5 notorious true crime cases that happened in Michigan

Explore the darker side of our state’s history with a disturbing deep dive into five famous true crime cases that happened on Michigan soil.

For those of us who call Michigan home, our state is defined by natural wonders and enduring family memories. But there’s an undeniable dark side to every destination—and the Great Lakes State is no exception. Throughout the decades, Michigan has been the site of murders, robbery sprees, and all sorts of crimes. And while we don’t like to dwell on these tragedies, it’s important to recognize the uglier truths of our history.

Dive deeper into five of the most notorious true crime cases from Michigan.

1. The murder of Michigan Sen. Warren Hooper

Unsolved mysteries are particularly haunting, and the 1945 murder of Michigan State Sen. Warren Hooper is no exception. As Hooper traversed the icy roads from Lansing to his hometown of Albion on the morning of January 11, he was cornered and forced to pull over by an oncoming car.

What followed was a quick but brutal act: Hooper was shot in the head and left to die amid the snow in his car, which was ultimately found burned and abandoned with the senator’s body inside. While the murder remains unsolved to this day, years of investigation suggest the crime is entrenched in political violence and corruption.

Hooper had been scheduled to testify just days after the murder about a horse-racing bribe scheme that would implicate millionaire Michigan Republican Frank McKay. Nearly a decade later, McKay publicly supported former police commissioner Donald Leonard as a gubernatorial candidate. As it turned out, Leonard himself had taken over the Hooper murder case in 1947—a fact that raised eyebrows among those who suspected McKay’s involvement in the crime.

While members of Detroit’s Purple Gang were ultimately convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in relation to Hooper’s death, the identity of the shooter (and the forces behind the alleged hit) has never been proven.

2. The Robison family murders

Venturing up north is a summertime rite of passage for many Michiganders, offering opportunities to unwind on the beach and bask in fresh air. But for the Robison family of Lathrup Village, a 1968 vacation up north ended in unimaginable tragedy.

In mid-June of that year, Michiganders Richard and Shirley Robison, along with their four children, arrived at a cottage in the resort community of Good Hart to enjoy their annual pilgrimage to the shores of Lake Michigan.

The family was last seen by resort landscapers on the afternoon of June 25. It wasn’t until more than three weeks later that their bodies were discovered, decomposing, inside their lakeshore cottage. Mr. and Mrs. Robison and all four of their children had been fatally shot, then left to decay amid a bloody crime scene.

An investigation into the killings pointed to Joseph Raymond Scolaro III, an employee at Richard Robison’s successful advertising agency, as the likely perpetrator. It’s alleged that Robison had uncovered evidence of embezzlement by Scolaro, providing a potential motive for murder. Despite a significant amount of circumstantial evidence, Scolaro was never fully prosecuted and died by suicide before an indictment could be issued. To this day, the so-called Good Hart Murders remain an eerie Michigan mystery.

3. Serial killer Carl Eugene Watts

Most true crime aficionados in Michigan have heard of Carl Eugene Watts, who is believed to have murdered more than 80 women during a 1974-1982 crime spree. Sometimes referred to as the Sunday Morning Slasher, Watts spent much of his adolescence in Inkster, Michigan.

In addition to stalking and assaulting a woman along his newspaper delivery route, Watts is suspected to have committed his first murder by the age of 15, a disturbing precedent for his later violent behavior.

In the coming years, Watts is alleged to have brutally stabbed, strangled, and beaten murder victims in Detroit, Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, and beyond—even purportedly targeting one victim across the border in Ontario, Canada. While Watts was eventually convicted of aggravated burglary for crimes committed in Texas, he wasn’t charged and sentenced for murder until the early 2000s, when he received two life sentences for the murders of victims Helen Dutcher and Gloria Steele.

Before his 2007 death in prison, Watts offered official confessions for thirteen murders. Later, he claimed the victim count was closer to 80, though his crimes are nearly impossible to track in their entirety. Even decades later, Watts’ spree of terror still looms over the communities he targeted.

4. The Bath School Massacre

Though it happened nearly a century ago, the Bath School Massacre remains one of Michigan’s most frightening and devastating incidents. Bath Township might have otherwise remained an unknown, unincorporated rural community in Clinton County, but the events of May 18, 1927, rendered it infamous.

Perpetrator Andrew Kehoe started the day by detonating explosive devices at his own farm and homestead. Earlier that morning, Kehoe had hidden dynamite and pyrotol (another explosive available in the ’20s) in the basement of Bath Consolidated School, which enrolled students from first through 12th grade.

With the help of an alarm clock timer, Kehoe’s bombs exploded at 8:45 a.m., immediately turning the school into a scene of destruction and devastation. As rescuers worked to remove injured children and teachers from the now-collapsed building, Kehoe pulled his truck up to the scene and detonated yet another set of explosives, instantly killing himself and several bystanders.

By the end of the day, 38 children and six adults had perished. Investigators later discovered that Kehoe had also murdered his wife, Nellie, prior to the attacks. Upwards of 58 others were left injured, and the entire community of Bath was deeply rattled.

Kehoe, who served as treasurer on the local school board, is thought to have planned his murderous spree after losing a 1926 local election for township clerk. His violent quest for revenge hasn’t been forgotten in the decades since, and visitors to Bath can see historical markers and a peaceful park dedicated to the memory of Kehoe’s innocent victims.

5. The Alpine Manor murders

Murderers don’t always look like shadowy figures in the night. Sometimes, perhaps more frighteningly, they hide in seemingly benign and peaceful settings. This was the case in 1987, when Cathy Wood and Gwendolyn Graham killed five elderly residents at a nursing home outside Grand Rapids.

Graham and Wood were employed as nursing aides at Alpine Manor in Wyoming, a nursing facility that cared for individuals with dementia and other significant health challenges. The two became romantically involved in 1986.

Over the next year, they would ruthlessly smother five female patients to death while on the job at Alpine Manor—acts that were eventually attributed to a “bonding game” between Graham and Wood. Their victims ranged in age from 65 to 97.

It wasn’t until 1988, when Wood’s ex-husband shared his knowledge of the crimes, that law enforcement learned of the murders. Wood, who took a plea bargain and testified against Graham, was sentenced to 20 years each on a count of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. She was paroled in 2020.

Graham, however, pleaded not guilty and was ultimately sentenced to life in prison. Today, she remains incarcerated at Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Pittsfield Township.

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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