The shooting death of 43-year-old Luther Mixon on July 1, 1955, landed Chester Wheeler Campbell, 24, and two accomplices in prison. During Campbell’s 13 years in the infamous Michigan State Prison, aka Jackson Prison, he spent his time learning new illicit trades. According to gangland lore, the locked-up training turned him into a fearsome figure upon reentering society in 1969.
Detroit’s death-dealing enforcer was never successfully convicted of murder again, despite being the prime suspect in at least 10 homicide investigations from 1969 through 1975.
Campbell’s first murder
Campbell was born in 1930, the fourth of six children. His father died when Campbell was in the second grade, leaving his mother to raise six children alone. According to available information, Campbell was the only one in his family who encountered any significant legal issues. He accumulated a modest record of two burglary charges by age 20, yet his criminal activities were significant enough for the police to display his photograph in the station house.
At 24, his criminal exploits escalated to a tragic and violent confrontation during the summer of 1955. Campbell, along with David Green, 24, and Watson Brooks, 23, set out on July 1 to hold up a known numbers gambling spot in an apartment. The trio, concealing their faces with handkerchiefs, first confronted Mixon. Two of them brandished pistols and demanded to know the owner of an expensive car parked out front. Mixon’s silence was rewarded with a pistol whip. Mixon fell and, as he tried to regain his footing, one of the assailants fired a round into Mixon’s face…