Brother Paul's and North Fox Island controversy?
Executive summary
Brother Paul’s Children’s Mission was a 1970s front organization tied to activities on North Fox Island — a private Lake Michigan island owned by Francis (Frank) Shelden — that law enforcement investigated after child sexual-abuse material produced on the island surfaced in 1976, and reporting and later retrospectives describe a network of wealthy associates and alleged trafficking of boys to the island [1] [2] [3]. The controversy centers on documented criminal conduct by some participants, persistent allegations connecting the island ring to other unsolved child murders in Michigan, and continuing gaps and speculation in the historical record about who was prosecuted, who escaped justice, and how extensive the network truly was [4] [5] [1].
1. What the archive of reporting actually says about Brother Paul’s and North Fox Island
Contemporary and later reporting establish that North Fox Island was owned by Frank Shelden and that a charity-style operation called Brother Paul’s Children’s Mission was incorporated in 1975 and used to bring boys to the island as a purported nature camp; state police evidence included photographs and materials that investigators identified as produced on the island, and at least one associate, Gerald Richards, was arrested on related sexual-crime charges in 1976, triggering wider inquiries [2] [4] [3].
2. The accused actors: names, roles, and outcomes noted in sources
Multiple sources name a small circle of men tied to the Mission — Francis Shelden as proprietor, Gerald Richards, Dyer Grossman, and Adam Starchild among others — and describe Richards’s arrest and Starchild’s later life and convictions for other crimes (though not specifically for North Fox) as elements of the saga; reporting also documents that Shelden left the country and avoided prosecution, with some accounts saying he “escaped justice” [4] [1] [5].
3. Evidence, ledgers, and client lists — how strong is the documentary trail?
Investigative reporting and archives cited by researchers point to photographic evidence seized by police that matched North Fox backgrounds and to ledgers or client names linking known offenders to island activity; for example, researchers say Christopher Busch’s name appears in client records and that blurred police photos corroborated children’s presence on the island, but public sources do not provide a fully adjudicated, court-by-court catalogue tying every allegation to a conviction [4] [6] [1].
4. The most explosive allegation — ties to the Oakland County Child Killer murders — and its limits
Several outlets and researchers have long speculated about a connection between North Fox’s pedophile ring and the unsolved Oakland County Child Killer murders of 1976–77, citing overlapping social networks and client lists (Christopher Busch is a recurring name in that narrative), but the record in the cited sources is cautious: investigators “believe” there could be ties and media reporting has pursued the link, yet there is no definitive, publicly documented legal finding presented in these sources conclusively linking the island operation to those murders [1] [6] [7].
5. How later narratives shape perception — comparisons, documentaries, and sensationalization
Modern coverage and true-crime retrospectives sometimes frame North Fox as a Michigan analogue to high-profile cases like Jeffrey Epstein’s island, and television or online features amplify the tale of wealthy patrons, flights, and isolated retreats; those comparisons underscore the pattern of wealthy men exploiting private space to abuse children, but they also mix verified facts, prosecutorial claims, and speculative interpretation drawn from incomplete archives [6] [8] [5].
6. What remains unresolved and why certainty is elusive
Publicly accessible sources document criminal activity tied to materials and some arrests, name key figures, and show investigators pursued networks, yet gaps persist: some principal figures evaded full prosecution, key records remain fragmentary in media accounts, and long-standing cold-case questions — including alleged links to multiple child murders — remain unresolved in the sources provided, meaning definitive historical closure is not available in the public record cited here [5] [4] [1].