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Thread: James Collins, 13-year-old, murders father (1963)

  1. #11
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JimKay's Avatar
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    I found the address for the place in one of the articles. Google that and you'll get the Streetview. I had to drag it around the corner to see the front. It was Fritz's Restaurant then. Now it's Kellys Korner.

    524 cayuga drive niagara falls

    Niagara Falls, NY always was pretty seedy. Niagara Falls, Ontario was nicer then, but they opened a casino right next to the Falls several years ago and it's not so nice anymore. Last time I was there was 1998, though.
    Last edited by JimKay; 11-23-2013 at 07:25 PM. Reason: it's!

  2. #12
    AdamSmith
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    Quote Originally Posted by JimKay View Post
    You cite that so often, you should put it in your sig.

    Ping.

    Looks like it still is a very quaint tavern, with an outside patio in the back.

    (Edited for correctness.)
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  3. #13
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JimKay's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AdamSmith View Post
    Yes, you can tell it once was a tavern. So this was the scene of the crime then?
    You lose points for not reading the articles. The father came home from work at Bell to change and go to work at the tavern across the river in Niagara Falls, which he and his wife owned. The son confronted him in their home on Grand Island, and shot him there. Mom found dad when she got home. Grand Island is, well, an island, in the middle of the Niagara River, between Buffalo and Niagara Falls. We lived in the Sandy Beach neighborhood, which Wikipedia dates to the 1940s. Our house was built in 1955. If you read the articles you'll find the address of the murder scene, which you can look at on GoogleEarth. Our house was on the SE corner of South Park (yeah!) and Sandy Beach.

    I've been in a few dives -- in my younger days -- that would have seen an increase in biz after a murder. But that was then.

  4. #14
    AdamSmith
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    You didn't warn us that there was going to be a test afterwards.

    And you are of course correct, the crime story tells the address of the crime. The Google truck has not yet gone down that street yet. So no street view of the crime location is available. I did check that, for extra credit!

    Last edited by AdamSmith; 11-23-2013 at 08:13 PM.

  5. #15
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JimKay's Avatar
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    Grand Island, the town that time (and Google) forgot. I was in the house and recall it being pretty nice. He had a big room on the second floor with all kinds of cool stuff like the big chemistry set and lots of car models. Today they might diagnose him with ADHD. I never knew him to be violent but around the time I knew him I spent a lot of time in the basement messing with radios. He was bored and getting into trouble. Looking back at his life and the thug's, it all seems so tragic, the destruction they sowed while still minors. Being doomed before you're 16 is a bad deal.

  6. #16
    Don Anderson
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    I finally found a site that deals with Jim Collins. I was at his home during Christmas just before this happened. I stayed there for a few days after driving all the way from Lynden Ontario in my poorly heated English car. I first met Jim up in Wasaga Beach Ontario where Howard and Joan had a summer resort business named I believe The Moosehead or something like that. I was 16 years old and was surprised to find out Jim was only 13. He was incredibly mature for his age. I got news several weeks after I returned home after his old girlfriend Pat Zakie mailed a letter describing what had happened. Yes, he was a kid who was given lots of material things like a Crosley 18' boat with the biggest engine available at the time. He also had a small hydroplane racing boat with a Merc Hurricane engine. Several summers before, a Grand Island friend also named Jim (I believe) was terribly wounded in the head when he fell out of the racing boat during a tight turn. He was wearing a life jacket but not a helmet. The boat circled and the propeller cut into his head when the boat went over him. His brains were hanging out in the water and somehow he survived terribly brain damaged. His father had a green Pontiac Bonneville and Jim had everything including a new Fender guitar I coveted because I played guitar and he didn't. THe trouble with Jim was not about having too much. THere were several occasions when he expressed a rage that seemed to come with a sense of entitlement. His parents were young film actor good looking but I understand both Howard and Joan had their party lovers over for dinner sometimes and I think Jim didn't think it was at strange. I suppose when Howard stepped on Jim for having an older girlfriend - Jim just wasn't going to have it. I always thought he used that 30-30 Winchester lever action rifle but I've since learned on this site that he used a shotgun. I was from Canada where there were just no Black people at that time. Jim and I were on our way to this fathers tavern one night when Jim yelled out of the car window to two black guys "Get off the street niggers" . I was shocked at how easily he expressed unprovoked rage at two strangers. Well - theres lots more to tell but I have to go now. Any questions email me at rruggles@cogeco.ca. Bye for now.

  7. #17
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JimKay's Avatar
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    Don,

    Fascinating enough to draw me out of retirement to comment. Perhaps Jim was left unsupervised too often. I know he hung out with a pretty rough guy, since deceased. He and that guy were fingered for vandalizing the Grand Island Playhouse (paint on sneakers left tracks), forcing it to close, but somehow they escaped punishment. I went to high school in Buffalo and my classmates were shocked that a teen would blow away his father. Today, teen shootings are as common as rain.

    The getaway car was a rental, because Jim had smashed up the Bonneville doing "doughnuts" in an icy parking lot, and it was in the shop. Grand Theft Auto and First Degree Murder at 13. He was ahead of his time.

    I was last back in the 'hood in 1998, when I drove my poorly heated English car to the Falls. But that was in May so I didn't need the heat. The place hadn't changed much, but there's a sewage-treatment plant in the NW corner now. Make of that what you will! I remember the boating accident, but not the name of the injured kid. Another friend of mine was missing an eye from a fireworks malfunction. Grand Island was a dangerous place to live in the 1960s!

    Cheers,

    Jim

    P.S. The rest of you lot, chill. This is only a temporary decloaking.

  8. #18
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    I'm fascinated now myself. It'd be great to find out where James Collins ended up.

    Is his mother deceased?

  9. #19
    Senior Member CnCP Addict TrudieG's Avatar
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    Hey JimKay this is a facinating thread glad to see you out and on here for a change you have been missed. is this a one off or are you coming back?

  10. #20
    Mar
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    Jimmy Collins was my first cousin. The family believes he passed away a few years ago. My grandparents were devastated when all this happened. He served his time at the detention center and was completely cut out of the family. I just learned more from this thread than I ever knew because no one talked about it. My older sister told some of it but even she did not know these details. What we all really want to know is, "why he hated my uncle so much?" He was certainly a spoiled kid. We did not have what he had. My parents struggled financially. I know where Grace lives and her married name, but will not share it here. Some day I might get brave enough to contact her.

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