The sweltering heat of July 1969 in southeast Michigan was thick with more than just humidity; a palpable sense of dread hung in the air. Fear gripped communities as the chilling reality set in: a killer was preying on young women. By July 23rd, five lives had already been brutally taken, and an eighteen-year-old, Karen Sue Beineman, had vanished, becoming the sixth victim in a terrifying series of abductions and murders that would become known as the Michigan Murders. This is the story of John Norman Collins, the man who would eventually be unmasked as the perpetrator of these heinous crimes, plunging southeast Michigan into an era of unprecedented fear.
The frantic search for Karen Sue Beineman involved five law enforcement agencies scouring over a hundred square miles of roads between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Karen’s disappearance echoed a horrifying pattern established over the preceding two years. Six young women had vanished – five in southeast Michigan and one in California, a connection yet to be fully realized. Each had met a gruesome end, their bodies discarded along desolate back roads, victims of a predator who stalked in plain sight.
The methods were chillingly consistent and brutal. Sheriff Doug Harvey of Washtenaw County grimly recounted the horrors, “A lot of the girls were beaten about the face, and so on, let alone the stab wounds.” Author Greg Fournier, who had the grim distinction of being the last person to see the first victim alive, captured the collective trauma: “The town collectively went into shock. And nobody wanted to say anything to anybody because it was very obvious by that time that there was a serial killer working this area.”
The nightmare began in July 1967 with the disappearance of Mary Fleszar. Now, two years later, Karen Beineman vanished on July 23rd, 1969. She had set out for a wig shop in downtown Ypsilanti, but her arrival was far from ordinary. Witnesses saw her pull up to the shop on the back of a motorcycle. Joan Goeshe, the wig shop owner, and her assistant observed a clean-cut man on a Triumph motorcycle, getting a clear view of him before he turned away. Adding another piece to the puzzle, a motorcycle enthusiast working at a nearby chocolate shop also noted the distinctive bike and the handsome rider. These seemingly insignificant details would soon become crucial in the unfolding investigation.
By July 24th, the hunt intensified. Every police officer in Washtenaw County was issued a “Be On the Lookout” (BOLO) alert for the Triumph motorcycle and its rider. Among these officers was Larry Matthewson, a rookie campus police officer at Eastern Michigan University. A memory flickered in his mind from the previous day. “I was on patrol the afternoon of the 23rd of July, and turned the corner down by Sill Hall on the campus and there was John Collins,” Larry recalled. Though he didn’t immediately place a name, the face was familiar. “He knew me, and I knew him. Just basically…fraternity rivals and that.” They were acquainted through intramural football, and Larry remembered John Collins as a remarkable athlete. On the day of Karen’s disappearance, Larry had observed Collins on a motorcycle, charming college girls. Greg Fournier’s research revealed a disturbing detail: “There were seven women that he tried to get on that motorcycle before Beineman got on it.” Karen was the one who accepted the ride, unknowingly placing herself in mortal danger. The rookie cop now had a name for his fraternity rival: John Norman Collins.
Collins rented a room on Emmet Street in Ypsilanti, an address chillingly close to the residence of the second victim, Joan Schell, who lived directly across the street. Larry Matthewson felt a growing unease. His suspicions intensified when he spotted Collins behind his residence, preparing to attach a new license plate to a Triumph motorcycle. A confrontation seemed risky; Collins was physically imposing. “He was probably 20 or 30 pounds heavier that I was. He lifted weights and I didn’t,” Larry admitted. Instead, Larry sought confirmation from one of the women he had seen Collins flirting with on campus, hoping she could identify him as the man seen with Karen in downtown Ypsilanti. “She asked me if he was in any trouble and I said ‘not that I’m aware of, but if you had a picture I probably could (clear him)’,” Larry explained. The woman provided a photograph, which Larry used to create a photo lineup. He returned to the chocolate shop, seeking out the employee who had noticed the motorcycle. “They said she was in the basement having lunch so I went down there and talked with her. I said ‘would you look at these pictures for me’ and she said sure. And she looked at them and I don’t know, the third or fourth picture was Collins and when she saw it she just dropped her sandwich in her lap and said ‘oh shit, that’s him!'” Larry recounted the dramatic moment of identification.
At this point, Karen Beineman was still missing. The next day, that changed with horrific finality. “When the doctor and his wife came down here to the end of the street to get the mail, his wife looked down and said ‘there’s a body down there,” Greg Fournier described the grim discovery. Karen’s body was found on Riverside Drive. The autopsy revealed unspeakable torture before death: severe head trauma and strangulation. Her body was naked, and chillingly, her underwear had been inserted into her vagina, a detail that investigators recognized as a potential signature of the killer. Adding to the macabre scene, over 500 short, clipped blonde hairs were found on Karen’s body.
Larry Matthewson was immediately brought in to share his crucial information with the Michigan State Police, the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Department, and other agencies. A task force was established at a seminary, pooling resources to catch the killer. The connections to John Norman Collins began to multiply, painting a damning picture.
Beyond being the last person seen with Karen Beineman and living across from Joan Schell, further links emerged. The first victim, Mary Fleszar, was last seen being cut off by a man in a shiny car just a block from Collins’s room. The car description matched a vehicle registered to Collins’s mother. It seemed improbable that Collins was unaware of Mary. “Mary worked at the university. She worked across the hall from where Collins had a student job,” Fournier revealed. The youngest victim, 13-year-old Dawn Basom, was also connected to Collins through his fraternity brothers who lived in an apartment building near Dawn’s home, providing a direct line of sight to her residence. Alice Kalom, who disappeared after a party in Ann Arbor, was last seen getting onto a motorcycle. A source told Fournier, “He saw Alice on the back of Collins’ motorcycle, driving away.”
The most crucial piece of evidence emerged unexpectedly from the home of Michigan State Trooper Corporal David Leik. Returning from vacation, Leik noticed a disturbing anomaly in his basement. Before leaving, his wife had cut their children’s hair in the basement, and the clippings were neatly swept into piles. Now, the basement was a mess of hair, and chillingly, there was blood on the floor. “That was tough on Leik. To go down into his basement and say ‘whoa, something’s different here’,” Sheriff Harvey stated. During Leik’s vacation, his nephew, John Norman Collins, had stayed at his house. “The Leik children, the three boys were all white blonde little guys and that hair, color wise, the first original look at it, seemed to be a fit,” Larry Matthewson explained. The blonde hairs found in Karen Beineman’s underwear were a match to the hairs in the Leik’s basement. With the mounting, irrefutable evidence, John Norman Collins was arrested on July 31, 1969.
Who was John Norman Collins? He grew up in Center Line, north of Detroit, a sports hero and letterman at his Catholic high school. His mother, a waitress, raised him and his siblings, telling them their father had abandoned them. By 1969, Collins was a senior at Eastern Michigan University, studying to become a teacher. He projected an image of a polite, handsome, all-American boy. But this facade was a carefully constructed lie. His fraternity brothers discovered his darker side when he was expelled for theft. Even the Triumph motorcycle he used to lure Karen Beineman was assembled from stolen parts.
As Michigan investigators built their case, an unexpected break came from California. Shortly after Alice Kalom’s murder in June 1969, Collins and a friend took a road trip to Salinas, California. During his brief time there, 17-year-old Roxie Phillips disappeared. “Roxie is walking down the street, mailed a letter a block away from her house. The letter was mailed so they knew she got that far. And John picked her up and he had a nice car…that was his mother’s car,” Fournier detailed. Two witnesses saw Roxie get into the car, which had distinctive Michigan license plates. Before leaving California, Collins sought medical treatment for poison oak, a seemingly minor detail that would later become significant. Days later, Roxie Phillips was found in Pecadero Canyon outside of Salinas, beaten, strangled, and dumped in a patch of poison oak.
After Collins’s arrest in Michigan, the car he used in California was impounded. A meticulous search revealed crucial evidence for the Roxie Phillips murder. “They took the car apart and they found under one of the seats, a swatch of fabric, I think was about the size of a dime. It was the same pattern, same floral pattern, and save weave of dress. Everything matched the belt and that swatch, which connected the two,” Fournier explained, linking Collins to the California murder as well.
Despite the overwhelming evidence, John Norman Collins maintained his innocence, even agreeing to a polygraph test. However, Sheriff Harvey recounted a telling moment: “He was in with John for about 45 minutes. He comes out and said ‘take him back to jail.’ (I said) ‘the polygraph is sitting over here’. (He said) ‘take him back to jail.’ It didn’t take a scientist to figure out what transpired. I know for a fact that John confessed to him,” suggesting a confession to his attorney.
In 1970, John Norman Collins stood trial for the murder of Karen Beineman. His mother attended every day of the proceedings. Sheriff Harvey recalled their striking presence: “Her and the daughter both had miniskirts on and with the boots, all the way up, and long, dangly earrings. But they were striking. They stood out.” Throughout the trial, Collins appeared surprisingly relaxed, even smiling at his attorneys and family, projecting an air of confidence. However, the evidence was insurmountable. The hair evidence, the witness identifications, and the circumstantial links painted an inescapable picture of guilt. On August 17, 1970, the jury delivered their verdict: guilty. John Norman Collins was sentenced to life in prison without parole, finally bringing a measure of closure to the terror he had inflicted.
Even after fifty years of incarceration, the scars of the Michigan Murders remain. The fear that gripped southeast Michigan in 1969 is a chilling reminder of the darkness that John Norman Collins unleashed. The next chapter of this series delves into the experiences of women who narrowly escaped becoming his victims and explores the enduring impact of the Michigan Murders on the community.
