B.R. Bates's Blog: From the social feeds ..., page 5

#RememberThem: Rose

Oh, my lovely Rose. She is the one, out of the five women who lost their lives to John Eric Armstrong in Detroit, that I would most like to have met in person. Instead I have had to meet her through several people who knew her, but that almost didn't happen.

At the beginning of my research for "The ‘Baby Doll’ Serial Killer: The John Eric Armstrong Homicides," I set out to reach at least one person to speak for each of these five females. It was a challenge -- much more challenging than locating cops who worked the case or the attorneys or even people who knew Armstrong in his younger years. When you reach out to someone who has lost a family member to a serial killer, it has to be a careful process. Compassionate. And you have to be patient. Rose really proved that for me. 

Rose was the one, for the longest time, for whom I could not find even a small amount of info. Nothing in the files. Only a birthdate and previous addresses online. The barest info. It's like she didn't even exist, as far as online records. Granted, she died  in 2000, before we all started living our lives online. But the usual sites offering birth info or whatever else were scant for her. I really wondered if the name I knew her by was a fake name for her, maybe just something she used when police detained her, knowing that for a lot of these girls living at risk on the streets, they don't carry ID and they often don't give genuine info when taken in.

I put out all kinds of feelers for people who may have known Rose. I knocked on doors in Detroit, at each one of her former addresses of record. Finally, it was an obscure court record, and an unusual last name, that led me to the father of her child. First I spoke to one of his cousins. She knew Rose, thankfully, and was able to tell me quite a bit. Then I found my way to the baby daddy himself, and wow, that was a good talk. He was so honest. He was the one who had introduced Rose to coke, and he freely, remorsefully, admitted it. He missed Rose. He valued his memories of her. He called her beautiful, and told me not to write anything bad about her. 

From there, I was able to connect with the daughter he shared with Rose, and what she said about her mom was very meaningful. Very affecting. Then, after the academic edition of the book was released, I heard back from one of those feelers I had put out a couple years earlier -- Rose's brother. And the talk with him was just so real, so sad, and so wonderful. As I blogged about earlier with Monica, this brother's life was devastated at the loss of his sister. He was very close to her. This was not just another person -- this was a sister who meant a great deal to him. 

Scott has only these snapshots of his sister Rose these days. Above, she's wearing red, fourth from left.
Images courtesy of Scott; see note below.

So, after thinking at one point that I would not be able to reach anyone to speak for Rose, I got several people. Each with a different perspective. Each speaking from a different angle of her life. And I learned how valuable she was, from every single angle. And that is something I am very thankful for.

Rose was the one who showed John Eric Armstrong this secluded stretch of railroad tracks (shown here in recent years) near Military and John Kronk streets in Detroit in mid-March 2000. He would leave her there along with the next two women he killed; they were the last three he was known to have killed.Image by the author; see note below.
This post is part of a series on this blog that I am calling #RememberThem, a chance to honor the women who lost their lives to the two Detroit serial killers I have researched, John Eric Armstrong and Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins. In this continuing series, with installments dropping every week or so, we'll first learn more about the five women Armstrong was known to have killed in Detroit, then two of his survivors, then we'll turn to the women killed by Atkins. Click on the "Honoring the Victims" label on the left to see all of the parts in the series.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

BRBates.comwbp.bz/BabyDoll
Above photos are copyrighted and specifically for use in "The 'Baby Doll' Serial Killer"; any other use prohibited without permission.
See more photos from the case at the gallery on the WildBlue Press website.

#RememberThem: Rose Marie Felt

Oh, my lovely Rose. She is the one, out of the five women who lost their lives to John Eric Armstrong in Detroit, that I would most like to have met in person. Instead I have had to meet her through several people who knew her, but that almost didn't happen.

At the beginning of my research for "The ‘Baby Doll’ Serial Killer: The John Eric Armstrong Homicides," I set out to reach at least one person to speak for each of these five females. It was a challenge -- much more challenging than locating cops who worked the case or the attorneys or even people who knew Armstrong in his younger years. When you reach out to someone who has lost a family member to a serial killer, it has to be a careful process. Compassionate. And you have to be patient. Rose really proved that for me. 

Rose was the one, for the longest time, for whom I could not find even a small amount of info. Nothing in the files. Only a birthdate and previous addresses online. The barest info. It's like she didn't even exist, as far as online records. Granted, she died  in 2000, before we all started living our lives online. But the usual sites offering birth info or whatever else were scant for her. I really wondered if Rose Felt was a fake name for her, maybe just something she used when police detained her, knowing that for a lot of these girls living at risk on the streets, they don't carry ID and they often don't give genuine info when taken in.

I put out all kinds of feelers for people who may have known Rose. I knocked on doors in Detroit, at each one of her former addresses of record. Finally, it was an obscure court record, and an unusual last name, that led me to the father of her child. First I spoke to one of his cousins. She knew Rose, thankfully, and was able to tell me quite a bit. Then I found my way to the baby daddy himself, and wow, that was a good talk. He was so honest. He was the one who had introduced Rose to coke, and he freely, remorsefully, admitted it. He missed Rose. He valued his memories of her. He called her beautiful, and told me not to write anything bad about her. 

From there, I was able to connect with the daughter he shared with Rose, and what she said about her mom was very meaningful. Very affecting. Then, after the academic edition of the book was released, I heard back from one of those feelers I had put out a couple years earlier -- Rose's brother. And the talk with him was just so real, so sad, and so wonderful. As I blogged about earlier with Monica, this brother's life was devastated at the loss of his sister. He was very close to her. This was not just another person -- this was a sister who meant a great deal to him. 

Scott has only these snapshots of his sister Rose these days. Above, she's wearing red, fourth from left.
Images courtesy of Scott; see note below.

So, after thinking at one point that I would not be able to reach anyone to speak for Rose, I got several people. Each with a different perspective. Each speaking from a different angle of her life. And I learned how valuable she was, from every single angle. And that is something I am very thankful for.

Rose was the one who showed John Eric Armstrong this secluded stretch of railroad tracks (shown here in recent years) near Military and John Kronk streets in Detroit in mid-March 2000. He would leave her there along with the next two women he killed; they were the last three he was known to have killed.Image by the author; see note below.
This post is part of a series on this blog that I am calling #RememberThem, a chance to honor the women who lost their lives to the two Detroit serial killers I have researched, John Eric Armstrong and Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins. In this continuing series, with installments dropping every week or so, we'll first learn more about the five women Armstrong was known to have killed in Detroit, then two of his survivors, then we'll turn to the women killed by Atkins. Click on the "Honoring the Victims" label on the left to see all of the parts in the series.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

BRBates.comwbp.bz/BabyDoll
Above photos are copyrighted and specifically for use in "The 'Baby Doll' Serial Killer"; any other use prohibited without permission.
See more photos from the case at the gallery on the WildBlue Press website.

Clearing up the confusion about the photos of Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins

There's been some confusion about the various photos of convicted Detroit serial killer Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins that have been out there, circulating in different places over the years. Let's clear up that confusion, shall we? I think a lot of it comes from one particular photo that was posted on Atkins' Wikipedia page for years. This photo was originally posted as a prison photo of Atkins, but it is actually a prison photo of a different Ben Atkins in Florida, not the Michigan serial killer. That's this photo:

<<<<
This is NOT convicted serial killer 
Benjamin Atkins 


See the note from May 11, 2024 on the history of Atkins' Wikipedia page, stating when this photo was removed, and the fact that it's a different Ben Atkins. You can also find this information on Reddit (screenshot below).

This photo has been distributed widely beyond Wikipedia for years, such as on websites about serial killers, podcasts on YouTube about Atkins, and even on the cover of a 2013 e-book about Atkins. 

There are a few (very few) photos of Atkins online that are actually Atkins, and they are basically the media shots of Atkins during his trial. Below is an example, and it's by Richard Lee of the Detroit Free Press and was taken during Atkins' trial in the first quarter of 1994 (see it at this Freep story):

<<<<< This IS convicted serial killer
Benjamin Atkins




The photo below, used for the cover of "The Crack City Strangler" book, is also a bona-fide photo of Atkins and was taken by Detroit police when Atkins was questioned in January 1992, a few months before his August 1992 arrest:





<<<<<

This IS convicted serial killer
Benjamin Atkins

Atkins was found in an abandoned building, where he should not have been, during a sweep of abandoned buildings that month after the discovery of one of his victims, Vicki Truelove. Police questioned Atkins after they found him sleeping there but then released him, having no idea they actually had just spoken with the killer they were hunting. This photo is one I obtained via FOIA in my research for the book, one of two photos Detroit police took of Atkins (in the other one, taken at Atkins' arrest in August 1992, Atkins is wearing a red track suit, and he was photographed in that same track suit by the media at the time). I won't dig through my files to fish out that other photo, as it's not good quality, anyway. Both of these photos were Polaroids taken by DPD and not reproduced very well by the time they got to me in the FOIA PDF file. Both of these photos are included in my book and they are clearly labeled as photos of Atkins in the FOIA PDF file. DPD even describe the jacket Atkins wears in the photo above in their documentation of the January questioning. So yes, I can tell you for sure, even if an Amazon reviewer thinks otherwise, that this photo above is actually a photo of convicted serial killer Benjamin Atkins. (Sorry -- I totally don't mean to be so reactionary! Everyone is entitled to their opinion of the book; I respect that. But when you introduce a fact error in a review, and one that maligns the author's work, I've got to say something.)

During my research for "The Crack City Strangler" book, even the defense attorney saw the wrong prison photo and told me that it didn't look like Atkins to him. So I contacted the Michigan Department of Corrections and asked for a real prison photo of Atkins. They told me they no longer have one. It was not retained, per their normal protocol / time period for records management. So, as far as a I know, there actually is no prison photo of this convicted serial killer in existence right now. I would love to be wrong, though, so if you know of one, feel free to contact me.

So hopefully this makes things clearer, regarding photos of serial killer Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins!

#RememberThem: Wendy

During John Eric Armstrong's first murder trial in 2001, there weren't all that many family members of the victims in attendance. But for Wendy, the second person Armstrong was known to have killed in Detroit, there were two sisters watching every moment. Every day. Staring down Armstrong. Unafraid to represent their sister. Making sure justice would be had. Because Wendy meant everything to them.

Wendy (right) and her sister Bonnie. Image courtesy of Bonnie.

I've said it before on this blog, but for Wendy, it really bears repeating. So much of the time, these girls who are living lives at risk on the streets had very legit lives over the years. Loving, stable homes when they were growing up. Mom and Dad, siblings. A neighborhood with kids down the street to play with or whatever. But something along the way threw them off-course. Usually it's addiction, and they're out there primarily to feed the habit. Little girls don't aspire to become prostitutes when they grow up. But it's what happens. And when they're deep in it, they just can't really see out of it.

Wendy's sister Bonnie spoke to me for "The ‘Baby Doll’ Serial Killer" book. She had already spoken for a TV special or two on the Armstrong case at that point; she had probably spoken to other writers over the years. Probably felt like she was repeating herself over and over. But I was very thankful to hear it -- how valuable Wendy was, what a wonderful older sister she was when they were growing up, how heartbreaking it was to see her drift in and out of street life. To get clean for a while, but then later get back into it. 

I'll never forget one particular thing Bonnie told me. When you have a family member who's living this life, sometimes "you don't want to see them coming." In other words, you let them in, they sleep on your couch, then before you know it, they're gone again, and maybe they've even stolen from you. At any rate, they've disappointed you again, and you don't know how to help them. But with Wendy, Bonnie said, "we always wanted to see her coming." It didn't matter what happened. Wendy's family always wanted her.

In the research of this case, I've been privileged to learn what's behind the news headlines, the story that lies beneath the superficial facts. What really matters. Even decades after the headlines have passed.

John Eric Armstrong picked up Wendy on Warren Avenue in Detroit and took her to the side street shown above (in a modern photo). He pulled into the building at left, which was a funeral home and still exists under a different name. The parking lot where he likely parked is shown below.Images by the author; see note below.

This post is part of a series on this blog that I am calling #RememberThem, a chance to honor the women who lost their lives to the two Detroit serial killers I have researched, John Eric Armstrong and Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins. In this continuing series, with installments dropping every week or so, we'll first learn more about the five women Armstrong was known to have killed in Detroit, then two of his survivors, then we'll turn to the women killed by Atkins. Click on the "Honoring the Victims" label on the left to see all of the parts in the series.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

BRBates.comwbp.bz/BabyDoll
Above photos are copyrighted and specifically for use in "The 'Baby Doll' Serial Killer"; any other use prohibited without permission.
See more photos from the case at the gallery on the WildBlue Press website.

#RememberThem: Wendy Jordan

During John Eric Armstrong's first murder trial in 2001, there weren't all that many family members of the victims in attendance. But for Wendy Jordan, the second person Armstrong was known to have killed in Detroit, there were two sisters watching every moment. Every day. Staring down Armstrong. Unafraid to represent their sister. Making sure justice would be had. Because Wendy meant everything to them.

Wendy (right) and her sister Bonnie. Image courtesy of Bonnie.

I've said it before on this blog, but for Wendy, it really bears repeating. So much of the time, these girls who are living lives at risk on the streets had very legit lives over the years. Loving, stable homes when they were growing up. Mom and Dad, siblings. A neighborhood with kids down the street to play with or whatever. But something along the way threw them off-course. Usually it's addiction, and they're out there primarily to feed the habit. Little girls don't aspire to become prostitutes when they grow up. But it's what happens. And when they're deep in it, they just can't really see out of it.

Wendy's sister Bonnie spoke to me for "The ‘Baby Doll’ Serial Killer" book. She had already spoken for a TV special or two on the Armstrong case at that point; she had probably spoken to other writers over the years. Probably felt like she was repeating herself over and over. But I was very thankful to hear it -- how valuable Wendy was, what a wonderful older sister she was when they were growing up, how heartbreaking it was to see her drift in and out of street life. To get clean for a while, but then later get back into it. 

I'll never forget one particular thing Bonnie told me. When you have a family member who's living this life, sometimes "you don't want to see them coming." In other words, you let them in, they sleep on your couch, then before you know it, they're gone again, and maybe they've even stolen from you. At any rate, they've disappointed you again, and you don't know how to help them. But with Wendy, Bonnie said, "we always wanted to see her coming." It didn't matter what happened. Wendy's family always wanted her.

In the research of this case, I've been privileged to learn what's behind the news headlines, the story that lies beneath the superficial facts. What really matters. Even decades after the headlines have passed.

John Eric Armstrong picked up Wendy on Warren Avenue in Detroit and took her to the side street shown above (in a modern photo). He pulled into the building at left, which was a funeral home and still exists under a different name. The parking lot where he likely parked is shown below.Images by the author; see note below.

This post is part of a series on this blog that I am calling #RememberThem, a chance to honor the women who lost their lives to the two Detroit serial killers I have researched, John Eric Armstrong and Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins. In this continuing series, with installments dropping every week or so, we'll first learn more about the five women Armstrong was known to have killed in Detroit, then two of his survivors, then we'll turn to the women killed by Atkins. Click on the "Honoring the Victims" label on the left to see all of the parts in the series.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

BRBates.comwbp.bz/BabyDoll
Above photos are copyrighted and specifically for use in "The 'Baby Doll' Serial Killer"; any other use prohibited without permission.
See more photos from the case at the gallery on the WildBlue Press website.

Exploring Benjamin Atkins' troubled upbringing on Santana True Crime

Abuse at an inner-city home for boys. Abuse at the hands of his mom's boyfriends. School truancy. Breaking into buildings. Drugs. Hustling on the street. We talk through the aspects of the troubled upbringing of #BenjaminAtkins on the second episode of the new Santana True Crime #podcast. Cameron Santana is an author himself, collaborating with his brother Brian on a true-crime book, "A Murder on Campus," and he has a law enforcement background as well, which certainly helps inform this in-depth conversation.

Thanks again, Cameron!

🔗

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2-benjamin-atkins-the-crack-city-strangler/id1806207125?i=1000702639996

Now available: The audio version of "The Crack City Strangler"

Maybe you're a reader who would rather be a listener. Maybe you like to have a true-crime podcast on while you're working, or while you're doing a jigsaw puzzle on a Saturday afternoon like me. Whatever the case, you've got a new option -- the audio version of "The Crack City Strangler" book on the Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins case has now released. It's narrated by the same talented voice artist who did the first book in the Murders in the Motor City series, Lee Ann Howlett. 

I'm very excited to see this new option available, being a listener of true-crime podcasts and the like myself. The audio is nearly 11 hours long, like 11 episodes of a podcast, and is only 99 cents with an Audible membership. The cover is the same image you see on the paperback, hardback and e-book versions -- and yes, that is indeed a photo of Atkins taken by Detroit police when they detained him in January 1992, just months before he was arrested for the murders of 11 women along Detroit's historic Woodward Avenue (there's been some confusion about the photos of Atkins circulating online -- see my blog post next week about that).

Happy listening! And as always, you're welcome to drop me a line to let me know what you think.

#RememberThem: Monica Johnson

I am starting a new series on this blog that I am calling #RememberThem, a chance to honor the women who lost their lives to the two Detroit serial killers I have researched, John Eric Armstrong and Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins. In this continuing series, with installments dropping every week or so, we'll first learn more about the five women Armstrong was known to have killed in Detroit, then two of his survivors, then we'll turn to the women killed by Atkins. Click on the "Honoring the Victims" label on the left to see all of the parts in the series.

...............................

I was able to talk to Monica's brother while I was doing my research for "The ‘Baby Doll’ Serial Killer: The John Eric Armstrong Homicides." He readily cried as he told me what it was like when he and Monica were growing up, how close they were, and how close they remained through the years, right up until her death at the hands of John Eric Armstrong in Detroit in December 1999. They watched each other's kids. They talked a lot. And her death left a hole in his heart, it was very clear.

I could not quote him for the book, though, because I couldn't reach him again after that phone call. But I understood, because I knew it had been difficult for him as he was talking to me. He may have talked freely, but it was painful. 

I knew the family wanted their privacy, as I also spoke on the phone with a sister of Monica, and she politely declined to be interviewed. If I had a family member who was killed by a serial killer, and who had been living a life at risk on the streets, I don't know that I would want to talk to anyone about it. You just don't want to go back there, I am sure. Life has gone on, but it still hurts.

I set out on this book project a few years ago with the very lofty goal of finding someone to speak for each and every person who was assaulted by Armstrong in Detroit. And I guess I did find someone for Monica, just not in a way I could pass along in the book. But in a way that affected me quite a lot.

So yeah, it's a very challenging aspect of researching a case like this. But it's a very rewarding one, with those family members I have been able to talk to. They've allowed me to "meet" their lost loved one. And I did really desperately want to meet each one. I wanted to know what they were like when they were kids, did they have pets, what was their favorite color, did they do sports, whatever. These girls were born around the same time I was. So how were their lives different? Or the same? It can surprise you.

Anyway, I wasn't able to learn, really, what put Monica out on the streets and in the path of a serial. For a lot of these girls, it's drugs. But I don't know, in Monica's case. Her childhood appeared to be stable and normal. She grew up in a regular home, one that was maybe a lot like yours. But there was a wrong turn or two in there somewhere. And that's very sad.

John Eric Armstrong picked up Monica "near the two used car lots," as he told police, on Michigan Avenue in Detroit in December 1999. From there, he took her to a service drive at I-94 and Springwells, shown below. Monica was alive when he left, and alive when the ambulance arrived later, but she died by the time the ambulance reached the hospital.
Images by the author; see note below.

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These two photos are copyrighted and specifically for use in "The 'Baby Doll' Serial Killer"; any other use prohibited without permission.
See more photos from the case at the gallery on the WildBlue Press website.

Just dropped on Apple Podcasts: The story of John Eric Armstrong on Santana True Crime

Listening to it right now!  🎧  Thanks, Cameron Santana, for inviting me to your very first episode of the Santana True Crime podcast! This episode has been posted on #Spotify, but it also just went up on #Apple #podcasts. It's awesome. We talk a lot about the upbringing and earlier years of convicted #serialkiller #JohnEricArmstrong -- do any of these clues key into his crime spree in #Detroit? And what about the murders he confessed to while in the U.S. Navy in the 1990s?

🔗

Listen on Apple Podcasts

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https://wbp.bz/BabyDoll

https://brbates.com/

A tale of two boys: One became a serial killer

This is a tale of two boys. Their stories were different, but both marked by a lot of tragedy. They were from totally different places, but were similar in age -- one being just a year or two older than the other. 

Their stories converged at a home for boys in the inner city of Detroit, where their stays overlapped. And amid the hundreds of boys staying at this very large facility, these two boys met. One -- the older boy -- got the better of the other, assaulting him multiple times, which then culminated in a more violent encounter. The younger boy was badly injured and moved out of the home. So they split and went their separate ways, having no idea what kinds of things life had in store for them. Their pathways to the home for boys were rocky, troubled, with painful childhood circumstances. And their pathways from the home for boys, the same. Ugly. Filled with bad things.

A postcard of the St. Francis Home for Boys, where Ben and Michael met in the 1970s.
Photo from Flickr account Don...The UpNorth Memories Guy... Harrison, used unaltered under license Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

One of those boys -- again, the older -- would go on in adulthood to kill 11 women along Detroit's historic Woodward Avenue and assault at least two others who survived. He was Benjamin Atkins, known on the street as Tony. And the other boy, Michael, whom he had assaulted, as well, during their stay at the home for boys (and Michael may have been Atkins' very first assault victim), had his own troubles. This younger boy did not go on to take human life -- never would actually cross that line -- but his anger would get him into a lot of trouble. He spent 23 years behind bars of some sort, in places he didn't want to be, restrained, penned in, counseled at times, punished at others. It started with other placement facilities before and after the home where he had met Atkins. Some were nicer than others. Then assaults at a very young age (10-12 years old) earned him stays in actual penitentiaries with cinder block walls, steel beds with thin mattresses, bleak food on a metal tray, and really rough fellow inmates -- again, even at a young age. And it just went on from there.

The miracle of this story, though, is that while Benjamin Atkins went on to be arrested, tried, convicted, and incarcerated, and to die behind bars just a few years later, in 1997, Michael is now doing a whole lot better. He has done a great deal of work on himself. He has worked through his anger. He has developed a productive, much happier life. He has a family. He has a more normal life. And he's no longer behind bars. He is free. 

Michael, now a seasoned and wise man, decided to tell his story. He has authored a blog about his experiences, and it's quite interesting. I am also thankful that he was willing to talk about his experience with Atkins for the book "The Crack City Strangler: The Homicides of Serial Killer Benjamin Atkins." From witnessing domestic violence as a very young child, to running away from his dad's home, to assaults and fights and even being stuck in the mud, as crazy as that sounds, his  life has been a whole lot more than being a victim of a future serial killer at an inner-city home for boys. I encourage you to read his story (or listen to the audio version -- very good, like a podcast), and I encourage you to encourage him. Because more than anything else, this former little boy represents hope and determination, and the fight for something better that is always possible for anyone, no matter what your circumstances:

23 Years to Freedom

23 Years to Freedom -- audio version on YouTube

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Michael tells the story of his assault at the home for boys in "The Crack City Strangler: The Homicides of Serial Killer Benjamin Atkins."

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Murders in the Motor City Series