Halloween is a good time to revisit stories like Dracula and Frankenstein. They're scary stories that allow us to escape because the monsters in them aren’t real. But we all know some of the most chilling horror stories are true.
On Sunday October 25th at 2 p.m., local historian Tom Dietz will talk about gruesome murders that happened right here in Kalamazoo. The program at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum features stories from the 19th and 20th century. Dietz says there are two reasons for that. The first is that a database allows him to easily search old newspapers:
"And secondly I've always thought - even if I start getting into the 1930's or 40's - I might still prick a scab that hasn't healed. Somebody whose family member was murdered they still might be around, remember that person or it might have been just a generation before. So, stay away from it."
There are also countless cold cases still out there too. Dietz told us two of his favorite Kalamazoo murder stories:
The 'Witch' Next Door
It's the story of a married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Burgess, in their mid-50's who decide to murder their 70-something former neighbor because they believe her to be a witch. Dietz says the couple thinks they are doing Kalamazoo a favor by killing her.
"If they didn't kill her, they were pretty sure she would use that evil eye to kill hundreds of Kalamazoo folks," Dietz explains.
Why did they think she was a witch? Dietz says the elderly woman believed in more psychological healing for physical illnesses instead of medicine. She also kept about seven cats.
"But they also recognized that, like a year before, Mr. Burgess's mother had died unexpectedly. Now again, they were in their fifties," Dietz says.
Dietz says Mr. Burgess's mother was likely getting up in age, but still they blamed their neighbor for the loss. Mr. Burgess, who worked on an assembly line, also blamed the elderly lady for his back problems.
So one night, Mr. and Mrs. Burgess invite their neighbor over for dinner. Once she had finished eating, they clubbed her with a lead pipe. They stuffed her in the cistern. Eventually the police saw blood splattered everywhere in their home and they were arrested.
The Flying Bandit
Clarence Frechette lived in Jackson, Michigan in the 1920's. Dietz says he was called "the flying bandit" because, while on a small airplane flight from Pontaic to Kalamazoo, he trying to rob his flying instructor by beating him over the head.
After Frechette was released from prison, he gets a job as a delivery driver in Kalamazoo. On a drive with a coworker to the east side of the state, they start bragging about who got with the most women.
"And as they chatted the one guy said, 'Well, I know you were never able to get anywhere with my girlfriend.' And he said, 'Oh yeah, I was,'" says Dietz.
Frechette and his coworker got into an argument and he ends up killing his coworker.
"So Clarence goes back to Kalamazoo driving his buddy's car, picks up his buddy's girlfriend. They go to a movie that night. And then he decides, 'Well, somebody's probably going to miss him.' So with his buddy's body in the truck of the car, he drives off for California."
Dietz says Frechette almost got away with it too, but he ran out of money. So Frechette sends a telegram to his coworker/friend's family.
"And says 'I need some money.' But he signs his name - well if the victim went by Robert - he [Frechette] signs his name 'Bob.' And the family goes, 'He never called himself Bob.' So they notify the police in California who stop him. His goal was he would just drop the car off in California and get a job working on a freighter and sail to China."
To hear more stories on Kalamazoo murders, check out the Murders Most Foulprogram at 2 p.m. at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum.