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Category Archives: Murders

A Strange Murder in Rattle Run Michigan

Posted on January 12, 2017 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Haunted Places, Murders .

The long forgotten town of Rattle Run, and the church that the townsfolk once worshiped inside, has been gone for a long time, but one of Michigan’s most gruesome murders took place there. The town, named after the nearby rattling rapids of Columbus Creek, was located in Columbia township southwest of Port Huron. In January of 1909 the church caretaker made a shocking discovery of blood in the snow. When he looked inside the the church, it was in complete disarray, and there was blood splattered everywhere.

The caretaker contacted sheriff Waggensell in Port Huron, and upon investigating the scene, human body parts were found in the wood stove used to heat the church. The minister at the church, Rev. John Haviland Carmichael was nowhere to be found.

Rattle Run Michigan Murder Church

The Rattle Run church is gone but I like this old abandoned church so I am posting this pic with the story.

A few days after the murder, a man by the name of John Elder shows up in the town of Carthage Illinois without any baggage and rented a room at a boarding house run by Mrs. Hughes. He tells her he is a cabinet maker passing thru town. Mr. Elder was acting very strangely, and when Mrs. Hughes gives him dinner, he said he is fasting and would not eat anything. The next morning she made him a large breakfast figuring he would be hungry but he simply gathered what little he had, paid his bill, and said he was leaving for a job twelve miles away.

A few moments later, she heard a noise in the shed and was scared to look for herself, so she called a neighbor but they were not home, then a mailman walked by and when he looked in the shed he found Mr. Elder lying on the floor with blood gushing out of his neck, and a knife in his hands. He was still alive, but died shortly after. The local sheriff in Carthage found two letters, one addressed to Mrs. Carmichael in Rattle Run and the other to Sheriff Waggensell in Port Huron.

Both letters were almost Identical, and this is what was written on them:

To Mr. Waggensell

Port Huron, Mich.

dated  Jan. 9, 1909

Carthage Illinois,

Honored Sir: I write this letter to explain in connection with a Columbus creek tragedy. I am guilty only because I am a coward. The man ( Amos Gideon Browning )had such a hypnotic Influence over me that I felt that something must be done. I felt greatly ashamed that a man said to be short minded should be able to compel me to yield to his will

At first he said:” It’s all right, elder, don’t be afraid”. Then he began to talk about how we two could get rich. Three times he came to the rear of my barn and talked to me. Twice he was at the river when I went to water my stock, and each time I felt that he was doing something he was proud of.

Once when I was going out to Columbus he was on the pike, near the pink school-house, when I overtook him, he asked to ride, which I could not refuse. he asked me if ever I had driven the pike to Port Huron, to which I answered no. Then he said: ‘Come on, lets drive up to Port Huron,’ which I resented, but he kept on until he persuaded me to go.

He got out and stood at the corner while I went to the barn with the rig. Then later we had been at the restaurant, for which he paid, also for the horse feed, He gave me a half dollar and said he wanted me to go there and buy a small hatchet for his boy to play with. I began to tell him to go and do his own buying, he set his eyes upon me with the queerest sort of a look, something like a look of a snake’s eye.

All the while I felt his influence tighten on my mind, so I went. Intending to go into the store and out the back way to get the horse and rush off for home. When I turned to close the door he stood looking upon me through the window and I just bought the hatchet and came out again, but by that time he had disappeared, I went into the barn, got my rig, and started for home, when as I made the turn into Military street he was at the corner to get in.

He rode as far as South Park, where he got out to take the car, and he took the hatchet with him and said nothing, nor did I think anything at the time about it.

When at the depot at Adair, he came out of the house and compelled me to walk the rails. All the while I felt as small as a bantam chicken. When he arranged with me about the wedding he wanted, he would go to Port Huron and get the license and meet me on the road between that place and the church.

I thought that he really meant to get married when he engaged my services, but when we met In the road and he was alone I began to feel uneasy, but he said it was all right, the others would come in a carriage. When we went Into tho church I wanted to light a lamp, to which he dissented, saying; “No, elder, no light unless they should come”. But, presently, he said “maybe we better have a little fire”. So I went out and passed wood to him through the window.

When I had put in what I thought would be enough, he said: “now, elder, the moonlight is Shining right on the front-door, and if you go around there to come in some one may see you. Just pile up some wood here and come in through this window.’ I brought a few sticks and laid them across each other, from the top of which he helped me into the building. he let the window nearly down again and we kept looking out through the opening to see if the others came down the state road.

He took a big hearty laugh and said: ‘There ain’t no use looking, for there ain’t going to be no wedding.’ He was sitting where a gleam of light shone on his face and his eyes were so brilliant that I was thrilled through and through. Queerest sort of feeling. I asked him why, then, he had made the present arrangement, when he said:

“Well, elder, I Just wanted to have a little fun. You consider yourself an educated man and look down on a poor Ignorant fellow like me, and I just thought I would show you. I knowed if I could handle you I could handle other men and make a big thing out of it. Now if I say, raise your hand, up she goes. See, that is no dream,’ and I felt my hand raising without any effort whatever on my part.

“Then he said: If I say let down your hand. down it goes.’ and I felt it going down In. a singular manner. By this time I was so alarmed that I was in a cold sweat. I then leaned over to see if any one might be on the road, when he began to laugh again, and I saw that he was holding a weapon up his sleeve. Instantly I made a grab for it and got the hatchet from him and asked what he meant to do with that, and he said: “ I will show you.”and from his overcoat pocket he drew out a knife with each hand.

He came at me. striking with both hands. I backed across the church, down the side aisle and across the front, but I did not dare to turn about to the front door. Then I threw the hatchet and struck him and he fell. I then turned to open the door, when he grabbed me by the leg and threw me down where my hand came upon the hatchet.

There was a desperate struggle. in which I used the hatchet until he lay quiet and still. I cannot recal all that happened after that. I was wild to dispose of the body. I was in a horrible terror, I began pulling off his garments that I might drag the body away somewhere and hide it. when he woke up and grabbed me again. Then for a while I used that hatchet until I was sure he was dead.

I waited until I saw the Fire was hot enough to make a stove pipe red nearly to the elbow I grabbed him and dragged him down there and began cutting him to pieces, putting in each piece as it was dismembered. Then I began to put the garments into the stove. Then I saw that my clothing was cut and bloody while some of his was yet whole and I exchanged them and then took all the bloody clothes and piled them in along with the body. My big coat hid my torn and bloody cloths until I got to Chicago, where I purchased others.

I am tired of trying to hide. though I have succeeded in eluding the detectives so far. If you get this and l am yet alive, come and get me. I shall be not far from Carthage Illinois.

Rev. W. J. Carmichael

( The Letters were published in the Chicago Tribune on January 12th 1909)

 

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The Tragedy and Haunting at The Big Bay Lighthouse

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Haunted Places, Lighthouses, Murders .

Haunted Big Bay Lighthouse

Standing on a tall rocky bluff overlooking Lake Superior is the Big Bay Point Lighthouse built in 1897 near the town of Big Bay. The House was built as a duplex with one side for the head lighthouse keeper and the other for the assistant keeper. Those who worked at Big Bay Point were truly isolated. The keepers’ wives not only had to do the usual housekeeping and food preparation, but also schooling of any children in residence.

The first keeper William Prior made the 24 mile walk to Marquette to visit his dying sister, after her funeral he walked back to the lighthouse, to see the assistant keeper did not fulfill his duties, after firing him and a couple more concomitant assistant keepers, Prior hired his son George to be the assistant keeper. Just over a year after he was hired, he fell on the steps of the landing crib. Keeper Prior took him to the hospital in Marquette on April 18, 1901, and his son passed away roughly two months later on June 13. His son’s death drove him into a deep depression, and on June 28 he disappeared into the woods with his gun and some strychnine. It was feared that he had gone off to kill himself. A search party was sent out, but they were not able to find him.

Over a year later, the following entry was made in the station log:

Mr. Fred Babcock came to the station 12:30 pm. While hunting in the woods one and a half mile south of the station this noon he found a skeleton of a man hanging to a tree. We went to the place with him and found that the clothing and everything tally with the former keeper of this station who has been missing for seventeen months.

By 1941 the light was automated and in 1951 – 1952, the building and land were leased to the U.S. Army. Soldiers were stationed at the lighthouse for two-week periods of anti-aircraft artillery training. Large guns were placed on the cliff near the lighthouse, and targets were towed by planes over Lake Superior for practice. The soldiers lived in the meadow and woods to the west of the lighthouse. One of the soldiers stationed at the lighthouse murdered the owner of the Lumberjack Tavern, in the town of Big Bay, for raping his wife. The book and movie Anatomy Of A Murder are based on the crime.

1961 the Lighthouse and surrounding property were sold to a private owner.  Today it is the only operational lighthouse with a bed and breakfast, rumor is the lighthouse is still haunted by the ghost of Keeper Prior, I am not sure it is, but I do know it is a beautiful lighthouse, and would be a nice place to say at.

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The Tragic Tale of this Old Abandoned House

Posted on May 1, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, Murders .

Michigan Murder House

One of my Subscribers told me about this old abandoned house between Ithaca and Wheeler. It has a tragic story to tell about the murder of its owner Alonzo Hart Jr. in 1970. He was a Korean War Veteran and former Saginaw police officer who was now working as a truck driver to support his family. His Second wife Sarah Jane Hart and her 17 year old lover Phillip Lippert hatched a plan to have him killed so she could collect the $18,000 insurance money. They found a killer for hire in William Pribble that would commit the murder for $1500. One night Alonzo’s wife took the kids while Pribble and Lippert waited for Alonzo to return and when he pulled into the driveway Pribble hit him over the head with a bar and beat him to death and left him lying next to his car in the driveway.

Pribble and Lippert pleaded to second degree murder and each was given life sentences. Sarah Jane Hart, who was unable to remember details to help her attorney in her own defense was ultimately committed to a state mental hospital for 18 months before her first trial ended in a mistrial. The old boarded up house still silently stands as a witness to this horrific crime.

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The Painful Story of the State Trooper Murdered in 1959

Posted on March 8, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, Houses, Murders .

Argentine Township House

A couple of years ago I was heading down Silver Lake Road in Argentine Twp and after rounding the corner, and at the top of the hill, was this old house. I knew nothing about the house, and it was the first time I ever saw it, but I had to stop and take a photo of it. Like most old houses I photograph, I know nothing about their history, but after posting a pic I had a few people tell me that was the house where a Michigan State Trooper was killed.

Michigan State Trooper Albert Souden

Michigan State Trooper Albert Souden

On September 3rd 1959 Trooper Albert Souden had driven to the house to investigate a robbery in Millford. His wife called the post to report he had never returned home. Within minutes of determining Trooper Souden had disappeared, the department mobilized an intensive search. The public response was also immediate. Floods of citizens, sheriff’s deputies, municipal police officers, and members of the Army and National Guard volunteered to join the ground and air search. The police arrested Alvin Knight the next day at a cabin in Traverse City. Knight was an ex-convict with a history of breaking the law and even spent time in an institution for the criminally insane. After repeated interrogations he would not tell law enforcement officers anything. It was only after Alber Soudens wife pleaded with him that he finally cracked and lead officers to the body and explained what happened.

When Trooper Souden knocked on the door the suspect was in his pajamas and he asked the trooper if he could change. After going upstairs to change he grabbed a gun and then got the drop on the officer and took his service revolver. He forced him at gunpoint to drive his patrol car to a farm and then marched him into the woods where he intended to tie him up so he would have time to escape, but Trooper Souden made an attempt to get away so he shot him with his revolver and buried him with some vegetation. Knight plead guilty to second degree murder, and was sentenced to 25 years.

Trooper Alber Souden was 29 years old and had a 7 month old baby, He was the 22nd MSP officer to die in the line of duty.

As for the house, it’s gone now. It was demolished a few years ago shortly after I took this photo.

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The Strange death of the Sparling men in Tyre

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, Haunted Places, Murders .
John Wesley Sparling

The tombstone of John Wesley Sparling in the Tyre Cemetery

The village of Tyre near Ubly in the Thumb was named after the Biblical place of Tyre because of its stony terrain, but it was the mysterious death of John Wesley Sparling and his sons that the town is most noted for. One June day, John Wesley quit work midday, clutching his stomach. His oldest son Peter rode his horse at breakneck speeds to fetch Dr. Robert A. MacGregor, who diagnosed a kidney ailment. John Wesley died on July 8, 1909, and was laid to rest in the Tyre Cemetery. The whole community attended the service. A year later Peter staggered from a field where haying was in progress and died 5 days later. Albert, the next oldest Sparling, became ill in church a year after Peter died; he suffered the exact symptoms as Peter and his father and died after a short struggle for life on 03 May 1911. On August 4th 1911 the strange symptoms struck a third Sparling son, Scyrel. Dr. MacGregor called in a colleague, Dr. Conboy, to examine Scyrel. Dr. Conboy suspected poisoning and reported the same to local authorities. Scyrel grew worse and died 14, Aug 1911 leaving only the youngest son, Raymond alive.

The prosecutor ordered the examination of Scyrel’s organs and they were sent to the University of Michigan which they reported finding arsenic. The body of Albert was exhumed and examined with identical findings, death by arsenic poisoning. Dr. MacGregor was arrested and tried for the murders of the four men in a trial which gained national attention. The prosecutor presented a case that John Wesley Sparlings wife Carrie was having an affair with the good doctor, and that he had her take out life insurance policies on her children who were strong and healthy at the time. Dr. MacGregor was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life in prison.

Tyre Michigan Grain elevator

the old abandoned grain elevator in the once booming town of Tyre

After Michigan Governor Ferris received an appeal on MacGregor’s behalf, he had the case re-investigated. The results of the re-investigation were not made public, so it is not known what facts it established. Nevertheless, in 1916, the Governor issued MacGregor a full and unconditional pardon. The Governor took the unusual step of having MacGregor brought to the state capital at Lansing where he handed him the pardon personally. In his statement the Governor said, “I am firmly convinced that Dr. MacGregor is absolutely innocent of the crime for which he was convicted.”  The Governor shortly thereafter appointed MacGregor as the official state doctor to the Jackson prison where he had just been an inmate, again without explanation., MacGregor died In 1928.

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