James Thomas Mann

The murders that shocked Michigan In the early morning of Tuesday, August 11, 1931, a Washtenaw County farmer found the smoldering remains of a car. Inside were the bodies of four teens burned almost beyond recognition. Police immediately began an investigation, even tapping Harry Bennett, head of the Ford Motor Company Service Department, for assistance. The three killers stood trial two days later as a mob gathered outside the Ann Arbor courthouse clamoring for a lynching. With the mob held back by the Michigan National Guard, Bennett delivered the killers to Jackson Prison by midnight Thursday. At the time, the so-called Torch Murders were deemed the most gruesome murder in Michigan's history--and perhaps the nation's. Peeling away myth from truth, author James Mann tells the story in full for the first time ever.

People know Ypsilanti as a warm and friendly family city, but local historian James Thomas Mann reveals an unsavory history behind the pleasant new veneer. An offshoot of the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang called God's Children, also known as the Huns of Detroit," once ran armed and naked through the streets. A lady managed to cheat death from a bullet, thanks to her steel corset. And a crooked cop managed to collect paychecks under different names multiple times. Discover these and more fascinatingly sordid stories buried in this quiet community's seemingly innocent past."

Ann Arbor is known as a center of culture and education, but that hasn't prevented various tyrants and scoundrels from sullying the sophistication with base and murderous deeds. Revisit the case of Jacke the Hugger," a turn-of-the-century deviant who routinely accosted and squeezed the women of Ann Arbor. In an effort to lure him from hiding, young men dressed as women and walked city streets. In 1903, UM student Albert Patterson disappeared in what was compared to a dime novel manner. Was he kidnapped by the Mexican Mafia? Carried off in a flying machine? Or did he flee because he was promised to marry two women at the same time? The first panty raid is said to have been carried out at the University of Michigan in March of 1952, starting the fad of the 1950's. It even made the cover of Life magazine. This is only a hint of the wickedness to be found in the history of Ann Arbor."

Washtenaw County has a dark and sordid history, filled with unexplained murders and vicious crimes. Venture into the dead of night with medical students from the University of Michigan as they snatch bodies from fresh graves. Discover how Irene Walling Smith, born and raised in Ypsilanti, became known as the "Bandit Queen" of the despicable Kozak Gang. Head back to Ann Arbor in 1878, when Howard Williams was found dead in his home with an empty bottle of morphine by his sidewas it murder, suicide or overdose? Revisit the puzzling details of the unsolved 1913 murder of seventy-three-year-old Elizabeth Stapish, something of an eccentric in Chelsea, who was strangled and buried under a pile of cornhusks in her barn. Join local history author and columnist James Mann as he reveals the enigmatic history of this Michigan county.