#RememberThem: Darlene, survivor

Darlene lived to see her kids grow up. Lived to see her grandchildren, and to enjoy her life. And when she finally passed, it was in the comforting arms of a son who loved her very much.

But it almost didn't turn out that way.

Darlene knew this guy named Tony, from the different times when she was hanging out on the street. She would see him here and there. They went to some of the same places. The same crack houses and whatever. He was just a guy she met a few years earlier, and she knew his sister, too. 

But one day when Darlene and Tony decided to smoke a little crack together, things went sideways.  They were over by the abandoned Monterey Motel in Highland Park, Michigan, near the Howard Johnson's restaurant that used to be there. And it was only due to Darlene's tenacity and the appearance of another guy she knew from the street, that she was saved in this violent encounter.

For years, Darlene was thought to be the first person Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins assaulted. But another came forward, decades later, and we'll talk about her story in another post. Darlene was the soul survivor of this serial killer when it came time to try him, and her powerful testimony was instrumental in ending his reign of terror on Woodward Avenue in Detroit, both at the trial and in apprehending him in the first place.

Darlene didn't have to testify. And she didn't have to come forward to tell her story. Lots of women living at risk on the streets don't tell their stories, when they're assaulted. Because it happens a lot more often than you think. But because of Darlene's bravery, lives were saved.

Darlene was a smart gal, in many ways. She and her husband had at one time been business owners in the Highland Park community where they lived. She was a problem-solver, her son Rashad told me. And she was valuable. So that's why I honor her in this #RememberThem series.

Two images courtesy of Darlene's son Rashad; see note below.

This post is part of a series on this blog that I am calling #RememberThem, a chance to honor the women who encountered the two Detroit serial killers I have researched, John Eric Armstrong and Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins. In this continuing series, with installments dropping every week or so, we first learn more about the women Armstrong was known to have killed in Detroit, plus two of his survivors, then we turn to the women who encountered Atkins. Click on the "Honoring the Victims" label on the left to see all of the parts in the series. Also see the #RememberThem series on YouTube.

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Above photos are copyrighted and specifically for use in The Crack City Strangler: The Homicides of Serial Killer Benjamin Atkins; any other use prohibited without permission.

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