A black-caped woman with a lantern guides more than two dozen people through downtown Detroit as night falls, spinning ghoulish, grisly tales from the gritty city’s history, reports the Associated Press. Some Detroit residents say the $25 crime tour is in poor taste. It’s been criticized as an attempt to capitalize on the crime that still plagues the Motor City, derisively dubbed “Murder City.”
The “Notorius 313 True Crime & Ghost Tour” routinely sells out, drawing hordes that hoof it through the city’s slowly rebounding business district. With the excursion, Detroit joins a crime-tour club: London is “on the trail” of Jack the Ripper, New Orleans shows off its haunts, and Milwaukee has Jeffrey Dahmer tours — though the last has been protested by parents of murder victims who say operators profit from a serial killer’s murderous acts. Detroit tour operator and guide Karin Risko, who plans to hold the final walk of the season today, aims to minimize exploitation of the macabre by avoiding stories ripped from recent headlines. Her tales range from the 1700s to the mid-1990s.