Muskegon-area landlord and serial arsonist gets 55 years

Gerald Eugene Singer, former Muskegon-area landlord and convicted serial arsonist for profit, has been sentenced to 55 years in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Gordon J. Quist imposed that sentence – mandatory under federal law given Singer’s multiple convictions of arson, mail fraud and tax fraud – Thursday morning, Nov. 7. The diminutive, 74-year-old Singer – imprisoned since a federal jury convicted him of multiple felonies in March -- looked startlingly different from the well-groomed businessman he once was. He was led into Quist’s courtroom wearing a short-sleeved orange prison jumpsuit, hands shackled behind him, sporting a long, bushy, gray beard and long hair.