B.R. Bates's Blog: From the social feeds ..., page 6

This is a tale of two boys. Their stories were different, but both marked by a lot of tragedy. They were from totally different places, but were similar in age -- one being just a year or two older than the other. 

Their stories converged at a home for boys in the inner city of Detroit, where their stays overlapped. And amid the hundreds of boys staying at this very large facility, these two boys met. One -- the older boy -- got the better of the other, assaulting him multiple times, which then culminated in a more violent encounter. The younger boy was badly injured and moved out of the home. So they split and went their separate ways, having no idea what kinds of things life had in store for them. Their pathways to the home for boys were rocky, troubled, with painful childhood circumstances. And their pathways from the home for boys, the same. Ugly. Filled with bad things.

A postcard of the St. Francis Home for Boys, where Ben and Michael met in the 1970s.
Photo from Flickr account Don...The UpNorth Memories Guy... Harrison, used unaltered under license Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

One of those boys -- again, the older -- would go on in adulthood to kill 11 women along Detroit's historic Woodward Avenue and assault at least two others who survived. He was Benjamin Atkins, known on the street as Tony. And the other boy, Michael, whom he had assaulted, as well, during their stay at the home for boys (and Michael may have been Atkins' very first assault victim), had his own troubles. This younger boy did not go on to take human life -- never would actually cross that line -- but his anger would get him into a lot of trouble. He spent 23 years behind bars of some sort, in places he didn't want to be, restrained, penned in, counseled at times, punished at others. It started with other placement facilities before and after the home where he had met Atkins. Some were nicer than others. Then assaults at a very young age (10-12 years old) earned him stays in actual penitentiaries with cinder block walls, steel beds with thin mattresses, bleak food on a metal tray, and really rough fellow inmates -- again, even at a young age. And it just went on from there.

The miracle of this story, though, is that while Benjamin Atkins went on to be arrested, tried, convicted, and incarcerated, and to die behind bars just a few years later, in 1997, Michael is now doing a whole lot better. He has done a great deal of work on himself. He has worked through his anger. He has developed a productive, much happier life. He has a family. He has a more normal life. And he's no longer behind bars. He is free. 

Michael, now a seasoned and wise man, decided to tell his story. He has authored a blog about his experiences, and it's quite interesting. I am also thankful that he was willing to talk about his experience with Atkins for the book "The Crack City Strangler: The Homicides of Serial Killer Benjamin Atkins." From witnessing domestic violence as a very young child, to running away from his dad's home, to assaults and fights and even being stuck in the mud, as crazy as that sounds, his  life has been a whole lot more than being a victim of a future serial killer at an inner-city home for boys. I encourage you to read his story (or listen to the audio version -- very good, like a podcast), and I encourage you to encourage him. Because more than anything else, this former little boy represents hope and determination, and the fight for something better that is always possible for anyone, no matter what your circumstances:

23 Years to Freedom

23 Years to Freedom -- audio version on YouTube

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Michael tells the story of his assault at the home for boys in "The Crack City Strangler: The Homicides of Serial Killer Benjamin Atkins."

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Murders in the Motor City Series

 ... or at least hear a few thoughts about one author's transition from slightly-zany pop-culture writing to researching true crime -- more specifically, the cases of two convicted Detroit serial killers. This video just dropped on my YouTube. I hope you'll like and subscribe, and there are plenty more videos linked up there that will tell you more about the recently released books on these two killers.

They both killed prostitutes. They killed at around the same time, 1990 to 1992. Their victims were addicted to drugs. On the surface, Douglas (Donna) Perry and Benjamin (“Tony”) Atkins have some things in common.

One, however, was white, and the other was black. One transitioned to a female; the other did not. Atkins hid his victims; Perry left his in the open. Atkins strangled, but Perry, an avid gun collector, shot his victims. Perry took trophies; Atkins did not. Perry’s victims were varied, while Atkins hunted only black females. Whereas Perry reportedly was beaten by his father as a child, Atkins never knew his own father, instead facing the various boyfriends of his mother, some of whom he said were abusive. So yes, in many ways these two serials were dissimilar, as well.

What intrigues me, though, is another aspect of their personalities that would seem to tie them together: their views of women, and in particular their views of sex workers. And frankly, they both seem pretty conflicted in this regard. Once in custody, Atkins wavered back-and-forth. No, I don’t hate women. Yes, I do hate women. Perry was said to have an abnormal fixation on prostitutes and an intense hatred for him them because he felt they were squandering their gift of being able to reproduce by selling their bodies on the street. And that view really reminds me of Atkins, because he did tell one of the psychologists who examined him after his arrest that he wished he would’ve been born a female, because females are coddled and taken care of, and they have easier lives, as he saw it. He was resentful of that.

Interestingly, both Atkins and Perry at one time worked in the sex trade themselves, with Atkins being highly confused and guilted about his sexuality. Perry was diagnosed with something called "gender psychosis disorder." And playing into all of this in some way (because as FBI profiler John Douglas has said, many serials have mommy issues), both of these killers had a mother who was largely absent during their childhood.

So wow. A lot to think about with these two. It is also interesting to note that while Atkins claimed in the months after his arrest that he was hearing voices — one in particular named Tony, who had been telling him to do the crimes — and seemed to have sort of alternate personalities, Perry also appeared to exhibit a sort of split-personality state once in custody. At that time transitioned to female and named Donna, she adamantly refused to admit the crimes but would say that she had done some horrible things as a man, though she said Douglas Perry was now dead and gone. She continually spoke of her old self in the third person, as if she never was that person, but did make the interesting statement that she became female to stop the crimes. To police, Perry had essentially castrated himself — removed his male genitalia — to stop raping and killing. A psychologist would probably say that is oversimplifying things. And certainly there are other psychological aspects to consider in the case of Perry. But it's all so interesting, in the quest to answer the million-dollar question of what makes a person take human life.

Above photos:
Benjamin Atkins from Detroit Police files and Douglas Perry, from IMDb.

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To learn more about the Perry case, and see video clips of her being interviewed by police, catch S1E4 of "Making a Serial Killer." For a deep-dive of the Atkins case, see "The Crack City Strangler: The Homicides of Serial Killer Benjamin Atkins."

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I tend to think of the Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins case as a bit of a sleeper case. Though his name comes up sometimes in conversations about serial killers, and people are aware of him (he does indeed have a Wikipedia page), there has never been an episode of true-crime television done about the case, as far as I can tell. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. But the only episodes of any kind of modern media done on the case are a handful of podcasts that read from newspaper articles found online from the time of the case.

So Scott Fulmer with his well-done A Study in Crime podcast is the very first person to interview me on the Atkins case and the book "The Crack City Strangler: The Homicides of Serial Killer Benjamin Atkins" just released from WildBlue Press, and since that interview was back in January 2025, he can be considered the very first person to produce an original-content modern media episode on the case. Scott, incidentally, was also the first podcaster to interview me and my collaborator for the first book, "The 'Baby Doll' Serial Killer: The John Eric Armstrong Homicides."

This was a great discussion, dropping today. Scott and I tackle a lot of topics around the Atkins case: the culture of inner-city Detroit and Highland Park, Michigan, where Atkins was raised, his horrifying childhood with a heroin-addicted prostitute mother, his jumps from foster home to foster home and even a home for boys, his own hustling on the street for cash for drugs, and his progression to taking human life. Did you know Atkins claimed to hear voices that influenced him to do the crimes? We explore that and much more. Check it out, and feel free to let me know what you think.

 45. The Crack City Strangler

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Murders in the Motor City Series

One question that comes up a lot in the case of #JohnEricArmstrong is whether or not his wife was aware of what he was doing. Armstrong was a family man. He had a wife and a baby son at home, he lived with his wife's family, and there was a second child on the way. Recently, I spoke with Ed Opperman about this aspect of the case and many others. My collaborator on the #BabyDollSerialKiller book, Gerry, also did an interview on the Opperman Report.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-opperman-report/id975926302?i=1000675663944
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-opperman-report/id975926302?i=1000675657631
Thank-you, Ed!
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https://BRBates.com

What kinds of trauma were part of the childhood and upbringing of Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins? There are quite a few aspects of the background of this convicted Detroit serial killer that could make you shake your head, maybe wonder why he didn't get help. Did society fail him? And did his ethnicity factor into that? Check out this interview with True Crime Uncensored. I had a nice time chatting with Burl Barer and his co-host Mark Boyer. You can catch it on a variety of platforms, so choose your weapon:

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This podcast has been around for 17 years -- kinda like an eternity in web years! Erin Moriarty of "48 Hours" called Burl's podcast the best true-crime radio program on the air. Thanks again, Burl and Mark, for both the chat and the blog post linked above!

A serial killer's background can be complicated, but for this one, Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins, it's really complicated. So what draws a writer into researching a criminal case such as this one? And how does the nature vs. nurture question of serials apply to Atkins' life, particularly since he had a brother he was close to, who shared his same life experiences, who did not go on to become a serial killer? Justin Rimmel and I discuss that and more on the latest episode of the Mysterious Circumstances podcast. You can catch this episode soon on the variety of platforms that hosts the podcast, but right now it's on YouTube:

I had a truly wonderful visit to the Detroit campus of Covenant House Michigan on Friday. It was the third time I've been there, if I recall correctly, having been a supporter of the ministry for 15 years (can't believe it's been that long, but that's what they told me!). Seriously, if you ever have a down day and want to restore your faith in human beings, go to covenanthousemi.org and see the amazing work they do to help young people living at risk on the streets. Covenant House is a national ministry, so there's likely a location where you are, and I encourage you to support them as well. 

This is (from left) receptionist Carlotta, CEO Meagan, and exec assistant Amy, with me. (Thanks to CDO Tim for taking the pic.) I gave them a copy of the first book since it helps support their work, and since, with my research on these criminal cases and the females whose lives have been lost, I know that many, many other lives have been saved over the years by the work of this ministry.

Just dropped this quick clip to explain a little more of my experience and approach to the research of this convicted Detroit serial killer. As always, you can email me with any questions or comments!

Jill at the Murder Shelf Book Club has done such an amazing job in her series on "The 'Baby Doll' Serial Killer" book and the John Eric Armstrong case. As I've been talking about on this very blog, she has taken the facts of the case and blended them with her own touch of drama. It's something like listening to a vintage radio serial. And I've really gotten a kick out of the imagery she's used on social media, some of which I include below. Now, her series, which has been running the past few weeks, culminates with the interview she recorded with myself and Dr. Gerald Cliff, my collaborator on the book. You can catch it here:

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