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---
---
category: "Landmark"
tags:
- Place
- Michigan
- PedophileNetwork
- OaklandCountyChildKiller
summary: "North Fox Island is a private island in Lake Michigan owned by Francis Shelden that served as the operational base of a child pornography and abuse network under the front organization Brother Paul's Children's Mission, discovered by law enforcement in July 1976."
summary: "Island in Lake Michigan bought by Francis Shelden in 1960 and assessed at 312,000 dollars, site of the Brother Paul's Children's Mission camp exposed after the arrest of Gerald Richards in July 1976."
created: 2026-05-14
updated: 2026-05-17
updated: 2026-09-22
location: "Leelanau County, Michigan, USA"
relations:
- type: owned
with: "[[Francis Shelden]]"
reverse: true
start: 1960
fn: 1
---
North Fox Island is a small island approximately three miles in length and one mile wide, located in Lake Michigan roughly seventeen miles off Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula and about fifty miles north of Traverse City. It belongs administratively to Leelanau County, Michigan.[^1]
### Shelden's Acquisition and Development
[[Francis Shelden]], born in 1928 into a prominent Michigan family and descended from one-time Governor and Secretary of War Russell A. Alger, purchased the island in 1960. Shelden, who held a Yale degree, sat on the boards of institutions including the Cranbrook Institute, and volunteered with Big Brother programs. He installed a landing strip on the island to permit access by small aircraft, the primary practical means of reaching the site.[^1]
North Fox Island is a small island, about three miles long and a mile wide, in Lake Michigan roughly seventeen miles off the Leelanau Peninsula and fifty miles north of Traverse City, in Leelanau County.[^1] [[Francis Shelden]], a graduate of Yale and Wayne State and a descendant of Governor and Secretary of War Russell A. Alger, bought it in 1960 for 20,000 dollars and built a landing strip, cabins and trails.[^1] By 1977 it was assessed at 312,000 dollars.[^2]
### Brother Paul's Children's Mission
On June 18, 1975, Shelden's associates incorporated [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] as a non-profit entity advertising itself as providing services to children with reading problems and emotional counseling. The organization served as the front structure for a child pornography and sexual abuse operation. During sessions on the island, boys were filmed in sexual acts with each other and with adults, and were at times prostituted to paying customers of the network. The operation circulated advertising through newsletters including [[Better Life Monthly]] and [[Hermes]].[^2]
[[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]], incorporated in 1975 with [[Adam Starchild]] as its primary incorporator and operating under the auspices of [[The Church of New Revelation|the Church of the New Revelation]], ran a nature camp for boys on the island. [[Gerald Richards]], a physical education teacher at St. Joseph's Catholic School in Port Huron, was its president and the director of the camp, and [[Dyer Grossman]] its vice president. The camp never applied for a state license. After Richards's arrest in July 1976, Shelden was charged with criminal sexual conduct with a 14-year-old boy at Port Huron and an eight-year-old boy on the island, and he and Grossman became federal fugitives. Shelden, who described himself in a 1975 interview as devoted to Big Brothers, was a board member of Boys Republic, a residential center for troubled boys in Farmington Hills; the Big Brother organizations of Detroit, Flint and Port Huron denied he had ever been connected with them, and Richards and Grossman had been rejected when they applied.[^2] One national report said the group had flown "upwards of 200 boys out to the island for the pleasure of well-heeled homosexuals."[^3] Richards testified to a Senate subcommittee in Chicago on May 27, 1977, that Shelden "was a friend of mine. He paid for my office."[^4]
One of Shelden's principal associates was [[Gerald Richards]], a Catholic school gym teacher and traveling magician who recruited boys through performances and Big Brother programs. [[Dyer Grossman]], a science teacher, co-drafted the Mission's charter. [[Adam Starchild]] incorporated the organization.[^2]
### Discovery and Aftermath
In July 1976, law enforcement investigators discovered the child pornography ring operating from the island. Richards was arrested, convicted of molestation charges in 1976, and entered a plea arrangement under which he testified in 1977 before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, disclosing the full scope of the North Fox Island operation.[^1]
Shelden fled Michigan in late 1976, taking up residence in the Netherlands, which at the time lacked an extradition treaty covering child sex offenses. He obtained Dutch citizenship, which precluded extradition. He died in Amsterdam on July 9, 1996.[^2]
On September 18, 1976, Shelden placed his fortune, securities he valued at about two million dollars, in a trust with the Trust Company of the Virgin Islands, founded by Starchild, and on April 13, 1978, by a document notarized in Amsterdam, replaced it as trustee with the Dutch senator [[Edward Brongersma]].[^5] Shelden remained in the Netherlands, which had no extradition treaty for child sexual offenses, and died there in 1996.[^1]
### Oakland County Child Killer Connection
Investigators examining the [[Oakland County Child Killer]] case subsequently identified connections between the North Fox Island network and suspects in those murders. [[Richard Lawson]] made statements in 1988 and 2005 linking Shelden's network to film production associated with the killing of [[Timothy King]], one of the OCCK victims. North Fox Island and its associated network remained a subject of investigative interest in Michigan law enforcement's continuing OCCK inquiries into the 2020s.[^3]
In February 2026, the FBI announced a new excavation and investigative operation at North Fox Island.[^3]
Investigators of the [[Oakland County Child Killer]] case examined connections between the North Fox Island network and suspects in those murders. [[Richard Lawson]] made statements in 1988 and 2005 linking Shelden's network to film production associated with the killing of [[Timothy King]]. In February 2026 the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] began a new excavation on the island.[^6]
### Footnotes
[^1]: "Before 'Epstein's Island', power and privilege shielded abuse on Michigan's North Fox Island," *Michigan Advance,* February 20, 2026. https://michiganadvance.com/2026/02/20/before-epsteins-island-power-and-privilege-shielded-abuse-on-michigans-north-fox-island/
[^2]: "Brother Paul's Children's Mission," Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Paul%27s_Children%27s_Mission
[^3]: "FBI Digs In On Detroit Millionaire's North Fox Island Of Secrets," *Hoodline,* February 2026. https://hoodline.com/2026/02/fbi-digs-in-on-detroit-millionaire-s-north-fox-island-of-secrets/
[^1]: "Before 'Epstein's Island', power and privilege shielded abuse on Michigan's North Fox Island." *Michigan Advance,* February 20, 2026. https://michiganadvance.com/2026/02/20/before-epsteins-island-power-and-privilege-shielded-abuse-on-michigans-north-fox-island/ It gives Richards's sentence as two to twenty years; the 1977 reports give two to ten.
[^2]: Wright, Marilyn. "Porno Ring Uses Church, Tax Laws," "Porn Ring Finds Gaps in Child Camp Laws" and related articles. *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1976-1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041
[^3]: *Washington Star* report reprinted in *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* Serial No. 12, 1977.
[^4]: Testimony of Gerald S. Richards, May 27, 1977, in U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 1977, p. 41. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit
[^5]: *National Bank of Detroit v. Shelden,* 730 F.2d 421 (6th Cir. 1984). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/433085/national-bank-of-detroit-v-francis-d-shelden-the-trust-company-of-the/
[^6]: "FBI Digs In On Detroit Millionaire's North Fox Island Of Secrets." *Hoodline,* February 2026. https://hoodline.com/2026/02/fbi-digs-in-on-detroit-millionaire-s-north-fox-island-of-secrets/