Way Out West

Tragedy In Redford

Everybody knew the Hallabrins were hav-
ing problems. Nobody ever thought it
would lead to murder.
On March 16, 1985, police received a
call about a shooting on Columbia Street
in Redford. When they arrived, they found
three dead: 5-year-old Jeffrey Hallabrin,
his mother, Francine, and his father, Gary.
The couple's 9-year-old daughter man-
aged to escape to a neighbor's home.
A funeral was held for Jeffrey and his
mother on March 17. They are buried in
Section 20 at Machpelah Cemetery, where
they rest side-by-side. (Gary Hallabrin,
who was not Jewish, is buried elsewhere).
The story began in the spring of
1973, when Gary Steven Hallabrin and
Francine Andrea Sabo were married by a
judge in Oak Park.
Francine, an attractive student, was
born April 16, 1949, and lived on Fielding
Street in Detroit. Gary, who worked in a
store, resided at 12952 Berwyn in Detroit.
Both were 23 years old.
Gary and Francine Hallabrin settled in
Redford in a small home on Columbia
Street. They had two children who at-
tended Jefferson Elementary School.
Gary, a Wayne County deputy sheriff,
worked as a prisoner guard at the West-
land Medical Center.
There were good days at the Hallabrin
home. John Curtis, who lived next door,
remembers when Gary and Francine
showed movies — Disney films and car-
toons — in their back yard. Children from
throughout the neighborhood attended.

Above: The front gates of Machpelah, founded in
1910.
Right: The Redford Township home where Gary,
Francine and Jeffrey Hallabrin died.
Below: Jeffrey Hallabrin's grave. Machpeiah
workers called the funeral one of the most tragic
they have ever seen.

But in the early 1980s the couple began
fighting, sometimes so loud it could be
heard several houses away.
"(They) squabbled every day," a neigh-
bor told the Detroit Free Press. "In the
summer, you could hear it all over the
street."
A family acquaintance added, "He
(Hallabrin) had filed twice for divorce, the
last time just after Christmas. She told
me he was accusing her of running- around
with other men but that she wasn't.
Francine said he beat her often and she
didn't understand why.
`This past winter he got mad at her and
locked her out of the house. She was
always talking about Gary hitting her and
it seemed to get worse since he filed for
divorce this last time. She said she was
saving her money to hire an attorney."
The murder occurred in the morning,

after the couple fought during breakfast.
Gary Hallabrin, who owned a .45 cal-
iber automatic, shot his wife and then his
son. He fired at his 9-year-old daughter,
but she managed to get away. Finally,
Gary Hallabrin ended his own life with a
bullet to his head.
Next-door-neighbor John Curtis was
sitting on his front porch at the time, wait-
ing to go bowling with the Hallabrins'
daughter. One of the shots Gary Hallabrin
fired lodged just outside a window in the
Curtis home.
Police filed their report at 11:40 a.m.
They found Francine in the shower, while
Jeffrey was in his room near his father,
Gary, who was on the floor in the hallway.
The Hallabrin home was on the mar-
ket for almost two years before it was sold.
The current owners say they are happy
there and have never had any odd feel-
ings about the house, despite its history.
Workers at Machpelah recall the Hal-
labrin funeral as one of the most tragic
they have ever seen.
"It was that baby," one said of 5-year-
old Jeffrey. "That poor little baby." ❑

Jamb Isaacson loved music, dogs and wild
horses. He liked wild country, too, and in
the late 1800s he set out for an uncharted
territory that would one day become the
state of Arizona.
An immigrant from Latvia, Jacob
Isaacson is best known (if his name rings
a bell at all) as founder of Nogales, Ariz.
Located about 60 miles south of Tucson,
it is basically a tourist town with a pop-
ulation of 24,000.
For many years, Isaacson lay in an un-
marked grave at Machpelah (a story The
Jewish News covered in late 1993). In a
recent newsletter, Abe Rochlin, former
president of the Nogales historical soci-
ety, wrote of his visit to Isaacson's lonely
spot at the cemetery.
The thought that came to mind at the
time was "unwept, unhonor'd and un-
sung," not in the pejorative sense that Sir
Walter Scott meant in his 7-ay of the Last
Minstrel," but rather of a man forgotten
by both family and friends.
So Mr. Rochlin decided to take action.
He returned home and began a campaign
to solicit funds to secure a headstone for
Jacob Isaacson. In addition to donations
from Arizona, he received gifts from
Michigan, New York, Florida and Cali-
fornia.
Last year, the stone was erected.
Jacob Isaacson was born in 1853. His
family came in the 1870s to the United
States and settled in San Francisco. From
there, Jacob and his brother, Isaac, left
for Tucson, eventually settling in an area
in southern Arizona that would become
home to a railroad stop for travelers be-
tween Tucson and Mexico. Later, it would
take the name Nogales, Spanish for "wal-
nuts," which grew throughout the town.
Jacob Isaacson was the first postmas-
ter of Nogales. He stayed until 1884, then
left for Mexico. He traveled throughout
the South and the Midwest, founding a
number of successful businesses.
In 1902 Jacob married a widow, Jen-
nie Pierce, but the union was unhappy.
After it ended, Jacob went to live with his
sister Birdie in Detroit.
Jacob spent many of his remaining
years — all 18 of them — in mental
institutions. He stayed in St. Joseph's
Retreat in Dearborn, Michigan's first
hospital for the mentally ill, and the Noble
Sanitarium on East Jefferson in Detroit.
His last years
were at the
LO
0,
Eloise Infirm-
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ary for indi-
gents.
ti
Jacob Isaac-
L`ft ?7.- (928
son died Dec.
Cb7- fetilDEk
figG ALE S. PRIZOliti
27, 1928.
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cc

❑

Jacob Isaacson
finally gets a
tombstone.

31

