Robison Family Murders
Often with cold or unsolved cases the years go by without answers and become further away from the public’s mind. Which, is why it’s important to continue the conversation and keep the information about this in the public’s eye. That is part of the reason why I choose to write about this case.
So I want to take you back to a time when families who lived in the cities would take a break from the sweltering June heat and head out to summer resorts. If you’ve ever watched the movie Dirty Dancing then you have an idea of what the summer resorts were all about.
For the Robison family it was the summer of 1968. Richard, his wife Shirley and their four children — Susan (8); Randy (12); Gary (16); and Richie (19) — from Lathrup Village in Detroit headed to their holiday cabin in the community of Good Hart next to Lake Michigan. They planned on staying the whole season to enjoy all the activities that summer had offer.
At 42 years old, Richard had done well for himself. He was an advertising executive who owned a magazine called ‘Impesario’, putting him on a good income. His wife, 40-year-old Shirley, was a housewife looking after the home and family. Their children had enjoyed a stable and loving upbringing with their summers often spent at the family’s cabin.
The Cabin
Blisswood is still active and you can book a stay. So naturally I went on their site to get an idea of the layout and have a better understanding of the crime scene. They have a main cabin that’s 4,000 square feet and can accommodate up to 12 guests. In total there are 5 cottages with a recreation lodge and a chapel. Now I compared the crime scene photos with the current photos found on Blisswood’s site and I believe the Moose Cottage is where the Robinson family was staying but, I can’t 100% confirm that.
The Crime
The Robison family’s cabin wasn’t completely isolated. They had neighbors and caretaker Chauncey Bliss who looked after the cabins. Bliss had actually built the cabins in 1956 and remained on site to help with the up keep.
On June 24, 1968 Richard visited the home of Bliss to pay his respects following the recent death of Bliss’ son in a motorcycle accident. Bliss told the Petoskey News-Review in a July 25, 1968 article that Robison left $20 for flowers. Robison also visited Bliss’ parents to express his condolences. At that time, Richard indicated the family would be leaving for a few weeks on a trip to Kentucky and Florida to purchase property. A note later found on the front door of the Robison cabin said the family would not return until July.
Activities at the resort continued on as planned. Some women had gathered in a nearby cabin to have a bridge party when they all started to “smell something bad, rotten”. Believing it to be coming from a nearby cabin, which the Robison family ocupied, they called Bliss. No one had seen the Robisons for several weeks which as we know they planned on going out of town so their absence hadn’t alarmed anyone.
Bliss assumed that the smell probably came from a dead raccoon in the crawl space. So he braced himself to face the odor that he knew would be more pungent inside. He knocked at the front door but got no response, so he entered the house. Immediately, he saw a woman’s body sprawled in the entryway, her clothing in disarray. Behind her, Bliss caught a glimpse of several other bodies, lying on the floor in pools of congealed blood. Shocked, he hurried away and called the police.
The bodies were found in different rooms in the house. Shirley’s body was in the living room, covered by a blanket. There were three bodies in the hallway and two more were discovered in a bedroom. The bodies were found on July 22, 1968, 27 days after the family had been killed.
Bliss would recount that when he first approached the cabin he found the curtains drawn, the front door locked with the latch drawn inside and a side door locked with a padlock.
In a Petoskey News-Review article from Aug. 12, 1968, police said they were puzzled to find only one suitcase, partially packed, even though the family had been planning a trip. There was plenty of food in the home and playing cards were left on the table. Bullet holes were also found in a window leading into the cabin’s living room.
It was believed that the murders began with five gunshots aimed at Richard, fired through a rear window from a .22-caliber semi-automatic rifle. The murderer then entered the cabin through an unlocked door and killed the remaining five people with shots to the head from a .25-caliber semi-automatic pistol. Susan and Richard were also bludgeoned with a hammer found at the murder scene.
The following reports and descriptions of where the bodies were found inside are from several autopsies done through out the years.
Shirley, 40: “Was found lying on her stomach on the floor in the southeast section of the living room. A plaid blanket was covering her body, except for the area below her knees.” She was shot once in the head. A .25-caliber slug was found in the first autopsy.
Richard, 42: “Was found lying on the floor in the hallway, over the hot air register.” He was shot once in the head. A .25-caliber slug was found in the first autopsy. He also had skull fractures and evidence of blunt-force trauma. During the second autopsy, a .22-caliber slug was found. Investigators believe he initially was shot in the chest with a .22-caliber rifle, then in the head with a pistol.
Richie, 19: The student at Eastern Michigan University “was found in the northwest bedroom of the structure, partially in the hallway and partially in the bedroom. His legs were extended out into the hallway.” The couple’s oldest son had multiple gunshot wounds to the head, linked to .25-caliber slugs.
Gary, 16: The student at Southfield-Lathrup High School “was found lying on his back along the east wall of the northwest bedroom.” The teen had two gunshot wounds to the head, both linked to .25-caliber slugs. The second autopsy found a .22 caliber slug and evidence that he was also shot in the back.
Randall, 12: “Was found lying on top of his father. A lavender colored rug from his shoulders down to his buttocks.” The youngest son’s cause of death is listed as a gunshot wound to the head. No bullet was recovered during the autopsy.
Susan, 7: “Was found lying on her back in the hallway, at the south side of her father.” The couple’s youngest child was shot in the face. A .25-caliber slug was recovered from her clothing. She also had a skull fracture, possibly from a claw hammer found at the scene.
Shirley’s body seemed to be intentionally posed so that when the crime scene was discovered, it would lead the police to think that the crime was part of a sexual attack. Bloody footprints on the floor led investigators to conclude that one person had committed the murders.
The Investigation
For police, their first task was to investigate any reason why the Robison family may have been targeted and whether anyone associated with them may have had reason to want the family dead. Police have always believed the main target of the murder was Richard, which begs the question, if he was the target why did the killer go on to kill the entire family? There is a big difference between one murder and six, including the slaughter of four children.
As police dug into Richard business dealings, they came up with a lead. Though Richard presented himself as a prosperous executive, his companies were in trouble. He was engaging in funny business with the finances for “Impresario,” and was telling colleagues and family members about various deals he had in the works, though no one knew much about them. One of the most revealing discoveries was that, while he was in Good Hart, Richard had left his business in the hands of 30-year-old Joseph Scolaro III, an employee who was embezzling money from Richard. The amount was later revealed to be about $60,000. Today that is equivalent to $140,358.
Police theorized that, during a phone call between Richard and Joseph hours before the murder, Richard revealed that he had found out about the embezzlement. At that point, according to police, a panicked Joesph took off from Detroit, drove several hours north to Good Hart, and killed the family before Richard could come forward with details about Joesph’s crime.
Circumstantial evidence supported this conclusion. Joesph had been out of contact with friends, business associates, and family for twelve hours on the day of the murder, and police couldn’t find anyone to support Joesph’s alibis as to where he was that day. Officers also discovered that shell casings found at a shooting range that Joesph frequented matched casings police had found at the scene of the crime. In addition, Joesph failed two polygraph tests and delivered inconclusive results on a third.
Suspects and Theories
To officers, Joesph became a prime suspect. However, because police couldn’t find the murder weapons, nor any eyewitnesses to the crime, the prosecutor in Emmet County, where the Robison’s cabin was located, didn’t press charges. Frustrated, state police officers worked with prosecutors in Oakland County, where the Robisons lived, to continue the investigation. In 1973, Oakland County Prosecutor L. Brooks Patterson was ready to charge Joesph with conspiracy to commit murder. However, before officers could apprehend their suspect, Joesph shot himself in the head, effectively ending Brooks’ attempt to prosecute him. Joesph left behind a suicide note in which he said “I am a liar, a cheat, a phone but I am not a killer. I am scared and sick” but many students of the case, as well as the state police and the Emmet County Sheriff’s Department, still consider him the chief suspect.
Critics of the “Joesph as killer” theory say that Joesph couldn’t have driven to Good Hart, shot the Robison family, and driven back to the Detroit area in the amount of time for which he didn’t have an alibi. Some people suspect that John Norman Collins, who was convicted in 1970 of killing a female college student in Ypsilanti (and is a suspect in the killings of several other co-eds), was somehow involved in the Robison murders. Collins attended Eastern Michigan University at the same time Richie Robison did, and is even said to have possibly roomed with Robison during orientation week.
Another proposed suspect is the caretaker, Chauncey Bliss, an eccentric whom some Good Hart locals believe committed the murders after his son, who was friends with the Robison boys, died in a motorcycle accident shortly before the Robison murders. According to this theory, Bliss felt slighted by Richard in the days following the his son’s death and took his revenge by killing the family. For me this theory is inaccurate as you remember Richard visited Bliss to share is condolences and gave $20 worth of flowers. Even police didn’t regard Bliss as a suspect in the murders.
Michigan law does not permit an open murder case to be officially closed, the suicide of the prime suspect Joesph Scolaro placed the case in the inactive file.
Accusations
Over the years, questions arose as to why the Emmet County Prosecutor Donald Noggle didn’t bring charges against the prime suspect. There have been accusations that the county didn’t want to pay for a costly trial, or that Noggle didn’t have the courtroom experience to win the case.
According to former Emmet County Prosecutor Richard Smith “I think number one the county wasn’t interested in the costs, I think they could have afforded it but they weren’t interested in the costs and then when Oakland County determined they could bring murder charges there, I think that relieved a lot of people in Emmet county that they would not have the cost, the expense, and the publicity of a trial taking place here. I think the prosecutor who replaced me had plenty of experience”
What’s Next?
45 years after the crimes took place, Detective Sergeant J.L. Sumpter with the Emmet County Sheriff’s Office was the most recent investigator to inherit the case. He said, ”Our department is set up so that as a detective would retire the next detective takes over the case by default”. Sumpter points out that a good portion of his evidence room is filled with the items related to what he describes as the most serious open case the county has.
He goes on to say, “As a department we hope it ends everyday. We hope that there is a true conclusion”.
5 years later at the 50th anniversary press conference retired investigators joined forces with a local historian and author to hold a community forum on the case. During their presentation they reviled that there is no mystery behind the Robison family murders. They say the prime suspect identified by police was the only real suspect, a man who killed himself as police were preparing to arrest him on six counts of murder in 1973.
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