The Murder of Alan Canty

I am currently reading the book Masquerade by Lowell Cauffiel. If you have not read any of his books you should check him out. I am not sure how many books he has written but this is his second that I have read and they are very good. What I did not know or realized after reading my first book of his, House of Secrets, was that he was previously a newspaper journalist. That in and of itself is not odd, nor is it unusual for them to write books about cases they covered in their job as a journalist. This is just such a case for Cauffiel. He was a journalist for a local newspaper in Detroit in 1985 when psychologist, Alan Canty was murdered and the people responsible were put on trial. This story is the one that authors and screenwriters dream about. It had everything, a rich, respected victim who was hiding a dark secret; then there was the prostitute and her pimp who not only used him, ultimately murdered him. And, let us not forget the wife who was as shocked as anyone else when the story came out. Alan Canty's wife remained in the area only a few more years. She left the state of Michigan, changed her name and left that life behind her until recently it seems. She finally decided to write a book of her own. It was said that Cauffiel was even writing the Forward for her. Last I saw it appeared that it was awaiting publishing but I could be wrong.

W. Alan Canty Jr., who was simply known as Alan, was the only child of a very prominent criminal psychiatrist in the Detroit Michigan area and his wife, Gladys. As is often the case of children, especially only children, of successful parent, Alan seemed to have it all, but never fully extracted himself from the “purse strings” of his parents. He apparently made several different career choices early on in his life, finally settling down as a psychologist in the area. For the most part it seemed that Alan was quite successful with his business. At least in the beginning the clients seem to really like not just the help he gave them but his laid back attitude and his willingness to seemingly bend over backwards to see them whenever needed. By 1985 Alan had been married to his second wife, Jan, for nearly a decade. They owned a home in one of the most prominent areas of Detroit known as Grosse Pointe Park. Jan was finishing up her degree in psychology at the time and while Alan's main office was in the well known Fisher Building in downtown Detroit, he also maintained an office in their home and often saw patients there. From every description I have heard of Alan was described as a bit “frumpy” and unkempt which seems very out of character for a doctor. Some people, even clients, described him as a bit odd but in general a very personable and nice guy. But everyone who thought they knew Alan Canty, including his mother, would be in for a shock in the summer of 1985.

Now, as I stated in the beginning I am in the middle of reading the book on this case so I have to be fair in saying I do not have all the details completely. Considering that this crime, despite being very notorious even still in the Detroit area, occurred over thirty years ago complete information is sketchy. In fact one of the reasons I was even able to obtain as much as I have been is due to the fact that Jan has decided to write a book and it brought the story back into the news a few years ago making some articles with information available.

What we do know is that Alan Canty was living a secret or double life. While his wife believed he was overworking himself both at home and his downtown office with clients, she also believed that he was doing some work with the local prosecutors working with inmates at the jail. She believed this because this is what Alan told her. In reality Alan Canty was making his way to the more seedy areas of Detroit on a daily basis. The fifty year old had met up with a young eighteen year old “working girl” named Dawn Spens. Dawn, along with her boyfriend/pimp, thirty something year old John Fry, were also drug addicts. While it is clear what Dawn did for a living it is not completely clear that was what Alan Canty was after. That is not to say that Dawn did not “pleasure” him from time to time or when he asked but it appears that was not exactly what he was looking for all the time. Over a period of about a year and a half Canty became more and more involved with Dawn. There was an agreement made that he would show up at the apartment she shared with John and while he left Dawn would brew Alan's favorite coffee and sometimes the time was just spent while he sat and read the paper. Sounds innocent enough... right? And in a normal situation Dawn and John would have been doing okay. On those visits, that often happened several times a week Alan would leave a hundred dollars behind. Then there were the times that he picked Dawn up and took her shopping for clothes or anything she wanted. But, that was not all the money he was handing out to Dawn, and through her, John. He even befriended John, with the two talking often and even socializing at a bar at least once. But, even with Dawn and John, Alan was not completely honest.

The couple knew Alan as “Dr. Alan Miller” and they were not told he was a psychologist of any kind. In fact, they were under the impression, at least for a while, that he was a general practitioner of some kind. Once however when Dawn had become sick and needed medical attention the couple became suspicious when it appeared “Dr. Miller” did not seem to very knowledgeable. In fact, Dawn was admitted into a local hospital that Alan had claimed to work at. He did seemingly “pull some strings” to get her there but at the time then told Dawn he had left that hospital and working somewhere else. This was not the only strange thing the couple heard come from “Dr. Miller.” John would say later that he thought it odd that Alan knew that the couple was involved in drugs and even helped them procure some at one point but then stated that his wife had died of a drug overdose. He had claimed that he had attempted to save her and get her clean but she had died. John found it suspicious that if the story was true that he would help them by not only giving them money for drugs, but on at least one occasion took John to get them. Despite apparently both describing Alan as a “goof” they couple did not seem to have a problem using him, but in the same respect Alan did not have a problem handing out money. If Dawn wanted two hundred dollars for a trip Alan handed her five. He gave John money at least once to bail Dawn out of jail when she had been picked up for prostitution for her only to be released without bail later.

It is unclear exactly when things began to unravel for Alan Canty. Most reports state that by the time things ended he had given Dawn Spens and John Fry about $100,000, including buying them a house. In the process while it appears he was not necessarily paying many of his general bills from the outside his lifestyle had not changed, so much to the point that even Jan was clueless. Both she and Alan had gotten new cars recently. I mean why couldn't they? They had the money, or so she thought. And, Alan obviously never told her differently. Alan was also “borrowing” large sums of money from his mother, Gladys. She was very well off. Her husband had left her with a substantial estate when he died in 1976 and it seems she invested well. But, she could not stop her only son from coming by more and more frequently it seemed wanting or needing money. From her part she assumed that it all stemmed from the fact that it appeared that Alan and Jan were living beyond their means. Gladys would express this to Alan when he would come asking for money and while it always seemed to start an argument, Alan never left without the money he had intended to get, and Gladys never saw the money again no matter how sincerely Alan sounded about repaying her. Some reports simply say that several months before July of 1985 Alan Canty suffered what was described as a psychotic break. Other reports state that it happened nearly a year earlier but that does not seem very accurate. Regardless the result was that Alan Canty was hospitalized for a period of several weeks. It appears that it was during this time that Jan discovered many unpaid bills, including hospital insurance.

Few dispute what happened on July 13, 1985 or even who was responsible. However, it does seem that there are a few, including possibly Jan Canty, who dispute why it occurred. It was on this day that John Fry beat Alan Canty to death with a baseball bat, repeatedly hitting him in the head. Then John, possibly with the help of Dawn, dismembered his body and he was only described as being “scattered throughout Northern Michigan.” Prosecutors would say that the murder occurred because Alan Canty had decided he was done handing the couple money, really because he had little left to give and that John Fry murdered him in a rage. For his part John Fry would all but admit that he was in a rage when he beat Alan Canty but claimed it was not because Alan planned to cut the couple off, but because Fry, who seemingly had ambitions of attempting sobriety from time to time wanted to see Dawn get “clean” and Alan allegedly did not and an argument ensued between the two men. John would claim that Alan pushed him in the argument and this is when he retaliated with the baseball bat. Now, while the story John Fry gave may sound odd and likely more like an excuse it appears that even Jan Canty would later say she saw this as a plausible explanation. She would later describe Alan as the type of man who liked to have control and power. She says he was the type of man that needed to be in authority but wanted to be needed and admired. She believes that he would not have had that from Dawn, and/or John if they had become clean. Alan was nearly twenty years older than Jan and she has said that as she got older, matured and became more independent their relationship had changed drastically. She was not the meek, needy young girl she once was who needed a man to care for her.

For her part Jan had heard from Alan at about three that afternoon. He told her he would be home around six that evening but he never came home. It is not clear if she filed a missing persons report on him but a few days later the Detroit police contacted her and asked her to come in. It was then that they told her they had found Alan's car on the 16^th, three days after he had gone missing. It had been torched on the southwest side of Detroit. On July 21^st part of a leg was found on Interstate 75. Other parts would be found spread out over about 250 miles. It seems that John Fry, who never could keep his mouth shut, had taken to bragging about what he had done and on July 22^nd both he and Dawn were arrested and charged with murder.

I could find little information on what was presented at any trials. It does appear that John Fry faced a trial and was convicted of first degree murder and for the mutilation of the body. He was given a life sentence without parole for the murder and 6.5 to 10 years for the other charge. In 1991 he appealed his conviction in part saying that Dawn had not been called to testify and claimed that if she had she could have confirmed that the murder was not premeditated as the prosecution had argued. It appears that the appeal was denied and John Fry died while in prison in 1995.

It also appears that Dawn possibly got some sort of plea deal but it apparently did not include her testifying against John Fry. By all accounts she spent about ten months in jail after her arrest. In the end she was charged with dismemberment, given a sentence of probation and released. One report stated that she later married, had children and had led a drug-free life.

As far as Jan Canty went she remained in the area for about another five years. It was said that in 1990 she changed her name and left Michigan to put distance between herself and the scandal that had been created. She would eventually finish her degree, get married and adopt two children. In 2016 it seems she at least partially came out of “hiding” when she announced she was writing a book about the case from her side of things. She had been left ruined and humiliated, but most of all angry. She would discover that Dawn Spens was not the only woman her husband had been involved with. She stated there were many others, all in their early 20's with long dark hair. Alan apparently had a “type.” When asked thirty years after her husbands murder if she had ever forgiven him she had to say no.

Today when you see an article about notorious crimes in Michigan, especially in the Detroit area you will likely see at least a slight mention of the man who everyone thought they knew but learned that no one knew of his dark side and secrets until he was gone.