I knew Ralph Nuss. He worked with my father at the Federal Correctional Institution at Milan, Michigan NOT Ypsilanti. There WAS a state mental hospital in Ypsilant but that is not where he worked. He was a Classification and Parole Officer at Milan. He was a friend of the familiy and used to come over to the house and sit and have coffee with my mother. I was 14 when he killed the boys from Ypsi/Detroit. As I recall, he originally admitted killing one of the boys on federal prison property (by the old rifle range) until he found out that killing someone on prison property would have subjected him to being hung. I remember him being a nervous, jumpy kind of person.

i was an inmate at FCI, Milan at the time Ralph Nuss was working there. He was in charge of the work release program. I remember vividly the dat the FBI arrived at the institution and found the body of a young man in the trunk of his car (which was a government issued vehicle.) I know that somewhere along the line while he was in the Washtenaw County Jail he helped foil an escape. I have no idea of what ever happened to him. Does anybody know?

I worked for Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department, in the jail. Ralph worked as a trustee taking care of the laundry and the library. He was in charge of the work release program at Milan when the murders happen, they were kids from Willow Run, MI, which is right outside of Ypsilanti. Ralph was pretty high up in the prison system, he has even had dinner at the White House. And yes he did stop a jail break at the old jail. Cell block 13, they (inmates) actually cut 2 bars out and that would have let them get out into the catwalk, and they had planned on doing it on the midnight shift when the officer came in to do a check they were going to jump him and that way they could get out of the catwalk and try to get out somehow. Anyways Ralph got wind of it and passed it on to us and we were able to stop it from happening. I quit the department back in 1978 and I really don't know what happen to him after that. I know they were trying to recharge him for the murders. He had been charged once found not guilty by reasons of insanity and sent to Ypsilanit State hospital. He was "cured" and they then let him out under the old laws at the time. But Lywood Noa wanted to recharge him, and it was going up the court system of appeals, so that it wasn't double jerporay. Ra[ph was a likeable guy, he even helped me do some of my college term papers. If anybody knows what happen to him, pleasae post it, thanks.