European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 11, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Police sketch of suspected child Kilter. Timmy s Mother with cop after identifying son s body. Ton and his friends sat in Cabin at night and talked about the killer. We All talked about what we d do to him he recall with some relish. If i was a big Guy i d hang him by the feet from the rafters in Pontiac stadium. And we d shoot my with a .22 and make him the social Cost for children is High. Maureen Degen had to learn the meaning of molest and Sarah Parker was taken off school safety guard duty during the month of april because she had to standalone. A Young girl wandered away from her Mother in a gift shop. The Mother shouted come Back Here do you want him to get you too Kate o Brien 5, was afraid of the dark and woke up crying. She was afraid the killer was going to invade her Home and take her away. The sign says stranger and Patrick o Brien Kate s12-year-old brother hangs it around his neck. He walks up to a classmate and says i if you come with me i la buy you a the boy runs. The class Patrick practices running from the stranger. Ceola o Brien drives Home the new message by role playing with her children Kate Colin Patrick an Shannon in their Home. She poses As a doctor priest nun policeman teacher and tries to entice them. Pretend you re in a parking lot she says. I m a policeman and i say your mommie is sick and i m sup posed to take you to her what do you do h printouts of suspect car registrations. 11, 1977 of we d go Patrick said. You told us if we were Ever lost to find the and i said no you must t. This is special. Youcan t even Trust the policeman it s confusing for them. Who do you Trust mrs. O Brien says she does t want her children to be paranoid. I m really sorry to Tell you this. I hate it she says. But you have to know. And when this person is caught things will be common ground a social service Agency in birding Ham conducts training and briefing sessions for parents teachers and children. The children role play with the cardboard stranger sign. They talk out their tears and frustrations. When the Case is solved or the tension is ground spokesmen say the children will have to be in a thousand ways although the first Rush of fear has subsided More than family life has changed. Some girls Don t like to babysit and children Are afraid of the Babysitter. Maintenance men can t walk into some schools without special introductions or escorts. Meter readers and Utility company linemen carry composite sketches of the suspected killer. There Are neighbourhood watches and cd radio Are pamphlets and booklets and place Mats about safety. One woman designed a $5 to shirt Reading i will not talk to 9 # the investigation is intricate and bizarre sometimes lurid sometimes with traces of Call the task Force with visions there s a cottage with a coffin inside. A fish with bubbles coming from the Gills. A Man with a pumpkin head driving a Blue Gremlin. Some people have been topped More than 20 times because police think a Blue Gremlin May have been involved in the abduction. Five Walls at the tank Force Headquarters Are covered with computer printouts of Blue Gremlin registrations. Theorists and murder aficionados come Forth the crimes Are connected with snowfall. He s laying out the bodies in a Diamond pattern. He s playing a strange game of poker. Everyone has a theory he s a priest an undertaker doctor a policeman a teacher a social worker a care taker. We Are unavoidably encouraging a kind of Para noid attitude which is disruptive to the whole social process says or. Tanay the forensic psychiatrist usually it s hard to get people to come not Call and say maybe i should t be telling you this but i think a Man who is a Friend would be capable of this no doubt it s not the Best thing for the Community having neighbors suspicious of neighbors friends of friends employers of employees and vice versa Krease says. But it s necessary to have this kind of personal involvement because the killer is not an obvious charac there Are tips about the quiet Man who lives alone theman with a male Roommate the Man who keeps the shades drawn the Man who was always a Little strange the Man no one Ever liked. T mrs. Degen said the told police to Check out a weird unman who rented to men and had a Blu Gremlin parted outside. Lisa Kaichen said the urged a Friend to report the Man who once wrote a love letter about purify to he Friend t Young daughter. 9999 women turn in estranged boyfriends and woman said her former husband once fondled her 15 year old daughter. A woman turned in her Nephew As homosexual. The investigation becomes lurid As police interview Chicken Hawks boy prostitutes about men who a picked them up. They ask owners of adult bookstores about suspicious known sex deviate or Flasher is checked and in the course of the investigation police have made numer Ous arrests. We re sterilizing this Community says Bir Mingham police chief Jerry Tobin formerly with the Detroit vice squad. I thought i had come across a lot of perverted things before he said. But not such things involving children. If you knew what i know. People in prominent places have this defect. A minis Ter who prefers Little boys. Relatives with skeletons in the closet Tell me he molested my child and i never said anything until now but now i must say something it s amazing How sick the world when a task Force detective knocks on the door these Days it sometimes sends people into tall spins. They know you re not there for a social visit says Del. Sgt. Louis Orlich of the Romeo police. Sometime people Are so distressed they can t answer questions. They re so Busy thinking who turned me in was tithe Guy downstairs the girl i tried to put the make on the Man who never liked me " and that Knock on the door can mean a life disrupted Inmany ways. The investigation is like a juggernaut said one Veteran investigator. It Rolls on and leaves a lot of lives to be picked up a homosexual called police to complain that because someone reported him police interviewed people where he worked. He found work extremely uncomfortable. One Man a substitute teacher in Birmingham had been questioned several times because he bore some re semblance to the composite sketch. He declined to be interviewed saying it was too emotionally disturbing and he wanted to put it behind Polly Carithers director of information for Oak land schools says two male friends of Ben were in an emotional tall spin because police questioned them in the death of the two boys. The men who live together declined to be interviewed. There s More shattering going on than the deaths Carithers says. If there s anyone you Don t like or who is a Little Quirky and who in to you can turn them is a dark Side and Witch Hunt aspect to All this " the stars and stripes Page is
