Jack Brown owned a small real estate company in Ypsilanti, Michigan, considered a suburb of Detroit. The forty-seven-year-old businessman was active in the local Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club. His lifestyle hardly seemed one that would make him a target for murder, but someone apparently had a genuine grudge against the respected realtor and insurance agent.

On the morning of January 11, 1984, Jack Brown was shot to death in his office. His killers entered the building with the specific purpose of murdering him as three co-workers were left unharmed.

Forty years later, Jack Brown’s killer remains unknown, as does the motive for his murder.

 

Jack Brown

Two men entered Ypsilanti’s Ehman and Greenstreet Real Estate office at approximately 11:10 a.m. on January 11, 1984. Without saying a word to the receptionist, one of the men made a bee line toward Jack’s office while the other remained at the entrance door.

The Ehman and Greenstreet Real Estate Office

Jack’s office was visible upon entry into the suite. He was on the telephone at the time with his son, Jackie, who was in the hospital about to undergo an operation. Jackie heard his father say “We’ve got trouble” before abruptly hanging up.

Dutch Jordan, Vice President of the company, saw the man enter Jack’s office and say something to the effect of “You think you’re pretty smart, don’t you?” Jack meekly responded, “Well . . . maybe.” At that point, the man shot Jack in the neck, severing an artery.

Jack Is Shot

Both gunmen then ordered Dutch and the other two workers into the bathroom and left. When they heard nothing, the trio came out and called 911.

Dutch Jordan

When emergency responders arrived at the business, Jack was unconscious and barely alive. He was taken to Ypsilanti’s Bayer Memorial Hospital before being helicoptered to the University of Michigan Hospital where he died fifteen hours later without regaining consciousness.

Jack Succumbs

Police initially thought robbery was the motive for the murder because the safe in Jack’s office was found open. The theory was dismissed when no money or other contents were determined to be missing.

The killers appeared to be familiar with the layout of the building and the murder had the earmarks of a contract killing. No one knew of any skeletons in Jack’s closet or any reason why he would be a marked man.  In searching his background, investigators found no evidence that Jack was living any sort of secretive, double life or that he was involved in any illicit activities.

No Double Life Detected

Jack’s brother Norm had visited him at his office the evening before the murder. Jack was on the phone at the time, and Norm could see from his brother’s body language that he was agitated and in an intense conversation.

When the call ended, Norm entered Jack’s office and asked him if anything was wrong. Jack assured him everything was fine; he clearly did not want to talk about the phone conversation.

Norm believed something having to do with the phone call is related to his brother’s murder.

Norm Brown

Jack’s Brother

Jack’s wife Ann recalled that a few weeks before his murder, he had asked her an odd question which she had initially brushed off.

The Browns had been to a Christmas Party where Jack had had too much to drink. As Ann was driving them home, a rambling Jack asked her if she thought it would be wise to make a list of powerful people who he knew were involved in illegal activities and put it in a safe deposit box. Ann was only partly paying attention to him at the time because she was upset with him for being drunk and babbling nonsense.

After her husband was murdered, Ann thought the strange query may have been an indication that he was in some sort of trouble and searched for a safe deposit key. Such a key was not in the Brown home and, if it existed, it was never found. Investigators also found no evidence that Jack had a secret safe deposit box.

Ann and Jack

On January 11, 1984, the day of Jack Brown’s murder, Ypsilanti police conducted a major drug raid not far from his real estate office. The bust had been triggered by an anonymous informant. Some authorities believe there may have been a connection between the drug crackdown and Jack’s murder, but no evidence has been found supporting the theory.

It has also been considered that the murder was a case of mistaken identity because Jack Brown is a common name.

Drug-Related?

The gunman was thought to be approximately six-feet-two inches tall and weighing over two-hundred pounds. He wore a beige jacket and light colored pants. He was believed to be approximately thirty-five to forty-years-old, which would put him around seventy-five to eighty-years-old today.

The gunman’s accomplice was approximately five-feet-ten-inches tall and weighed roughly one-hundred-sixty-five pounds. He had noticeably wrinkled skin and wore insulated blue coveralls and a blue knit stocking cap. He appeared to be in his late forties or early fifties, making him in his to his late eighties to early nineties today.

The gunman used a .38 caliber revolver to kill Jack Brown. His accomplice was armed with an automatic handgun.

Composite Drawings of the Suspects

The Gunman Is On The Left

 

A $30,000 reward is offered for information leading to the identity of Jack Brown’s killers.

If you have any information on his murder, please contact the Ypsilanti, Michigan, Police Department at 734-483-9510.

Who Attacked Jack?

Jack Brown had worked in Ypsilanti’s Ehman and Greenstreet Real Estate Office since 1975 and had bought the business in 1979. Following his murder, Jack’s son, Clark Brown, began working at the firm and soon took over the business.

Clark died in 2016 at age fifty-eight.

Clark Brown

 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/152889682/jack-melvin-brown#

 

 

SOURCES:

• Detroit Free Press
• The Michigan Daily
• Unsolved Mysteries
• Ypsilanti Courier