A serial killer who terrorized Detroit and the neighboring city of Highland Park for months has been unmasked as one of the most prolific and depraved murderers in recent history, with a spree that claimed the lives of at least 11 women in just over half a year. Benjamin Atkins, 24, was finally captured in August 1992 after a survivor of his brutal attack identified him to police, leading to a confession that shocked even hardened investigators. The case, which began with the discovery of two bodies in abandoned buildings in December 1991, quickly escalated into a nightmare for law enforcement and a community gripped by fear.
The first victims were found in December 1991 in Detroit and Highland Park, their bodies discarded in derelict structures. Police initially dismissed the deaths as typical homicides involving prostitutes and 𝒹𝓇𝓊𝑔 addicts, a grim reality in a city overwhelmed by crack cocaine and poverty. But when more bodies started appearing, it became clear that a dangerous predator was roaming the streets.
The community was livid, demanding answers. We didn’t have a clue of getting to the suspect yet, one officer recalled. The killer followed a chilling formula: he would lure women with the promise of crack cocaine, then strangle them, often after sexual assault, and leave their bodies in abandoned buildings for others to find.
One woman, Darlene Saunders, was sure she had survived an attack by the killer, a man she knew as Tony. In October 1991, she was lured into an abandoned restaurant, attacked, raped, and nearly strangled to death. She managed to fight him off and escape, but when she reported the assault to police, her claims were ignored.
They file a report, but then nothing comes of it. They basically just told her, Go home. Now, everybody knew her.
Go home, darling. With every month that passed, the body count continued to rise, and Darlene lived in fear, knowing the man who attacked her was still out there.
By early 1992, the bodies were piling up. In January, a demolition worker discovered a body near a chainlink fence. In February, three bodies were found in the abandoned Monterey Motel in Highland Park, a grim discovery that forced multiple law enforcement agencies to finally cooperate.
The FBI profilers stated that he killed more people in less time than Jack the Ripper. To be involved in that case was something I will always remember, said Michigan State Police profiler David Msy. The killer had the whole city paralyzed with fear.
Women were genuinely afraid to go out at night on their own, particularly in the Highland Park area.
Atkins childhood was catastrophic. Born in Ohio in 1968, he was abandoned by his father and raised by a heroin-addicted mother who worked as a prostitute. He was placed in foster care at age four, shuttled between homes, and eventually ended up in a boys home where he was physically and sexually abused.
At 11, he was returned to his mother, but nothing had changed. He watched her have 𝒔𝒆𝒙 with various men, and by his teens he was hustling on the street, selling himself to men, and graduating to crack cocaine. By his early 20s, he was homeless, often sleeping in abandoned buildings, and his violent tendencies began to emerge.
Atkins was methodical. He would meet women on Woodward Avenue, a notorious strip in Highland Park and Detroit, and offer them crack. He would ask, Do you have a pipe to smoke with?
That was the question he asked Darlene. He would then lead them to a dark corner, bind them with their own clothing, rape them, and strangle them. He would check for a pulse, press on their chests, and make sure they were dead before hiding their bodies.
He killed 11 women in just six to seven months, a pace that stunned investigators. The victims were mothers, daughters, sisters, but because they were 𝒔𝒆𝒙 workers and 𝒹𝓇𝓊𝑔 addicts, their deaths were initially overlooked.
Darlene Saunders, a mother of two, was determined to see justice. In March 1992, she went to police again, this time with a family member pressuring them to take her seriously. Finally, an officer named Royce from the Michigan State Police drove her out onto the streets night after night to look for her attacker.
She got to hyperventilating. I grabbed her and physically shook her. I said, Whats wrong, darling?
Whats wrong? She said, Thats him. Thats Tony.
On August 20, 1992, Royce approached Atkins at a pay phone. Are you Tony? Yeah.
Do you know who I am? Yeah, youre the state trooper thats been looking for me. Royce drew his weapon and gave him two choices: lay down or die.
Atkins surrendered.
In custody, Atkins initially denied everything. But after a skilled interrogator, Ron Sanders, took a redemption approach, Atkins cracked. He confessed to all 11 murders and the assault on Darlene, showing no remorse.
He even led police to an 11th body they had not found, that of CC Waymer, in an empty garage. He said he hated prostitutes, and investigators believed he was killing his mother over and over again. The women fit the characteristics of his mother: women working the streets, using drugs, women of color.
But Darlene was not a prostitute; she was a wife and mother struggling with addiction, and she became the key to stopping the killing.
Atkins trial began in January 1994. Darlene testified, demonstrating how he tried to strangle her. The jury took less than three days to convict him on all 11 murder charges and the rape of Darlene.
He received 11 life sentences plus an additional life sentence for the rape. When the sentence was announced, Darlene yelled, Praise you, Jesus. Atkins did not apologize.
He focused on his own troubled past. He died in prison on September 17, 1997, at age 29, from HIV/AIDS. The question remains whether he knew he was infected during his killing spree.
In 2023, over 30 years after the murders, the Jane Doe found at the Monterey Motel was finally identified using forensic genetic genealogy. Her name has not been publicly disclosed at her familys request. The case remains a haunting reminder of how vulnerable women are often forgotten.
Darlene Saunders continued to struggle with addiction but was clean for a year before she died in 2002. Her son Rashard remembers her as a loving mother who did everything for her family. Benjamin Atkins took the lives of 11 women, luring them to their deaths by preying on their vulnerabilities.
Had it not been for Darlene Saunders, he may never have been revealed as one of the worlds most evil killers.
