Local Author Offers Latest: ‘Clare County Murders’

Jon Ringelberg is uniquely qualified to write a book about murders in Clare county. Not only has he been a longtime member of the Clare County Historical Society and former 80^th District Court judge, he has synopsized thousands of historic legal cases.  Ringelberg has used his considerable expertise in the legal field and with his research skills produced a fascinating read about local murders.

According to Ringelberg Clare County historically has averaged a murder every 2.24 years. He outlines those cases in his 236-page book.  Ringelberg uses court case documents, newspaper accounts, and sometimes his own experiences on and off the bench to provide details and insight into each case.

Ringelberg is not a stranger to reviewing legal cases. His retirement hobby has been synopsizing legal cases and publishing them in books. The books are donated to the Library of Michigan and local libraries and for sale upon request. His easy to read format allows those of us that haven’t been to law school to understand the details of each case. His ongoing work on this project is a historical and genealogical treasure of information.

In our interview, he pointed out what he hopes isn’t a potential mistake.  His book covers 1871 to 2020, but 2020 isn’t over so he hopes (for more than one reason) that there are no murders committed in the county for the rest of the year.