Clearing up the confusion about the photos of Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins

There's been some confusion about the various photos of convicted Detroit serial killer Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins that have been out there, circulating in different places over the years. Let's clear up that confusion, shall we? I think a lot of it comes from one particular photo that was posted on Atkins' Wikipedia page for years. This photo was originally posted as a prison photo of Atkins, but it is actually a prison photo of a different Ben Atkins in Florida, not the Michigan serial killer. That's this photo:

^^^^
This is NOT convicted serial killer 
Benjamin Atkins 

See the note from May 11, 2024 on the history of Atkins' Wikipedia page, stating when this photo was removed, and the fact that it's a different Ben Atkins. You can also find this information on Reddit, on this discussion:

This photo has been distributed widely beyond Wikipedia for years, such as on websites about serial killers, podcasts on YouTube about Atkins, and even on the cover of a 2013 e-book about Atkins. 

There are a few (very few) photos of Atkins online that are actually Atkins, and they are basically the media shots of Atkins during his trial. Below is an example, and it's by Richard Lee of the Detroit Free Press and was taken during Atkins' trial in the first quarter of 1994 (see it at this Freep story):

^^^^

This IS convicted serial killer
Benjamin Atkins

The photo below, used for the cover of "The Crack City Strangler" book, is also a bona-fide photo of Atkins and was taken by Detroit police when Atkins was questioned in January 1992, a few months before his August 1992 arrest:

^^^^

This IS convicted serial killer
Benjamin Atkins

Atkins was found in an abandoned building, where he should not have been, during a sweep of abandoned buildings that month after the discovery of one of his victims, Vicki Truelove. Police questioned Atkins after they found him sleeping there but then released him, having no idea they actually had just spoken with the killer they were hunting. This photo is one I obtained via FOIA in my research for the book, one of two photos Detroit police took of Atkins (in the other one, taken at Atkins' arrest in August 1992, Atkins is wearing a red track jacket and reddish shirt and pants, and he was photographed in that same outfit by the media at the time). I won't dig through my files to fish out that other photo, as it's not good quality, anyway. Both of these photos were Polaroids taken by DPD and not reproduced very well by the time they got to me in the FOIA PDF file. Both are included in my book, and they were clearly labeled as photos of Atkins in the FOIA PDF file. DPD even describes the jacket Atkins wears in the photo above in their documentation of the January questioning. So yes, I can tell you for sure, even if an Amazon reviewer thinks otherwise, that this photo above is actually a photo of convicted serial killer Benjamin Atkins. (Sorry -- I totally don't mean to be so reactionary! Everyone is entitled to their opinion of the book; I respect that. But when you introduce a fact error in a review, and one that maligns the author's work, I've got to say something.)

During my research for "The Crack City Strangler" book, even the defense attorney saw the wrong prison photo and told me that it didn't look like Atkins to him. So I contacted the Michigan Department of Corrections and asked for a real prison photo of Atkins. They told me they no longer have one. It was not retained, per their normal protocol / time period for records management. So, as far as a I know, there actually is no prison photo of this convicted serial killer in existence right now. I would love to be wrong, though, so if you know of one, feel free to contact me.

So hopefully this makes things clearer, regarding photos of serial killer Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins!