MYTH
Daisy Was Killed Because of Her Little Black Book
The story of her little black book is one of the most prevalent stories told about Daisy. In interviewing several people who worked at Kellogg’s at the time, this was accepted to be the motive for her demise.
This story has been conveyed to me so much that I assumed there was a source for it, a newspaper article or news report that planted the seed in the public consciousness. I was never able to find that source. It appears to be a rumor that took on a life of its own.
The root of this story is that Daisy maintained a little black book of the men that she slept with, married men. She was allegedly using the information about her affairs to blackmail her former suitors. One of these victims had her killed to recover the black book and end the blackmail. In a variation of this rumor, Daisy was sleeping with several high-ranking men in the corporate hierarchy at Kellogg’s, and one of them had her killed as a result of the extortion.
This rumor was circulated to the original investigators on the case. If Daisy had been extorting money, there would have been money somewhere—in a bank account or in the house. The Zicks were a hard-working couple but lived almost paycheck to paycheck. The money in their bank accounts totaled did not amount to more than a few hundred dollars.
The investigators received a tip that Daisy had purchased some expensive watches and jewelry. The police checked, and in 1959, she had purchased a watch for $221 for herself and one that was $79 for Floyd. But other than this, the Zicks did not take expensive trips, drive pricy automobiles or have any other baubles one might have if Daisy had been on the receiving end of bribes. It is hard to conceive that someone would consider killing her over a paltry $300 in watches.
Besides leaving a money trail, for the extortion myth to be true, there would have had to be people coming forward and claiming that Daisy was indeed extorting money. There was one individual who came to the authorities in 1963. Loretta Smith was contacted by the investigators and seemed to add the only credible weight to the story. By Ms. Smith’s account, Daisy had extorted money from her years earlier. However, Smith’s whereabouts during the time of the murder had been verified by work records, and she was cleared.
Furthermore, Floyd Zick noted that the only missing item from his wife’s purse was forty-five dollars. No mention of a black book was ever made by anyone who knew Daisy.
MYTH
Daisy’s Extramarital Affairs Led to Many Divorces After Her Death
Daisy was an outgoing and fun-loving woman; this is undeniable. The public constantly referred to the vast number of affairs that she had, including with senior people at Kellogg’s. In reality, the police and this author only found four men that Daisy dated while married to Floyd. Ralph Kartheu pointed out in his interview with the author: “No one wanted to admit they slept with Daisy—that would put them under a microscope.” Gary Hough offers a more holistic perspective: “Everyone’s a saint once they’re dead.”
As one person close to the case put it to me, “Daisy did fool around on her husband, but we found that she generally was only seeing one person at a time.” In my digging, I found that there was an exception to that. While seeing Raymond Mercer, Daisy had at least one other affair. But this does not make her promiscuous or make her affairs “numerous.”
For the most part, the stories of Daisy’s extramarital affairs have been exaggerated. As to the allegations that the investigation into her murder broke up numerous marriages at Kellogg’s, there doesn’t seem to be any supporting evidence of this. The investigation was bound to cause some marital strife, but there are no names associated with this myth.
In reality, divorces happened in Battle Creek just like they did in every town in America. If it happened to be a person at Kellogg’s, people drew assumptions that it might be connected in some way to the Zick case. It became an enduring part of the myth of Daisy Zick, one that had no connection at all to her.
MYTH
Daisy’s Vocal Chords Were Ruptured from Screaming
This myth surfaced twice during the research on this book and is one of the more bizarre myths. According to two individuals I spoke to, Daisy’s autopsy revealed that she had screamed so hard that she had ruptured her vocal cords. Having reviewed the autopsy report summary, I found no evidence that this happened. What is strange is that this rumor has been accepted as truth.
One variant of this is that there were children who had been walking to school at the time of the murder that morning and heard the screams. Children did walk past the Zick home on their way to school; however, school had been in session for hours by the time of her death. There were no children or anyone else reported that heard these alleged screams.
THEORY
Floyd Zick Killed Daisy
The police focused a great deal of attention on Floyd Zick from the moment they arrived at the Zick home. The investigators had good reason to look closely at Floyd. His wife was having affairs, after all. Jealously could be a powerful motive. When investigators spoke to Daisy’s sister, Dorothy Wright, about who she would look at, she suggested that “the husband should be questioned further.”
Floyd’s time that day was well accounted for. He took a car pooler with him to work, and his time at Fales’ Market was fully validated. Furthermore, Floyd took a polygraph voluntarily and passed. If the test was accurate, he didn’t kill his wife or know who had killed her. Daisy didn’t have a life insurance policy, ruling that out as a possible motive. His wife’s affairs were a potential motive, but most individuals associated with the case felt that Floyd had been aware of Daisy’s extramarital activities for some time. If he did kill her, what could his motive have been?
This theory refuses to die despite the evidence showing that Floyd had no involvement. I was contacted by an anonymous source, a retired seventy-nine-year-old deputy from the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department who would only talk under the condition of not having his name revealed.
At the time of the case, this informant was with the Battle Creek police department but was not attached to the case. His suspicions around Floyd were intriguing:
Floyd was seeing a girl over on Calhoun Street. I saw him going to visit her several times, and it was well known in town.
He and Daisy had a gay living with them, a little guy named Ralph Hartom. He was short with dark hair. Ralph was an organist in several restaurants in town.
Here’s how it went down. Floyd killed Daisy before he went to work. He was a butcher so the blood would have not been out of place on his clothing. He put an electric blanket on her body and turned it up. Doing that would make it appear like she died later (keeping the body warm and confusing the time of death). If you look at the crime scene photos you will see an electric warmer blanket on the floor near her body.
He [Floyd] called Ralph. Ralph was who was seen going into the house by the neighbor. All he did, at Floyd’s bidding, was remove and unplug the blanket. Floyd then came home and claimed to find her dead.
The informant passed on this tip to Prosecutor Noble Moore, but Moore “rejected it because he and Floyd were close friends.”
This theory is intriguing, but the physical evidence does not substantiate it. Under this theory, Daisy was dead all morning. Yet we know that Daisy prepared her lunch and made several phone calls that morning before her demise.
There was no electric blanket at the foot of the Zick bed either. Also, there was ample evidence in the house of a struggle. If Daisy had been dead the entire morning, how did blood spatter appear in the master bedroom and the guest bedroom? Why cut the telephone cord? At the end of the day, this theory doesn’t hold water.
But there is an intriguing angle to it, namely Ralph Hartom’s participation. Hartom was interviewed years later in regard to the bartender at the Chuck Wagon being named as a potential suspect. While Mr. Hartom did deny that he knew Daisy, he had been raised in Assyria Township, the same small community that she had been raised in. Hartom did
admit that he had stayed at the Zick home at that time. Ralph Hartom had never had his fingerprints tested against the one unidentified print taken from Daisy’s Pontiac.
In 2013, I submitted Hartom’s name to the Michigan State Police for potential fingerprint testing. While he died in the 1970s, if his prints are on file, they can be compared to the print at the crime scene.
THEORY
Albert Cooley or Someone Close to Him Was Responsible for Daisy’s Murder
Roy Bechtol believes to this day that he interviewed Daisy Zick’s killer just before he killed himself. Albert Cooley’s death in January 1964 certainly looks suspicious. For someone to kill himself after a police interview that was going to lead to a polygraph test appears to connote some guilt.
But the investigators checked Albert Cooley’s fingerprints against their one unidentified print, and it wasn’t a match. After that, they stopped looking at him as a potential suspect. It is possible, however, that Cooley had taken his life because he had helped the killer or knew who the killer was. He was, perhaps, protecting someone close to him, such as his brother, who also attempted suicide a short time later. The connection could be tenuous or could prove worthy of investigation.
I have passed this information on to the Michigan State Police—for them to check fingerprints of individuals potentially associated or related to Albert Cooley. At the time of this writing, there has been no change in the status of this tip.
THEORY
Norman Baker Killed Daisy
The testimony of prisoners is always questionable at best, but the case of George Worden’s finger-pointing at Norman Baker warrants some checking against facts. Worden claimed that Baker killed Daisy because she would not write him a check for $300. To begin with, the Zicks simply didn’t have that kind of cash. Secondly, no explanation was provided for why Baker walked to the Zicks home.
Also Worden’s rendition of Baker’s account of the attack didn’t match the evidence of Daisy’s death. He did not mention the tying of Daisy’s hands behind her back or the cutting of the telephone cord. Worden’s later account of a shirt buried outside Baker’s mother’s residence also did not hold up.
Baker’s fingerprints did not match the print found on Daisy’s car, which was how he was initially cleared, followed with a polygraph. Chances are this was a case of either a prisoner bragging to other convicts to raise his stature in prison or an informant hoping to reduce his sentence by accusing another prisoner of a crime he didn’t commit.
THEORY
The Mystery Man at Kellogg’s Killed Daisy
During the course of writing this book, I received two tips that may or may not be related. Unfortunately, neither one came with a name attached to it.
The first was from a Battle Creek woman who claimed that her neighbor’s mother knew who had killed Daisy. It was allegedly a man who worked at Kellogg’s who was either asked to quit or was fired around the time of Daisy’s death. This man warned several Kellogg’s employees that if they talked about his involvement, he would kill them. He moved away from Battle Creek to either Arizona or Florida.
The second account came in during a telephone interview I was doing on the case on WBCK in Battle Creek. The man who called in claimed that his father knew who had killed Daisy. The man had been seen the day of the murder in the rail yard at the Kellogg’s plant, washing the blood off his clothing. He warned the witness to not say anything under force of threat.
After five decades, these kinds of tips are likely to be the way that leads come in on such a murder. Kellogg’s was clearly the principle focus of the early investigation. Hundreds of employees were questioned, fingerprinted and, in a few cases, polygraphed. It is certainly possible that the true killer managed to slip past that dragnet at the plant.
The second account has one potentially fatal flaw, which is that of the man cleaning himself (presumably with water) the day of the crime. The cold would have made such a cleaning effort downright painful. Additionally, more private and convenient places to wash away blood were probably available.
THEORY
The Killer Was a Jealous Woman
Detective Hough makes a compelling case for this theory. The size and strength of the murderer point to someone who had challenges controlling Daisy in the home the morning of the murder.
The only woman seriously considered at all by investigators in the days after the killing was Audrey Heminger. There was a rumor prevalent at the time that Audrey and Daisy were “competing” with each other over suitors at Kellogg’s. Audrey managed to avoid her detailed interrogation by storming out of the state police post. She was fingerprinted, however, and her fingerprints did not match the print recovered from the car. At the same time, there is no way to know for sure if that print came from the murderer. Audrey was never tested with a polygraph as part of the investigation.
The biggest thing pointing away from Audrey or any other woman committing the crime is the eyewitness accounts of Mr. Vander Meer who said he saw a man behind the wheel of the Zick car, as did Mr. Wood. While someone bundled up for cold weather could be mistaken for the wrong sex, both of these witnesses said they saw a man driving Daisy’s Pontiac.
THEORY
The Postman, William Daily, Killed Daisy
There is a collection of circumstantial evidence pointing to William Daily. If Leroy Steinbacher’s informant was correct, Daily had been seen driving Daisy’s car at the time of the murder. Daily’s description of the garage door was incorrect, as he claimed it was closed when it was left open. He changed his story about a man walking near the Chuck Wagon the day of the crime, telling police in later years that it was a woman. Daily’s rather unique hairstyle for the times matched the descriptions of the witnesses who saw the murderer driving Daisy’s car. Daily owned a dark blue coat, matching the description that Mrs. DeFrance gave of the man at the Zick door that morning, a coat that he stopped wearing after the murder.
There were other threads that point to Daily. His threat to Susan Denny mentioning Daisy’s name; the fact that he was interviewed by police the day of the crime but he didn’t tell his wife about it; and the fact that he admitted that he saw Daisy sunbathing in the nude. Perhaps the biggest red flag with Daily is that he left town before he could be given a polygraph and refused to take one in 2001.
Daily’s job gave him good camouflage for being in the neighborhood the morning of the murder. It would have also given him a pretext for knocking and entering the home. There’s additionally the chilling description of Daily’s relationship with his mother, another buxom redhead, who he had bad relations with.
Motive is not required to be presented in murder trials in Michigan, but any prosecutor will tell you that most juries need to hear it. Daily’s motive to kill Daisy seems to be missing, though there are many that could be construed.
William Daily was the only person ever tagged as a suspect by the authorities in the Zick murder. If he took his secret to his grave, we may never know the truth.
THEORY
It Was Someone Else
The police could have passed over a suspect unknowingly. It may even be possible that someone who was never investigated killed Daisy. Many suspects were cleared based on the fingerprint recovered in the victim’s car. While unlikely, it is possible that the fingerprint had nothing to do with the murderer. And while many potential suspects were ruled out because of successful polygraph tests, even polygraphs are not infallible.
The brutality and savagery of this crime has yet to be paralleled in Calhoun County. It seems possible that the killer moved to another part of the country, where his crimes would not be linked to Battle Creek.
Ultimately, the reality is that the killer of Daisy Zick may yet be alive.
EPILOGUE
A task force was formed for this investigation. It is a great thing in that it allows you to send a lot of bodies out to gather a lot of information. It is a bad thing in that you make the assumption that all the officers participating
have the same abilities. Good investigators have the ability to, in most cases, talk to a person and through conversation determine if that individual is being truthful. People call it “gut instinct,” “sixth sense,” etc. Every good homicide detective I have known has it.
Gary Hough to the author
2013
As a writer, I believe in going where the evidence takes me rather than coming in with a preconceived notion and forcing the evidence to fit that belief. When I started this project two years before its publication, I was not sure what I would find. Like many people from the Battle Creek area, I knew more about the myths surrounding the crime than the facts. As I interviewed, read and did my research, I learned more than I ever anticipated both about my hometown and myself.
Some people I interviewed had an attitude about Daisy, even after five decades. There was a hint of, “She was a loose woman,” as if that justified what happened to her. Whatever Daisy’s private life, no one deserves what happened to her in January 1963. In talking with the few investigators who are still alive, I certainly didn’t get that feeling. While her affairs may have made it a more complicated investigation, all voiced that they wanted a killer brought to justice.
The Zick home the day of the murder, as it would have appeared as the murderer approached it. Courtesy of the Michigan State Police.
This is still an open case with the Michigan State Police. The evidence is sealed in a vault in East Lansing, silently waiting a trial that may or may not come. While funds have been dramatically cut for investigating cold cases, these old cases are never ignored. If new tips come in, they are investigated and pursued. A new generation of detectives has taken up the mantle passed on to them by their predecessors and seeks to bring closure to this case.
Murder in Battle Creek Page 16