Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 1

n- i ir i-t Airena BovjI Trust Plomreifs Drive tops Orlando, 56-38, jzLs What Busn Clinton must How to paint a landscape for 4th title in 5 years use, or overcome, to build it with colorful perennials Sports, 1E Highrt83; 1066 Comment, 1F Homes, 1J Into Africa Trip to the Motherland is a journey of discovery Outlook, 1D Ik IDJstofllf. News and JTtee IPtes Drifter charged in Highland Park killings Held without bond: Police say suspect admitted killing 1 1 women since December. The suspect: Benjamin Atkins was pleasant until he used crack or liquor, neighbors say. times visited. "He was pleasant.

He in Westland. He was ordered held without bond pending a Sept. 2 hearing. Atkins is accused of killing Debbie Ann Friday, 31; Patricia Cannon George, 36; and Vickie True-love, 39. Police say he also sexually assaulted the women.

Friday, believed to be the first victim, was found Dec. 14, strangled, beaten and bound in the basement of a vacant Highland Park apartment building. George was found Jan. 3, on Ken-ilworth, just off Woodward in De-Please see Slayings, 6A would run to the store (for neighbors) to get pop and cigarettes." But friends also knew he was troubled. When Atkins, 23, was high on crack or alcohol, he became "different," said another neighbor, who asked not to be identified.

Suddenly, he would explode and start calling women bitches and "hos" (whores), several acquaintanc- Detroit and eight in Highland Park, all found since mid-December. Most bodies were found nude, bound and strangled. "We are satisfied, from what he has told us and details that he has given about the crimes, that he is the one," said Highland Park Police Sgt. James Dobson. The thin, unshaven Atkins spoke clearly Saturday as he was arraigned in Detroit's 36th District Court for one of the slayings.

He was arraigned on two others at an out-county court By Scott Bowles and Ann Sweeney THE DETROIT NEWS A 23-year-old Highland Park drifter who police say has confessed to the slayings of 11 women was charged Saturday with three counts of murder. More murder charges are expected against Benjamin Thomas Atkins, who police say has been linked to the deaths of three women in By Tarek Hamada THE DETROIT NEWS In the Highland Park streets where Benjamin Atkins roamed, he was simply "Ben," a homeless man whom neighbors would occasionally feed and shelter. "Everybody in the neighborhood talked to him. My aunt and mom used to feed him," said Nancy Town-send, 21, who lives on a block of Highland Street where Atkins some- iL DALE G. YOUNGThe Detroit News Benjamin Atkins was arraigned in Westland on Saturday.

Please see Atkins, 7A A DETROIT NEWS SPECIAL REPORT J- (J if Crossing the By Elizabeth Atkins, Ann Sweeney and Lori-Anne Miller THE DETROIT NEWS Manicured lawns and bright flowers distinguish a pleasant 12-block neighborhood tucked near Mack in Metro Detroit. Both blacks and whites prosper here shopping the same shops, attending the same school, talking property values. On the surface, it's downright middle America, straddling Detroit and Grosse Pointe Park. But undercurrents run deep. Over the years, the blocks have aligned themselves into racial "comfort zones" that many blacks and whites now find satisfactory.

If integration goes no further, so be it. More white flight might tip the balance, say members of both races. The talk is hopeful, knowledgeable and frank. And it's a peek into the 21st century: More mixed-race enclaves are expected as Metro Detroit's minority population continues to grow. How the races deal with uneasiness and uncertainty while living side by side is the key to whether integration works or withers, residents said.

On Mack, the upside is that blacks and whites live near each mLTu MICHAEL S. GREENThe Detroit News The Fade hairstyle puts Harry Dearing a cut above. Boys don't mind getting moussed up In a Detroit.and Grosse Pointe neighborhood bordering Mack Avenue, blacks and whites are overcoming obstacles that historically have kept them apart. ttart-i- 1 By Rebecca Powers THE DETROIT NEWS The Surfer is riding a wave of popularity, and the Fade is far from fading. That's the hairstyle update from young boys getting clipped, coiffed and combed in time for school.

No more one-style-fita-all. "I like to look good," said 5V4-year-old Cory Richards, of South-field. He gets his shapely "Surfer" 'do touched up every couple of weeks. Even folks in the hair biz are amazed by their finicky patrons. "I remember when I was that age," said Max Rieger, 50, co-owner of Mario Max Salon in West Bloomfield Township.

"You'd sit down. They'd cut your hair. And Please see Hair, 2A tjewr other cordially. But deep down, fears, suspicions, mistrust and the unknown still turn many conversations on race into divisions of "us" and "them." "Deny it if you want, but there is a barrier there and I don't know how you remove it," said Peggy Curry, who lives in the area. "There is something about a piece of paper blowing down the street, it won't cross that barrier." Curry, who is black, lives in a picture-book neighborhood in Detroit just across from Grosse Pointe Park.

And Diane Johnson, 39, who is white and lives in a similar Grosse Pointe Park neighborhood, also sees the line. "It's hard to talk about it," she said. Life on each side of Mack often mirrors the other. But somewhere integration breaks down. The Grosse Pointe side is nearly all white.

The Detroit side of the neighborhood is racially mixed, and residents say it is becoming more black. "A lot of blacks will not approach a white person," said Leigh Greene, who is black and lives in Detroit. "That's because a lot of blacks are originally from the South, where you were supposed to keep your eyes down and never talk to the white man without being spoken to first. But I'll go up to anyone, white, black or green. "Other blacks are afraid to approach whites because they fear they'll be rejected and it feels safer to sit with our own," she said.

"We wonder what we'll have in common, too. White people talk about golf and we play basketball, for example, so it's hard to imagine fitting into a conversation. It really takes two people to bridge the gap." Dorthea Gale, who lives in Grosse Pointe Park and who is white, said both blacks and whites fear rejection. "They just don't know if they'll be accepted or wanted," she said. "There are a lot of cliques around between blacks and whites." l.fii! -r'.

Detroit News Business 1D Classified 1K Comment 3B N.Y. Times Crossword 3B Death notices 6C Editorials 2B Essentials 14E Horoscope 1K Lottery 14E Metro 1C Obituaries 6C Outlook 1B Sports 1E Stocks 2D Weather 14E 1 18th Year, Number 365 Copyright, 1992, The Detroit News, Inc. Photoby CLARKNCETABB JR. The Detroit News in skin color. It is parents who teach children that barriers exist between races, say one couple from the neighborhood.

Roderick Glover of Detroit (left) and Sean 0' Brien of Grosse Pointe Park frolic in Grosse Pointe Park, blind to differences if A v- i I- v. iS. if there is a barrier there and I don't know how you remove it. There is something about a piece of paper blowing down the street, it won't cross that barrier." Peggy Curry, homeowner About this report The Detroit News threw a block party, attended by 200 residents of Detroit and Grosse Pointe Park who live ina12-block area straddling Mack Avenue. In two subsequent discussions and in scores of interviews, blacks and whites examined questions of race and integration.

In frank and open talks reflected in this special report they found they are more alike than different. Inside Residents: A roundtable discussion. Page 8A Integration: Is it an elusive dream? Page 9A 4frce Stress Books 8Q Comment 1F Crossword Puzzle 5H Editorials 2F Entertainment 1G Fashion 7H Homes Real Estate 1J Horoscope 2G Jumble 7 Movie Guide 70 James Ricci 1H Bob Talbert 6F Susan Watson 6F The Way We Live 1H Travel 1R Volume 162. Number 107 1992 Detroit Free Press Inc. Mack Avenue Just raise the topic of crossing Mack on a stroll, and it provokes all sorts of opinions about why some don't bother.

"It's a fear of rejection," said Johnson. "You're kind of afraid to venture into a new neighborhood. You don't know any of the people, and we do watch if we see a group of J'lease see Barriers, 10A Peggy Curry and Diane Johnson live just across Mack Avenue from each other, but they say a barrier divides them. 3.