#RememberThem: Margie, survivor

“I remember my mother saying that she used to look for me in the morgue, when the killings happened. But I never told her that I actually survived Atkins.”

Those are the words of a woman named Margie, who had a terrible encounter with Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins a year before any of his other known attacks. Can you believe that? The irony in those words? A mom worried about her daughter, knowing she's out there on the streets, and has been out there for a couple years at that point, where other females are being killed by a strangler?

Margie as a teen,
about the time
she encountered
Atkins.
Margie was very young when she got hooked on drugs and started working prostitution along Woodward Ave in Detroit. She had seen Atkins around, saw him scoring drugs up by Seven Mile Road. And she was only 15 when he asked if she wanted to smoke some with her. What was a casual street thing turned violent -- he hit her and told her he was going to kill her. He turned into another person when he smoked the crack, Margie said. Like the devil himself. It was only her gift of gab -- and the offer to give him the money she had on her -- that saved her life.

And for years and years, she told no one the story. Because that's the way it is with women at risk on the streets. Is anybody going to believe you? Or care? Most females figure, no. Law enforcement doesn't care -- they only talk to you when they need some street intel.

Margie's story is one with some other crazy ironies. Atkins was not the only person who tried to kill her on the street, and maybe that's not surprising. These gals are involved in violent attacks quite a bit. But she actually knows someone who was the victim of another serial killer, a more recent one, DeAngelo Martin. He was suspected to have killed a friend of Margie's named Yvonne, when her body was discovered. Is it a small world, or are the streets of the Motor City (or any big city, truthfully) really that bad?

Margie is thinking about writing a book about her experiences. And I hope she will, because it will be a story of encouragement and determination.

Yvonne, assumed victim of convicted serial DeAngelo Martin.
This photo and one above courtesy of Margie, specifically for use for the book below. Any other use prohibited.This post is part of a series on this blog that I am calling #RememberThem, a chance to honor the women who encountered the two Detroit serial killers I have researched, John Eric Armstrong and Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins. In this continuing series, with installments dropping every week or so, we first learn more about the women Armstrong was known to have killed in Detroit, plus two of his survivors, then we turn to the women who encountered Atkins. Click on the "Honoring the Victims" label on the left to see all of the parts in the series. Also see the #RememberThem series on YouTube.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .