A tale of two boys: One became a serial killer

April 07, 2025

A tale of two boys: One became a serial killer

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: