MI MI - Richard 42, & Shirley Robison 40, & 4 children, Good Hart, 25 Jun 1968

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I attended an event on 10/30/18 held at the Charlevoix Library (about 40 miles from Good Hart) that was held to discuss the Good Hart murders. Hopefully the link works-

50 year remembrance of Robison Murders w/ Richard Wiles and Mardi Jo Link

It was a very thorough presentation of the case and facts surrounding it over the years. The conclusion was that it was indeed Richard Robison's business partner, Joseph Scolaro who committed the murders. Several other theories were also addressed and debunked as well. The event was standing-room only, and in conversing with a gentleman before things got started I learned that he was a retired detective who had actually worked on the case. His opinion was 100% certain that Scolaro had committed the murders. Also, at the end of the presentation another gentleman stood up and introduced himself as a cousin of the Robison family. He stated that he wanted to come to see how his family would be portrayed and if they would be treated respectfully. He informed us that he had heard the news of the murders over the radio as he was driving to work. He was 18 years old at the time . Obviously this tragic event changed the trajectory of their family forever. This gentleman went on to thank the presenters for the respect they showed his family. It was an amazing moment and I hope it brought him some healing. I left feeling confident that it was Scolaro who committed the murders as well, and that had he not committed suicide he would have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted for the murders of the entire Robison family.
 
Abba's Tears said:
I attended an event on 10/30/18 held at the Charlevoix Library (about 40 miles from Good Hart) that was held to discuss the Good Hart murders. Hopefully the link works-

50 year remembrance of Robison Murders w/ Richard Wiles and Mardi Jo Link

It was a very thorough presentation of the case and facts surrounding it over the years. The conclusion was that it was indeed Richard Robison's business partner, Joseph Scolaro who committed the murders. Several other theories were also addressed and debunked as well. The event was standing-room only, and in conversing with a gentleman before things got started I learned that he was a retired detective who had actually worked on the case. His opinion was 100% certain that Scolaro had committed the murders. Also, at the end of the presentation another gentleman stood up and introduced himself as a cousin of the Robison family. He stated that he wanted to come to see how his family would be portrayed and if they would be treated respectfully. He informed us that he had heard the news of the murders over the radio as he was driving to work. He was 18 years old at the time . Obviously this tragic event changed the trajectory of their family forever. This gentleman went on to thank the presenters for the respect they showed his family. It was an amazing moment and I hope it brought him some healing. I left feeling confident that it was Scolaro who committed the murders as well, and that had he not committed suicide he would have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted for the murders of the entire Robison family.
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Thanks so much for sharing the information about the program. Very informative. I have to agree about the business partner as the prime suspect in these horrible murders. After reading a lot about this case a couple of years ago, I reached the same conclusion. No other scenario fits. It had to be someone who knew the family, knew their habits and schedule . Scolari certainly had a motive, too.
 
Betty P said:
Thanks so much for sharing the information about the program. Very informative. I have to agree about the business partner as the prime suspect in these horrible murders. After reading a lot about this case a couple of years ago, I reached the same conclusion. No other scenario fits. It had to be someone who knew the family, knew their habits and schedule . Scolari certainly had a motive, too.
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I agree that Scolaro did it. The Robisons were killed with very rare ammo that Scolaro is known to have had. It should be considered a closed case.
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I'm sure that Scolaro knew that his good was cooked; he killed himself in order to avoid the humiliation of being exposed in what would have been a media circus of a trial and because he preferred death to the certainty of life without parole in a State of Michigan maximum-security prison.
 
Was Scolaro known to be a good shot? I don’t think it would be easy to shoot and kill someone through a window. But I don’t have any shooting experience, so I could be wrong!
 
Marilynilpa said:
Was Scolaro known to be a good shot? I don’t think it would be easy to shoot and kill someone through a window. But I don’t have any shooting experience, so I could be wrong!
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He was well practiced, IIRC, his brother or brother in law had a shooting range on his property near Milford MI, which was country back in the late 1960's
 
the-family-of-richard-c-robison-of-lathrup-village-michigan-who-were-picture-id515383996


LINKS:

The Unsolved Mystery of the Robison Family Murders

Robison family murders - Wikipedia

www.swordandscale.com/the-mysterious-robison-family-murders

Unresolved Mysteries
 
Do we know why the prosecutor refused to press charges at the time?
 
John Norman Collins, convicted killer of Karen Sue Beineman (July 1969) was considered by Michigan State Police as a potential suspect in the Robison family murders. Collins remains the prime suspect in several other murders of young women in Michigan and California.

Collins knew Richard C. Robison, Jr. the oldest of the Robison children. They met at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti in 1966 at summer orientation. How well they knew each other is not known.

Collins was said by several witnesses to have possessed a .22 handgun, which he had disposed of before his arrest in July 1969.

Although there are conflicting stories of how the Robison family was murdered, whether by a .22 rifle or pistol, or by a .25 pistol, it was clearly stated that father Richard and daughter Susan were exceptions. The killer bludgeoned them with a claw hammer.

Shirley's body was found, nude from the waist down and displayed in a manner similar to many of the Ann Arbor Co-Ed murder victims. Some reports state that she had been raped.

Perhaps this was the motivation of the killer, rather than any monetary or business reasons.
 
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Richard said:
John Norman Collins, convicted killer of Karen Sue Beineman (July 1969) was considered by Michigan State Police as a potential suspect in the Robison family murders. Collins remains the prime suspect in several other murders of young women in Michigan and California.

Collins knew Richard C. Robison, Jr. the oldest of the Robison children. They met at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti in 1966 at summer orientation. How well they knew each other is not known.

Collins was said by several witnesses to have possessed a .22 handgun, which he had disposed of before his arrest in July 1969.

Although there are conflicting stories of how the Robison family was murdered, whether by a .22 rifle or pistol, or by a .25 pistol, it was clearly stated that father Richard and daughter Susan were exceptions. The killer bludgeoned them with a claw hammer.

Shirley's body was found, nude from the waist down and displayed in a manner similar to many of the Ann Arbor Co-Ed murder victims. Some reports state that she had been raped.

Perhaps this was the motivation of the killer, rather than any monetary or business reasons.
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It'd be one thing for the killer to have murdered Mr. Robison, in the hope of avoiding being nabbed for having embezzled from Mr. Robison's business.

It'd be a whole 'nother thing for the killer to have also murdered the other 5 members of the family.

It'd be yet a further whole 'nother thing for the killer to have bludgeoned the young daughter (and mother, I've read that it was the mother and daughter who were bludgeoned, and not the father) and to have staged the mother's body and perhaps have raped her. The treatment of the females reeks of sexual deviancy.

So, we are to believe Scolaro was not only an embezzler, when called out on it raced up north, killed all, raced back home (not bad rookie performance for a newbie mass murderer) but he is also a sexual deviant?! One day, an employee, the next, an embezzler, a perv, and a man who successfully pulled off a mass murder on his first try. I find it a bit hard to believe. Yet, he is deemed the likely perp. And investigators seem pretty convinced he is the perp.

Meanwhile, a known sexual deviant, who is also already an active, experienced killer, and who coincidentally happens to have been personally acquainted with one of the murder victims (Richie Robison), is not deemed the likely perp. What a coincidence - Collins is an active serial killer and just happens to know a young man who along with the rest of his family become victims of mass murder! I wonder what John Norman Collins was up to that summer? He was a known thief, ultimately kicked out of his frat house for stealing, and stole rig he and pal took out to CA, where he also killed. Perhaps he'd sniffed out that the Robison family had money. Perhaps he knew of their planned long vacay in Good Hart. Perhaps he hopped on his motor bike for a road trip. Perhaps Richie Robison even invited him up. Perhaps the motive was not covering up embezzlement (Scolaro), but instead was robbery and sexual deviancy (Collins). Who knows.
 
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itsrak said:
It'd be one thing for the killer to have murdered Mr. Robison, in the hope of avoiding being nabbed for having embezzled from Mr. Robison's business.

It'd be a whole 'nother thing for the killer to have also murdered the other 5 members of the family.

It'd be yet a further whole 'nother thing for the killer to have bludgeoned the young daughter (and mother, I've read that it was the mother and daughter who were bludgeoned, and not the father) and to have staged the mother's body and perhaps have raped her. The treatment of the females reeks of sexual deviancy.

So, we are to believe Scolaro was not only an embezzler, when called out on it raced up north, killed all, raced back home (not bad for a newbie mass murderer) but he is also a sexual deviant?! One day, an employee, the next, an embezzler, a perv, and a man who successfully pulled off a mass murder on his first try. I find it a bit hard to believe. Yet, he is deemed the likely perp.

Meanwhile, a known sexual deviant, who is also already an active, experienced killer, and who coincidentally happens to have been personally acquainted with one of the murder victims (Richie Robison), is not deemed the likely perp. I wonder what John Norman Collins was up to that summer? He was a known thief, ultimately kicked out of his frat house for stealing, and stole rig he and pal took out to CA, where he also killed. Perhaps he'd sniffed out that the Robison family had money. Perhaps he knew of their planned long vacay in Good Hart. Perhaps he hopped on his motor bike for a road trip. Perhaps Richie Robison even invited him up. Who knows.
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I admit that the connection between Collins and Richie Robison is an intrguing coincidence, but the evidence against Scolaro is pretty compelling, especially the fact that he had the very rare ammunition that was used in the killings.
Killing the rest of the family and sexually assaulting the women have amounted to staging; Mr. Robison may have been the only real target. Perhaps Scolaro thought that killing the others would point the police in the wrong direction.
 
The murder of the Robison family, although not discovered until July 1968, was believed to have occurred on 25 June 1968.

This was exactly five days before Joan Elspeth Schell went missing from Ypsilanti. She is generally believed to have been the second in the "Co-Ed Murders" series. She was last seen getting into a red and black car with three young men on the evening of 30 June. She was reported missing by her room mate shortly after 1 AM on 1 July 1968 and her dead body was found on 6 July. She had been raped and stabbed with a knife 25 times.

John Norman Collins is the prime suspect in Joan's murder. But it is possible that he had two accomplices.

Collins was indeed a thief and he had accomplices in some of his thefts. Andrew Manuel was one of them and Arnold Davis was another.

Is it possible that more than one person were responsible for the Robison murders? The use of two separate firearms might support this theory.
 
Quite a few writers and investigators interested in this case believe that Scolaro committed the murders. However, each re-telling of the story seems to bring out new and conflicting facts.

It would appear that the initial investigation was lacking in certain areas, that the autopsies were not a thorough as they should have been, and that there was a reluctance to prosecute any suspects.

The following 2018 article indicates that FOUR firearms were used in the killings rather than two as reported in other summaries:

----------------------------------------------

The Good Hart Murders: Case Closed
On a crusade to put northern Michigan’s most notorious “unsolved” mystery to rest.
By Patrick Sullivan | July 7, 2018
Northern Michigan’s most notorious cold case, the horrific 1968 murder of six members of the Robison family in Good Hart, has seemingly languished unsolved for five decades, a festering open wound amid an otherwise idyllic setting...

... On the morning the killings occurred, Robison had talked to his banker and learned that a lot of money was missing from his account. He called his office, and according to a receptionist interviewed later by investigators, Robison was furious. He demanded to speak to Scolaro — apparently looking for an explanation for the missing funds.

After some shouting, Scolaro left the Southfield office at 10:30am. He was never able to account for his whereabouts between then and 11pm, when he returned to his Birmingham home. His wife told detectives that was the first time in six years of marriage that Scolaro had not called or turned up in time for dinner. That meant Scolaro had no alibi for over 12 hours on June 25, 1967, the day the Robison family was murdered, and he had more than enough time to drive to Good Hart and back.

On top of that, two of the four firearms that investigators determined were used in the murders were almost immediately tied to Scolaro, though he told detectives that he’d given Robison one of the two .25-caliber Beretta pistols and some rare SAKO ammunition, which matched what investigators believed had been used in the crime. Later, the investigators matched shell casings found at the crime scene with shell casings found at a firing range where witnesses had seen Scolaro shoot an AR-7 rifle that looked like the other weapon used in the crime, a rifle which had disappeared....

LINK:

The Good Hart Murders: Case Closed
 
We have some clues which could tie several different killing sprees and explain them. If the police would only use DNA to narrow down the suspect. He may have been aware that DNA would be a tool in the future to identify elusive criminals but anyhow the evidence to me is clear that the Unabomber could be implicated in many more crimes.

When it comes to the Robinson murders, it caught my attention that the letters in the name "Roebert" could be rearranged so as to sound almost like Theodore. "This is the Zodiac speaking" would also sound almost like "this is Ted Kazinski", if one were to rearrange the letters.

The men killed had ties to the industrial system Kaczynski hated. He was also deeply sexually frustrated and the killings of families, couples and young college girls would also be expected if he were to kill, as he wrote in 1966 he would. Sexual frustration and inability to interact with the opposite sex would be the core reason for his anger and frustrations IMO.

Another important aspect is how the geographical areas involved, California, Illinois and Michigan are tied to the the life of Theodore Kaczynski.

The Golden State Killer was identified via DNA testing, on Gedmatch. By doing so, the police uncovered several other "careers" of James DeAngelo. It is only now in 2020 I have realized "the Unabomber" may have been just one of the criminal "careers" of Theodore Kaczynski. He would be very keen in keeping the rest of them secret so as to preserve the image he somehow managed to create as someone interested in the environment and the betterment of mankind.
 
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Scolaro, in his suicide note, wrote that he had nothing to do with the murders of the Robisons. I'm inclined to believe him.
 
itsrak said:
Some interesting analysis of this strange and convoluted case here:
The Robison Family Murder - a holiday home invasion
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Very interesting, quite a few details I hadn't read before about Robison and his business dealings. It seems LE investigated many leads linked to Robison's business and Scolaro's activities.

  • The link between Scolaro's weapons (3 of which went missing after the murders) and the unique ammunition can't be dismissed. Scolaro is tied to these murders with motive, knowledge of the family's location and activities and ballistics evidence.
  • Not sure about the prisoners Bloxom and Brock. Why would someone hire them to travel from another state to kill the Robison family, but not have Bloxom carry out the murders? What was the point of hiring him? Why would they drive to Toledo before the murders? Scolaro already had the weapons. Why would they give him a collection of Robison's business papers to dispose of if they could do it themselves?
  • Only one footprint at a very bloody crime scene. I agree with LE, it was unlikely there was more than one killer, thought not impossible.
  • Quote at the link: "One final, confusing twist in this chapter of the story would occur in 1973. A stolen car, taken from Toledo in 1966, would show up abandoned at the side of a road in Plymouth Township, west of Detroit. When police searched the glove box, they found a luggage tag that read “Shirley Robison”. Just to confirm it was our very own Shirley, included was the full Robison Lathrup address." Seems possible other people could have been involved in planning the murder. Possible that Scolaro had help.
  • Professionals/organized crime involved? Possible. Shady investors, shady people that were involved financially in the business, clients caught participating in Robison overbilling their employer.
  • The possible involvement of the brother of Mrs. Robison is a wild card.
 
There's also a note in the case file about Mrs. Robison's brother, Marvin Fulton. Neighbors noticed a red car at the Robison's cabin on the 4th of July, not long after the murders, but before the bodies were discovered. He visited the cabin later, a few days after the bodies were discovered, driving a red Opel car that looked similar to a Volkswagen.

When police questioned him, they found he owned 2 guns - .22 and .25 caliber weapons, like those used in the murders. The case file notes claim that, when police tested one of the gun, the grooves, etc. on the bullet matched some of the bullets found at the crime scene. Though he at first denied it, Fulton was involved with Mr. Robison's business.

Maybe something, maybe not. But the ballistics report is difficult to dismiss.
 
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