A reader and I had a back and forth about the two mug shots in the record for convicted child rapist and partner to Christopher Busch, Greg Greene. We wondered if we were overthinking the two disparate photos and if a reader out there might have some real-world experience to address questions raised.
- Why Greene was still in Genesee County Jail on 8-17-1977 (6 months later)?
- Why Genesee County jail would take a mug shot with him wearing eyeglasses? That would be disguising what he really looks like. Is typical protocol in a jail?
- Were the eyeglasses and short hair cut the last step to make him not look like the composite drawing, and create further separation between him and Chris Busch? So that once they release him to Jackson or anywhere outside their control nobody would believe him because he no longer looks like the composite. Note that it could have been planned for him to get his haircut for his court appearances, but those ended on 6-16-1977.
We then discussed parallel proceedings in Chris Busch’s joke of a spin through the Michigan criminal justice system, as well as L. Brooks Patterson’s parallel toe-dipping in the larger political scene (because surely his greatness was too large to confine to Oakland County). This reader, who never disappoints, then produced the following:
It could be as simple as the process required a new photo of Greene once he was released to Jackson Prison.
Any thoughts?
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The sketch I saw of the OCCK had the suspect with blue colored eyes. Greene had brown eyes. By the way, John Hastings has blue eyes. Lets revisit him and Officer Richard McNamee.
Check out report at 5:15
Especially because Hastings is still alive and allegedly there are detectives with a pulse still assigned to this case.
Cathy, This one is rather simple. Laws vary from state to state and even county to county. In some states, you can smile in your driver’s license photo, in other states you cannot. Corrections and the military take photos every year or so to show the inmates or soldiers aging. With Mr. Greene, his appearance would change. My old lawn care guy has been in jail for over a year for child sex abuse charges. He still has not a had court. This is Oakland County, Michigan. With the glasses, maybe Flint, Michigan allows those in mug shots, maybe not, or maybe staff forgot to ask him to take them off.
What you say makes sense, and I agree. But these photos were not year to year. Would you really age that much in 6 months? Also, in this case, it appears the Genesee Sheriff & the jail don’t have any rules. It is one jurisdiction. Their rules (glasses or no glasses) allowed both of these photos.
I’ve seen these photographs so many times, but apparently I never looked at them close enough. I always thought (incorrectly) that the picture “with glasses” was how Greene looked in the early to mid 1970’s. But the date clearly shows that the picture “with glasses” is 8-17-1977.
In addition, Page 139 of GBJ does show the court record that Greene was convicted on Tuesday 6-14-1977. And the 2 dismissed charges occurred Thursday 6-16-1977. So all court case are closed in Flint, and he can be sent to Jackson prison on Friday 6-17-1977. Page 99 of The Snow Killings corroborates this. It states; Det. Lourn Doan stated in police reports in 1978: “Greene was sent to Jackson prison on 6-17-1977”.
So according to Doan’s own reports, Greene should be in Jackson prison 2 months before the 8-17-1977 date. I now am also wondering why Greene is in prison in Genesee County in August, or at the very least, why is Flint taking photographs of him 2 months after they released him?
There would be no reason to change his appearance in a minor way, unless they were also going to change his name. I remember this era vividly in my teen years, and I would say there may have been a requirement for shorter hair to go to prison in that era, or the son of a bitch head head lice. His prison cell mate and lover said, he confessed to the killing of at least four children in the greater Detroit area, but since he was in jail at the time of Tim Kings abduction, then there must be at least one more OCCK victim in the case then what is currently associated to it. He also claimed to his prison psychiatrist that his Friend in crime Chris Bush killed Mark Stebbins. I am unclear if he claimed to be a witness to that, or was made aware of it after the fact by Bush himself.
I know Greene claimed to Officers Doan and Waldron under interrogation that Busch killed Stebbins. They then realized Greene was more of a suspect than an informer. That’s why he was polygraphed as to his information, and as a suspect. I didn’t know that he also said that to a prison psychiatrist as well. If that’s true, it was going to be difficult to keep him quiet about this in the long term, and he definitely needed to be isolated.
So if we can find the 5th OCCK victim and find someone that worked with Busch on Tim’s abduction that looks exactly like John Hasting’s OCCK sketch with blue eyes and hair style, we will have this thing completely solved. I wonder if there is a buried polygraph test somewhere that could shed some light on this.
I was reading a prior post from 2021 (https://catherinebroad.blog/2021/05/21/was-greene-in-prison-on-march-16-1977) going through the chain of custody for Greene where a note said he was out on bond, then it was corrected saying he was in Genessee jail the whole time until he went to Jackson (I know this has been looked at many times, I’m not questioning if he was in jail or not.) But then there is a note from someone in the system named ‘Julie’ saying he was polygraphed twice on Tim’s case, but I have never seen any reference to polygraphs of Greene after February 1977 (maybe I missed them though-is it odd they polygraphed him twice on a case that occurred when he was in jail?). Do we know the details of these polygraphs if they were actually done? Also, I have always read that Greene’s bond was 75k, but the official court doc said 25k, unless there were two different bonds set.
Greene was charged with 3 counts of CSC-1st degree. These 3 charges were with 3 different judges and 3 seperate cases, but all in Genesee County. Each case had a $25K bond. Greene pleaded guilty to one charge on 3-30-1977 (bond of $25K) in exchange for the other 2 charges being dismissed. That is why you see $25K.
I love the person who made the timeline in the excel spreadsheet. If we all had an empty warehouse and could plot the whole thing out, imagine what we could see. The things that would stand out. Like if the Flourish moveable graph on the intro page could be on a wall.
Like, what a task force would do…
Nevermind.
OK, Say there are detectives assigned to this case. Why are they never made public ? MSP is closing their lab around Livonia, Michigan this year.
I think picture 2 is dated 8/17/72.
Jake, we debated 72 versus 77 and there is an argument that it could be ’72. The question is what’s behind a Greene arrest in Genesee County in 1972? Was it mentioned in any of his criminal history evaluations in the California conviction or his sentencing in Michigan? I need to review those documents.
I see in his 6-7-1977 pre-sentencing report it lists only 3 events in his previous criminal history.
1) Traffic Warrant on 3-6-68.
2) Sentence suspended for contributing to the delinquency of a minor (arrested 5-25-1969 and sentenced 6-24-1969.
3) Minor in Posession. Arrested 1-2-1970 and sentenced 1-5-1970.
According to the same report he moved to California in 1970, It also states that after being released from jail on 2-11-1976, he was placed on a plane back to Michigan, on or about 2-11-1976. So it seems there can be no 1972 incident in Michigan.
No question that is 72 and not 77 . It’s not even close .
I did know a police officer who did work OCCK case. He said the whole case was a mess. A lot of the police dept. were territorial and did not wish to share with other departments. In the 1970’s it was highly likely Michigan did not know about what Mr. Greene did in California.
You are correct. Task Force Commander Robertson admitted this, and all the failures of the task force and other assisting police agencies. He admitted these both in the newspapers and in the FOIA documents he had at his house.
But Genesee county had to know about the California convictions. It was in the 1977 pre-sentencing report in Genesee County in 1977.
Did Greene have a trial or did he plead out?
Plea agreement.