Troy axe murders

In the early morning hours of September 28, 1964, William G. Gravlin, a former Royal Oak fireman, killed seven members of his family at their home at 2121 Garson in Troy, Michigan. The victims were his wife, Bette Gravlin, 40; his five-year-old daughter, Betty Sue Gravlin; and his five stepchildren, Benson John Bentley, 17, Judith Ann Bentley, 16, Dorrie Oral Bentley, 15, Paula Allene Bentley, 12, and Walter Johnson Bentley, 10. Six of the victims were killed with a double-bladed axe and a hammer; Betty Sue was killed with a shotgun. A pathologist estimated the time of death at approximately 2 a.m. Gravlin left handwritten apology notes, torn from paper towels, on each of the bodies.

Gravlin had a documented history of violence and psychiatric hospitalization. In August 1961, he slashed his cousin's wife with a knife at her home in Troy, an attack that required five stitches; he was arrested the next day, sentenced to three years' probation, and committed to Pontiac State Hospital. He was released on convalescent leave in 1962, briefly rehospitalized in 1963 after an incident involving drinking, and officially released in July 1964. A week before the murders, Bette Gravlin asked him for a divorce, and he moved out to live with his mother in Clawson, Michigan.

On the night of the murders, Gravlin took a taxi from Clawson to a point near his family's home. After the killings, he walked to a nearby gas station, later returned to Clawson, and made unsuccessful suicide attempts using sleeping pills, whiskey, and a corrosive cleaning product. A passing motorist and, subsequently, a Madison Heights police officer encountered Gravlin, who told them he had killed his family. Police then discovered the bodies at the home.

Gravlin pleaded guilty at his arraignment, but the judge entered a not-guilty plea. Competency proceedings extended over several years, with conflicting psychiatric testimony about his mental state; he was ultimately found incompetent in January 1965 and committed to the Ionia State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. In November 1967, hospital staff reported he had become capable of understanding the charges against him, and a judge found him competent to stand trial in December 1967.

In January 1968, Gravlin waived his right to a jury trial. His bench trial before Judge James Thorburn in Oakland County Circuit Court, limited to the death of stepdaughter Judith Ann Bentley, lasted more than three weeks. A psychiatrist testified that Gravlin knew the difference between right and wrong. Judge Thorburn ruled that although the killings were a product of Gravlin's mental disease, he was legally sane, and sentenced him to mandatory life imprisonment in April 1968. Gravlin later appealed on the issue of credit for time served in the mental hospital; in March 1974, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled he was entitled to credit for the years spent in custody there.