I imagine the air felt stale, like a half-flat soda that leaves a bitter aftertaste. It was summertime in the sixties, in the sister college towns of Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, Michigan. A headline from The Michigan Daily reads: "Never walk alone-not even in the daytime". The reactions of women on campus captured after the second murder range from complete indifference to an entire routine overhaul to ensure time outside will be minimal.

​

"I'd take a train, a plane or even a bus before I'd take a ride with someone who advertised on a bulletin board."

​

"I'm not going out at night alone."

​

The murders began in 1967 and ended in 1969, three months before the Manson Murders which would ultimately be the crime that defined the decade. Two-thousand miles away, a string of brutal murders claimed the lives of seven young women in the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti area of southeast Michigan. The contrasting college towns sat side by side in a silent terror.

​​

Both towns are home to universities: The University of Michigan (U-M) in Ann Arbor, and Eastern Michigan University (EMU) in Ypsilanti. In 1967, EMU had only been a "university" for seven years as it had been previously been a "normal school", which was how people used to refer to schools specifically devoted to training teachers. Meanwhile, U-M had been a university since its inception.   

​

Ypsilanti was an industry town, known for its automotive sector. Most notably, Ford Motor Company's plant was built in Ypsilanti's Willow Run neighborhood, and had been converted during the second world war into a B-24 bomber plant, capable of producing an airplane every 55 minutes.

 

Ann Arbor is next door, nowadays seemingly idyllic and harmless; what some may describe as a "bubble", the bustling town boasts progressive values and has enough spirit to fill the largest college football stadium in the nation. This charm is what shields the brilliant young minds from the very ills they had come to campus to learn how to change.

​

The following stories tell of the terror that gripped these communities. More importantly however, they tell the stories of the seven girls who tragically died at the hands of a sadistic killer.

​

I have done my best to humanize every victim, although I admit that I understand none of what I say about each of them can capture who these young women actually were. I gathered all of my information from historical texts—newspapers, books, and files. True crime narratives generally revolve around the murderer and figuring out the motive for their heinous acts. At this story's core are the young women who lost their lives; they deserve to be remembered, not their murderer.