Revelations | "Murder in the Orange Grove" | "48 Hours" Podcast (Episode 4) | Forensic Files

got a big key this you ready on September 9th 1999 I walked into the Union Correctional Institution in Rayford
Florida Florida's death row going into a Maximum Security Prison isn't new to me I've been in dozens I've
even done other interviews on death row face to face with convicted Killers but this case wait heavier on me who is
Crosley green hi Crosley I'm Aaron morard with CBS News 48 Hours we've been looking at
your case now it's really important to meet you and have viewers meet you nervous at all today no no I'm not
nervous I'm a little shy but I'm not nervous it had been 9 years since Crosley was
convicted for the murder of Chip Flynn and for the last 8 years he had been sitting on death row confined to a 6ft
wide 9ot long cell and that's where he spent 23 and a half hours every day I want to ask you the question I
think that everybody need you to answer did you kill chiplin no I did not kill that man
[Music] I'm 48 Hours correspondent Aon morard this is murder in the Orange Grove the trouble case against Crosley
Green episode 4 [Music] Revelations I've been examining and Reporting on crosley's case for 25 years
since 1999 which is where we start this episode when I first met Crosley green why should I believe that you didn't
kill chip Flyn I'm going tell you just like I tell people's my friends that was visiting me
my attorneys hey I didn't kill that man all right but it's already embedded in your mind
I'm a criminal why should I believe you initially I wondered could this be a case of mistaken identity the murder did
occur on a moon less night in an unlit Orange Grove Kim H said over and over again she didn't get a good look at the
as salent this was one of the first questionable conviction cases I had ever covered and I felt the need to find the
truth the real truth because the consequences were life or death the room where we met Crossley was Tiny just
enough space for me my cameraman and Crosley what what's it like being here on death row it's
hell it's hell a lot in a lot of ways it's hell it's hell to me because I'm here for a crime I didn't
commit all right then I got to sit in my S 24 hours a day do you ever think about what you face if you don't
get out of here do I ever think about it no I don't think about it that is so far away from my
mind I didn't expect to find a man with so much hope but Crosley appeared to be convinced that his murder conviction
would one day be overturned if someone would just take a closer look well listen do me a favor just don't take my
word go look at the records go look at every file that they [Music] got and so we did back then in the
summer of 1999 chip Flynn's death 10 years ear earlier was still a dark painful memory
in the small Florida communities of Titusville and Mims but it was mostly unknown to Outsiders like me I needed to
go down there for myself to better understand the facts of the case for the next few weeks I met with different
members of the community from attorneys and forensic experts to people who knew both crosy green and Chip Flynn people
in their closest circles we spent days there at a time and kept going back I started with reviewing the police
records and reading trial transcripts there seemed to be several prosecution witnesses who placed Crosley at the
first crime scene holder Park like Willie Hampton a retired police officer at the time who testified that he saw
Crosley wearing a jacket at the baseball game earlier in the day it was consistent with the description of the
bolo that's the police term for be on the lookout but here's what Crosley said he was wearing that night what were you
wearing I think it was a tank top which you would call a g shirt Red Jeans a pair of jeans and a pair of sneakers and
what about a jacket no sir listen if I had on a jacket at that time when that bolo came out why so many people that
was around me and I'm in sitting with them couldn't come up and say listen I remember a got there with a GRE Army
jacket on he was sitting right beside me and there seemed to be inconsistencies about the as salent hair
if you remember Kim HCK first told police that the as salent had an afro here she's talking to a sheriff's deputy
on April 4th 1989 just hours after the murder okay uh what about the hair could you
tell the hairstyle of the black nail just afro and there nothing fancy nothing weird was a thick long short
just thick kind of long not long a littleit little bit of n but later at a pre-trial deposition the
description of the as salent hair had changed Kim told defense attorney Rob Parker that the suspect had tight
ringlets styled with a substance like a gel when I asked Crosley about how he wore his hair he insisted that it had
been very short almost like a buzzcut as I kept pushing him for specific details you can hear him
getting more and more frustrated until can I look at the camera cuz I want to say this in the camera man go ahead
the way I look now is the way I look then I mean so your hair was that the way I look now is the way I look
in that's short and she described someone with curls over the ears the way I look now
to you this is exactly what I look like okay it may not be quite clear about what just happened but Crosley had
become so frustrated with my questions over and over again about his hair that he suddenly just looked away from me and
then looked straight into the camera lens and said the way I look now is the way I look then okay got it Crosley that
is still one of my favorite moments from that first interview and more than another decade later Crosley still wears
his hair pretty much the same he has short cropped hair almost completely shaven I think we all have ideas of what
a Killer looks like Crosley didn't fit mine you could tell when someone is guarded not Crosley this was a guy who
was open and eager to talk to me I got the sense that he was thrilled to finally get the chance to tell his side
of the story I was told not to say nothing not to take the stand no not only not take the stand but after it was
over I was told by my attorney uh don't say nothing I do the talking for you what did you want to say what I wanted
to say I wanted to turn around and tell the parents of that kid that I'm sorry about their
son but I didn't kill their son what struck me the most about talking to Crosley is not just that he denied
killing chip I mean I expected that but how much he wanted to set the record straight with Chip's parents what pained
him the most was that they thought he murdered their son they've been fed with something that is not
true they have been fed with something that's not true okay and I feel bad for them I
really do I feel bad for them when I lost my mother and father I know what I felt and for her to lose her son I know
what she felt what's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of CH rarely did you see him without a
smile on his face just rarely that smile he always wore yeah before I met Crosley I met Charles
and Peggy Flynn Chip's parents it's the heart hard EST part of reporting on crime talking to parents who have lost a
beloved child and Chip Flynn was a beloved child after his murder the 10 years that had passed had done nothing
to reduce their pain they spoke to me in their Titusville Home what's the most important thing you
want people to know about Chip he didn't deserve to die we sat at their dining room table with pi pictures
of Chip over the years spread across the table Family Photos School Portraits in
all of them chip is smiling with laughter in his eyes I'm a mom myself I don't know how anyone goes on after
losing a child you you want to wake up every day and say hey this has all been a bad
dream it's going to go away it don't chip was named after his father Charles Charles remembered Kim how
faithful call in those early morning hours of April 4th 1989 she just told us that she just that
they had been kidnapped and that this guy take him down the Orange Grove and it chip jumped out of the truck shooting
to try to save her and she jumped in the truck and took off do you believe Crosley green is the
man who robbed and killed your son yes absolutely AB I definitely do there's nothing no worse than I'd rather do see
somebody go to the chair for something they didn't do but I think we want that to happen but I agree I feel like
there's enough proof um that it that it has that the case has totally been proven that he did do it
and that's the way I feel you're telling people you're innocent and you're still sitting here
on death row I'm a poor black man I don't have no money to hire no lawyer no investigators
I have to do it what they give me I have to I have to do with that while Crosley couldn't afford an
attorney he did have a rotating cast of at least five court appointed defense attorneys at that point they had tried
and failed to get his conviction overturned or even get him off death row still Crosley remained upbeat convinced
that he would someday walk free I have one one great big hope to try to help myself by writing to different
peop and ask them for help to take a look at it you know I'm not just going to sit here and give up and not try to
help myself turns out that crosley's willingness to talk to different people would prove to be a major turning point
in his case in large part thanks to this woman Nan Webb I just almost feel driven sometimes
to help people that can't help themselves cuz I think that's what we're supposed to do that's what God tells us
we're supposed to do in 1999 when I met n web she was a 57-year-old teacher and anti-death row activist she and her
husband Bill sat with me one afternoon in the kitchen of their Melbourne Florida home a flyer titled release
Crosley green now was displayed prominently on their fridge alongside a photo of their poodle and a Serenity
Prayer magnet here's bill and I just believe the man is innocent and I want to help him as much as I possibly can
and support him and his his family what if Crosley green is guilty he's not but what if he is but he's
not how can you know that because I've read the information and and we know Crosley they
wanted to hire a private attorney for him but they didn't have the money so n went to a wrongful conviction conference
in Chicago in hopes of meeting someone who would take the case pro bono and for the first time in nearly a decade
crosley's luck took a turn after talking to Nan a private detective decided to recruit a team of five other
investigators from across the country to reexamine the evidence against Crosley for
[Music] free I asked Crosley what he thought about these investigators who were willing to drop everything to look into
his case you can probably imagine his answer you feeling more helpful can I scream and I when I feel
good I like to cry out so can I cry out you feel good that's that's what I feel like and that's really how I along with
a group of 48 Hours producers got involved in this story in early 1999 when we heard that a band of private
detectives were reinvestigating crosley's case on their own dime we knew there was probably a story there
around the beginning of August we rolled into town with a CBS News camera crew we
stuck out like a sore thumb and we had to be careful it felt like everyone knew each other and We Were Strangers from
New York digging into a 10-year-old case that it clearly left its mark on Rural Florida
my first impression of bravard County was that it's like many counties in Florida rural buggy especially with
mosquitoes it was humid with wide open soggy spaces of overgrowth if you traveling north on
Highway US1 on the right side is the area known as East Ms and that is where the vast majority of black citizens live
on the west side is West Ms and that is where the vast majority of whites live when I started working on this podcast I
wanted to know more about the racial history of Titusville and Mims and that's how we found Bill gar he's been
involved in the local NAACP chapter for decades and told me about his experience
moving to Bard County Now 50 years ago there was segregation here my my first wife and I bought a house out in North
Titus field where there were no other black families and um we endured several months of people throwing citrus fruit
on our house driving through our yards they spray painted the inward on both sides of of the house uh Florida to many
people um conjures up an image of of beaches of palm trees Orange grows but also Florida
has a very dark history uh when it comes to the treatment of black citizens in this state at one time Florida was the
leading state in terms of lynchings Bill is also board president of a cultural institution dedicated to
Harry and Harriet Moore the Moors were two activists who spearheaded the Florida civil rights movement right here
in Mims in 1951 they were murdered when their house was bombed it's important because it's a part not only of the
African-American history uh of the state but also of the nation we have the annual hary Mo memorial service and when
we arrived there were some clu Clan Flyers all over the parking lot and they have been uh Flyers scattered in
neighborhoods and stuff over different years while Bill Gary didn't know Crosley personally after crosley's
conviction in 1990 his brother ' Conor asked Bill to review the trial transcripts they both hope that bill
would see for himself the lack of evidence against Crosley and could help rally the Community to fight for his
release this was a big story back in ' 89 the people that I've talked to in the community I never heard any comments or
talks about uh Crossley attacking anybody or being violent at school or anything of that
nature which is why I think many people were surprised when he was prosecuted for this as I continued to learn more
about crosley's case this was a common sentiment I heard from many people even though Crosley had had run-ins with the
law and a conviction for selling drugs no one could imagine he was capable of murder and why why did they want that
conviction so badly cuz a young white man dies yes uh and based on the testimony of a a young white woman and
the the state attorney Journey that we had at that time uh was not interested in in Justice what they were interested
in is a conviction that State Attorney was Norm wolfinger prosecutor Chris White's boss
wolfinger died in 2016 but he was still in office in 1999 when I started to investigate this case from where you're
standing now do you believe that Crosley green is one who killed chip Flynn you know what I believe isn't important now
the jury has found him guilty the Flor the the judge has sentenced him to wolfinger and many in the local
community it was an open and shut Case crley green had murdered chip Flynn but N9 years after the trial Crosley still
couldn't believe that he had been convicted I really didn't expect them to find me guilty what can they find me
guilty of what evid [Music] this but now there was a new team of private detectives in town who were
starting to pick apart that evidence that group of five men and one woman from around the country who flew in to
reexamine crosley's case for free they have been in Bard County since July and when we caught up with them later that
summer they were sunburned tired and making progress all right let's rock and roll coming through the bug infested
Florida Orange Grove F got it they were pouring over old case documents topography maps and aerial
photographs of the crime scenes and they were searching for prosecution witnesses
who would be willing to talk to them they caught a break a big one when they found found Alan Jerome Murray he was
one of the several witnesses who testified against Crosley at his murder trial he was the witness of trial who
had been part of a group of men hanging around the corner in Mims known as 21 Jump Street Allan had testified that
Crosley was also there and told them he had just killed a man and that he was going to quote
disappear I spoke to Alan myself about this experience it's a little hard to hear and understand Allan on this
recording so listen carefully tell me about it what what what did you say 10 years ago sent an innocent man to prison
I sent an innocent man to prison Allan said Allan who was on Parole at the time of the murder told me that he felt
pressured by detectives to come up with a story about Crosley green any story that would connect him to the crime and
what did they want you to say that black man said he killed somebody and um they
told me and said um if I don't say what I what they want me to say I go right back to the slam what did you tell the
police they told me to say said he killed him so I just said he killed him again in case you couldn't quite hear
him Allan said they told me to say he killed him so I just said he killed him and did Crosley green ever tell you that
he didn't never told me that nearly 10 years after Allan testified against Crosley he admitted that he had lied on
the stand and apparently he wasn't the only one remember Tim Curtis that autoshop repair owner who told police
the sketch of the alleged as salent looked like Crosley well 10 years later he had a confession to make did that
sketch look like Crosley green No it didn't not at all the sketch was of a a fatter type
face person Crosley green had a real narrow narrow bone structure of the face did
you tell the police though that it looked like Crosley green I think I may have said that in
the report um why say anything at all I was angry I wanted the person who' done it I wanted Justice
done at all cost even if if the wrong person was convicted but at the time I thought we had the right person
or I felt that was the right person Tim had also told police that o Conor told him that Crosley had shot chip even
though Tim knew it wasn't true I think I may have said something like that I think that was almost like you
got a little fire going so you add a little bit more cold to it so you added embellished I think made up no I I
wouldn't go as far as to say really made up I think it's almost like how rumors get started you know I seen the guy
jumped to the creek by the time it gets back to you he swam the creek heck he walked on water before he got to the
other side do you believe you made a mistake now I do and if if Crosley green is innocent
and if Crosley green didn't do this well like they say the Opera ain't over till the fat lady sings and I think
the fat lady's fixing a sing on this one the investigative team was on a roll they track down another prosecution
witness Lonnie Hillary the fiance of crosley's sister he told these private investigators in a
videotaped statement that he felt pressured by prosecutor Chris White to testify against Crosley to corroborate
Sheila's account of that night at crosley's trial Lonnie corroborated Sheila's story and
testified that he saw Crosley in the hours after the murder and said that Crosley told him quote I [ __ ] up but
now 10 years later Lonnie told private investigators this wasn't true it couldn't be because Lonnie was with
Sheila for the entire night of the murder and the following morning and neither had spoken to Crosley about
[Music] anything but one of the most important Witnesses the woman whose testimony was
devastating to Crosley a trial well she was elusive and kept avoiding the investigators
calls that was Sheila green I asked Rob Parker crosley's defense attorney for the 1990 trial just
how damning was Sheila's testimony you know basically told Crosley I said you know she strapped you
in did you believe Sheila green at that time do you believe that Crosley green actually told her did no I don't believe
that why do you think Sheila green testified against her own brother that way why want to go to federal
prison the more I learned about this case the more I realized just how powerful her testimony was against her
brother did she also lie on the stand just like Lonnie Hillary and Alan Jerome Murray it became clear that in order to
overturn crosley's case the pis would need to track down Sheila and ask did Crosley really confess
the pressure was on to find her and we appealed to her older sister Shirley White I can only show Sheila love and
give her love the rest is up to Sheila but do you want her to come forward now I want her to come forward I
told her today to come forward she will I know she will she's my sister she will I have that much confidence in
her somehow Shirley did her magic and later that week there she was leaning against a vehicle Sheila spoke with the
investigators I wasn't allowed to hear that initial conversation and I thought if she didn't
want to talk to them she'll never talk to me a reporter with a camera but she did what have these last 10 years been
like for you it's been like he that's something I had to live with for the for 10 years every time I look at
news and hear about an individual death R I think about my brother and I knew that he's there not only for my
statement but for other people statement but I knew mine was a lie and I always told myself one day that I was going to
help him I didn't know about how to go about helping him because I was so afraid
of what the outcome of my situation is because I'm on probation and um I don't know the
judicial system you know and I was afraid of being sent back to prison it was painful to hear Sheila's
story she's a mother and she said prosecutors promised to reduce her upcoming sentence on a drug conviction
if she gave information about crosley's whereabouts on the night of 's murder what did they say would happen if you
didn't testify against your brother I would never see my kids again they said that specific
yes my kids is is one of my weakness you know you use my kids it's like you stabbing me in my heart with a
knife and I never been separated from my kids and I felt that I wanted to see him again so I
cooperated with the DEA and um State Attorney office are you telling me Sheila then that your entire testimony
against your brother was a lie was the whole lie what did that feel like on the stand I felt
horrible it was wrong but I felt I had to do it do you think Crosley had anything to do with
the murder no have you talked to Crosley at all in all these 10 years no I haven't do you want
to yes what would you tell him he will understand you think he will yes he will he know I did
it's okay he he wouldn't be mad with me and Sheila was right when I asked him about
this terrible betrayal Crosley didn't seem to be mad or even holding a grudge against his sister I'm not no rookie
with just a sister okay um um I was 31 she was what 23 24 okay okay and she never went through a system
before they shuck her up pretty pretty good things changed when they start to really messing with and start talking
about taking her kids and stuff away from them come on crowy no I don't hate my sister man cuz it ain't Sheila
fault no it ain't Sheila fault she testified against you listen when I saw my sister in trial
that was my sister okay and it hurted me to my heart to see her like that that wasn't my sister Sheila did
not receive the lighter sentence she was promised she ultimately gained nothing from testifying against
Crosley surprisingly Crosley didn't have anger towards the people who testified against him because he knew the system
he knew prosecutors and investig tigators can and sometimes would divide families just to convict someone I'm a
lawyer and still this was shocking to me you've had what 10 years at least to think about what happened that night
what do you think happened what I think I think it's terrible that a young man got
killed okay but who killed him how he got killed and all that I don't know but do you think that
there is another man out there a black man by another man out there a killer I don't know this young
lady okay I'm not going to call her a liar maybe it wasn't no one maybe it was someone I wasn't there I can't tell you
that I cannot tell you that I had my doubts and I still have my doubts this is Alma Jean Bloss one of
the jurors on that 12 person allwhite jury that convicted Crosley of murder on a hot Florida summer day in
1999 I sat at her kitchen island a scan of the local paper Florida today between
us it was the first article that the paper had written on the murder of Chip Flynn 10 years
ago Alma was composed but she was troubled all these years later she was still haunted by her decision to vote
for a guilty verdict and seemed to want to get it off her chest from the very beginning you from the very from the
very beginning yes the evidence was lacking pieces from the puzzle were gone there was no proof of this and that what
worried you the most well no fingerprints in the truck that's was that was my biggest thing no
fingerprints when he drove a truck and no gloves mentioned did he put his socks on his hands remember the only
identifiable prints found on Chip's truck belonged to Kim hoc no prints anywhere on that truck were traced back
to Crosley Alma had other concerns too they never found crosley's gun so did he have one and how did they know
what color clothes in an Orange Grove was pitch dark the fact that there was only one
eyewitness a young white woman identifying a black man did that concern you well to me actually I tell you it
was like a madeup story you thought that at the time in my personal opinion down
deep in I thought it was a madeup thing and then she said she saw the shots it was like she saw the shots
after Dark how could you see them you might hear them and that bothered me it's bothered me for all these years
and yet even with all these questions and yes doubts during the trial Alma voted to convict Crosley along with 11
other jurors did you feel pressure in the Jury Room to convict him yes I did because he had a previous past he had
just got out of prison or the jury they just kept saying he did it he did it did
it and I held out till the end what made you finally give in I just they're all against me and I
was the only one and it was down to the Grits so that's what you do Alma could have hung that jury and
maybe saved Crosley from Death Row after talking to Alma and thinking more about the evidence I began to
consider really for the first time time a completely different theory of the crime and it's something that Crosley
himself had alluded to in his interview what if this wasn't a case of mistaken identity of a third- party as
salent what if there was no third person at all just Kim and chip in that Orange
Grove I asked State Attorney Norm wolfinger why wasn't in this particular case Kim hoc ever considered a
suspect well I'm not getting into the investigation I can't say she was or wasn't I that was uh something that
happened in the investigation I went through the entire investigation I went through the entire file I went read
through all the court transcripts at no time did the police question her story they never tested her hair to see if a
gun had been held up against her head they never tested her clothing they never tested her hands why wouldn't that
be done wouldn't that be standard procedure well again I'm not going to get into the
investigation back in 1999 there was nothing in the police records or court documents to indicate that law
enforcement or prosecutors ever question Kim's story I wanted to hear directly from her about what happened that night
but she denied 48 Hours multiple requests for an interview we don't really know what Kim
thinks she's never agreed to talk with us but Kim did provide us with a statement that read in part quote for
the last 10 years I've had to live with the memories and nightmares of that horrific evening the fact is there are
only two surviving Witnesses from that evening myself and Crosley and I'm sure deep down inside Crosley knows that he's
right where he deserves to be I took another look at the physical evidence presented at trial the
prosecution had shown the jury a diagram of holder Park the first crime scene that showed shoeprints that stopped
where Chip's truck was reportedly parked but reviewing the crime scene videotape
again with the private detectives we noticed a discrepancy here is Agent Demars talking
on the video taking hours after the murder we heard some of this recording in past episodes and I think it's
important to Play It Again crime scene begins with what we believe to be suspect shoe prints that
initiate at this point agent dears assumed that the alleged attacker arrived at the park in
a vehicle because the shoe prints appeared to start on the side of the road heading in a West Direction up into
the area between the trees which is where the victim's vehicle was parked along with the two victims prior to the
abduction this so far matches the police diagram presented at trial but in the videotape crime scene walkth through
dears continues you she Prince after proceeding West will then continue on around just to the outside of this
fence with the last shoe print being seen just north of the second cement pole the shoe Prince that Demars is
following the one she believes belongs to the alleged as salent left the park along the fence so how could he have
gotten into the truck with chip and [Music] Kim the investigative team and I examined another important piece of
evidence Chip's truck it was a hulking 82 Chevrolet Stepside 4x4 pickup it was massive the tires were so big that the
only way to get into the truck was by grabbing along the window frames and Hauling yourself in I asked Tim Curtis
who had once owned the truck and then later sold it to chip if it was as hard to drive as it looked yeah if you look
at Kim's statement she never mentions any problem with the driving I mean with is that possible from what you know
about this truck I'm no way I drove that truck I know exactly how that truck drove 100% without a shadow of a doubt
at all you could not get in that truck and take off without it stalling that is a fact even if you knew a lot about
driving stick I heck I owned the truck and at times when I'd pull away from a stoplight I would even stall it and I've
driven it for who knows how long and got a lot of experience driving trucks like
that if even a career auto mechanic has had issues with stalling Chip's truck I wondered how someone like Crosley could
have driven it for the first time that night steering and shifting and don't forget with the added challenge of
pointing a gun at Kim and Chip all at the same time crosley's trial attorney Rob Parker
never asked Crosley back in 1989 if he knew how to drive a stick shift and the new team of piis told me
they hadn't asked him either but I was raised driving cars with standard transmissions and it came up in my
conversation with Crosley we were talking about the morning after Chip's murder when C Crosley said he was
helping his cousin carlen with her car and did you try to move the car oh yeah I tried I tried to drive a car but you
know she don't like me to drive it because I can't drive a car what do you mean you can't drive a car I can't drive
a car why not why can't you drive her car this is a stick shift and I get I have trouble driving a car okay and what
do you mean you have trouble driving okay I have probably shifting her car her shifter and it jerks when I tried to
drive it to be sure we checked later with carlen and she corroborated that Crosley tried to move the car but as she
put it he kept quote jerking it Crosley helped me out here if you have trouble driving stick
Shi and standard transmission I mean you knew that truck that chip Flynn owned was standard transmission why didn't you
tell your lawyer that I didn't knew that what do you mean how how I supposed to know that man got a standing ship or
automatic how I supposed to know you tell me how I supposed to know what kind of truck that man
got such a simple detail that somehow fell through the cracks of trial the fact that the truck had a standard
transmission with a clutch was part of the evidence of trial and yet no one thought to ask Crosley if he could even
drive it I asked defense attorney Rob Parker to clarify for me more details of the
case did the prosecutors ever find any Fingerprints of Crossley greens no did they find any bloody clothing
no did they find this as salance weapon no did they find any weapon that Crosley
green owned that could be connected to that shooting no ma'am did they find any evidence at all physical evidence that
Crosley green was there quite to the contrary they found evidence um fingerprint evidence latent fingerprints
that are not Crosley greens and are to this day unidentified by the end of our time in
Bard County I felt like I was leaving with more questions than answers why was there a man sitting on
death row for nearly a decade when there was no direct physical evidence tying him to the
crime my crew and I headed home to New York to work on our broadcast and thought we might be dealing with a
wrongful conviction 48 hours we take you [Music] there on November 1st 1999 48 Hours aired its first broadcast
on Crosley green Dan Rather introduced our story a condemned man is waiting to die he insists that he's innocent and
perhaps he is back in the 90s CBS and Broadcast News in general had a lot of power news networks were the only game
in town and there were very few wrongful convictions reported on the air still reversing a death sentence can be an
impossible mission our report gave national attention to this small town murder but it also Shook Up rard County
the investigative team turned up four people who had testified against Crosley who then later recanted their stories
even at the risk of being charg with perjury this was a Monumental Revelation for the community there and one for me
too what happens if they don't get you a new trial what happened he from this day
forward like I say if I make it I don't make it it's always going to be a question about
this case it's always going to be something about this case that people's going to
wonder [Music] about on the next episode of Murder in the Orange Grove the troubled case
against Crosley green you have tons of circumstantial evidence against Kim you know I don't see how how it could
have gone the way it did you actually believe chip came up with this story along with her absolutely there's no he
have to he'd have to and if it was some stranger who abducted him and shot him I
think the first words out of his mouth would be he went that way it was a black man he went that way you know but he
would never say it's always just get me out of here get me out of here get me out of here that's all he would ever say
[Music] murder in the Orange Grove was reported by me Aon morard alongside producers
Alan Pang Annie Cronenberg and Allison Bailey Kiara orbits is our coordinating producer and Florence bro Adams is our
story editor additional production support from Dylan Gordon Marlon polycarp Caroline Casey and Christine
Driscoll Judy tigart is the executive producer of 48 Hours Gail Zimmerman asena basak Mark goom Charlotte Fuller
Judy Ryback and Steven McCain produced the original 48 Hours episodes associate producers were Michael Loftus and
Shaheen Toki Patty aronowski was a senior producer special thanks to Megan Marcus
Jamie johon Nick poser and Gail spru [Music]

The first time 48 Hours Correspondent Erin Moriarty met Crosley Green, it was 1999 and he had been sitting on death row for nearly a decade. Moriarty had interviewed convicted killers before but soon discovered that no one was like Crosley Green. The more she looked into his case, the evidence didn't seem to add up. On a quest to find out the truth, Moriarty spoke to some of the prosecution witnesses who testified against Crosley. All these years later, they had very different stories to tell.

Get early, ad-free access to episodes of "Murder in the Orange Grove: The Troubled Case Against Crosley Green" by subscribing to 48 Hours+ on Apple Podcasts or Wondery+ on the Wondery app. The series is widely available everywhere else you get your podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-in-the-orange-grove-the-troubled-case/id1766382718

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

For video licensing inquiries, contact: licensing@veritone.com

Brief Summary

Crosley Green maintains his innocence in the murder of Chip Flynn, revealing inconsistencies in witness testimonies and the justice system.

Key points

Crosley Green's Hope. Crosley maintains hope for his innocence despite being on death row for years.
Witness Recants Testimony. Alan Jerome Murray admits he lied under pressure, sending an innocent man to prison.
The Fat Lady's Fixing to Sing. A witness hints at a potential breakthrough in Crosley's case.
Lonnie's Recantation. Lonnie, a key witness, later claims his testimony against Crosley was false.
Sheila's Testimony. Sheila testifies against her brother Crosley, claiming he confessed to the murder.
Sheila's Painful Decision. Sheila reveals the pressure she faced to testify against her brother to see her kids.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's hell to me because I'm here for a crime I didn't commit.

Crosley Green discussing his time on death row.

3:08WatchOct 9, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from 48 Hours

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.