45. The Crack City Strangler The collapse of the Detroit auto industry had unintended consequences. Unemployment soared, businesses closed, and people moved to the suburbs. In 1992, the Detroit News reported 322 abandoned buildings in Highland Park, a city of only 2.9 square miles. And late at night, Benjamin Atkins used those abandoned buildings to rape and murder 11 women. In episode 45, I speak with B.R. Bates.
B.R. Bates is an author and journalist with 10 books in print and several e-books and publications. With The Baby Doll Serial Killer: The John Eric Armstrong Homicides (A Study in Crime Ep. 14. The Serial Killer of Michigan Ave.), she makes a foray into true crime. BR graduated from Michigan State University and spent 10 years in the daily newspaper industry with The Detroit News and others. She is a Michigan native.
NOTES: The episode transcript is here. All links are at astudyincrime.com. Take our listener survey.
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A Study in Crime is written and produced by Scott Fulmer, author of the true-crime memoir Confessions of a Private Eye. Scott is a veteran private investigator who has spent the last 30 years conducting complex investigations throughout the US. He’s a decorated combat veteran of the Gulf War and lives in the Texas Hill Country near San Antonio.