ASolo ago

Wow. Heavy thread. I'll bet this ring intersected with Michigan gov George Romney and Kathy O'Brien

kestrel9 ago

con't

Michigan. This was Frank Shelden's great-grandfather. His mother was Frances Pitts Duffield, a member of another famous Detroit family. Allan Shelden's dry goods fortune was invested in land, and it became Henry Shelden's fortune. Henry's sons formed the Shelden Land Co. after World War I, and subdivided and built one of Detroit's premier subdivisions, Rosedale Park, in 1925. The family history has had its effect on Shelden.

Born Francis Duffield Shelden, he spent his allowance on classical records as a child. He went to Yale for his B.A., served in the Michigan Air Guard, joined his family in land development after the service, and began getting interested in geology. "One of the reasons was that my family had been involved in petroleum exploration. I walked into Wayne State one day and said, Id like to take a course in Petroleum Geology.' They laughed, and started listing all the courses I'd have to take first as pre-requisites.

I started taking them, and I enjoyed it, and I enjoyed the people." He got his masters degree in geology, and began a flirtation with the oil business. "I got in on the St. Clair oil play," he said, when gas and oil was being found in the southeast end of the same geological formation the Niagaran reef that is the subject of so much exploration in the northwest Lower Peninsula today. He actually retained a company to drill two holes, and struck on one. Mostly, he bought mineral rights from landowners, and leased them to oil companies in return for royalties from successful wells.

He had been able to do all this starting with a trust fund he inherited when he came of age. One of the first things he did was buy a Cessna 140 when he was 21 for $1,750, and learned to fly. "My father was convinced I was ' going to go to the dogs, if I didn't kill myself first"

But he didn't squander his inheritance, and has flown thousands of miles safely since. Today he works in an office in his Ann Arbor home, and when he has to, he drives downtown to the family office in the Buhl building, a drab, efficient office with functional furniture and file cabinets, a bookkeeper and receptionist, and a tile floor. On the door, a hand-painted sign says, simply, "Shelden."

Frank Shelden says he does a bit of consulting work in the oil field, invests, tends to other affairs, and teaches undergraduate geology now and then when a local university needs him. He went as far as his oral preliminaries toward his Ph. D. in geology, but never finished his dissertation. Now, he says, his academic and ecological interest in geology remains, but he has no plans to finish his degree.

Shelden gained some attention in 1972 when he and a partner drafted plans to damn the Monroe Creek, near Charlevoix, and build 1,-300 vacation homes around the 400:acre lake that would result The plan was halted while Shelden fought citizens' lawsuits. Shelden, defended by attorney Berlage among others, won the lawsuits. But he never developed the project because of changing economic conditions and the death of his partner, he says. He backpacks, and skis.

"Ever since I was a little boy. I've been a real outdoors type of person," he says. "I feel very, very close to real conservation movements. But I have to say,

North Fox has been Shelden's for 15 years, since he bought it in 1960 from the widow of John Oliver Plank, a Northern Michigan investor who, among other things, helped develop the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. Mrs. Plank, who was 85 in 1960 and living in San Diego, offered to sell the island to the state of Michigan. The state offered her $4 per acre the top price the state was paying at that time for wilderness land. She declined the $3,360 bid.

A friend of Shelden's in the state Department of Natural Resources told him about North Fox Island.

With his brother, Alger, Shelden purchased North Fox for $20,000 about $23 an acre. He took full control when his brother sold his interest to him eight years ago.

Today, the island is appraised at $312,000. And even if you have that kind of money, the island isn't for sale. Shelden, who describes himself as a "private investor," has fallen in love with North Fox. During a day on the island, it was easy to see why.

We landed on the airstrip, a green slash running nearly the width of the island, a grassy carpet which is the only break in the dense forest of beech and elm that covers the rest of the island. With us were Don Berlage, an assistant Charlevoix County prosecutor, and his sons Steve, 16, and Clint, 20. It was a bright morning in early November, and they were there to hunt the deer that populate North Fox.

Deer season on the mainland wouldn't open for another week. But Shelden has a "breeder permit" which allows him to raise deer on the island, and slaughter them at any time. The Berlages decided to spend the morning hunting north of the airstrip, while we went south to Shelden's cozy, glass-and-timber home, perched high on the west bank of the island, near a stand of birch. At sunset, Shelden says, the white bark of the birch trees turns golden red.

We set out to explore the south end of the island. North Fox is two miles long, and almost a mile wide at points. It narrows to a tip at the south end. We clambered down the steep west bank to a beach that is a mixture of sand and gravel. Even on a pleasant day, cloudless, with only a light, invigorating breeze, the waves roll with regularity against this west wall of the island. Along the beach, on this island owned by one man, are reminders that there is a world of millions just over the horizon: Litter. The cast-offs of the waves are diverse. A light bulb. A float from a fisherman's gill net.

"Once I found an oar," says Shelden. "I came back sometime later and found another oar, and the whole boat." And pieces of e shipwreck. Shelden points out to the west, toward the looming profile of South Fox Island five miles away. Out there, he said, lies the wreck of the Sunnyside, an iron ore carrier that went down in 1883. a 4 Leelanau township official say Shelden's property was assessed the same way as similar mainland property in the township. But that means placing a premium on lake front footage and North Fox Island has 29,474 feet of shoreline, more than bVt miles.

Yet, Shelden will no longer consider selling parcels to help finance his expenses on North Fox. He can obviously afford to maintain it without help. And he says: "I hold the island as an investment and use it for business entertainment. I get a tax break there."

Shelden says he's not a millionaire. But as a "private investor," he earns enough to rent an office in downtown Detroit, own a condominium in Ann Arbor on the Huron River, a ski lodge near Aspen, Colo., his cars, his plane, and his island.

Shelden's family goes back nearly 125 years in Detroit, to Allan Shelden (1832-1905). The. ancestral Shelden came to Michigan from New York State, founded a dry goods store, thrived, and merged with Zacharias Chandler & Co. Allan Shelden ran the business while Chandlef ran for president, unfortunately expiring in Chicago on the eve of a nominating convention that might have picked him to run.

Allan Shelden's only son, Henry, married Caroline Alger, one of the nine children of Russell A. Alger. Russell Alger was a U.S. Army hero and general, later a founder of the Edison Electric Light Co. in Detroit, Governor of Michigan (1885-87), Secretary of War during the McKinley administration and the Spanish-American War, and finally, U.S. Senator.

Perched high on the west bank near a stand of birch, Shelden's snug glass and timber home Is the Island's only human habitation. "On a calm day here," says Shelden, "you really learn what silence is. And at night, darkness."

"But it takes a peculiar sort of personality to live on an island. You have to put up with the grubbiness. Self-sufficiency, that's what island life is all about "You spend a lot of your time fiddling with malfunctioning equipment, shoveling gravel into a hole in the road, mowing the airstrip, renovating the house, chopping wood and splitting the logs for the fireplace. I maintain about five miles of dirt trails."

And he gets no help with all this, even though he pays $4,880 annually in Leelanau County taxes "I get nothing for my tax dollar. That's really my only problem. I've been crucified on taxes." His eyes light up. "If there was any way to declare unilateral independence, and separate myself from the county and the township... I've often wondered about that. I could raise money by selling my own postage stamps." Shelden is appealing a tax-reassessment which resulted in the $312,000 appraisal of his property. He doesn't deny the land has increased in value since he bought it 15 years ago, but he places the price today, with the airstrip, roads, home and other improvements at closer to $140,000.

kestrel9 ago

This is one of Frank (Francis) Shelden's pedo business partners: Gerald S. Richards

Shelden, with the help of several like-minded associates, decided to combine his interests and started Brother Paul's Children's Mission, a "nature camp" for boys aged 7 to 16, located on his tiny, isolated and uninhabited island. 

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1977/05/15/page/20/article/father-teacher-tangled-life-of-child-pornographer

I have much more on this case, this is just a bit of background. I included the entire article from the Detroit Free Press for a couple reasons, one is that it isn't available to read on one page, and two, it shows some of Frank's Shelden's public face and personality. It's very difficult to find articles like that.

kestrel9 ago

That article makes Richards sound contrite but Cathy Broad's research leads her to believe otherwise. https://catherinebroad.blog/2014/01/13/much-sickness-north-fox-island-shelden-grossman-starchild-richards-the-franklin-scandal/

Gerald Richards was a very evil man, despite his contrite b.s. testimony to the contrary.  More on that in the next post, which will include documents from the Michigan State Police file on the CSC charges against him and Shelden from 1976 and 1977.  While Richards had some amnesia attacks during his softball session with the Senators, he was very specific when he was interviewed by the MSP.  And the file includes transcripts of some statements given by adults who remember what he did to them as children in his “clinic” in Port Huron.  He was, in addition to being a phys ed teacher at a boy’s school (go figure), a naturopath.  Apparently the filming of child rape and porn did not only take place on Fox Island—Richard’s “doctor’s” office was also used as a film set.

Vindicator ago

Great so far, kestrel9! I couldn't find a link between the two men in this article you've linked to, though. Could you provide that?

kestrel9 ago

They are connected through Brother Paul's Mission and they met through BLM (Better Life Monthly..meaning Boy Lovers Magazine) The following quotes are out of order...(and some are from a blog, will find link Edit: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/3nmkah/north_fox_island_circa_197576_unsolved_serial/ Thanks @ASolo, saved me time digging through my own notes!)

http://archive.is/AHnZK

Shelden was also a staff writer in the 1970s for Better Life Monthly (“BL”), a magazine described as representing an international organization “seeking liberation for boys and boy-lovers.” Coded advertisements allowed subscribers to contact each other and to engage children in pornographic modeling and prostitution. Child pornographer Gerald Richards (a registered sex offender who apparently died in Port Huron in 1994–thank you to the person who sent me this info), met Shelden around 1974.

Shelden responded to an ad Richards placed in BLM, describing his “magic show.” The two corresponded and then met. Richards had been thinking of starting a boys’ camp and when he learned Shelden owned Fox Island, the two of them “naturally thought about organizing the camp.” (From police reports.)

The Church of Revelation ran an ad in BLM offering to help readers set up child-care organizations and camps. The Church of New Revelation was not a church at all, but just a referral agency that distributed child porn around the country. The “Church” was incorporated in New Jersey in 1974. The same people also incorporated “Educational Foundation for Youth,” allegedly based in Chicago. This foundation started out as the non-profit arm of a profit corporation that was listed as an “import/export” business.

Richards responds to the Church’s ad and the “Reverend” Dyer Grossman (aka Dale Osterman, Elliot Crossman, Elijah Crossman) came from New Jersey to Port Huron to help Richards set up “Brother Paul’s Childrens Mission.” Grossman came from a very wealthy Long Island family and had been—no real surprise—a science teacher at two boys schools, one of them a boarding school. Richards was the president of this newly formed Brother Paul’s and Grossman was the vice president. Richard’s wife was the secretary. The name of the treasurer was redacted from the case file. Why the MSP was able to redact that name under FOIA provisions, I do not know. God only knows who it was. Shelden was listed as a director of the corporation.

Also incorporated at the same time was the “Ocean Living Institute” of Kearny, New Jersey. Same officers as for Brother Paul’s. The mission was “to promote education and research in oceanography.”

Richards ran Brother Paul’s “nature camp” for boys, ages 7-16, on Fox Island. It was classified by the Michigan State Attorney General as a charitable trust.

(Richards was president of Brother Paul's Children's Mission and director of its nature camp, which was created and operated under the auspices of the Church of the New Revelation.) An investigation of incorporation papers in three states confirms that a central figure in all the organizations cited by Richards goes by the name of Adam Starchild, an alias according to New Jersey authorities. Starchild is listed as the president of the Church of the New Revelation and was the primary incorpo rator of Brother Paul's. He is also listed as president of Ocean Living Institute and a trustee of the Education Foundation for Youth.

Adam Starchild (Malcolm Willis McConahy) and Francis Shelden's relationship is an entire thread unto itself....which I'll do soon :)

kestrel9 ago

Francis (Frank) Shelden, wrote for and edited magazines/newletters related to the 'Boy Lover' movement, using the alias Frank Torey

Acolyte Press (frank torey) (Amsterdam)

The Acolyte Press (c1984-1996) was an Amsterdam based publishing house specializing in boylove fiction and erotica. It was founded and operated by editor Frank Torey (1928-1996) who had previously worked in a similar venture named Coltsfoot Press.

N.A.M.b.L.A (frank torey) (USA)

PAN (A Spartacus publication - editor frank torey)

Panthology (frank torey)

kestrel9 ago

From Kathleen Firestone, noted historian regarding North Fox Island and Francis (Frank) Shelden http://archive.is/D6pQy

I don’t usually write history from a first-person voice, but this time I will. That’s because I’m angry.

His (Francis') legacy includes not only deer stories, but also alleged offenses against children. I have to say “alleged” because he was never brought to trial.

Shelden was from Ann Arbor and a well-known philanthropist who sat on boards and involved himself in child welfare agencies. When two adolescent boys from Port Huron told family members that Francis Shelden had molested and photographed them on North Fox Island, the Leelanau County locals were shocked!

Blurred photos from state police reports, evidence taken from child porn magazines, showed children with a background identified as being North Fox Island, verifying that the boys had been on the island.

How was Shelden able to take other people’s children to North Fox? Shelden and his cronies had established Brother Paul’s Children’s Mission, allegedly as a front for their child pornography ring. They hired the Omenabased excavating business headed by Frank Kalchik to clear a runway on the island, where Shelden and others could land small aircraft. The Kalchiks were among the shocked when the child pornography news broke.

Looking back, Joan Kalchik Ten- Brock told me of the days after the airstrip was constructed, when some of the family had gone to the island by boat to look the place over. Unexpectedly, Francis Shelden arrived and was surprised to see the Kalchik group down the shoreline. After walking to meet them, Shelden directed the Kalchiks to his small cabin and told them to stay until he came back to get them. After waiting an hour or so, Shelden showed up and gave a tour of parts of the island. Joan now believes Shelden’s actions were suspicious and that he was trying to get rid of some evidence (or maybe a small person).

Frank Shelden had friends and acquaintances on the Leelanau mainland — people who had let him stay in their homes, people who had shared meals with him. When some asked to read what Frank was writing on his typewriter, Frank declined, saying they wouldn’t be interested in the kinds of things he wrote.

I was near the end of writing my book The Fox Islands, North and South, when the child pornography allegations came to light. Shelden suddenly disappeared from the Leelanau landscape, both mainland and North Fox.

Leelanau County Prosecuting Attorney James R. Williams issued a warrant against Francis D. Shelden, but the man was never brought to trial. District Court File 2233 is only history, as Shelden escaped to the Netherlands, a place that rarely extradites.

I wrote a letter to Frank Shelden, after a friend gave me Frank’s attorney’s address. I promised Frank I would not ask any questions about the allegations; that I wanted to know about the deer, the fish, any shipwrecks he knew of near the island. He wrote me back, from the Netherlands. He graciously answered my questions and said he would like to see my book when it was finished.

Shortly after receiving Frank’s letter, I got a phone call from the FBI. I answered a few questions, and they seemed satisfied that I was not a criminal.

Reports of Frances Shelden’s death surfaced in 1996, and a Michigan warrant for him was cancelled in May, 1997, with state police reporting, “exceptional clearance, suspect is dead and cannot be prosecuted, but was obviously involved.” Private individuals still searching for justice suggest Shelden did not die in 1996, but established a new identity as Frank Torey, and continued to operate in the pedophile world. His close associate, Dyer Grossman, also disappeared and may have assumed a new identity.

I don’t know if I will ever walk the beach of North Fox Island again. I hope so, now that it belongs to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. But its beauty has been spoiled — spoiled by the terrible things that perverted men probably did there.

ProudTruther ago

And the front that they use for selling ritually abused children in that neck of the woods is called pizza girl in charlevoix,MI.

star_boi ago

Didn't the Ramsey's have a house in charlevoix?? their usual christmas house maybe?

kestrel9 ago

Caption from above article:

http://archive.is/D6pQy

A CREW of about 15 men cleared and graded a landing area on South Fox Island for a landing strip for Francis Shelden, kneeling from left, and his brother, Alger. 

Alger has an interesting background that raised my interest. http://digitize.gp.lib.mi.us/digitize/newspapers/gpnews/2010-14/2013/2013-06-27.pdf  http://archive.is/KavR0

Alger Shelden Jr. Alger Shelden Jr., 88, of St. Clair Shores, passed away unexpectedly Friday, June 14, 2013, in South Carolina. He was a longtime resident of St. Clair Shores and a member of the Renaissance Unity Church in Warren.

For health reasons, he moved in with his daughter, Jennifer, a few years ago to St. George, S.C. Born Oct. 6, 1924, in Detroit, to Alger and Frances (nee Pitts Duffield) Shelden, he attended the Arizona Desert School for Boys, and lived in Palm Springs, Calif., and Grosse Pointe until World War II broke out.

He left high school to enlist with the U.S. Navy and was assigned to the 117th Naval Construction Battalion and then split off to the 39th Naval Construction Regiment, better known as the "Seabees." Mr. Shelden was sent to Pearl Harbor and then to the central Pacific Theatre for the battles of Saipan and Okinawa, where he served as an expert rifleman and electricians mate.

He made the landings with the Marines and was part of the Seabee team that constructed the facilities and airfields for the B-29s on those Pacific islands.  

After the war, Mr. Shelden completed high school and took classes for writing and directing radio productions at Columbia University and NBC, and then hired on at the then-new WWJ channel 4, now WDIV, in Detroit.  He worked his way up to be the station's first film director.

He left broadcasting to marry, begin a family and serve the community as part of the U.S. Power Squadron. For a brief time, he co-owned a retail sporting goods store, Grays, on the Hill in Grosse Pointe Farms.

Throughout most of his life, he was involved in acting, lights and sound, and stage management at the Fine Arts Society of Detroit and the Players Club of Detroit theater group. In the early 1970s, he became a member of and found his center in the Unity Church of Today, now Renaissance Unity,and played an important role in the spirit and growth of the church.  

Over decades of services, he was a regular figure, often helping with whatever jobs were needed on Sundays. An avid boater, Mr. Shelden spent much of his summers on the waters locally and cruising in the Great Lakes. He loved being out on the water and often would swim in the waters off Strawberry Island in Lake St. Clair, or snorkel in the blue waters of the Caribbean. 

He loved photography and creating and editing numerous home movies in 8 mm silent and sound film.

He read countless novels and was hungry for more knowledge of where we came from and where we are headed on 'trip Earth.' He was a lifetime member of the Grosse Pointe Club, Country Club of Detroit and an avid supporter of the Grosse Pointe War Memorial. He supported many activities at the War Memorial and made several contributions, one being the bronze fountain located at the entrance of the Alger Home.