Bent Corner

Pittsburgh Comicon organizer and comic book shop owner Michael George was found guilty of murdering his wife Barbara George in 1990 in the back room of their comic book shop. The jury found him not only guilty of first-degree murder, but insurance fraud.

I’m really kind of surprised by this. I’ve been following the case from the day the news broke that he had been arrested. As I’ve blogged earlier, Micheal used to own the comic book shop in nearby Scotland, PA. It’s located in the Chambersburg Mall and it’s where I buy my comics every week.

As more and more came out about the case, I was certain he was guilty.

I then read how his two daughter testified for him.

They were familiar with all the evidence, yet they still firmly believed in their father’s innocence. Who was I to question that? They knew about all the womanizing — and attempted womanizing — while he was married to their mother and all of the other sorted details that came out about their father. They still thought he was innocent of the murder of their mother.

All of the evidence against Michael George was circumstantial. That’s not to say someone cannot be found guilty with only circumstantial evidence. It happens all the time. This just seemed so surreal in the fact that it happened 17 years ago. No new evidence had come up.

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The Tribune Democrat and the Detroit Free Press report on the ongoing Michael George murder trial. Tracie George and Michelle George, daughters of murder victim Barbara George and murder defendant Michael George testified in his defense Wednesday. Tracie — who was four at the time — testified that she remembers her father sleeping on her grandmother’s couch the day of the murder. Though she doesn’t remember the actual time, she remembers that it was dark outside.

Both daughters also testified that their father took them from Pennsylvania to Michigan once a year to visit their mother’s grave and to visit their grandmother, aunts and uncles. Michelle George testified that they all say a prayer each time they visit their mother’s grave, and that Michael George gets emotional at these yearly visits.

I’m no legal expert*, but I have to believe this testimony was persuasive. This case is built solely on circumstantial evidence. There is no physical evidence. This case relies solely on the testimony of what people remember nearly 20 years ago. In a case like this, I imagine having the daughters of the victim testify for their father is highly persuasive. If there was any doubt that their father murdered their mother, I have to believe Tracie and Michelle would not have testified. If there was any doubt in their minds, they would not have come to their father’s defense. Both girls know of the sordid details of their father’s womanizing and all around improper behavior while married to their mother. They none the less have come to their father’s defense.

If I was on the jury, that’s all I would need to hear.

* In full disclosure, I did use to watch L.A. Law.

From the Detroit Free Press:

Clinton Township police’s 17-year suspicion that Michael George killed his wife in the back of their comic book store finally reaches the courtroom today.

Jury selection is set to begin at 1:30 p.m. in the case, in which George is charged with the July 1990 shooting death of his 32-year-old wife, Barbara George.

Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Steve Kaplan said he expects to call 43 witnesses in the reopened cold case. The trial could last more than three weeks.

Former Macomb County Prosecutor Carl Marlinga is representing George, 47. The case has garnered national attention. The NBC show “Dateline” is expected to feature it in a future episode.

One of my personal goals in life is to never appear on an episode of “Dateline”. No good can come of it.

Things are not looking good for comic book retailer and Pittsburgh Comicon promoter Michael George.

From this morning’s Detroit Free Press:

Allegations that Michael George cheated on the wife he is accused of killing will be allowed in his upcoming trial, a Macomb County Circuit Court judge ruled Thursday.

George, 47, is to go on trial Feb. 26 in the July 13, 1990, death of his wife, Barbara George, 32, who was shot in the head in the couple’s Clinton Township comic book store.

Judge James Biernat made several other rulings Thursday: He denied George’s request to exclude testimony about his behavior after his wife’s death — such as witnesses’ accounts that he wore sunglasses to and flirted with other women at his wife’s funeral. He also denied George’s request to quash charges of insurance fraud.

His own lawyers admit he committed acts of adultery with more then one woman. I would say this is a very bad development.

A trial date has been set for comic book retailer and Pittsburgh Comicon organizer Michael George. His trial has been scheduled to begin February 26 in Michigan. The trial is scheduled to last two weeks.

George stands accused of murdering his wife, Barbara George, 17 years ago execution style in the comic book shop they both owned. Investigators initially believed that that the murder was the result of a robbery gone bad. George claimed at the time that many high-value comic books were missing from the store. He filed an insurance claim against the missing books and received $13,000 from his insurance company.

It’s the prosecutor’s contention that no comic books were stolen and that the story of missing books was made up by George to make it look like a robbery. Both cash registers in the store still contained money and Barbara George still had all of her jewelry when they found her. A witness will testify that George was in the shop at around the time of the murder. The witness is claiming that he called the comic book shop at around the time of the murder and spoke to Michael George.

Michael George claims that he was asleep on his mother’s sofa at the time of the murder. His mother and his then 4-year old daughter will testify that he was asleep on the sofa. Neighbors will also testify that they remember Michael George’s vehicle parked in front of his mother’s house at the time of the murder.

No physical evidence links Michael George to the murder. The weapon used to kill Barbara George has not been found.

Comic book retailer and Pittsburgh Comicon organizer Michael George was ordered by judge Linda Davis to stand trial for the 1990 murder of his wife Barbara George. Davis ruled that although most of the evidence against George was circumstantial, it was sufficient to warrant the case proceeds to trial.

Barbara was murdered in the comic book shop that she and Michael both owned. The prosecution has a witness that puts Michael George at the scene at the time of the murder. Comic book collector Michael Renaud testified that he placed a call to the George’s shop around the time of the murder and spoke to Michael George. Renaud testified that Michael George sounded “sounded busy”.

Janet George, Michael’s mother testified that Michael was taking a nap on her sofa at the time of the murder.

A woman that worked at a nail salon near the comic book shop testified that she witnessed Michael and Barbara arguing outside the comic book shop the day of the murder.

A probable cause hearing began Friday for Pittsburgh Comicon organizer and comic book retailer Michael George. George is charged with murdering his first wife Barbara George execution-style 17 years ago in Michigan.

Some of the evidence emerging from the first day of the hearing included the fact that Michael George told police that the killer was really out to get him, not Barbara.

He also admitted to having “emotional” affair with another woman at the time of his wife’s murder.

Even though George told the police that boxes of expensive comic books were missing from the store, police could find no other evidence that a robbery had taken place. Money was found in the cash register along with money and jewelry found on Barbara’s body.

Friends of the George’s testified that Barbara told them her marriage was in trouble and that Michael had a gambling problem.

Witnesses described Michael George’s behavior around the time of his wife’s funeral as strange. One woman told of Michael George showing his grief by “hugging the vacuum cleaner his wife used”.

Two woman testified that Michael George made unwanted romantic advances toward them, both before and after the murder. On one occasion, Michael George told one woman that he considered his wife unattractive and wanted to move to Florida with the children. Barbara and the children where in the store only a few feet away when Michael said this. The same woman testified that about six weeks after his wife’s murder, Michael George put a note in her hand that stated she “looked very pretty today.”

Witnesses also testified of making telephone calls to the store around the time of the murder and speaking to Michael George. Macomb County assistant prosecutor Steve Kaplanin told the court this places Michael George in the store at the time of the murder.

Two years after the murder, Michael George relocated Comics World from Michigan to Windber, Pennsylvania. Some have written that George owned and operated a comic book shop in Pittsburgh. Windber is about 100 miles outside Pittsburgh. I think part of the confusion comes from the fact that George is the organizer of the Pittsburgh Comicon. Michael George later opened another Comics World in the Chambersburg Mall located in Scotland, Pennsylvania. Though he later sold the Chambersburg Mall Comics World store, the store remains today retaining it’s original Comics World name.

It’s where I buy my comics. I live in Hagerstown, Maryland, but I work in Scotland.

I didn’t really know Michael George when he owned the comic book shop in the Chambersburg Mall, but I knew who he was. I knew that he was the owner. I certainly didn’t think he was capable of murdering someone, especially his wife. Then again I didn’t think he was the type of guy that would hug a vacuum cleaner either. It just goes to show you that you never know someone as much as you may think.

In a surprising move, comic book retailer and Pittsburgh Comic-Con organizer Michael George is waiving his extradition hearing and will go to Michigan where he will stand trial for for the 1990 slaying of his wife.

George had been fighting the extradition from Pennsylvania. No word yet why he is waiving the right to a hearing that would force the Michigan prosecutor to present the evidence they have connecting him to his wife’s murder.

This whole story just gets weirder and weirder.

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The prosecutor in Michigan is charging Pittsburgh Comicon organizer and comic book retailer Michael George with new charges.

George, 47 — who is accused in the slaying of his 32-year-old wife, Barbara, in his Clinton Township store — faces two new charges: insurance fraud and obtaining money under false pretenses.

“The proofs will show that nothing was taken,” said Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Steve Kaplan.

He acknowledged that the murder charge is more pressing, but he said that George received $13,000 in insurance money.

George reported that two boxes of valuable comics were stolen from a back storage room during his wife’s murder. The police now contend that no comics were missing and that George simply made the whole thing up to receive insurance money and to make the police believe that the his wife’s murder was the result of a robbery gone bad.

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