Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 6

"A FREE PRESS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2. 1992 ighland Park serial Idller probe fast, but flawed tiie Deadly timetable The FBI says the arrest of a suspect in the Highland Park serial killer case was among the fastest in the history of such cases. Here is how long some of the best known serial killers were at large and how many people were killed. JjJJJJJjJJJJJjJJjJ ir.0R3S,0ifljTS-iiJiJJJJJJJ JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ 13 drjsUli-ililiJ JJJ JwdJJJJJJJJ claim that comes with a major arrest. One Detroit officer later explained: "1 would sure like to close this case.

I not we, not you but me," he said. "There's no better feeling in the world than having some jerk tell you he's killed somebody and you are the one who stopped the killing." Officially, supervisors in both cities told the public repeatedly that the agencies were cooperating fully. Detroit Inspector Gerald Stewart said that early on, he and other top detectives advised Highland Park police on how to handle a major investigation. But the egos and the politics that come into play when police agencies have to work together already were evident. "There probably wasn't a lot of cooperation," one Detroit detective said later.

The crucial report slips by While the two departments went their separate ways, the clue that could have helped slipped by both. Stewart, who oversees the homicide section that already was dealing with 129 killings by the time Donna made her report, said he did not know what happened to it. "It was a Highland Park rape," Stewart said. "I would assume that if that report came into Detroit, what should have happened was it should have been sent out to Highland Park." Highland Park Public Safety Director John Mattox said he was sure the report came to his detectives, but he did not know when or what happened to it. Others say Highland Park investigators didn't get the report until July.

Notations on the report indicate that a copy was sent to Detroit's Squad 7, home to some of the city's most elite homicide detectives. No one knows where it went from there. Wherever it sat, the report lay buried amid hundreds of other tips, false confessions and busywork. "It's easy with 20-20 hindsight to say 'Oh, she's the But we had tons of prostitutes upstairs telling us they'd been nearly strangled," said one Detroit investigator. Some didn't live to tell what happened to them.

On April 9, Mitchell was found dead in an abandoned two-story house on Woodward in Highland Park. In spite of a thin scarf twisted around her neck, blood coming from her mouth, and a mattress thrown over her half-naked body, the medical examiner classified her death as a drug overdose. Still, Dobson kept her in the files as victim No. 8. A week later, on April 15, the death dead, naked from the waist down, with a scarf around her neck, under a mattress in an abandoned house at Woodward and Grand in Highland Park.

Authorities classify it a drug overdose. April 15 Beasley-Brown's body is found in a vacant apartment house on Highland at 2nd in Highland Park. Mid-May Eleven weeks after Donna reported her rape, Highland Park police get a phone tip from another person about the same attack. May 23 Highland Park Lt Donald Roberts says the investigation is "at a standstill" June 15 The body of an unidentified black female is found in a building at Woodward at Richton in Highland Park. Body identified July 3 as JoAnn O'Rourke of Muskegon.

June 17 Sheriffs deputies ride on horseback i through Highland Park. FBI assigns two special agents to i Highland Park; task force is assembled. July 17 FBI raids Anthony Starks' Detroit home. Mid-July Highland Park police and FBI interview Donna, who describes man she knows as Tony. July 30 In a summit at prosecutor's office with FBI, State Police, Detroit, and Highland Park officers, first full exchange of information on all killings takes place.

Aug. 5 State police arrest Starks. Aug. 6,7 Donna tells police they have the wrong Tony. Aug.

20 Donna points out Benjamin Atkins to police, who arrest him. Aug. 21 Atkins gives statements to Detroit police on" all the deaths, and, police IL-SMHL-II JL KILLINGS, 1A July, I ju.st can't understand it," I in Johiwm. Beasley-Brown's sis- siiJ Thursday. "Look how many have been saved They to be ashamed of themselves." The cast included a cagey FBI fcnt, streetwise Detroit homicide busy with numerous other v.

itis, persistent state troopers, and 'k determined small-town police force I Inland Park, overwhelmed by the 1 'i mity of the serial crimes. I he buried clue At 11:50 a.m. on March 6, Donna, a self-confessed crack ad-vt, flapged down a Detroit police car i Wdodward Avenue and told two t-rs bhe had been raped and almost 'Milled months earlier on the of the Monterey Motel in Ikhl.md Park. Thiee women had been found slain the motel Feb. 17, and she was her attacker was the killer, there was no indication of ntered in tiie police report.

She kid been raped and dragged by i neck in a vacant restaurant in front lie Monterey, she said, and escaped, 1 and bleeding, to Woodward. She 1 A ttmi too embarrassed to call po-V but changed her mind after hear-K aUmt the killings. iMina, whose name has been -i-'iiKcdby the Free Press because she nuie victim and requested anonym-iv, gave Detroit police a full descrip-' i of the person she knew as Tony, a ing, dark-complected black man stood 5 feet 5, weighed about 175 jx minis and often took women into at ant buildings. She gave police her 'Mine, address and telephone number. No one seems to know what be-t ime of Donna's report.

But no police ifticer contacted her until mid-July. All the while, the bodies mounted. Already in December and January, uir black women had been found --I i angled in abandoned buildings along Wixxlward, one in Highland Park and 'luce in Detroit. I Vtroit missed a chance to close the ase iivlate January, after a lieutenant it the 13th (Woodward) Precinct took a tew and searched along Woodward fur the killer. Hie police found Atkins an abandoned building and he was it rested.

The precinct officers wrote a 'i xnt saying Atkins was a possible in the killings, but a homicide ik tective released him after Then came February and the three bodies in the Monterey Motel. Like the first fmir, these women were black, crack-addicted and willing to trade sex fur dings, according to family mem-Ixts, friends, and court records. There were other similarities among the seven: Most had their hands NhiihI behind them, were at least 1 iitially naked and had something luffed into their throats. Their bodies i i -ared to have been hurled into the (irners, shower stills and closets here they were found. Police were almost sure they had one killer, and that he was ex-ii enidy skilled.

On many victims he I ssed just hard enough on their i( (ks to kill, but not hard enough to the fragile hyoid bone in the ak of their throats. information swap arranged Detectives in both cities knew they i.rl to huddle. One of the poorest areas in ttic state was under siege from one the fastest-working serial killers in the nation's history. I lighland Park wanted a suspect list Detroit had compiled. Detroit wanted everything Highland Park had.

In late February or early March investigators say they don't recall when Highland Park Sgt. James Dobson, a bespectacled, determined man who has made a career in the nailer city, called Detroit homicide detectives and arranged what was to an information swap. Instead, two Detroit detectives showed up, grabbed Highland Park's papers and headed for the door, saying they forgot to bring their part of the paperwork. "We'll call you when we catch him," one of the Detroit investigators called on his way out. Dobson headed downtown the next day, only to find the information hadn't been prepared.

He waited, and got it Traditionally, investigators on big guard their information jealously. If they have to deal daily with mind-numbing killings, they want the ac- Toddler to Carjacking, from Page 1A day were inspecting it for fingerprints. The honeys were the latest victims of a spate of Detroit-area carjackings that have left two men dead within the List 15 days. At least five people have died in carjackings this year. Police in Lincoln Park were investigating a carjacking on Tuesday that left a 26-year-old Allen Park woman with a broken leg after she bailed out of her car rjiat was driven away by a man with a knife.

1: woman, whe name was not Fall 1991 "Donna" attacked on the grounds of the Monterey Motel in Highland Park. Nov. 6 Valerie Chalk's family begins looking for her. Nov. 30 Patricia George says she's going to a crack house and never returns.

Dec. 8 Debbie Friday goes to visit "a guy in Highland Park" and never returns. Dec. 11 Bertha Mason leaves boyfriend and four children to go to store and never returns. Dec.

14 Friday's body found at 170 Elmhurst, Highland Park. Dec. 30 Mason's body found at 12 Alger in Detroit. 1992 Jan. 3 A bulldozer hits a body at 74 Kenilworth in Detroit Body identified April 3 as George.

Jan. 25 Vicky Truelove's body is found in the former Longfellow Nursing Home on Woodward in Detroit Feb. 17 The bodies of three women are found in the Monterey Motel: Juanita Hardy, Chalk, and unidentified body. Highland Park police say they are investigating a link between the deaths of Friday, the three Monterey Motel women, and 13 other slayings since 1985 in Detroit, Inkster, Ypsilanti, and Romulus. March 6 Aware of the bodies found in the Monterey, Donna flags down a patrol car in Detroit's 13th (Woodward) Precinct, tells them she was raped and nearly strangled months earlier by a man named Tony.

March 25 Vicki Beasley-Brown tells her two children she's going to the store to get school lunches and cigarettes and never returns. April 5 Brenda Mitchell leaves her mother's northeast Detroit home and never returns. April 9 Mitchell is found time since the killings had begun seven months earlier. About this time, Highland Park's Dobson came up with a plan. The frightened Donna, slowly weaning herself from crack, was placed in a squad car with State Police Sgt.

Royce Alston, known for his ability to deal with street people. Day and night, they cruised Woodward Avenue and surrounding streets, checking crack houses and prostitute hangouts, looking for Tony. On Aug. 19, she spotted the man she said had attacked her. He was at a pay telephone on Woodward in the Cass Corridor area.

Benjamin Atkins was arrested on suspicion of rape and attempted murder. All of the lead investigators who had spent months on the case were out of town or headed out But Lindsay, who has a 15-year friendship with Detroit's Stewart, called Stewart and asked for his best interrogators. Sgt Ronald Sanders, who was leaving for vacation in an hour, got the call. A savvy officer, Sanders watched through a window as others talked to Atkins for about 10 minutes, then demanded his shot. Sanders looked Atkins straight in the eye and bluntly let him know that lies wouldn't fly.

Atkins denied killing any women, saying he was homosexual and never went near women. car thief asked him to move the car. The woman escaped with scraped knees when the man shoved her out of the car in a parking lot at 9 Mile and Kelly in Eastpointe. Police said the thief is a white male, 40-45 years old, 5 feet 11, 200 pounds and was wearing light summer clothing. Crime Stoppers was offering a $1,000 reward and police asked that anyone with any information call 445-5227 anytime.

Robin Fornoff contributed to this report HlddztndPaifc- srrial killer! -J -Williams. I (4 victims) i i Sod of Sam chfld killer ICvktiiris I 1-. UedBunfJy victims) i i 0 12 MONTHS AT LARGE THE Victims Eleven women were killed between December 1991 and August Dec 14, 1991: Debbie Friday, 31 Bertha Mason, 26 Jan. 3: Patricia George, 36 Jan. 25: Vickie Truelove, 39 Feb.

17: Juanita Hardy, 23 Valerie Chalk, 34 Third woman, unidentified Aprl Brenda Mitchell, 40 AprllS: Vickie June 15: JoAnn Aug.2L Woman, unidentified Wayne County Sheriff Robert Fkano, ensnared in a bitter primary election battle, sent his deputies in on horseback to patrol Highland Park streets. More were sent door-to-door, handing out fliers pleading for information. Nothing useful turned up. But real help was on the way. On June 17, as the county's mounted officers plodded along Highland Park streets, the FBI's special agent in charge of the Detroit office, Hal Hel-terhoff assigned two agents to conduct a two-week review of the case and pull together a task force.

The two federal pros began to sift through the 200 tips they found waiting. Agents Paul Lindsay and Prince Ross had decades of experience. Lindsay, a sardonic man with 19 years on the job, decided Detroit police would stay out of the picture until necessary, and all available resources would be thrown at Highland Park. "He was the glue that held us all together," Dobson said. Lindsay immediately liked the tips about Donna and the man named Tony.

'He's not the right Tony' In a soup kitchen across the street from the Monterey, investigators learned of Anthony Starks, a former psychiatric patient who frequented the kitchen. He spent days in the neighborhood talking with street women. A computer check of Starks' record found that in 1984 he had been charged with assault and attempted rape. He was convicted of assault and battery. Lindsay was convinced Starks was his man.

He ordered a search warrant and told Highland Park officials he was calling in Detroit police. Still feeling snubbed about the earlier lack of cooperation by Detroit police, the Highland Park force balked, but he insisted. On July 17, as TV cameras rolled, police raided Starks' family home in The man had a hard time driving a stick shift and the car jerked. The woman opened the passenger-side door and rolled out of the car, breaking her leg, Lewis said. She underwent surgery Wednesday, Wilson said.

Her car was recovered Wednesday in Detroit but her purse and $160 worth of groceries were missing, Lewis said. The suspect is described as white, in his 20s, blond hair, 6 feet taD and thin. 1 -gr! i i IflGHLAND "WCIFTON MONTEREY; elmhvict. JL (jo)" --3 mil' I 1 i -1 1 i year Jil! JiJ MJJJJdJJJ JJJ 24 48 MOSES HARRIS Detroit Free Press MOSES HARRIS Detroit Free Press Detroit and found medical records that bolstered their interest. But they found nothing to link him to the killings.

Unnerved by the media scrutiny, investigators set up a secret headquarters for their task force. And state police began trailing Starks. On Aug. 5, Starks took a woman into an abandoned house in Detroit in the same block where body No. 2 the young and pregnant Bertha Mason had been found Dec.

30. Plainclothes detectives burst in, thinking the woman might be in danger. They found the couple disrobed and asleep. Starks was brought in for questioning and immediately proclaimed his innocence. He suggested police buy him a carton of cigarettes because it was going to be a long night.

Detroit homicide detectives, summoned by Lindsay, chipped away at Starks, but he had nothing to tell them. A day and a half later, Donna was brought in to view Starks in a line-up. "I know that Tony," she told police, "but he's not the right Tony." Exasperated, investigators headed back to the drawing board. But this time they had the benefit of the March 6 report, which Detroit police produced when Lindsay insisted they participate in the raid on Starks' home. On a Saturday morning in mid-July, Lindsay, Dobson, and Ross knocked on Donna's door.

A once-pretty woman whose face and body were ravaged by drug abuse, she looked and sounded like one of the dead women come back to life. She retold her tale of being stripped, raped and choked inside an abandoned Howard Johnson's in front of the Monterey. Again, she named her attacker as Tony. At a July 30 summit, Wayne County Prosecutor John O'Hair and Assistant Prosecutor Michael Reynolds convened all the investigators for the first Police said the suspect does not appear to be connected to the shooting of Kenneth Itoney. Meanwhile, St Clair Shores police are trying to put together a composite sketch of a man who abducted a 98-year-old woman while stealing a car from a Kroger parking lot at 13 Mile and Harper.

The woman was a passenger in a 1984 black Ford Escort that her daughter, who was shopping, parked in a handicapped zone. The man identified himself as Sam and said hedaughter pzri ZZZ i Chrysler nicRLftffljm 0 II QPH I I I 33 -j If AfcnENry. 1 KtMLWOKTH fh A HOLBROQK. I GRAN gj LVD. toll hit nine.

Beasley-Brown's broken body was found in a sunlit closet of an empty apartment building on Highland Avenue in the smaller city. Frustrated detectives scoured the scene but were no closer to knowing the killer's identity. 10th body found By May, Highland Park's 10-mem-ber detective division was overwhelmed. The city's phone system was so rudimentary that officers could not even hook up a tape recorder to accept tips around the clock. Mattox persuaded Michigan Bell to set up a direct line to handle a machine.

Mayor Linsey Porter, facing mounting anger from the community and continued negative publicity, insisted the killer was not from Highland Park and was just dumping bodies there. He was contradicted by State Police profiler Detective Sgt. David Minzey, who said, "the killer is somewhere in that Woodward Avenue corridor" including Highland Park. In mid-May, Highland Park police got a second report on the attack on Donna, this time from a man who knew her. But the tiny department was busy chasing other tips, some like the one from an angry nurse at Detroit Receiving Hospital.

"You hate women so much, I bet you're the one killing all those women in Highland Park," the nurse screamed at her husband during a nasty fight. "You're right, 1 am," the husband retorted. She promptly called police. "We spent half a day tracking that one down," Dobson said. Detectives also waded through 800 names of sex criminals provided by the State Police.

On June 15, a 10th body was found in the shell of a building at Woodward and Richton in Highland Park. The situation was desperate. Mattox and Porter reached out directs them to the decomposed body of an 11th woman, found in a basement off Woodward at Grand in Highland Park. "That's bullshit," Sanders responded flatly. He looked at Atkins and told him, "You never had a father.

I have a'son exactly your age. You need to get this off your chest Talk to me." The confessions spilled from Atkins' lips, according to police. While wolfing down five cheeseburgers brought in by police, he described in gruesome detail over an 11-hour period how he simultaneously choked and raped the women, police said. He told them about one more body, strangled and stashed in the darkened basement of a garage off Woodward. "It was the single most amazing piece of police work I've seen in 19 years," Lindsay said of Sanders' work.

The task force was officially shut down Sept 21. Unlike many serial killer probes across the country that have relied on luck, this arrest was made with old-fashioned police work and unprecedented teamwork between often sparring police agencies. "That's what's so beautiful about this case," said FBI special agent John Anthony. "This is a textbook case, in terms of how task forces should work. Leave out any one piece of the puile and you've got no solution." Atkins is in the Wayne County Jail He will undergo competency hearings next week to see if he is fit to stand trial lose his eye after being shot by The 2-year-old and his mother," whose car was found in Detroit, were the latest victims of a recent spate of carjackings that have left two men, dead.

3 released, was in stable condition Thursday at Wyandotte Hospital and Medical Center, said Jean Marie Wilson, director of nursing. The woman had loaded her car with groceries about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday at a store at Dix near 1-75 and got in but didn't fully close the door, Lincoln Park police Sgt Fred Lewis said Thursday. A man got into the car, ordering her to the passenger side of the red 1991 Escort The man told the woman "he wasn't going to hurt her and that he'd drop her off when he got to where he was going," Lewis saic.