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Shattered podcast | Child Killer, Chapter 5 -- North Fox Island

Shattered podcast | Child Killer, Chapter 5 (WDIV)

Francis Shelden was a Millionaire from Ann Arbor. He came from a well-to-do family with ties to presidents, governors and even princes. He earned his B.A from Yale and served in the Michigan Air Guard. He had his own company, his own plane, and his own island. He also operated his own pedophole ring.

The former proprietor of North Fox Island, off the coast of northern Michigan, was a man named Frank Shelden. He bought the island for about $20,000 in 1960. Shelden appeared to have a squeaky clean reputation as a businessman and philanthropist. He volunteered as a mentor with the Big Brother program and he also operated a boys summer camp on North Fox Island.

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Police would later find out his generosity was masking his true intentions. Frank Shelden would be proven to be a child pornographer and pedophile. His island, a venue for his crimes against children. His involvement in these activities in the state of Michigan went on into 1976, which overlap with some of the child killings happening in Oakland County.

A school teacher name Gerald Richards would broker relationships between a group of kids and Frank Shelden. Richards was a gym teacher at St. Joe’s Catholic School in Port Huron, Michigan. He was a husband, a new father, a gym teacher, masseuse and magician. The side of his pinto said, “Jerry the Magician.” He also worked at an adult book store and once ran for county commissioner.


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