In late January 1977, Flint PD arrests Greg Greene for CSC 1st degree. He tells police he knows who killed Mark Stebbins (in February 1976)—Chris Busch. Greene “stated Busch had a cabin up near West Branch where he would take young boys. He stated he may have a map on how to get there” and that “he would assist officers any way he could.” (FOIA Doc. 01074.) Police searched Greene’s van for this map but found instead two Polaroid pictures of a young boy involved in the CSC case, and two pairs of young girls panties. (01075.) Officers then went to his home and found the map. As described in a prior post, Flint PD and others affiliated with the OCCK Task Force then arrest Chris Busch in Alma, search his home and find ligatures and child porn.
On February 22, 1977, The Detroit News ran an article headlined: “Oakland County link probed in sexual exploiting of boys.” Check this out (bold print and bracketed information added by me):
An investigation into the alleged sexual exploitation of young boys, which already has produced three arrests in Flint [Greene, Busch and Douglas Bennett], will be extended into Oakland County.
Oakland County Prosecutor L. Brooks Patterson confirmed today that information developed in the Flint Investigation suggests that some of the victimized boys had been procured in Oakland County. [Busch told police in his interview that he “comes down to the Detroit area to pick up young boys. (01081)]
An officer in the juvenile section of the Flint police department, who was instrumental in the arrests, said yesterday Oakland County authorities have asked his help in determining whether sex crimes were committed in their jurisdiction.
Police Officer Thomas Waldron said it is his understanding that Oakland County is faced with a large number of complaints similar to those made in Flint, where an estimated 50 prepubescent boys were allegedly forced to commit sex acts with men, with each other and before cameras.
But, Patterson said he is unaware of any increase in the ‘usual number of scattered instances’ of homosexual complaints in Oakland County. [Typical inability to distinguish homosexuality and pedophilia back in the day. And surely there was none of that going on in wealthy Oakland County, right?] Waldron was scheduled to meet with representatives of the Oakland County prosecutor’s office today.
Patterson emphasized that the cases are seemingly unrelated to the murder of Mark Stebbins, a 12-year-old Ferndale boy, sexually molested and then killed early last year.
Waldron said Oakland County investigators have interviewed two of the men arrested in Flint, have given them lie detector tests and have concluded the men are not suspects in the Stebbins case. . . .
Genessee County Prosecutor Robert F. Leonard said yesterday the defendants may have passed boys from one to another, and the scheme may have had ‘nationwide’ ties. He said his office is investigating the possibility the defendants may have been linked to Grosse Pointe multimillionaire Francis D. Shelden, missing since allegations that his youth camp on a Lake Michigan Island near Traverse City was a homosexual haven became public last year. [Again, it was a PEDOPHILE HAVEN that also involved the making of child pornography.]
Busch is free on $1,000 cash bond, while Bennett and Green are in Genessee County Jail in lieu of $15,000 and $75,000 bonds, respectively. No date has been set for the trials of any of the men.
Flint police have also obtained a warrant against a fourth man allegedly involved in the scheme. He is reported to be out of state.
One of the members of the post-2005 task force called retired Flint Detective Tom Waldron on June 23, 2009. (01287): “I called and spoke with Tom Waldron today about Busch & Greene. I couldn’t believe how vivid his memory was about Busch & Greene and the investigation into these two back in January of 1977. Tom was encouraged about our lead and agreed to meet with me and shed as much light as he could on these guys connection to the child killings. Waldron told me that he never knew about a drawing of the Stebbins boy, and ropes being found in Busch’s home in Birmingham and that he had committed suicide in 1978.”
A week later, two members of the task force interview Tom Waldon in person. The lead interviewer described the meeting as follows:
Waldron remembered the case involving Chris Busch & Greg Greene very well and said he and others were ‘flattened’ when [redacted, but by now we all know that they were flattened when Busch and Greene “passed” their polygraphs with the MSP]. Waldron said, ‘He couldn’t believe it, and said he and the others all thought for sure they were the guys involved in the child killings.’ Waldron said that he remembers that Deputy Oakland County Prosecutor Dick Thompson came up to Flint in a snow storm that day. Waldron added that Thompson was a ‘Big-wig’ in Oakland County and would not have come up there if they didn’t think they had the killers.
I asked Waldron what he though when I told him [redacted]. Waldron was shaken by this, hung his head and said, ‘This should have been solved 32 years ago.’ He stated that Busch & Greene met each other in a bar in Oakland County, which would have been early in 1976, stating further that this is where they probably discussed their common interests in children. Waldron told us that Busch and Greene were into exchanging kids and would meet at a gravel pit in Holly, Michigan (Northern Oakland County) to swap the kids. He said that Greene would bring a boy from Flint and Busch would bring one from who knows where. . . .
Waldron started talking about when he and a couple other Detectives drove to Alma to arrest Chris Busch. Waldron talked about Busch owning and operating a restaurant in Alma that was purchased by his father [redacted]. He said that after they arrested Busch, they searched his house and found ropes, shotguns, marijuana, and a suitcase with child pornography. Waldron described the pornography as being 8-10 8mm type homemade movies involving children having sex in a tent in a wooded area. Waldron said that you could see the arm of an adult male in the movie, directing the kids on what to do sexually, because they didn’t know. He stated that this suitcase also contained commercially produced child porn magazines, photos and movies. Waldron said that this property was all confiscated and brought to the Flint Police Department, as part of their case. He went on to say that he remembers at some point in February or March of 1977, the FBI came and picked up the suitcase of pornography to analyze the victims involved.
Greene told Waldron where he hid a pack of pictures in his backyard on [redacted]. Greene said that he wrapped the pack of pornographic Polaroid pictures of kids in tin-foil and hid them under the snow near the downspout in the rear yard. Waldron said that he went to Greene’s house on [redacted], dug through the ice and snow near the downspout and located the pack of pictures. Waldron told us that as far as he can remember these pictures were never given to the OCCK task force for comparison, because Busch & Greene had been cleared [after the polygraph with Ralph Cabot of the MSP]. Waldron said that he thinks this pack of pictures was put on evidence at Flint PD. Waldron went on to say that if we call Gary Alford with the cold case squad at the Genesee County Prosecutors Office, he might be able to help us locate these pictures. Alford is a former Flint PD detective. (01288, 01289.)
I’m not at all surprised at how vivid retired detective Tom Waldron’s memory was about their investigation into Busch and Greene. I’m sure that shit is pretty hard to forget. A few months after retired detective Tom Waldron spoke with the task force in June 2009, he passed away.