Murders Archives - Lost In Michigan

Michigan’s Strychnine Serial Killer

Posted on September 25, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Cemetery, Murders .

In a quiet rural cemetery southeast of Fife Lake in Springfield Township’s Clark Cemetery are tombstones for Gertrude and John Murphy. What is not carved into Gertrude’s marker is the name and death of her three month old baby that she is holding in her arms when she was buried. Ruth Murphy was being watched by her aunt Mary McKnight when she suddenly died in the summer of 1903. Shortly after returning home, Gertrude died. Mary McKnight was John Murphy’s Sister who came to live with the Murphy’s on their farm after her two husbands and three children died.

About a week after the funeral for Ruth and Gertrude, John died after suffering from seizures and strand contractions of his muscles. It was a local doctor that thought the description of John’s death seemed peculiar and reminded him of what he learned about strychnine poisoning while in medical school. John and Gertrude’s bodies were exhumed and their stomachs sent to the lab at the University of Michigan where traces of strychnine was discovered.

Mary was tried and convicted for the death of her brother and sister-in-law. The early 1900s trial was a media sensation with newspapers reporting on it nationwide. It is believed Mary was responsible for about a dozen deaths making her one of the first female serial killers in the nation. Her motives for the killings are still being debated. Author Tobin T. Buhk has written a book about the infamous murders titled Michigan’s Strychnine Saint: The Curious Case of Mrs. Mary McKnight. It is a fascinated true crime book detailing the story of her crime and life in Northern Michigan at the turn of the century. If you like true crime books I highly recommend reading it. You can read a preview of it on Amazon HERE

P.S. Her family believed she murdered her victims because she enjoyed attending the elaborate funerals of the period.

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Memorial Highway

Posted on May 19, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Murders, people .

Traveling down Michigan’s highways I see a lot of brown memorial signs. Some are in honor of veterans of past wars and others are names of individuals who gave the last full measure of devotion. Most of the time I do not recognize the name on the sign but the name on the sign along M-116 at the entrance of Ludington State Park I recognized.

On September 9, 2013, Tpr. Paul K. Butterfield was shot and killed while making a traffic stop in Mason County. I never met him but his death stands out to me not because it was a violent tragedy but because of where he came from and who he was. He grew up in Bridgeport which is next to my hometown of Saginaw. At the time of his death, my son was running cross country in School. Paul Butterfield won the 1988 Michigan state championships and knowing how dedicated you have to be for an accomplishment like that he must have been an incredible person.

A sign along the highway is not enough to honor fallen heroes, but it is good that they will be remembered, even if it is for a split second as we travel around this beautiful state. Hopefully, when you see a sign in memory of someone it will make you wonder about the sacrifices they have made.

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A Lake Michigan Sunset and Evil In the Tunnel Of Trees

Posted on April 29, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Murders .

M-119 travels along the Lake Michigan shoreline thought the famous ” Tunnel of Trees.” The small town of Good Hart is located on the scenic route and the General Store is a popular stop. Not far away is the historic St. Ignatius Catholic Church and a path that leads to a deck overlooking Lake Michigan. It is a beautiful and peaceful area to enjoy a sunset.

About 50 years ago in June of 1968 the small resort community was rocked by the murder of the Robison family. Richard Robison was an advertising executive in Metro Detroit. He and his wife Shirly had a summer cabin not far from Good hart. The couple along with their four children were murdered in their cabin one summer night. The murder, for the most part, remains unsolved to this day.

Author Mardi Link has written about the murder in her book When Evil Came To Good Hart. I have read a lot of Michigan history books doing research for my website and this is one of my favorites. It is a tragic tale but well written. Link has done an excellent job of telling the facts but also telling the story of what life in a rural northern Michigan town was like back in the 60s. You can see more about the book on Amazon HERE, Be sure to check with you local book store to see if they have a copy, maybe they offer pickup so you can help them out and have a good book to read.

P.S. The Robison family cottage has been razed and no longer stands in Good Hart so I figured I would post a pic of the sunset to remember them by. If you are ever in the area, be sure to stop and take a break at the Lake Michigan overlook and remember how precious life is.

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The Purple Gang’s Ghost

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Haunted Places, Murders .

The Doherty Hotel in downtown Clare opened in 1924. The historic hotel has entered guests for almost a century, but one infamous day in 1938 has tied the hotel to the notorious Purple Gang. The gang was based out of Detroit but always looking for ways to expand their income. With the booming automobile business and the need for oil, some members of the Purples came to the Mt. Pleasant and Clare region to capitalize on the black gold that lay trapped deep in the ground.

Oil investor Carl “Jack” Livingston had a disagreement with his business partner and attorney Isaiah Leebove who was a Purple Gang associate. Convinced Leebove was going to have the Purple Gang kill him, Livingston shot and killed Leebove in the taproom at the Doherty Hotel. Some claim his spirit has never left and haunts the room today. I am not sure if the haunting is true, but I do know the Purple Gang had many connections to Michigan and the stores still linger today.

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The Strange tale of Nefarious Arthur Curry

Posted on January 25, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Murders, people .

If you have been to Petoskey to enjoy shopping or eating in one of the many establishments you have probably seen the historic pale yellow Perry Hotel. It was Built in 1899 by Norman J. Perry to accommodate tourists arriving by train to enjoy the fresh air of Northern Michigan. Today the hotel is owned by Stafford Smith and is a shining example of Luxury and elegance. Before Smit took over the hotel it was owned by Arthur Curry who had brought hope to a struggling city and ended up being a con man and a criminal.

In the mid-1980s Petoskey and especially the historic hotel was struggling in a slow economy. That was when Chicago stockbroker Arthur Curry came along and promised hope to the community when he purchased the Perry Hotel along with the Park Place Hotel in Traverse City. He was a very charismatic guy and people who met him were optimistic about his investments in Northern Michigan. He was able to convince people to invest in his hotels with the hopes that they will be restored and revitalize the other businesses surrounding them.

Things were going well for a short time but as expenses began piling up, investors were having a hard time finding Curry. After being ousted from the brokerage firm in Chicago he was desperate for money and came up with a scheme to rais some more money. In March of 1989, he kidnapped Gayle Cook the wife of William Cook from their Bloomington Indiana home. William and Gayle together built a medical manufacturing firm and were worth over 250 million dollars. Curry kidnapped Mrs. Cook as she carried groceries into her home. After tying her to the back chair in his van he demanded 1.3 million dollars in cash and another half-million in gold bullion. About 24 hours later the FBI found Curry’s van and rescued Gayle Cook and arrested Curry. He was convicted in 1990 and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

If you are like me you are probably doing the math in your head and thinking he will be released because it has been 30 years. He and his brother have been charged with bank robbery. Together the two are accused of robbing about 20 banks in southern Indiana and Kentucky.

Despite being owned by a short time by Mr. Curry, the Perry Hotel continues standing proudly in downtown Petoskey welcoming tourists and guests.

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Ghosts of Rattle Run

Posted on June 24, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Ghost towns, Murders .

Along Rattle Run Road is an old cemetery. It is all that remains of the town of Rattle Run. The town was named after the Rattle Run river that runs nearby. The creek was given the name because on a quiet night the water running over the pebbles made a rattling sound. The town is gone but the memory of one of Michigan’s most infamous murders still remains. You can read about it in my post HERE

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The Hanging Tree and a Ghost Town

Posted on March 2, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Ghost towns, Murders .

Started in the 1880s, near Empire on the shores of Lake Michigan, the town of Aral was a small lumbering community. Charles Wright managed the sawmill and was known for his short temper and willingness to fight. In August of 1889, the Sheriff sent a deputy and treasurer to collect on taxes the sawmill owed to the county. Mr. Wright met the two men as they came into town and after a short argument, he shot and killed both of them leaving their bodies lay in the street. He went back to work at the sawmill as if nothing happened. He must have gotten word from someone that a telegraph message was sent back to the sheriff of the men’s murders. Charles Wright shut down operations for the day and then disappeared into the nearby forest. When the sheriff and a posse of 20 men showed up in the little town of Aral, they found Wright’s native American handyman Peter Lahala, and tied a rope around his neck. They threw it over a nearby tree and pulled him up then lowered him back down trying to get him to disclose the whereabouts of Charles Wright. A the start of hoisting Lahala a third time, two men marched Charles Wright out of the woods and he was taken into custody.

After the deadly events, The tree in town was forever known as “the hanging tree”. The town continued on until the timber was gone. The population slowly dwindled down and by the 1902s all the buildings and houses were moved away. Near Esch Beach, in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a sign describing the former town of Aral. An old tree lies nearby, and many say that is the remains of the infamous hanging tree. The last two people to leave the town of Aral was Bertie and Donna Bancroft. They moved over to M-22 and built the Ken-Tuc-U-Inn which you can read about HERE

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A Bloody Sheet, An Abandoned School, and Robert Stack

Posted on January 8, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Murders .

South of Coldwater, near the Michigan border, stands an old abandoned school built in 1908. I would like to be able to tell you the story of one of its pupils that went on to do something inspiring, but unfortunately, I do not know of such a story. I only know the tragic and sad story of what happened here after the death of a Coldwater High School counselor. On Easter of 1990, Marilyn DePue and her husband Dennis got into a fight. After beating her he coaxed her into his van and then shot her in the head. He dumped her body behind an old church that has since been demolished, then drove down the road passing a brother and sister on an afternoon drive. The pair of siblings went past the old school and noticed the van that had passed them. They also saw a man hiding a bloody sheet behind the abandoned building. Afterward, Dennis fled and the police were not able to arrest him. Robert Stack featured the story on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. Several tips came in saying a man by the name of Hank Queen living in Dallas Texas fit the description. After a high-speed police chase, Dennis DePue committed suicide before he could be taken into custody.

The story of Marilyn DePue’s murder is thought to be the inspiration for the opening scene of the movie Jeepers Creepers. The director and writer said it was not, but the similarities are uncanny. I found this video on Youtube showing the original Unsolved Mysteries show and the beginning of the movie.

P.S. I wonder how many people who read this even know who Robert Stack was. I was born in 1970 and I only knew him because of Unsolved Mysteries. I am thinking anyone younger than me probably never heard of him.

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A Mysterious Death at Grand Island

Posted on December 20, 2018 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Lighthouses, Murders .

Grand Island is in Lake Superior not far from the town of Munising. Most people are familiar with the East Channel Lighthouse with its weathered wooden siding looking towards the shoreline of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The old Grand Island Lighthouse sits on the northern edge of the island on a tall cliff overlooking Lake Superior.

The lighthouse was constructed in 1866 to replace an old decrepit light that was built in 1844. In 1961 a metal post with a battery operated light replaced the lighthouse and it was decommissioned. Dr. Loren Graham, a history professor at Harvard, and his wife Patrica a historian and dean at Harvard purchased the dilapidated old lighthouse in 1972. While remodeling the old building they found a newspaper with an article about the body of the assistant lighthouse keeper being found in a rowboat floating offshore. Keeper Genry had also disappeared and it was 15 years later that his body was found washed up on shore 20 miles from Munising. After an investigation, it has never been determined what happened to the two men.

Dr. Graham had researched the men’s mysterious death for 30 years and published a book detailing what he believed had happened to them. It is a fascinating book. In the middle of the book, he digresses into the history of the Upper Peninsula and the Native American culture and European mining immigrants. The book then circles back the death of the two keepers. People’s culture and experiences lead them to believe what happened to the two men. Not only is the book a compelling mystery, but it is also a well written brief history of the Upper Peninsula. If you are looking for something to read this winter I highly recommend Death at The Lighthouse: A Grand Island Riddle which you can see HERE. I think it has been out of print for a while so you may have to get a copy from your local library if the bookstore does not have it.

P.S. As far as I know, the Lighthouse still remains privately owned. I hope I get the chance to see it someday.

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The Strange Disappearance of Sister Janina

Posted on October 30, 2017 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Murders .

Traveling thru the center of the Leelanau peninsula I came across the small town of Isadore and the beautiful brick church at the top of the Hill. The current Holy Rosary church replaced the old wooden church that held many secrets of which it never told anyone.

In the summer of 1906 Sister Janina came to the Parish to help two other nuns in the school. A year later in the summer of 1907 Sister Janina disappeared. The community gathered together to search for the missing nun but they could not find her. Some residents claimed to hear singing from a nearby swamp at night but were too scared to go and investigate. For years the mystery of her disappearance was investigated. Some believed the parish priest had a love affair with her but was out of town the night she disappeared and his alibi confirmed his innocence in her disappearance. The rectory’s housekeeper confessed to the murder under duress but was later pardoned by the governor.

Sister Janina’s body was discovered 11 years later in a shallow grave in the basement of the church. Her body was obviously moved there since it would have been found in the initial search. What happened to Sister Janina and how her body ended up in the basement of the old church is a secret the building would not tell. Her death remains a mystery and whoever knows about it kept their secret. Her body was finally laid to rest in the Cemetary next to the school where she taught so many years ago.

Sister Janina’s story has been published in a few books. A Broadway play was inspired by the tragedy and made into a movie in 1972 The Runner Stumbles starring Dick Van Dyke.

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