The Ypsilanti Ripper Pt. 1

0:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Warning check the locks podcast is a true crime podcast and may contain graphic descriptions of violence, murder, sexual assault, and more. [SPEAKER_00]: Check the locks podcast is not appropriate for all listeners. [SPEAKER_00]: Listener discretion is strongly advised. [SPEAKER_01]: For two years, fear spread is young women vanished and bodies began to surface. [SPEAKER_01]: How many more lives would be lost before someone uncovered the truth? [SPEAKER_01]: Join me, John Connor, as I discuss the victims of the Ipsilani Ripper.

0:43 [SPEAKER_01]: This is Check The Locks Podcast. [SPEAKER_01]: Hello, and thank you for joining me as I dive into yet another truly terrifying true crime case. [SPEAKER_01]: As always, before we begin, I hope that you're doing well, hope that you're having a great week. [SPEAKER_01]: And I just want to say thank you for letting me hang out with you for just a little bit while you tackle whatever you've got going on today. [SPEAKER_01]: So before we jump into this week's case, I just wanted to give you some quick updates. [SPEAKER_01]: I will actually be doing some traveling with the family this week, which normally isn't any kind of big deal, but it means that this year for Halloween, things are going to be a little bit different.

1:24 [SPEAKER_01]: Normally, I have the amazing Jessica Gomez join me for a Halloween episode, but because of the travel plans and when I'm going to be getting home, it just didn't line up. [SPEAKER_01]: So it's a little bit weird because Jess and I have piecasted together every Halloween for like the past five years. [SPEAKER_01]: So it's going to be super strange not to do it, but promise I will definitely work something out to have her on outside of spooky season, just because I know people really enjoy it when she comes and guests on the pod. [SPEAKER_01]: And I absolutely love having her. [SPEAKER_01]: So please make sure that you're staying tuned for that. [SPEAKER_01]: But let's go ahead and talk about this week. [SPEAKER_01]: So because I'm traveling, I thought it would be super cool to do a case that literally happened up the road from where me and my family will be spending some time and I'm actually going to break this one down into two parts.

2:07 [SPEAKER_01]: So part one will be today's episode and then part two will drop next week for our Halloween episode. [SPEAKER_01]: And I have to be honest, I am super surprised that I haven't covered this one already. [SPEAKER_01]: And I think you'll understand why as we go through it and when we kind of wrap it up towards the end. [SPEAKER_01]: But I would really like to hear your thoughts. [SPEAKER_01]: So please drop me a line and let me know what you think. [SPEAKER_01]: But with that being said, I'm going to quit the Gabby Gabby. [SPEAKER_01]: We'll get to the stabby stabby. [SPEAKER_01]: And let's go ahead and break down this week's case. [SPEAKER_01]: This week, we're heading to Michigan, in July 1967, 19-year-old Mary Fleser was studying accounting at Eastern Michigan University. [SPEAKER_01]: On July 9, Mary, the devout Catholic, told her roommate that she was going to take a walk, leaving her apartment near campus at around 830 p.m., wearing an orange dress with white polka dots.

2:59 [SPEAKER_01]: As she walked a neighbor noticed her passing by, and it was then that a car pulled up alongside the teenager. [SPEAKER_01]: Cat calling Mary and trying to get her to accept a ride. [SPEAKER_01]: The neighbor watched his Mary continued to walk, and the person in the car continued to call out. [SPEAKER_01]: But eventually, Mary moved out of sight. [SPEAKER_01]: She would never be seen alive again. [SPEAKER_01]: A month later, on August 7, two teenage boys were about to plow a field of remote farm nearby, and it was then that they made a gruesome discovery. [SPEAKER_01]: lying in the field were badly decomposed human remains. [SPEAKER_01]: The victim's face was missing, and the feet, one hand, and fingers on the other had been cut off.

3:46 [SPEAKER_01]: Lying nearby was an orange dress with white polka dots. [SPEAKER_01]: Using dental records of the victim would be identified as Mary Fleser. [SPEAKER_01]: An autopsy would reveal that the teenager had been stabbed 30 times, and it [SPEAKER_01]: The detectives investigated in the scene believe that Mary had not been killed in the field. [SPEAKER_01]: Instead, it had been used as a dump site. [SPEAKER_01]: And they believed that whoever killed her had returned to the scene multiple times, committing more acts of mutilation with each visit. [SPEAKER_01]: Investigators would continue to work the case, but with few leads, there wasn't much to go on, and a full year would pass before a killer would strike again.

4:31 [SPEAKER_01]: Joan Shell was a 20-year-old art student studying at Eastern Michigan University, hoping to major an elementary education. [SPEAKER_01]: On June 30, 1968, Joan had left home to walk to a nearby bus stop. [SPEAKER_01]: Hoping to catch a ride from Ipsilani to nearby Ann Arbor, [SPEAKER_01]: But when she missed the bus, she decided to hitchhike, a practice that was fairly common at the time. [SPEAKER_01]: Witnesses would see Joan climbing into a car with three men at around 1130 p.m. And like Mary Fletzer, this would be the last time that she was seen alive. [SPEAKER_01]: The body of Joan Shell would be found five days later on July 5, 1968, after being dumped at a local construction site.

5:16 [SPEAKER_01]: Like Mary, Joan had been brutally murdered and sexually assaulted, suffering from a total of 25 stab wounds. [SPEAKER_01]: Ipsilani police now had two victims murdered in the same way. [SPEAKER_01]: Jones Boyfriend was picked up and brought him for questioning, but at the time he had been a while from the army, and he would eventually be cleared. [SPEAKER_01]: Investigators worked to chase down any possible leads, but they had no way of imagining the horrors that were still to come. [SPEAKER_01]: On March 24, 1969, 16-year-old Marilyn Skeleton was dropped off at the Arborland Mall in Ann Arbor, after getting a ride from her brother. [SPEAKER_01]: Now Marilyn was described as a rock and roll party girl, she butted heads with her parents [SPEAKER_01]: When she arrived at the mall, she decided that she would rather spend the day with her boyfriend, a drummer and a local band.

6:12 [SPEAKER_01]: So Marilyn called his house, but ended up speaking with one of his bandmates. [SPEAKER_01]: She asked for a ride, but the bandmate didn't have a car. [SPEAKER_01]: So like Joan Shell, it's believed that Marilyn attempted to hitchhike. [SPEAKER_01]: Her body would be found the next day on March 25th. [SPEAKER_01]: But Marilyn's murder was different. [SPEAKER_01]: One third of her skull had been shattered from repeated blows to the head. [SPEAKER_01]: She was nude with a shirt jammed in her mouth in a garter belt wrapped around her neck. [SPEAKER_01]: Marilyn's body also showed signs of deep wounds, believed to have been made by some type of leather strap, and she had also been beaten viciously about the face.

6:53 [SPEAKER_01]: It also appeared that the girl had been violated with a large tree branch. [SPEAKER_01]: Now, though the manner of death was different, police still believed that this was the work of the same killer. [SPEAKER_01]: As the body of Joan Shell had been found only 75 yards away. [SPEAKER_01]: Detectives now had three victims, and they were combing through leads. [SPEAKER_01]: Even offering a $7,000 reward for anyone with information that led to the arrest and conviction of their killer. [SPEAKER_01]: and the community was panicked as well. [SPEAKER_01]: Women on both the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan campuses began carrying switch blades and tear gas devices, both of which were illegal under Michigan law at the time.

7:34 [SPEAKER_01]: But the worst was still yet to come. [SPEAKER_01]: On April 15, 1969, 13-year-old middle school student Don Basin had just finished eating dinner with her family. [SPEAKER_01]: Afterward at about 6 p.m., she walked next door to her sister's home. [SPEAKER_01]: But at some point, like a lot of kids, Don got bored. [SPEAKER_01]: And she asked her brother-in-law to drive her to the north side of Ipsilani, only about a mile away, hoping to meet up with some friends. [SPEAKER_01]: Now, when dropped off, Dawn was reminded to be quick because she had to be home before it got dark outside. [SPEAKER_01]: And after hanging out for a while, the teenager left to head home, with a friend joining her from most of the walk.

8:17 [SPEAKER_01]: But once Dawn was only a few blocks away from her house, the friend went the other way, and somewhere between there and home, Dawn disappeared. [SPEAKER_01]: Her nearly nude body would be found on an isolated dirt road the next day. [SPEAKER_01]: Donna had been strangled to death with black electrical wire, and a hanker chip had been stuffed into her mouth. [SPEAKER_01]: The young girl's body had been found with over a dozen slash marks across her chest and stomach, made with either a razor or a very sharp knife. [SPEAKER_01]: And like the victims before, investigators believed that Dawn's murder had taken place [SPEAKER_01]: Investigators searched a handful of miles between where Dawn had been abducted and where her body had been found, leading them to an abandoned farmhouse.

9:07 [SPEAKER_01]: When searching the property, police found the orange sweater that Dawn had been wearing. [SPEAKER_01]: This means that the killer must have known that no one would be at the property, and investigators believed that their suspect knew the area well. [SPEAKER_01]: Now, after Dawn's murder, hundreds of tips came in. [SPEAKER_01]: An officers did their best to work each and every one of them, but they were still no closer to finding the killer.

9:47 [SPEAKER_01]: And sadly, more young women were going to lose their lives before he was caught. [SPEAKER_01]: 22-year-old Alice Kalum was a graduate student at the University of Michigan. [SPEAKER_01]: And on June 7, 1969, she was hanging out at the Depot house in Ann Arbor, a rehearsal space that was used by rock bands in the area. [SPEAKER_01]: Witnesses were called seeing Alice dancing with a long-haired man, and at some point in the evening, she was seen leaving the club on the back of a motorcycle. [SPEAKER_01]: Three days later on June 9, three teenage boys discovered her body while exploring an abandoned barn. [SPEAKER_01]: Alice had been shot in the head and her throat had been slipped from ear to ear, and like the previous victims, she too had been sexually assaulted.

10:34 [SPEAKER_01]: Again, police were at a standstill, and they seen no closer to finding their killer than when the murders first began. [SPEAKER_01]: William Milliken, Michigan's governor at the time, would hold a press conference, during which he would place Colonel Frederick David's commander of the state police, personally in charge of the case. [SPEAKER_01]: Governor Milliken had a 21-year-old daughter at the time who happened to be a junior at the University of Michigan. [SPEAKER_01]: But even with the press and the new leadership in the case, it wouldn't be long before their killer struck again. [SPEAKER_01]: Karim Bineman was an 18-year-old college freshman at Eastern Michigan University, known for being cautious and sensible.

11:20 [SPEAKER_01]: On July 23, 1969, she walked into a wig shop. [SPEAKER_01]: You see, Karen was planning on attending a wedding and had decided to buy a hairpiece for the occasion. [SPEAKER_01]: And after checking out, she said something to the owner of the shop that set off alarm bells. [SPEAKER_01]: Karen told the owner that she had only ever done two foolish things in her entire life. [SPEAKER_01]: One was the buyer-self-a-wig. [SPEAKER_01]: The other was to accept a ride from a stranger. [SPEAKER_01]: who was waiting outside for her on his motorcycle. [SPEAKER_01]: As Karen turned to leave, the shop owner and her assistant followed, and there sitting on a triumph motorcycle was a clean cut young man. [SPEAKER_01]: And when he noticed the two women looking at him, he quickly turned away.

12:04 [SPEAKER_01]: Then, Karen and the unknown man drove off. [SPEAKER_01]: Three days later, Karen's body would be found in a roadside ditch west of Ann Arbor. [SPEAKER_01]: She had been strangled and beaten so badly that the police would need fingerprints to identify her body, and like the other victims, Karen had also been sexually assaulted. [SPEAKER_01]: The police also believed that she had been murdered somewhere else and the ditch served as a dump site. [SPEAKER_01]: The police now had another victim on their hands. [SPEAKER_01]: In this time, they decided to try something different. [SPEAKER_01]: They believed that their killer had been returning to the dump sites to visit the bodies. [SPEAKER_01]: So they decided to replace Karen's remains with a mannequin and wait.

12:45 [SPEAKER_01]: And at around midnight on July 26th, [SPEAKER_01]: It was raining heavily, so it was odd that someone would be out in that isolated area. [SPEAKER_01]: Detectives watched as a man entered the ditch, but once the suspect realized that Karen's body had been replaced, he fled on foot, disappearing into the woods. [SPEAKER_01]: And though the officer searched, they were unable to locate the suspect. [SPEAKER_01]: Now, at this point, every officer in Ipsilani and Ann Arbor was issued a bolo for the man and the motorcycle, including Larry Matthewson, a rookie campus police officer at Eastern Michigan University.

13:28 [SPEAKER_01]: And when the bolo was issued, he remembered something. [SPEAKER_01]: You see, he was still a senior at the university, and on the day that Karen Bynaman went [SPEAKER_01]: Now, he didn't know his name, but the two were in rival fraternities and played intermural football. [SPEAKER_01]: And on July 23, he remembered that classmate sitting on a motorcycle and talking to some girls. [SPEAKER_01]: And it was then that one of them climbed on the back. [SPEAKER_01]: That girl was Karen Bynaman. [SPEAKER_01]: So Officer Matthewson decided to do some digging, and it wouldn't be long before he identified that fellow student. [SPEAKER_01]: his name was John Norman Collins.

14:11 [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm going to stop right there for part one of this week's case. [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going to save my final thoughts for when we wrap things up next week. [SPEAKER_01]: But there were a few things that jumped out at me while I was researching this case. [SPEAKER_01]: And I think first, no matter how many times I've talked about it on the show, it still blows my mind how comfortable people were with hitchhiking back in the day. [SPEAKER_01]: And I know that when I talk about it, like I'm looking at it through a modern lens, but you just hear so many horror stories and from both sides, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Like you never know who's picking you up or who you're letting in your car. [SPEAKER_01]: And then you're just trapped in this tiny space and at someone else's mercy. [SPEAKER_01]: So it's just wild to me to think that this was a legit way to get around back then. [SPEAKER_01]: And then obviously, I think the other big thing for me is where this case took place and the fear that must have gripped the community at the time.

14:58 [SPEAKER_01]: You know, in my teens and in my early 20s, my best friends and I would go to Ann Arbor a lot. [SPEAKER_01]: We grew up in the suburbs of Detroit and Ann Arbor was this hip college town where there was always something to do and we would take what we call country drives, which in Metro Detroit I mean it was the closest thing to the country you could get but [SPEAKER_01]: It was just backroads between my hometown and Ann Arbor. [SPEAKER_01]: So we would drive out and we'd go to pinball pizza and spend hours at the arcade. [SPEAKER_01]: And then we get dollar slices at backroom pizza. [SPEAKER_01]: We'd walk around the U of M campus and check out the law library, which if you've never been, it's insane. [SPEAKER_01]: This historic building with these crazy vines going all up and down in. [SPEAKER_01]: Honestly, it kind of looks like something out of Harry Potter, but.

15:40 [SPEAKER_01]: There was always students just walking around campus or hanging out in the quad and so I try to think of what it must have been like, especially to be a woman at the time this was happening and how terrifying the seemingly safe place must have become. [SPEAKER_01]: I also had family that went to Eastern Michigan, and I grew up 15 minutes from Ipsilani. [SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, I know for a fact that I have driven down some of the streets where these crimes happened, right, where these abductions took place. [SPEAKER_01]: I know that I probably stood in the exact spot where some of these girls have been abducted from and never knew anything about this case or the history.

16:27 [SPEAKER_01]: So it's just wild to me that something this horrific, [SPEAKER_01]: could be lost to history in this kind of way, especially a case that involved so much brutality towards the victims. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, beating these women until they were unrecognizable and the mutilation that they suffered after the fact, it's just also heartbreaking and terribly terribly disturbing. [SPEAKER_01]: Again, I'm going to talk more about it once we wrap up the case next week and I will definitely give this a debult rating. [SPEAKER_01]: But if you know me, this is going to be on the high side for sure. [SPEAKER_01]: So, please make sure that you're tuning in next week for our Halloween episode part two, we're going to conclude this case. [SPEAKER_01]: But as always, I want to hear from you.

17:09 [SPEAKER_01]: What are your thoughts as we move through the first part of this case? [SPEAKER_01]: Please let me know, reach out on Instagram, check locks, pod, you can find me on Twitter, check the locks. [SPEAKER_01]: And if you're not on our Facebook group with that, you do and come hang out with us. [SPEAKER_01]: I would absolutely love the opportunity to get to know you spend a little time with you. [SPEAKER_01]: I say it all the time, but it really is the best place on the internet. [SPEAKER_01]: It is an amazing community. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm actually looking at some fun things that you might be able to do just to get people participating and hanging out and having fun. [SPEAKER_01]: So if you would like to be a part of that community, there is a link in the description in the episode that you're listening to right now. [SPEAKER_01]: Click that link, answer a few questions, boom, you are a part of that Facebook group. [SPEAKER_01]: And as always, if you like to show you want to help financially support check the locks you can do so by becoming a patron, head over to patreon.com for slash check the locks get signed up today.

17:53 [SPEAKER_01]: We got a lot of great tiers, exclusive benefits, stickers, coffee, mug stuff like that. [SPEAKER_01]: But you also get the episodes commercial free and I do try to get them out early whenever I can. [SPEAKER_01]: So if you love check the locks, but you hate those ads, patron is the way to go. [SPEAKER_01]: So again, if you like to show you want to help support it, that is patreon.com for slash check the locks and get signed up today. [SPEAKER_01]: And if you can't find answers for the show, I definitely understand just listen it and hang it out with me sharing the show with your friends and family means just as much if not more. [SPEAKER_01]: This is a very small grassroots podcast, I know I talk about that every week, and when you let people know that the show exists, it really does so much to help bring in new listeners and more importantly new members to our community. [SPEAKER_01]: So, again, if you were sharing this show in any way, shape, or form, just know that it really does mean the world to me.

18:38 [SPEAKER_01]: That is all that we have for you for part one of this week's case, but please make sure that you're subscribed to check the locks on your favorite podcast apps so that you never miss an episode. [SPEAKER_01]: I will see you again next week for part two of this truly terrifying true crime case, but until then remember, monsters are real. [SPEAKER_01]: So stay safe, stay ready, and don't forget to check the locks. [SPEAKER_01]: See you next week.