The Michigan True Crime Symposium: What a wonderful event

It was the third annual event, and it showcased several true-crime authors from various parts of Michigan. It was also hosted at the most appropriate of places -- the site of the original state prison in Jackson, Michigan, specifically inside the old carriage house where prison inmates once worked. The building is now home to Art 634, and the gallery offered a nice setting, as you can see in the photos below. And nearby were other left-over artifacts of the old prison site -- much of the original stone wall still stands around the property, for instance. When I first parked my car, I had to walk over to get some close-up video of it, and there was even a small film crew in one corner, near one of the old guard towers, shooting a scene of something-or-other with that wall as the backdrop. What a cool setting for an event like this.

Many thanks to author Michael Delaware and everyone who came out -- my fellow authors along with the wonderful attendees who visited the table of myself and my collaborator for "The 'Baby Doll' Serial Killer" book, Dr. Gerald Cliff. Each of us authors shared true-crime stories from the books we have worked on. The presentations of Dr. Cliff and I will be posted on my YouTube channel in the coming weeks, so look for that, as well as the Q&A segment with all of us authors at the end of the afternoon, which was very cool.

Dr. Gerald Cliff, right, with Mikel B. Classen.

Michael Delaware hosted the event.

Gerry Cliff talked about the John Eric Armstrong case and the formation of Detroit Police's interagency Violent Crime Task Force.

Allie Seibert has written several books about forgotten and unusual Michigan criminal cases, most recently "Bloodstained: Exploring Michigan's Darkest Murders Forgotten By Time."

Michael Delaware discussed his book "Victorian Southwest Michigan True Crime."

Joe Koenig wrote a book about the D.B. Cooper case, "Getting The Truth: I Am D.B. Cooper," and he discussed the case, but he also told me he has just wrote a fiction book inspired by the Benjamin Atkins case that I wrote about, so I'm looking forward to seeing that.

Mikel B. Classen discussed "Piracy on the Great Lakes: True Tales of Freshwater Pirates."

For my own presentation, I talked about my visits to John Eric Armstrong at the G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility, just three and a half miles from this event site.

(All photos by B.R. Bates except the bottom three by Michael Delaware.)