audiobook Terror in Ypsilanti: John Norman Collins Unmasked by Gregory A. Fournier in History

Review

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Read Both BooksBy Donna J. RunnelsI was in high school in Wisconsin when these murders occur. I remember clearly hearing about them on the news. Since I am a fan of true crime; I decided I needed to read about the cases. I have now read both this book and The Michigan Murders by Edward Keyes published in 1976. I read TMM first and also reviewed it on . If you are interested in the story; I highly recommend you read both. My suggestion would be that you read TMM first as I did.I enjoyed TMM very much; but had a couple serious criticisms. Keyes had intentionally changed the names of all the victims and many of the others in the story. For that reason; he didn't include any pictures of the women; or any pictures at all. I insist upon pictures in true crime books; and changing the names; for whatever good reason he thought he had; was ridiculous. However; the writing he did about the murders themselves was far superior to what Fournier covered in Terror in Yysilanti. This part of the story was apparently more important to Mr. Keyes. He went into great detail about the victims; crime scenes; and the investigation. I enjoyed it immensely; and because my copy came without the dust cover; I didn't know the name of the killer until it was revealed in the book. That made for an exciting story.Gregory Fournier published TIY in 2016. He does include a map and photos in his book which I greatly appreciated. He uses real names. Where he doesn't spend nearly as much time on the murders and victims themselves; he spends a great deal of time writing about the legal proceedings and the defendant's subsequent incarceration. It was like reading an entirely different story.I agree with other reviewers that Mr. Fournier is not the best writer in the word. The editing left a lot to be desired. Some sentences were extremely clumsy; wordy; and didn't make sense. Some statements he made about police procedure were not correct. I am including some examples. On page 21; paragraphs 2 and 3 are exact duplicates of each other. On page 23; Mr. Fournier ads to the fallacy that police nationally require 24 - 48 hours before they will take a missing report. This is not true. On page 24; he talks about jurisdictional problems when state police were sent to a call. State police would have jurisdiction anywhere in the state so whatever he meant to say; he didn't say it correctly. There are many more examples in the book.Being in law enforcement much of my life; I was interested in the defendant's write-ups while he was in prison and the amount of contraband he collected. But I think the average reader was probably pretty bored by it.In summary; I liked both books for different reasons. I recommend you read both to get the most complete story.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Brings back memories of a horrifying time in my childhoodBy Mad LibsIt is difficult to read; as I was a young teen when this happened in my neighborhood. A young woman from my high school was one of his victims. Reading it brought back all the terror I experienced at the time until he was caught. And even then we weren't sure it was over for years.It's a very detailed book; with many horrifying details that weren't publicly released at the time; or at least I wasn't aware of them. It also provides an interesting view of the counterculture movement in the Ypsilanti-Ann Arbor area; as well as details the often bumbling /inept/political moves made by both the court system and the police and sheriff departments. I found myself struggling at times with the author's writing style; which could have been improved drastically with a good editor. This is why I gave it only three stars. A good piece of writing doesn't bring attention to the writing itself; but rather always to the content. However; I give him huge kudos for the tremendous amount of research he did to bring this book to fruition. 50 some years later the story is still horrifying and all too real to me and others of my generation in that geographical area. This book fills in the gaps.14 of 16 people found the following review helpful. The Real DealBy CASGregory Fournier delivers big time. Carefully researched; details never before revealed; the use of real names as opposed to pseudonyms; and bringing the reader current; make 'Terror in Ypsilanti - John Norman Collins Unmasked' a must read. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has followed this case over the years; or those new to it. This book is the 'real deal'.