Unsolved mystery from the ’30s continues to haunt bar and grill
By Lisa Vidaurri-Bowling
Patrick Riley (right), owner of Jake’s Crossroads Bar & Grill in
Melvindale, serves Julie Osinski of Riverview one of his special
$1 hamburgers. Riley is the fifth person to own the facility —
once known as the Hollywood Bar — since the 1920s. Many insist
that the building is haunted.
Jake’s Crossroads
Bar & Grill
Location: 2704 Oakwood Blvd. at Dix-Toledo, Melvindale;
1-313-928-9639.
Opened: May 1998.
Owner: Patrick Riley.
Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays; noon to
midnight Sundays.
Services: Sports bar offering beer, wine, liquor, burgers and
steaks.
Entertainment: Disc jockey and karaoke on Saturdays.
Method of payment: Cash, Visa, MasterCard.
Patrick Riley serves spirits and said he’s seen spirits in his neighborhood
bar. Riley is the fifth person to own the bar and grill, known in the late
1920s as the Hollywood Bar, at Oakwood Boulevard and Dix-Toledo. When he
assumed ownership in 1998, he changed the name to honor his son, dubbing it
Jake’s Crossroads Bar & Grill.
According to Riley, the corner pub was the first commercial building in the
city, built in about 1927 at 2704 Oakwood.
It also is the last location where three residents were seen in October
1936.
“Local folklore indicates there were two rather attractive women sitting at
the bar,” Riley said. “A short time later, a guy walks into the place and
sits a little away from them. Of course, they are making eyes at each other.
The gentleman asks the bartender to ask the girls if he may buy them a
drink. Apparently, one of the women had a boyfriend in the Purple Gang,
whose headquarters was about a block away.
“A short time later, one of the gang members stopped in for a beer and saw
the two women sitting with the guy. To make matters worse, the guy was not
too popular with the Purple Gang, and here he was sitting with one of their
girlfriends. Well, as the story goes, the three people left together, maybe
to get a bite to eat. That was the last anyone had seen any of those people.
The bodies and the car were never found .”
Riley said the disappearance made national headlines. Reporters from all
over the Midwest were stationed at the old police station waiting for a
story.
Documentation of the 1936 mystery can be found at the Melvindale Public
Library.
A newspaper clipping from 1998 profiling the life of the late Ermil Pitt, a
police chief in Melvindale for more than 20 years, tells of the media frenzy
he witnessed while at the helm of the department.
According to Pitt, the trio — Thomas Lorimer, 23; Artie Maybee, 45; and
Margaret Redden, 35 — were last seen leaving the Hollywood Bar late on a
Thursday night, driving a 1935 Oldsmobile.
After missing persons reports were filed, reporters from daily newspapers
swarmed the town to cover the mysterious disappearance. Lorimer, Maybee,
Redden and the car they left in never were found.
Pitt documented the story of the city’s most famous mystery after he
retired.
According to Pitt, in 1985 the Army Corps of Engineers was dredging the
Rouge River as part of a flood-control project when it found a car in the
riverbed. It contained bones, and once again the story of the missing
Melvindale trio made front-page news.
The car turned out to a 1925 model, leaving the case unsolved.
Riley said that along with the bar’s colorful past, he believes some type of
paranormal activity occurs at the pub.
Shortly after signing the bar’s lease in April 1998, Riley was standing on a
ladder sanding old stucco from the walls when he felt a cold breeze blow
past his body. Some friends had left to pick up pizza.
“It sent shivers up and down my arms, making me momentarily lose my balance
on the ladder,” he said. “I climbed down the ladder to see if they left the
door open. Well, I checked and everything was secured. So, I thought I must
be imagining things. I climb back on the ladder and begin working again. A
few moments later, it happened again.
“After we were open for business, there were several bartenders who said
they would see shadows in the other room late at night. There was another
bartender who said she felt a slight breeze go through her body and it made
the hair on her arms stand on end. I didn’t tell them what happened to me.”
Former bartender Dawn Loghini agrees that the place has haunting potential.
The Lincoln Parker worked at Jake’s from 1998 to 2001, and said she vividly
remembers hearing the sound of children laughing in the basement.
“We kept extra stock in the basement, and I remember going to get more
liquor to replenish the bar and I heard children laughing,” she said.
“Another time, I was down there and I heard footsteps as if someone was
running behind me. When I turned around, no one was there.”
Riley said he was approached by a white witch, or good witch, who said he
felt he could rid the building of spirits.
“After everything I have witnessed and other people I know have seen for
themselves, I think there is something going on here,” he said. “I believe
in God. So, the notion of spirits is not inconceivable.”
But aside from the paranormal, the Downriver businessman wants to promote
his bar based on “the coldest beer at the best prices most of the time, and
a great burger or 9-ounce New York strip steak dinner.”
“The food at Jake’s isn’t overly pretentious,” he said, adding that Jake’s
also is known for its spaghetti dinners.
“Our seasoned steak fries are truly unique,” Riley said. “Many guests come
out for a basket of seasoned, steak-cut fries and a beverage.”
Riley touts the $1 burger to be the “best you’ve ever tasted.”
“This hamburger is not your average fare,” he said. “When I designed it, the
flavors are from the ’50s, when rich marbled beef was common.”
The modest neighborhood bar seats 80 to 90 patrons and offers a dollar menu
for children.
“If the child wants something from the regular menu, that would obviously be
way too generous a portion for their size, then we just adjust the size of
the meal along with the price,” he said.
Riley’s been in the food and beverage industry for his entire adult life.
“I spent 12 years managing full-service restaurants,” he said. “Then my
interests changed. I got caught up in the culinary end of the business about
the time the United States won the Culinary Olympics. I apprenticed at some
prestigious kitchens: The Hotel St. Regis during the ’80s and the Somerset
Inn in Troy. We used to cook breakfast for the Detroit Lions when the team
stayed there for their home games.”
He believes that along with stocking quality liquor, serving good food is
important.
“As an owner, not only do I want a positive reputation for my food business,
I want people to have a confidence in our product — food and beverage,”
Riley said.
“Today’s lifestyle, we are all so busy with our jobs, taking our children to
baseball practice or going to school to further our job skills. I know when
I go to another bar with one of my sports teams, or if I take my family out
to eat, whatever I order, it has to be good. That’s it, no compromise.
“I am too busy to have to worry if the people who are preparing my food are
doing things the way they should. The experience should be good, whether we
are at a small corner diner or at a restaurant with white tablecloths. I
hold myself and my employees responsible for the same standards of
expectation I demand when I’m on the other side of the counter.”
In May, Riley plans to celebrate the bar’s 10th anniversary with a weeklong
celebration at 1998 prices for all beverages.
“Weather permitting, we may have a cookout, invite a few of the past
bartenders to guest bartend, along with one or two special customers who
were regulars for the past 10 years,” he said.
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