It’s a theory that allows for the blue Gremlin: the two men drive separately to the parking lot behind the Hunter-Maple Pharmacy, the younger man parks his car off to the side, gets out, snatches Timothy King, and then shoves him into the LeMans, which they all drive off in.
As a possibility, it’s not fucking rocket science.
TWO GUNS, TWO GUYS
The cop named Flynn, whom Chris King had brought to my attention, was found dead of a reported suicide just after midnight in a church parking lot. He’d bled out in a blue 1973 Buick.
A nun and a priest from the church reported two people parked in a blue vehicle in the darkness of that same spot three hours earlier.
Documents list the two guns discovered inside Flynn’s vehicle as his own police-issue weapon and a .44-caliber that was registered to his partner and found on the passenger-side floor. No gunshot residue tests are indicated in official documents.
The date of Flynn’s death was November 14, 1978: two gunshot wounds to the chest, two different guns, two people seen in his car, no residue reported on his hands.
Chris Busch was found dead on November 22, 1978: rifle shot to the forehead, his body tucked into bedsheets, no gunshot residue found.
But Busch had been rotting for an estimated four days before the body was discovered, which places his actual date of death only a handful of days after Flynn’s.
ARCH SLOAN
It’s January again, 2013.
The grand juries have by now both convened and come up empty, Cathy informs me over the telephone, although a few weeks ago a reporter in Detroit got ahead of the police and released a story about a new suspect named Archibald “Arch” Sloan, incarcerated since 1983 for sex crimes against young boys. Like Christopher Busch and Gregory Greene, although roughly ten years older, Sloan had a long history of charges against him, beginning with gross indecency at the age of eighteen, progressing to rape and sodomy by the time he was in his twenties.
Sloan, now white-haired and with a downturned mouth and a neck gone predictably doughy from aging in prison, was born in Pennsylvania but raised in Detroit and went to high school at Cooley High during the period my father was there. When my father was a senior and Sloan a sophomore, Sloan dropped out of school and worked as a mechanic and tow truck operator. He moved back to Pennsylvania for a while, did time on his first sex charges, then returned to Detroit in 1975 and worked at multiple service stations while residing in Southfield, just a few miles from the Mark Stebbins drop.
During the initial OCCK suspect sweep, Sloan was questioned due to his criminal history and proximity to the crimes. In fact, he was given a lie detector test and appeared to pass it—a test administered by Ralph Cabot, the same man whose tests of Busch and Greene were later reviewed and found faulty.
Regardless of Sloan’s test results, his vehicle, a red 1966 Pontiac Bonneville, was processed for evidence. Hair and carpet fibers were collected and stored. Reportedly, human hairs were mislabeled as animal hairs until 2013, when the Michigan State Police submitted them for DNA testing.
The hairs in Arch Sloan’s vehicle are a mitochondrial match to hairs found on Mark Stebbins and Timothy King. The Bonneville hairs match a single strand retrieved from the exterior clothing of Stebbins, a single strand on Timothy King’s underpants, and a single strand found in Timothy King’s nasal cavity.
While the hairs found in Sloan’s vehicle are a match to those found on the bodies, they are not a DNA match to Sloan himself, it turns out, and they are not a DNA match to Gunnels, either. The hair in Sloan’s Bonneville must have come from somebody else.
Equally tricky is that the Bonneville hairs are only a mitochondrial match to the hairs found on the bodies of the two boys. They are not a nuclear match, meaning the Bonneville hairs and the hairs found at autopsy, although their origins were likely related, may have originated from different people—brothers or cousins, for instance.
In 1983, Arch Sloan was living in a trailer at the abandoned Packard plant complex, a favorite among those now seeking what is becoming known as “ruin porn” in Detroit: the long, block-after-block stretches of monstrously oversized buildings shattered and infected by emptiness decades ago, like the Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects.
Living a troll’s existence in his small trailer, Sloan would ply young boys with alcohol and then rape them amid the industrial vacancies. For those and related crimes, he is serving two life sentences, neither of them for murder. While Arch Sloan could point us in the right direction toward the OCCK, he has nothing to gain from doing so. He has clamped down in silence to finish out his time and whatever he can call a life now.
We can reasonably assume, however, that Sloan’s era of chicken hawking in Detroit would have placed him in contact with Lawson and Lamborgine. We can also reasonably assume one degree of separation between the passenger in Sloan’s ’66 Bonneville and Vincent Gunnels, since transfer hairs from each were evidenced on the bodies. Finally, we can assume that Sloan, like Gunnels, was among the parties closest to the crimes.
THE LE ROSEY SCHOOL
Le Rosey, an exclusive boarding school in Rolle, Switzerland, outside of Geneva, is headquartered on a secluded educational compound comprising a fourteenth-century château at the center of more modern buildings dotting hardwoods and pastures. Le Rosey, catering to the primary and secondary educations of the wealthiest children in the world, is in fact the most expensive private school in the world at $113,000 per year, servicing students ages seven to eighteen. The student-to-teacher ratio at Le Rosey is five to one, and Le Rosey is the only boarding school in the world to change campuses seasonally. While the château grounds at Rolle are appropriate for the extracurricular spring and autumn activities offered at Le Rosey—flying lessons, horseback riding, shooting—during winter months, the entire student body relocates to a group of chalets in the ski town of Gstaad.
As a child, the shah of Iran attended Le Rosey. So did Winston Churchill. So did King Albert II of Belgium, King Fuad II of Egypt, ex–CIA director Richard Helms, and King Juan Carlos I of Spain. Alexander, crown prince of Yugoslavia, went there, as did Ian Campbell, 12th Duke of Argyll; Prince Rainier of Monaco; Prince Edward, Duke of Kent; and Emanuele Filiberto, prince of Venice and Piedmont. The Rothschilds went to Le Rosey, as did the du Ponts, the Rockefellers, the Gettys, and the Heinz family. Le Rosey’s children are the children of Middle Eastern oil tycoons, Japanese industrial lords, American tobacco kids, the sons of sheikhs and mustard barons, of Russian oligarchs and American movie royalty, the children of Greek shipping magnates and French champagne makers. Guillaume, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, went there. Hermon Hermon-Hodge, 3rd Baron Wyfold of the British House of Lords, went there.
Christopher Busch went to Le Rosey as well, for both grade school and high school. After his graduation from the twelfth grade, he stayed on briefly as an assistant instructor. When he returned to Michigan, he left his posh grade school behind but not the international network and closest relationships he had known as a boy, with those other sons of millionaires, billionaires, and gods.
COMMON DENOMINATORS
The woman who testified to the FBI of her father’s involvement in a 1970s pedophile ring detailed multiple circumstantial links between Christopher Busch and the crimes she witnessed in her father’s presence.
That the men she associated with her father would meet and exchange both boys and girls at a gravel pit aligns with what is known of a Greene-Busch gravel pit transfer point. That the schoolteacher remembered whom she believed to be a large bearded man of considerable power and influence also aligns (admittedly, even more circumstantially), and her assertion that the molestations and murders she’d witnessed had been captured on camera matches with what we can reasonably understand to be Christopher Busch’s trafficking in pornography.
That the schoolteacher refused to report to state or local authorities about the incident, opting only to speak to the FBI due to what she believed was area police involvement in the cri
mes, corresponds with the mysterious cover-up of what is undoubtedly not Christopher Busch’s suicide but Christopher Busch’s murder by any reasonable accounting of the evidence.
That Christopher Busch had one suitcase full of approximately 115 items of child pornography, including books, magazines, and films, and two other suitcases containing ligatures, drugs, and photographic evidence in his possession when arrested would indicate his involvement in a less spontaneous, primarily premeditated pursuit of sexual deviancy. He did in fact confess to child abduction fantasies and subsequently named the points of abduction of OCCK victims as his trolling grounds.
As now known via information received from Busch’s parole officer, Christopher Busch had associates who frequented Frank Shelden’s Fox Island. He also had associates linking him to Lawson and Lamborgine. That he was associated with Gunnels and Sloan, the two men whose mitochondrial DNA was found on the bodies of the victims, would reasonably imply that Christopher Busch was the greatest common denominator among the widest body of legitimate suspects.
That the Busch family’s influence was powerful and wide and that its scope branched throughout a political structure built on industry is without challenge. That its scope could have extended into the influence of law enforcement as well cannot be reasonably ignored when taking into account the abandonment of crime scene protocol at the Busch residence (for example, in allowing Busch Sr. to maintain possession of the weapon that reportedly killed his son); the plea deal struck to allow Busch’s sentencing of probation in contrast to the life sentence handed down to Greene for the same crimes; and the official polygraph found to have been faulty only decades later when reviewed by multiple independent polygraphers.
Christopher Busch’s death being ruled as a suicide by rifle shot to the forehead, the ligatures in his closet, and the drawing of Mark Stebbins at the death scene are circumstantial. What is most relevant about the Busch death scene is the lack of blood spatter, the absence of gunshot residue, and the positioning of the body—still wrapped tightly in the bedsheets—being more indicative of a murder.
That the case opened on Christopher Busch’s death was closed as a suicide prior to the receipt of any lab reports is also of note. That Christopher Busch’s body was wrapped in his linens is suspect, as he could not likely shoot himself point-blank in the head and then wrap his arms in the bedsheets before dying. That the wrapping of his body likely happened postmortem, prior to discovery, is of great relevance to the unpacking of the scene.
That Christopher Busch owned and drove at least one vehicle matching the description of at least one suspected vehicle is of note. That Christopher Busch was named in one of the earliest tips telephoned in to the task force, #369 of tens of thousands of tips to be called in, and that this tip on Busch would mysteriously be erased from voice recordings, is of note.
That the victim questioned in 2008 testified to having been forced into sexual activity with a boy whom he believed later to have been Timothy King, and that he further testified to having been shown a Polaroid picture of a boy he believed to be Timothy King tied up in the trunk of Christopher Busch’s vehicle, is of note. That the victim testified to being present when Christopher Busch dropped Timothy King off at the home of Ted Lamborgine is of note.
That Ted Lamborgine refused to take a polygraph on the OCCK murders, opting for a life sentence instead of a plea deal reducing his sentence to fifteen years in exchange for the polygraph, is of note. That Ted Lamborgine’s initial response when interrogated about involvement in the OCCK was “I’ve been forgiven” is of note. That when further interrogated about the OCCK, years later, and offered another opportunity to take a polygraph, Ted Lamborgine’s statement to police was simply “I didn’t do it” is of note, along with what would be a common deduction from this: that Lamborgine, while possibly not a participant in the murders, may have had intimate knowledge of the crimes, answering in a way that career criminals often do, in a language that circles and takes without giving back.
That Richard Lawson made statements to police indicating that Lamborgine showed him pornographic images of a child who resembled Timothy King, and that Lawson further claimed to be able to identify a man in the photograph with King but would not reveal a name unless bargaining for a deal (which was never offered), is also of note.
That the letter from the infamous “Allen,” albeit unverified, also indicates the existence of Polaroid pictures of the crimes; that Helen Dagner says John spoke of Polaroid pictures of the crimes. That multiple victims of Busch’s molestations indicated Polaroid pictures of the crimes; that Gregory Greene, when interrogated, indicated a packet of tinfoil-wrapped pedophilic Polaroid pictures buried in the snow beneath a downspout of his home; and that those pictures were acknowledged by police as recovered and catalogued but eventually “lost” is of note.
That the crimes of violent, sociopathic predators tend to progress in proportion to the predator’s growing courage is known. That Gregory Greene abducted and sexually assaulted a boy anally, then suffocated him with a hand and choked him into unconsciousness before burning him with a cigarette and finally depositing the young boy’s body on the grounds of a hospital in California, is known.
That Gregory Greene dumped the boy in plain sight out of regret peppered with hope that the boy might still be alive or could be brought back to life somehow is known, and that Greene subsequently telephoned the hospital to alert them of the boy’s presence is known.
That, when arrested later in California, Gregory Greene was found to have a police-issue scanner and communications radio in his vehicle is known. That Gregory Greene had been working as a confidential narcotics informant with the Huntington Beach Police Department is now known.
That, as penalty for the charge of false imprisonment, attempted murder, and forty to fifty charges of child molestation, Gregory Greene served less than a year in a mental hospital and then was released to freedom in Michigan is known. That a year after his release the OCCK murders began and that the victims are believed to have been suffocated via burking and then dumped in plain sight is known.
That, after Greene’s prison death in 1995 of an alleged heart attack while watching television at the age of forty-seven, Greene’s brother testified to police that the house they grew up in with their ailing father had a secret room in the attic, hand-built by Gregory Greene and concealed from the naked eye, which Greene had used to “keep and molest boys in,” is reported in the documents and generally known by police.
That, on November 15, 1976, just over a month before Jill Robinson was abducted, a juvenile runaway report filed six days earlier was considered “cleared” when it was discovered that the boy had spent those six days at Gregory Greene’s house, hidden in the concealed attic room while Greene was at work, and that no charges were filed against Greene, is known. That a victim in the molestation charges that finally put Greene away reported that, during oral copulation, Greene choked him by the neck until he passed out is known.
That Christopher Busch’s younger cousin, also molested by Busch and Greene, stated that Busch was never violent with him, aside from the inherent violence of molestation, while Greene was frightening and always violent, is known.
That the victim who reported Greene to have choked him unconscious also reported statements Greene made about Busch choking and killing a boy in the woods is known; that, after Greene’s death, his cellmate reported that Greene had claimed to have gotten away with killing four kids is also known.
That Gregory Greene named Busch as Mark Stebbins’s killer is known; that he did so as an act of self-preservation under interrogation, with knowledge of the concurrent interrogation of Busch, can be presumed.
That the sole public point of refute for Gregory Greene’s involvement in the OCCK killings is that he was reported to have been in jail awaiting trial for the Flint molestations during Timothy King’s abduction, but that the records on this are flimsy, is known.
That Detective Lourn Doan of th
e Southfield Police, a task force member and early supporter of the Busch-Greene relationship to the killings—pushing in that direction as far back as 1977—discovered and noted in 1978 that Greene was indeed not incarcerated during King’s abduction but was “out on bond” is generally not known but was confirmed by Michigan State Police detective Garry Gray.
All accounts of Christopher Busch’s demeanor with friends, family, and coworkers point to his conviviality. He was gentle and friendly with the family housekeeper, his employees at the restaurant in Ess Lake, and even with his victims before fucking them.
Gregory Greene, in contrast, was a loose cannon, hostile and unpredictable. He was born into less fortunate circumstances than Busch and was no doubt envious of Busch’s wealth and privilege. He was justifiably bitter at Busch’s receiving probation when Greene himself received a sentence of life in prison.
Nobody in the press or police has publicly speculated on the nature of the relationship between Christopher Busch and Gregory Greene. They are called associates, they are called friends, and they are called accomplices in regard to the criminal sexual conduct charges. The mother of a Flint victim believed that Greene and Busch were cousins.
Were they?
REVISION
I’m closing in on what I know is the end. I haven’t spoken with my father in two years. I dig out Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing from a milk crate full of my original research, articles I’d pulled from the Internet before I’d known anything. Published only ten years after the killings stopped, it was as good as it was allowed to be, but I’ve been privileged with twenty-five more years of cumulative research.
The Kill Jar Page 20