Update: On the Trail of a Killer: Bestselling Author Links Co-ed Killer John Norman Collins to Robison Murders

Aug. 4, 2004

My early childhood best friend was murdered on June 24, 1968. His name was Randy Robison. We were age 12. All six members of the Robison family were murdered that day while on vacation in an isolated cabin near Good Hart.
The Robisons were found shot to death in their locked cabin, 27 days after the slaying. Shirley Robison, 40, was found undressed from the waist down and was presumably raped. Daughter Susan, 8, had been savagely beaten with a hammer. The case remains unsolved as one of Michigan’s most brutal mass murders.
The story of the Robison family murders and my special interest in tracking down the case was detailed in an Aug. 12, 1998 story in the Northern Express, entitled, “On the Trail of a Killer.”

A WOMAN’S TOUCH
Lately, there have been several rays of hope in the form of having new detectives on the case, a grant to examine DNA, and a novel that parallels the case.
It may be three women that bring justice and solve this case. The new lead detective is Det/Sgt Bobra “Bobbie” Johnson of the Emmet County Sheriff’s Department. She is being assisted by Det/Sgt Gwen White-Erickson of the Michigan State Police Petoskey Post. The third woman is best-selling author Judith Guest.
I believe these women may have a “feel” for this story that a man is not going to have. The mother and her daughter were brutally assaulted and murdered. All four of the mother’s children were murdered. Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice approved a grant that would cover the expense of DNA comparison testing. This was the first time anyone was willing to test DNA. That was May 2003. By December 2003, the police lab had exhausted the possibility of having DNA to test. There simply was no DNA in the evidence that was collected.
In June of this year, a novel paralleling the homicides was published by Scribner, “A Tarnished Eye,” by Judith Guest. Guest is best known for writing “Ordinary People.”
In “A Tarnished Eye,” Guest combines information she found by reading about the case in the newspapers with her personal memories of living in Michigan at the time, and attending the University of Michigan.
Guest writes a great recipe for mayhem, by mixing up the genres of mystery novel with true crime. She builds a case like a true detective. As she arranges a list of suspects, she is mindful of the obvious.

THE CO-ED KILLER
What makes the novel most interesting to me is Guest’s use of another series of crimes that happened around the same time as the Robison homicides. The other crimes are known as the Ann Arbor Co-ed Killings. Guest includes John Norman Collins, the person who was convicted of committing the last co-ed killing as one of the suspects in the Robison homicides. (Collins is believed to have killed at least five U-M co-eds beginning in 1967, with the victims subjected to rape, torture and beatings before being killed at knifepoint, with a gun, or by being clubbed to death. -- ed.)
Guest is not the first to suggest a connection between the Robison and coed cases, a theory which Emmet County Sheriff Pete Wallin rejected. “‘A Tarnished Eye’ lends a lot of credence to the theory that the same person committed the Co-ed Killings and the Robison killings,” writes Pat Shellenbarger in a June 27 review in the Grand Rapids Press.
I can tell you, there is at least an ounce of truth here. The Co-ed Killer did know the oldest Robison boy as a college acquaintance. The rest still needs to be investigated.
I believe that in cases of this type the largest problem for law enforcement may be getting over the possibility that the original theory and prime suspect are wrong. All along the focus was on Richard Robison’s business partner, Joseph Scolaro, as the killer. The two were partners in an advertising agency and the suburban Detroit magazine, Impressario. The morning of the murders, the two men had exchanged an angry phone call over $60,000 missing from the agency’s bank account. Some investigators believe that Scolaro made the 5-6 hour drive north, murdered the family, and then returned home the same day.
The weakness is that Scolaro had no violent criminal history, except for alleged embezzlement and/or fraud. Going from embezzlement and fraud to the murder of six people at one time is a giant leap for criminologists. (Five years after the murders, Scolaro committed suicide by shooting himself in the head after learning that Oakland County Prosecutor
L. Brooks Patterson was going to charge him in the case.)
The probability of embarrassing law enforcement by adding a new, and perhaps better, suspect may keep the case from unfolding. At least two of the original detectives are still alive. Both original detectives believe that the business partner is the killer.
LIFE SENTENCE
Yet, Guest’s novel can’t help but bring this question about another suspect to light. Collins, the Co-ed Killer, is presently serving out a life sentence in a Michigan prison.
I look at the case as solvable. The probability of solving the case could be improved by the fact that the old detectives are around and could cooperate with the new detectives. Having the new suspect captive should help make interviewing Collins easy.
I’ve been investigating this case since 1991 when I tipped the Sheriff with some information about an overlooked link to the case.
I also contribute to helping others with preventing and solving crime as I sit on the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce - Silent Observer Board (a CrimeStoppers type of organization).
This crime nearly took my breath away. All I have ever wanted is to have a complete investigation. The Ann Arbor Co-ed Killer deserves to be investigated. This is good for everyone. He will become a good suspect or be cleared. The same goes for the business partner. Truth & Justice are important to me.
For more information on the Robison case go to www.unsolvedhomicide.com Here you will find a web-based crime fighting tool. You may contact the lead detective in the case, go to links of other CrimeStopper organizations, and read newspaper stories about the case.
Someone out there knows the truth. Truth & Justice may only be served when someone speaks up. If you would like to make an anonymous tip contact Silent Observer or CrimeStoppers. This can apply to any unsolved case.

Tom Mair is a member of Northern Michigan’s Green Party.