What if......Someone Convicted of Murder was Actually Innocent?

 What if a convicted killer was actually innocent?

What if a love triangle is what got him sent away? What if the law never even knew that love triangle existed? Would it have made a difference in his case?

Let me explain......

My mother and the man who raised me were swingers back in the late 1960's. Back then your swinging life and your every day life did NOT intersect. My mother LOVED a man named John, but was dating Clyde. Mom's best friend from back then confirmed much of this, as did one of my Aunt's. None of what mom said to me made any sense until the other day when I was looking at her wedding rings again.....

I have known pretty much all my life that Clyde is NOT my biological father. A man name John is.... The ONLY man my mother truly loved. She was beyond obsessed with him...... But she could not be with him..... And back then, she could not allow anyone to know I was John's biological child.

In 1967 Clyde purchased the wedding set I now have. In 1967 he proposed to her and she turned him down. I know she turned him down because she told me she turned him down many times before finally giving in and marrying him. Getting married on Halloween was Mom's idea, she said it made her marriage more tolerable. But, her first rejection was in 1967 and that's when the murders began in Ypsilanti...... Clyde was a Free Mason and had a military background. Clyde had been a part of the original MK Ultra program in the 1950's while he was in the army. He had a friend, a black man who wore a big gold ring.....I cannot recall his name but he hung out a lot when I was little...... Mom swore to her dying day that John was innocent, that Clyde and the black man with the big gold ring committed the murders.....

What if she was telling the truth? It now makes sense. Clyde having been rejected because Mom was in love with John -- went about ridding himself of his rival by setting him up for a series of murders.... Clyde had the know how to do it.... He was angry enough..... As a child I recall arguments they had where Clyde would say "John's not here I am".  Another phrase Clyde used during these arguments was "After everything I've done for you Mary Jo." 

Once she left Clyde for a few months and rented the very apartment on Emmet St that John had lived in. I was about 4 years old and playing on the floor with the toys while Mom sat on the side of the bed. She had a far away look on her face when she said, "If only John could see you now." 

Mom knew way too much about John's family, his character and him. My mother lived on her love for John. I wrote to him two years ago. I mentioned only one place Mom had worked to see if he remembered. In his reply he said he "enjoyed the company of two waitresses", sealing her story that she and Linda had both slept around with John. I never told him that Mom and Linda had been practically inseparable back then. I never mentioned Linda in my letter to him at all. He also confirmed he had done this around the time she would have conceived me.

At first they laid 7 murders at John's feet, but decades later 1 was finally attributed to the real killer since it had not fit the "pattern" of the other 6. The brutality of each murder was an obvious exhibit of extreme anger. The fact that many of the victims bore a resemblance to Mom now makes perfect sense. Mom and Clyde had been inn that same wig shop on the same day as the last victim. Mom wore wigs a lot when I was a child. Even though the wig looked just like her real hair I never understood it. Neither Mom nor Clyde were EVER interviewed by the police during the investigation. 

Because Clyde never made his hatred of John known, Mom claimed they did all hang out a lot. It would not be beyond the scope of reason to think John might have asked Clyde to run over and feed his uncle's dogs that day.....

John was arrested in July of 1969 without ever knowing that Mom was pregnant. Clyde does the honorable thing and marries Mom. I was born January 1970, they married in October 1970. My entire childhood until Mom had Clyde institutionalized was listening to their fights that ALWAYS had the phrase - "John's not here Mary Jo, but I am." Clyde never had a real chance with her. She married him out of duty and honor, to give ME a father figure. In the late 60's and early 70's it was still looked down on to have a child out of wedlock.

Clyde's family never wanted anything to do with me. Not once do I recall ever getting a birthday card, Christmas card, present or even a phone call from ANYONE on Clyde's side of the family. It was always Mom who reached out to them until Clyde was institutionalized, then all communication with them stopped completely.  Clyde never gave me his last name, but  do recall them discussing it. Mom's family always treated me oddly, or I FELT it was different that the other cousin's were treated. Anytime I bring up my biological father it's like a forbidden topic. They all KNOW but no one will speak of it even though Mom is long dead, passed in 1999.

Mom was alienated from her own family and that is also a topic no one will speak of. I get a few little tidbits here and there but I think I understand why now. She was alienated because of ME, the child she conceived out of wedlock. After she institutionalize Clyde she also cut off nearly all communication with her own family. She never wanted ME reaching out to them either. It was like all of my life she tried to hide me.  When a girl was killed by a fellow student when I was in high school, Mom did not want my name in the paper or anything associated with the student strike. It was like she wanted me to be a ghost.

Growing up I always thought her obsession with John was a bit strange and her making me read everything about him, watch every time they spoke of him on TV...... It was obvious she was heartbroken when she saw his face on TV, she cried hard. She told me all sorts of stories about how things were back then..... Even as a 4 year old I KNEW they had dated..... But some of the first things I remember reading are True Detective and Homicide magazines - articles about John. She bought the book by Edward Keyes and made me read it. Every time he was on TV she would make me come in and watch it. 

A good friend once told me this was Mom's way of making me know my biological father the only way she could. 

 

But what if Clyde did set him up? There is one incident that I am sure John did not have the know how to do but Clyde did. It was when the police had the abandoned house staked out, it was raining, hard. The killer managed to sneak past the police, leave flowers on the path and get out without being seen AND without leaving any other evidence behind, not even shoe prints! Clyde had the military background to know how to do that. John was a college student studying Education. 

Mom also accused Clyde of something else. She claimed he molested me more than once. I have zero memory of that happening, but several therapists over the years said I had suffered a childhood trauma that I was actively blocking out. All of that would have occurred before I turned 8. I am 52 now and still in therapy. I was 8  when my sister was born, Clyde's biological daughter, his ONLY daughter. Clyde has several children, all boys until my sister was born. 

(More coming soon)