So if you want to watch WXYZ’s segment on the interview of Arch Sloan’s old cell mate, search “Man who says he shared cell with Oakland County child killer speaks out” on YouTube.
And that’s a big “if.”
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I didn’t think he said much of anything!
I agree. The segment shoud have been titled:
Breaking News; News media and law enforcement detectives are still waiting for somebody to walk into the station to confess to these crimes.
He did say some older guy was sending Sloan money, as perhaps were others. Surely they have pulled his JPay history with the prison and are contacting those he communicated with and received money from. It may be nothing, but now it seems like a mandatory inquiry.
It would be nice to see who was sending him any money. Being in prison for over 40 years, it should be a lengthy list. And it should have been looked at when the task force was activated again around 2006.
Buried car up north? Sloan was known to frequent the Clayton family “compound” near Ess Lake in Montmorency known as “El Rancho” (?).
Try this:
https://www.wxyz.com/news/local-news/investigations/man-who-says-he-shared-cell-with-oakland-county-child-killer-suspect-speaks-out
Hey Cathy, I did email you today about Russ Wright, white male age 51, Hazel Park, Michigan. He was apparently producing child porn. It must be something in the Michigan water.
Hi Cathy,
Hope all is well with you. Thank you for your consistent dedication to this case. I am person from Reddit who posted about dyer grossman fbi wanted poster background. I am just an amateur sleuth who has taken up some interest in the deep darkness and sadness in this case and hopefully trying to bring justice to this case one day. I’m hope I’m not being too much of a burden- but I have two questions for you that I was wondering if you could answer. First- the Busch family had a longtime attorney in r Keith stark who dealt and specialized in business and tax law. But when Chris Busch started getting an onslaught of charges across state of Michigan he helped in the beginning get him off even though that wasn’t his specialty in law?? And then they started using Jane burgess high powered lawyer who has since passed to get Busch off of the constant charges he was getting. Burgess has since passed but stark appears to be still alive and run a major law firm. He must be pretty old but I looked up and there is his website and it says he specializes in business and tax stuff. Do you think stark knows something since it appears he Busch family personal attorney for awhile. Have detectives or someone ever tried to talk to him or has he said anything to media?? Second question- arch Sloan major person of interest definitely involved in some capacity in case passed recently. Just before his passing detectives visited him- I assume these were detectives from msp?? How seriously are the msp pursuing case in modern times do you think?? At all? Still plagued by issues of incompetence?? Anyways enough rambling from me sorry for all the text. I understand if you cannot get chance to respond and again sorry to be a burden. You are one of the strongest people I’ve seen to keep going on this case after being consistently blocked out by agencies like msp at every corner. And doing all this while dealing with the unimaginable grief of loss. Keep doing the amazing work you do everyday and your never give up attitude on this case. Working to shed light. Thank you so much- the highest kudos and respect to you.
R. Keith Stark: It’s been a long time since I went through the FOIA documents in their entirety. I recall no mention of any investigator hitting Stark up, as they did the late Jane Burgess’ husband and law partner. Nor did anyone interview Frank Shelden’s Birmingham attorney L. Bennett Young as far as I know. I assume both would have claimed failure of recollection and/or attorney/client privilege.
Stark probably would have been helping H. Lee Busch with real estate purchases such as buying The Scotsman restaurant in Alma for his son Chris and the party store in White Hall for his son John. Helping Busch get his sons and grandsons the hell out of town and away from each other. Stark wasn’t stupid enough to drive up to Flint in a white-out condition storm after Chris Busch’s arrest by Flint PD in late January 1977, unlike assistant prosecutor Richard Thompson and his investigator Gary Hawkins. And you are right–he was not a criminal defense attorney. Busch declined counsel a number of times, but somehow a Flint attorney was rounded up for his arraignment. His bond was reduced from $75,000 to $1,000, and he was quickly back on the streets despite being a flight risk due to his wealth and his overseas travel history. This was all without Stark and prior to Burgess entering the scene. Go figure.
As described in Guarded by Jackals (Chapter 20, With Prosecutors Like These, Who Needs Jane Burgess?), Stark’s inexperience with criminal defense became evident when he allowed Chris to be delivered from Oakland County to Montmorency County on more CSC charges without an adequately executed arrest warrant. At some point between March 2 and March 10, Jane Burgess becomes Busch’s attorney of record in the criminal cases. In GBJ, the author provides a copy of a stipulation to adjourn the March 10, 1977 preliminary exam in Oakland County which is signed by Burgess. Burgess’ husband told investigators that he was too busy at the time to represent Chris Busch, so he handed the case off to his wife Jane.
Burgess successfully argued Busch’s bond from $12,000 to $9,000 but as observed in GBJ this is a 25% reduction, “not the 98.6% reduction that we saw in Genesee County on January 31, 1977, more than one month before Burgess was involved.” (Chapter 20, subsection “Who Performed Legal Miracles for Busch Before Burgess?”)
I fully support the conclusion in GBJ that the reputations of L. Brooks Patterson being “tough on crime” and Burgess being some hotshot, extraordinary criminal defense attorney for child rapists are in fact empty myths.
Sloan’s death: The MSP detective assigned to the case and Cory Williams went to Sloan’s death bed. My impression is that the MSP detective wanted Cory Williams in attendance because it is almost impossible for some detective with a bunch of active cases to get up to speed on the OCCK case. Williams knew Sloan’s deal. I don’t know Williams’ status–I presume he has a private investigator’s license or some temporary title with some law enforcement agency in order to be involved in the cold case at this point. I’m sure he went along out of professional courtesy and commitment to the four victims. I suspect his continued involvement is also motivated by the long held desire to sell a screen play or documentary project based on Marney Keenan’s book and developments since 2020. That may be in play. No matter how you cut it, this is quantitatively different than solving the case or addressing the unacknowledged but actual facts in this case pointing to public corruption. And who is coordinating with the state lab or the Cold Case Program at Western Michigan University? Same fragmentation there’s always been.
And no one in the media asks any of the hard questions, ever. It is not reported on in any regular fashion and therefore the public becomes complacent after a few days. Fifty-year-old case; who gives a fuck? Wait for the next book or documentary and entertain yourself instead.
The MSP detective doesn’t strike me as a shirker, but I’ve never spoken with the guy. He and some deputy from Bouchard’s office met with one of my brothers and Kristine’s sister after the media coverage in Feb/March of this year where it was revealed these guys don’t keep in touch with victims’ families and hadn’t checked in for years. They could not answer a single question the siblings asked. Not one. The detectives promised to get back to them with answers. It’s August–still crickets. See comment of G-Man, above.
I appreciate your kind words, but I feel I have no choice but to continue to advocate for my brother who was collateral damage and spent the last week of his life in the presence of pure, sadistic evil before he died at the hands of his captor/rapist. That is the last face he saw. He was raped AND murdered. I will stay here to keep these people somewhat honest and to continue to argue that the failure to learn from this most massive of literal clusterfucks means it can and will happen in some form again. And we know it already has. See Epstein/Maxwell and their protected clients.
Thank you so much. You are incredibly knowledgeable on this case very impressive. Keep fighting the good fight and never give up. The level of evil involved in this case makes my head hurt this has to be one of if not these worst cases out there. It still puzzles me how people could do such a thing. Even with the help obvious severe mental illness
It tears me up this case still how something so terrible could happen especially in a place like Birmingham. I have been to Birmingham one of the nicest places in Michigan I feel. Very nice shops and restaurants downtown always busy. We’re the Birmingham police immediately hand over case to msp? I talk about them as there massive historic brick station is right in the heart of downtown birmingham
I wonder if Charles n Busch last living son still works with stark I imagine Charles inherited a fair sum of money possibly from parents. I think charles denied some sort of dna test years back unless he got some special deal??
Charles Busch did provide a DNA sample to the FBI agents who interviewed him.
R. Keith Stark from Birmingham, passed the bar in late 1969. So by January of 1977, he was only 7 years into his career. And as you said, he had very limited criminal experience.
His father, Harry Stark Jr., was close in age to H Lee Busch (4 years younger than Busch). Harry Stark Jr. was also a high profile attorney who practiced law until he was 91. He lived in Birmingham, and Traverse City,
Harry was a member of Detroit Rotary, Detroit Athletic Club, Traverse City Country Club, Notre Dame Club of Traverse City, Otsego Ski Club and was a founding member and President of the Birmingham Athletic Club.
He was President of the Brother Rice Dad s Club as well as a scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 12 in Birmingham, and a member of the Traverse City Rotary Club.
He sort of checks a lot of familiar boxes for both Busch and Shelden.
https://www.lynchandsonsclawson.com/obituaries/Harry-S-Stark?obId=604106