Anyone who wants proof that Goshe lied during her testimony can read the transcripts of the trial, which showed that she lied in her original statement, which she signed, regarding when Beineman was in her shop. It was also revealed that she lied when she applied for a marriage license.
Then she lied in a pretrial hearing about evidence, the motorcycle. The phrase "changed her story" comes up but that's a nice way of saying lied.
My "theory" that Thoresen was the M.C.K. is backed by all kinds of facts that surround this case like:
1. A massive investigation, perhaps the largest ever in the state of Michigan, was unable to find a suspect who could be linked to a vehicle with an MI plate. And that's no less than three vehicles (two cars and a motorcycle, including a Honda like Mrs. Liar originally identified. Gee, I wonder why she changed her story on that?)
2. Anyone knowledgable can see that Collins does not have the resume to have committed the Beineman murder, not the way it was done. Not no way. Not no how.
3. It strains the bounds of credibility that Collins was able to get away with six or seven other murders, as they occurred, as well as paraded Beineman around town on a motorcycle in broad daylight. Like Collins not having the resume to have killed Beineman, these facts do not add up.
4. Even the cops believed that whomever returned to the the Beineman crime scene was her killer. The prosecution didn't even bother to argue that it was Collins. His alibi was iron clad.
5. Thoresen not only fit Collins' description, but owned a Honda like Mrs. Liar originally described, plus numerous out of state registered vehicles and he rented cars often. This, plus traveling as he did and all of the above are too many coincidences to overlook.
6. Thoresen also fits the description of a man seen in a car minutes before the murders at Lake Berryessa, which in yet another coincidence (we've lost count by now) and sounds a lot like the car that was driven by the suspect who was harassing Mary Fleszar minutes before Fleszar disappeared.
7. Thoresen also just so happened to live not far from where Roxie Ann Phillips was murdered. Gee, another coincidence!
8. Mrs. Liar just so happened to also change her story about the motorcycle between the time that Thoresen died and Collins was tried.
9. Thoresen had the resume to be the M.C.K. His wife convinced a jury that he murdered numerous people. One of those murders was in the midwest. And it's record that he committed numerous bone breaking assaults. There's nothing like this in the background of Collins.
Boy, I wonder why cops were harassing witnesses and saying evidence (an inexplicably complicated story) against Collins came from one of their basements. All of this is highly credible, I'm sure!
You are correct to say that this is one of the most complicated and expensive investigations and criminal trials in Michigan history. It was not an easy one for law enforcement when one considers that at least seven murders took place in an apparent series before they arrested John Norman Collins.
Although you are certainly entitled to your opinion and alternate theory regarding this case, you are not entitled to inventing or twisting the evidence to fit your narrative.
You have stated numerous times that Mrs. Goshe lied, changed her story, or committed perjury during the trial in her testimony regarding the identification of Collins' motorcycle. This is simply not true. First, she never identified his motorcycle at any time as to make, model, or state of registration (license plate) either before or during the trial. She always claimed to investigators and under oath during the trial that she DID NOT KNOW what type of motor cycle it was - only that it was blue, loud, and had a square mirror attached to the handlebars.
It was Mrs. Spaulding (who was present with Mrs. Goshe at the time) who suggested to police investigators that the motorcycle MIGHT have been a Honda. Because of that comment, both women were taken to a nearby Honda dealership and asked to look at motorcycles to see if they could pick one out that resembled the one they saw. Mrs. Spaulding stated that she could not pick any that matched the one they saw. Mrs. Goshe tentatively picked a Honda 450 (not a 350 as you often state) only because it had a square mirror.
During the trial with Collins' stolen motorcycles in the courtroom, both Mrs. Goshe and Mrs. Spaulding declined to identify either bike as the one they saw because they did not know motorcycles well and stated that they were focused on the rider - whom they both pointed out and identified in their court testimony as John Norman Collins.
The description of the motorcycle to police by Mrs. Goshe or Mrs. Spaulding was a moot point as far as the trial was concerned. They did NOT make any identification of the bike itself. Both women identified the defendant, John Norman Collins, as the man they had seen with Karen Sue Beineman leaving their place of business the day Karen was murdered.
The Motorcycle was described by a third eyewitness and pointed out in court as the one on which she had seen Karen Sue Beineman ride away.
None of the witnesses made any statement as to what state the motorcycle was registered in or what state license plate was attached to it. When taken into evidence, the plate on Collins' bike was noted to be bent so that it could not be easily seen. It was, in fact, a bike that he had stolen from a fraternity brother. Even if the police had been told the registration number of the motorcycle by any witness, it would not have been traced to Collins as being its owner.
A police search of motor vehicle records was initiated in an attempt to draw up a list of owners' names for Honda and Triumph motorcycles. Before such a search was complete, John Norman Collins had already been arrested. The absence of Collins' name on any such search is far from proof that the motorcycle and rider were from another state.
As to Collins' "airtight" alibi; the police did do a stake out of the body dump site in the Beineman case, on the hope that the killer would return to the site (as was believed to be the case with some of the other murders). A person was seen running by or from that location, but he (or she) was NOT caught or identified. Regardless of what anyone thought regarding that incident, it was NOT proof either way of Collins' guilt or innocence.
The story of the running man was introduced by Collins' defense attorney - along with a single witness who stated Collins was with a small group of friends about 60 miles away in Ortonville, Michigan at the time. This was in an attempt to introduce an element of doubt into the prosecution's case. The prosecutors did not question any of it because they did not wish to add credence to the story. The whole scenario and the way it was presented and handled in court had mainly to do with courtroom tactics than with solid evidence.
Had the prosecution wished to pursue the defense's presentation, they could have asked for the names of all the other five or six persons who allegedly spent that Saturday with Collins - and could have questioned each. And they could have questioned one of the prosecution witnesses, Arnold Davis, regarding Collins' statement to him that he was going to spend that day at his mother's home in Centerline, Michigan - where Collins was found by police the next morning carefully detail cleaning his Oldsmobile.
The fact is that the jury DID get to hear the "running man" story and the defense witness, and they DID take it into consideration before arriving at their verdict.
The basic premise put forth by the defense was that the "running man" was the actual killer, but there is another very real possibility, and that is that there could have been more than just one killer, working together or separately in the commission of the Michigan Co-ed Murders.
The murder of Roxie Ann Phillips is probably a more solid case against Collins than any of the Michigan murders. He was with Roxie the day before she disappeared, he was identified along with his silver Oldsmobile as being in her neighborhood the day she went missing, and a piece of her clothing was found in his car when taken into evidence in Michigan.