being like an extended member of these families with plane rides, trips, most likely showing his generosity in ways not mentioned in the newspaper announcements, use of the Aspen house for skiing—and effin Honduras! He’s part of one of their wedding parties, for crying out loud.
Drives and picks up their kids from college and flies them to hang on NFI—for not just a day.
I also cast a lot of judgment toward a local author in that area who called Shelden to ask him stuff for a book while he was on the lam. As long as that author didn’t ask him anything about his legal problems, he was willing to talk to that author. That author was by no means a clueless person. A legal assistant in a local law firm and then an elected official later on. Then questioned by the FBI about the contact with Shelden. Like, what did you think was going to happen and what on earth would Shelden have for your book?
Imagine calling Epstein to ask about something on Little St James…never mind the FBI, the arrest warrants, or the entire expose in the Traverse City Record Eagle which is basically the biggest newspaper in your neck of the Michigan woods.
The silence and the “oh gosh I can’t believe he would do that,” is not believable in my harsh judge-y eyes.
My small town parents who lacked higher education and had no ties to anyone important knew who the creeps were in my podunk town in Northern Michigan. And I don’t think plane rides, trips, and tuition would ever change their gut feeling about any of them.
Thank god Shelden didn’t spread his sickness to other counties and other families. Or did he?
I’m not so sure about that, my notes are still in progress.
Anyone doing Robert Hoffman/Hoffmann and George Evans, and the porno theatres in Bear Lake and Berrien Springs circa 1974-1976 have anything beyond Evans being arrested for molesting boys in his basement art studio class in Grand Haven in the 90s?
Hoffmann went back to Chicago and Milwaukee at some point but his former days of being a wrestling promoter in WI to owning small town theatres and running XXX movies in very small towns on the west side doesn’t make any sense to me. And hiring a 20ish year old (Evans) with a criminal record in Benzie County that includes fondling boys makes less sense. However, behavior tracks when you look at all of these men as being cut from the same cloth.
Evans is a real piece of work. Went to jail in the 90s, got out, and was featured in the Grand Rapids Press soon after for being a brilliant artist and art teacher. Also wrote poetry.
Barf.
They all got a pass because it’s not normal to for the public to spend days on end going through microfiche at the library.
This is a long rant. I can pare it down if you don’t want to post it all.
Raze a pedophile. Perfect.
The Shelden name is all over Grosse Pointe. Even on a dumb plaque for a pool. His family who is still living is silent. I don’t know what they could do to not be silent. Make a statement? Make a post on social media? Something!
Shelden’s niece is a therapist and is obsessed with horses and art.
If she clueless?
Is there a clause in the will that if they speak ill of Shelden they’ll get their inheritance taken away?
Tell me my uncle was a prolific pedo who never faced justice and I am talking! I’m swabbing my cheeks for DNA. I’m going on the news and unloading everything I know about the perv.
Please keep breathing for a long long time, Cathy.
it won’t be very long now
my book is nearly finished and I can assure you it dissects every detail that I have learned about this animal – Francis Duffield Shelden – and the obscene Roman Catholic missionary priest who was his bosom buddy from the time they met in Detroit in the 1960s – And of course, the international paedophile network which was thriving within and around them and the orphanage in India
There is also a documentary on its way on American media which I may not discuss but I think you have seen the clues
I can only send my greatest admiration and best wishes and encouragement
Warm regards, Adrian Millane
Thanks, Ade. My best to you. Cathy
Thank you all for lighting a candle in the darkness. You are making a difference.