Carol Gee & Margaret Chambers:1961, Holland, Michigan

  

  Carol and Margaret were childhood friends. They lived in seemingly idyllic Holland, Michigan. I first became acquainted with the place because of the catalogues that would come to our house with their bright beautiful tulips for sale. As a kid I wanted every color and every type of those tulips.  

  It was Spring in Holland, Michigan. Carol Gee (11 years old) and Margaret Chambers (12 years old)  were out enjoying the sunshine. 

  The girls were walking the trails in the Macatawa Hills area around Macatawa Lake and picking wildflowers. It was a simple, peaceful afternoon activity. After the long Michigan winter, it was such a treat to be out in the warm weather. 

  Later, another person on the trail reported seeing a bunch of discarded wildflowers and several .22 shell casings. He saw no bodies. He heard no shots and no screams but the sight of those flowers and shell casings were enough to make him leave the trail quickly and contact the police. I am thinking that this person was probably a combat veteran. He saw the flowers and the .22 shell casings and…just knew. 

  Luckily, police officers believed him. They began combing the area. 

  Calls later began coming in about two missing girls. Carol Gee and Margaret Chambers should have been home already. 

  The next morning, James Scott Stephens, a 16 year old Boy Scout, ate a hearty breakfast, according to his mother. He left the house of his mother and stepfather, Mildred and Kenneth Krebs, and headed toward the railroad tracks. He abandoned his bicycle there and seemingly hopped a train going west. His mother found a note from him later saying that he had accidentally killed some people and that he was sorry. She called the police and turned the note over to them. 

  On May 1st 1961, the bodies of Carol and Margaret were found. Hidden under leaves near a sand dune, both had multiple gunshot wounds. Eleven year old Carol Gee had been shot 7 times. Two of those were shots to the face. This was clearly no accident. Carol Gee and Margaret Chambers had been murdered. 

  A manhunt then began for 16 year old James Scott Stephens. Newspapers all over the United States carried his photo. Border crossings were notified to be on the lookout in case Stephens made for Canada. 

  James Scott Stephens had not actually gotten on a freight train. The 16 year old began hitchhiking west the morning of May 1st 1961. He seemed to want to get caught, though. He left a trail of notes in the along the way. 

  A police officer in a rural South Dakota town saw an odd young man hitchhiking at a truck stop. He asked him if he had any money or a place to stay.  When the answer was no the policeman offered a jail cell to spend the night in. The young man accepted.  Once the young man was installed comfortably in a cell; the officer went home and got the big city newspaper. He brought it back to the jail, pointed at Stephens’ picture and asked “That you?”. The young man answered that it was. 

   Holland, Michigan police officers soon had James Scott Stephens back in custody. They took him to the murder scene. James kept claiming that it was an accident. He found a thick vine and swung on it over the spot where one body had been found. He never expressed remorse. He never cried. He did not seem intellectually capable of understanding the gravity of his situation. He was facing a trial and life imprisonment or life in an institution and he did not have any particularly strong feelings about it one way or another. 

   I kept thinking as I researched this case that if James Scott Stephens had gotten some mental health help when he was young perhaps these murders could have been prevented. If only he had gotten some help earlier. If only he had not had access to a gun. 

  But the prevailing culture at the time was that young boys should have guns for hunting. It was seen as a wholesome activity. James Scott Stephens was a Boy Scout. Society at the time wanted boys to grow up to be tough men. It’s very likely that all his friends had guns too. If only the adults in his life had kept the gun locked up and only let him use it when they all went hunting or to target practice together. But, they didn’t do that. 

  Two young girls were no different to James Scott Stephens than two squirrels. They were not strangers to him.  He had gone to school with them. 

  But, he did show consciousness of guilt. He wasn’t insane in a way that made him unable to know what he was doing. He knew this was wrong. He hid their bodies. He ran away. He knew this was against the law. 

  A friend of Stephens’ testified at his trial that he once witnessed Stephens light a live bird on fire and then quickly kill it. He also testified that James once fired his gun near the young man’s ear causing great pain and potential hearing loss. He testified that he was not comfortable and did not feel safe around James Scott Stephens.

  The signs were there that he needed mental health help. But, in the 1950’s and 1960’s, seeking mental health support was simply not done. It was considered shameful. People were expected to suffer in silence or to somehow just pull themselves together. Many people coped by self medicating with alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. 

   James Scott Stephens was tried and convicted of second degree murder. He was sentenced in October of 1961 to 20 to 40 years in prison. It’s difficult to find out what happened after that. I haven’t found an obituary. He is not currently incarcerated in Michigan. Did he get any mental health care? I hope so. Was he released after 20-40 years? Was he given time off for good behavior? No idea. 

   Carol Gee and Margaret Chambers were buried in the spring of 1961. The story of their short lives stops there. 

  

  We can’t change the past but we can learn from it if we are brave enough to pay attention.