Real Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Book III

Robison Family Massacre

The Robison family murders, alsoreferred to as the Good Hart murders, were the mass murders ofRichard Robison, his wife Shirley Robison (née Fulton), and theirfour children; Ritchie, Gary, Randy, and Susan on June 25, 1968. Theupper-middle-class family from the metropolitan Detroit area ofLathrup Village, Michigan, were shot and killed while vacationing intheir Lake Michigan cottage just north of Good Hart, Michigan, nearthe Straits of Mackinac. This case remained unsolved after a 15-monthinvestigation by the Michigan State Police and the Emmet CountySheriff's Office. However, when the investigation was completed inDecember 1969, evidence pointed to one person: Joseph Raymond ScolaroIII, an embezzling employee of Richard Robison.

Crime scene

The murders began with five gunshotsaimed at Richard Robison, fired through a rear window from a.22-caliber semi-automatic rifle. The murderer then entered thecottage through an unlocked door and killed the remaining five peoplewith shots to the head from a .25-caliber semi-automatic pistol.Susan and Richard Robison were also bludgeoned with a hammer found atthe murder scene.

Shirley Robison's body wasintentionally posed so that when the crime scene was discovered itwould lead the police to think that the crime was part of a sexualattack. Bloody footprints on the floor led investigators to concludethat one person committed the murders. The bodies were notdiscovered for 27 days and conditions at the murder scene resulted inadvanced decomposition of the bodies.

Investigation

By the second week of theinvestigation, which had begun on Monday, July 22, 1968, the MichiganState Police and the Emmet County authorities suspected RichardRobison's employee Joseph R. Scolaro III, aged 30. He had not beenseen or heard from for more than twelve hours on the day of themurders, and his alibis for that time period all proved invalid. Hehad also purchased both of the murder weapons determined by policeforensic tests to have been used in the Robison family murders,specifically, a .25 caliber Jet-Fire automatic Beretta pistol #47836,and a .22 caliber AR-7 ArmaLite semi-automatic rifle #75878. The four.22 caliber spent shells found at the cabin murder scene wereforensically compared by their ballistic markings to several .22caliber evidence shells known to have been fired by Scolaro at afamily firing range in 1967 at which time Scolaro used his missing.22 caliber ArmaLite rifle #75878. The two sets of shells were foundto be an exact match. Although Scolaro claimed to have given thisweapon away, a neighbor had told police he had seen the .22 caliberAR-7 rifle in Scolaro's house not long before the Robisons werekilled.

Scolaro's missing .25 caliber Berettaautomatic pistol #47836, which he also claimed to police to havegiven away prior to the June 25, 1968 murders, was matchedforensically in similar class characteristics to a second identical.25 caliber Beretta pistol #47910 that he produced for police on thesecond day after the bodies were found in Good Hart. Both guns hadbeen purchased by Scolaro on the same day, February 2, 1968. Alsofound at the murder scene were several Sako .25 caliber spentcartridges, a rare 1968 Finnish brand sold only for the limited timeof a few weeks in Michigan (January–February, 1968) prior to themurders. It was documented by investigators that one of the actualfew Sako ammunition purchasers in Michigan had been Joseph ScolaroIII, on February 2, 1968. Scolaro's statements that he had givenaway both of the missing murder weapons and the Sako ammunition priorto the June 25, 1968, killings also proved invalid. They were onemore part of his elaborate scheme to obstruct the investigation ofthe crime. During the lengthy murder investigation it was determinedby a forensic accountant that more than $60,000 was missing from thetwo combined businesses of Richard Robison. The two Robisonbusinesses had been left in the care of the suspect Scolaro prior tothe murders. The two investigating police agencies involved in thecase presented their combined Evidence Case Report CR 4114-08-785-66to the jurisdictional prosecution on December 17, 1969. The detailedreport implicated Joseph Scolaro as the sole perpetrator of the massmurder crime. In mid-January 1970, Emmet County prosecutor Donald C.Noggle decided not to bring charges against Scolaro at that time,citing the two missing murder weapons and the absence of hisfingerprints from the crime scene.

Outcome

During the course of the investigation,the suspect Scolaro failed two lie detector tests; a third test wasjudged inconclusive as to the truth. It was also noted that he triedto deceive the polygraph interviewers in his pre-test interviews.Four years later, a newly elected chief prosecutor in Oakland County,L. Brooks Patterson, believed the Robison crime had originated withinhis jurisdiction and reopened the prosecution. When the prime suspectScolaro learned of the impending charges and arrest, he committedsuicide on March 8, 1973. Scolaro left behind a typewritten note onwhich he wrote "I am a lier [sic]—a cheat—a phony"with a list of people he had swindled in multiple businessschemes. He then added a handwritten note to his mother on the samesheet of paper saying "I had nothing to do with theRobisons—I'm a liar but not a murderer—I'm sick and scared—Godand everyone please forgive me." Since Michigan law does notpermit an open murder case to be officially closed, the suicide ofthe prime suspect Scolaro placed the case in the inactive file. Thus,many questions remained unanswered. Over many years other crimetheories have surfaced but to date none has ever been substantiated.

Those who personally knew Mr. Robisonwere quoted in the two police reports filed on the case as sayingthey had never known a better family man, friend, or businesspartner.