Gregory A. Fournier on his new book “Terror in Ypsilanti,” poet Thylias Moss on Limited Fork Theory, D’Real Graham on his write-in campaign for County Prosecutor, and a preview of the 2016 Zine Show …on this weekend’s edition of the Saturday Six Pack

This Saturday’s episode will be told in four parts…

Our first guest will be Gregory A. Fournier, author of Terror in Ypsilanti, the new book on EMU student turned serial killer John Norman Collins. Collins, for those of you who weren’t around in the late ’60s, is thought to have murdered seven young women in and around Ypsilanti, beginning the evening of July 9, 1967, when 19-year-old Eastern Michigan University accounting student Mary Terese Fleszar was last seen alive by friends, and continuing until 18-year-old EMU student Karen Sue Beineman was murdered by Collins July 23, 1969. Collins, who came to be known in the press as the Michigan Murderer, was sentenced to life in prison in 1970 for the murder of Beineman, and is currently serving his sentence in the Marquette Branch Prison. Reached for a comment about Fournier’s book by the Detroit News, Collins said, “I haven’t been cooperative with Greg in the past and I believe that upset him. I may be wrong, but, I do not see how someone can write a book about anyone with only HERESAY & SPECULATION and wants to call it nonfiction.” I’m sure, among other things, Fournier and I will be discussing that review, as well as what it was like living in Ypsilanti at the time. [Fournier, as I understand it, not only lived near Collins, but claims to have once had an unpleasant run-in with him.] So, if you’d like to find out more about this particular chapter in Ypsilanti’s history, which you won’t see mentioned at the local historical museum, be sure to tune in at 5:00.

[Above, by way of Wikipedia: “Police diagram released to the news media June 10, 1969, depicting the locations of the first five victims linked to the Michigan Murderer.“]

Then, during our second segment, we’ll be talking with MacArthur Foundation Fellow Thylias Moss, who literary critic Harold Bloom once referred to as a “hallucinatory force” in poetry. We’ll be talking with Moss, an emeritus professor at U-M, about her life, her evolution as an artist, and the her upcoming book, Wannabe Hoochie Mama Gallery of Realities’ Red Dress Code: New and Selected Poems, which, if we’re lucky, she will be reading from.

Here, to give you some idea for what we might be in for, is a relatively recent interview with Moss explaining Limited Fork Theory – the theory which has, in recent years, guided her work.

And, in our third segment, we’ll be welcoming D’Real Graham back into the studio. Graham, a co-founder of Radical Washtenaw – a collective of artists and activists in Washtenaw County – will be talking with us about his write-in campaign for the office of County Prosecutor against incumbent Brian Mackie, who has come under fire over the last year for his handling of the Aura Rosser case. Among other things, I imagine Graham and I will discuss his four-point plan for what he would do as County Prosecutor, which reads as follows.

Once elected, D’Real R. Graham will:

1) take the lead in implementing a completely revisioned first-responder protocol

2) steer everyone accused of a non-violent offense into appropriate rehabilitative programs or transformational spaces, rather than jail

3) deconstruct and reimagine—from the ground up, with community direction and concensus—the mission and responsibilities of the Prosecutor’s office

4) prosecute all forms of police misconduct, and require all investigations into police misconduct to be handled by investigators who are in no way associated with or representative of any law enforcement system

And, lastly, we’ll wrap up the show with Erin Anderson-Ruddon and Jen Mumford, the curators of this year’s big Zine Show, which kicks off while we’re on the air at Ypsi’s 22 North Gallery. We’ll be picking up our conversation about zines where we left off last year, and then heading over to the exhibit together after the show… And we expect to see you there too.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE NEVER TUNED IN TO THE SIX PACK BEFORE, HERE ARE THE DETAILS ON HOW TO LISTEN:

Unless you live inside the AM 1700 studio, chances are you won’t be able to pick the show up on your radio. As that’s the case, I’d recommend streaming the show online, which you can do either on the AM1700 website or by way of TuneIn.com.

And for those of you who aren’t yet familiar with the show, and need to get caught up, you can listen to the entire archive on iTunes.

Oh, and if you’d like to tell your friends and neighbors about this, our 50th anniversary broadcast, feel free to share the Facebook event listing.

And, here, thanks to AM 1700 senior graphic designer Kate de Fuccio, is this week’s poster, in case any of you want to print copies and leave them at one of the highway rest areas that you frequent.

And do call us if you have a chance. We love phone calls. So please copy down this number and slide it into your sock – 734.217.8624 – and call us between 6:00 and 8:00 this Saturday evening. The show, as you know if you listen, gets exponentially better with each phone call.

[note: This week’s episode begins at 5:00 PM.]