Flint is well known for its modern violent crimes but Flint's history is filled with little known stories that read stranger than fiction. Gruesome murders, weird accidents, and violent deaths. Join us every Thursday as Joe Schipani details some of the odd but true deaths he found in Flint's archives.
Fatal Party March 13th, 1922
The party by “Kid” Byrd on
Michigan Avenue was a regular event for the African American community in Flint. On the night of March 13th, 1922 everything was going well.
Then Kid’s friend and neighbor, John
Perkin, dropped in. He was trying to get over his crazy ex-girlfriend.
At first it
seemed the stars had aligned when John met Julia Thornton that night. The two
of them hit it off right away. The new lovebirds were inseparable during the
party. Kid thought his friend John had finally found happiness.
Shortly after midnight, John’s
crazy ex showed up at the party.
Some of the guests tried to
convince her to leave and almost succeeded until Blanche Washington saw John
and Julia talking. This sent her into a rage. She stormed over to the couple
and started screaming at them.
According to the police report, witnesses
claimed Blanche kept pushing and screaming at John until he lost his temper.
John then pulled out his pocket knife, pushed Blanche against the wall and cut
the back of her neck.
In retaliation Blanche reached
into her bosom and pulled out a pen knife and stabbed John right in the jugular
vein. John grabbed his neck and stumbled into the street where he collapsed.
Blanche ran to her friend’s house
on Vermont Avenue. A doctor was called to come to dress Blanche’s wound.
John was lying next to the street
when the police came. They immediately called an ambulance. John was taken to
Hurley Hospital where he died an hour later from excessive loss of blood.
The police tracked Blanche down
at her friend’s house by following the trail of blood she left behind. When
they arrived, the doctor was just finishing dressing her wound and told the
police that he felt that it was not safe for her to go down to the station. The
police rejected the doctor’s orders and took Blanche to the city jail.
Blanche survived her
transportation, although she was very weak and had little memory of the
incident. After she spent a week recovering, the doctor felt she was able to
stand trial. The trial was quick, only lasting a few hours. People who attended
the party testified in court.
After a quick deliberation, the
judge found that she acted in self-defense and there was no need for charges.
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