Luther Mixon
Forty-three years old and identified in newspaper coverage as an alleged numbers operator.
MONTHLY DETROIT CASE · FILE 01 · SEPTEMBER 2026
THE MURDER OF LUTHER MIXON
A nighttime robbery at a Lawton Avenue apartment left one man dead, two suspects arraigned, and another being hunted beyond Detroit.
DATEJuly 1, 1955
CRIME SCENE3719 Lawton Avenue
VICTIMLuther Mixon, 43
CASE TYPEHold-up murder
THE OPENING
An expensive automobile drew the question.
Three masked men forced their way into the Lawton Avenue apartment. They demanded to know who owned the expensive automobile parked outside. Before they left, Luther Mixon had been beaten, shot, and robbed.
Contemporary reporting described Mixon as a reputed numbers operator. He lived at 3145 Maple Street and was visiting the Lawton Avenue home when the gunmen entered. Approximately $400 was taken from those present.
THE DETROIT RECORD
What the newspapers reported.
The victimLuther Mixon, 43, of 3145 Maple Street.
The sceneThe home of Mr. and Mrs. Otis McClure at 3719 Lawton Avenue.
The attackMixon was reportedly pistol-whipped before he was shot.
The robberyAbout $400 was reported taken during the hold-up.
THE INVESTIGATION
From a Detroit showup to an FBI arrest.
01
Two men identified
The McClures reportedly identified Chester Campbell and David Green during a Detroit police showup.
02
First-degree murder charges
Campbell, 25, and Green, 24, were arraigned in Recorder’s Court on charges arising from Mixon’s killing.
03
A third man sought
Police identified Watson Brooks, 23, as another suspect and expected an arrest.
04
Captured in New York
A later report said the FBI arrested Brooks in New York and returned attention to the Detroit prosecution.
NAMES IN THE FILE
The people identified in the contemporary record.
Chester Campbell
Twenty-five years old when arraigned on a first-degree murder charge in the Mixon case.
David Green
Twenty-four years old when arraigned alongside Campbell in Recorder’s Court.
Watson Brooks
Initially sought as another suspect and later reported arrested in New York by the FBI.
Mr. and Mrs. Otis McClure
Residents of the Lawton Avenue home who reportedly identified Campbell and Green.
Rudolph Mixon
Luther Mixon’s brother, whose remarks suggested police might be looking beyond the men first named.
WHY THIS CASE ENDURES
A killing at the beginning of a darker Detroit history.
For Detroit readers, the case reaches beyond a single 1955 headline. Chester Wheeler Campbell would later become known as “Dr. Death,” a notorious figure in the city’s criminal underworld. The Luther Mixon case records an early point in that history—before the name acquired its later infamy.
This historical account is based on contemporary Detroit newspaper coverage supplied to the Renna Palmer Publishing research archive. Newspaper descriptions such as “reputed” and “alleged” are retained as attributions to the period reporting.
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