Hanlon’s Razor advises that one should never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity. A corollary is that one should not attribute to conspiracy that which can be explained by incompetence.
In some cases, however, it becomes consistently clear that these default propositions should not be blindly applied. The investigation by Jefferson County, Colorado into the actions of mass murderers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold at Columbine High School in 1999 is certainly an exception to these “rules.” A dozen local Jeffco officials, most of them in senior positions, held a clandestine meeting a few days after the massacre to discuss the sheriff’s files on Harris and Klebold they had been sitting on for a year. Including an affidavit for a search warrant for the Harris home where Eric was said to be building pipe bombs. No one did dick on this information and April 20, 1999, proceeded unabated. Meeting attendees were told not to discuss any of this information and the file on Eric Harris would soon go missing. This obstruction of justice held for five years until a detective at a grand jury proceeding finally told the truth about what was being withheld and lied about concerning prior knowledge of Harris and Klebold.
If you always believe officials do the right thing (especially in a murder case!!) or just make innocent mistakes; if you believe Hanlon’s Razor always applies, read Columbine by David Cullen. The Washington Post described the book, 10 years in the making, as a “staggering work of journalism.” It is.
The OCCK investigation has likewise passed the point of blind reliance on Hanlon’s Razor, but in so many more ways. Let’s take another look at the POS Greg Greene.
In the previous post we debated the mugshot with Greene wearing eyeglasses. Was the date 8-17-77 or 8-17-72? A reader provided more insight (thank you) but it still involves questions we will never have answered and therefore, speculation.
Let’s assume for a minute that it is August of 1972. Compare the 1969 mugshot below for a seemingly similar vintage:
I can’t explain the absence of eyeglasses in the various other mug shots. Nor can I explain the top set of photos seemingly dated 1-2-6-77 (WTF?), of shitty quality and Xeroxed to boot. Greene was arrested in Flint on 1-25-77. This longhair version above seems to be dated 1-26-77, and is very similar to this mugshot of Greene (taken on 1-25-77?):
The reader also provided this from the FOIA documents:
Greene has arrests in 1970 and 1974 in Huntington Beach, California. So who’s to say this monster doesn’t make a swing back to Genesee County in 1972? What is that arrest for in August 1972 (assuming that’s the date)? And how come nobody ever mentions it in Greene’s 1974 and 1977 forays in the criminal justice system? It doesn’t take too much to guess what that arrest was for. Maybe it’s a traffic infraction. POS.
Where’s that file?
I’m going with malice. But you knew I would.
Discover more from The Oakland County Child Killer
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
LAPD destroyed the Bobby Kennedy file.
Maybe he was arrested in Flint (where he is 53314 in both mug shots), transferred to Genesee, and they allowed eyeglasses in the mug shots? His number is 3870 for Genesee, is there any way to find out if that number is more in line with a 1972 arrest or 1977 arrest?
Inmates do not lose or change their inmate numbers . It is like a social security number.
I understand. To me it appears that the Flint Police number was 53314 and Genesee County he was 3870. I was wondering if those numbers would be tied to a particular year, particularly the 3870 for Genesee. (So if the glasses photo was 1972, does 3870 correlate with that? Or, is that around the number used in 1977?)
One other thing… in reading about Greene more, I came across Douglas Bennett, who was arrested with Greene and Busch in Flint. Did they ever collect DNA from him or give him a polygraph? I have not heard much about him at all.
Nice catch on your part. Keep on reading about him.
The investigation notes say that Douglas Eugene Bennett was interviewed 8-11-2009, but no DNA was taken. No polygraph either. Apparently he was very believable in the story he told the interviewers. I guess it was not important that when he was arrrested with Busch & Greene that more than 30 boys were identified as being involved with these 3 men, and possibly another 70 boys were involved with many other adults as well.
Bennett molested a kid that Greene also molested. Bennett also said that he talked to Greene in Genesee County jail and also in Jackson prison. He indicated that Greene was upset that he got life in prison while Busch only got probation for the same offenses. Bennett was convicted of CSC in Flint on 11-24-1983. I’m not sure how he escaped jail in 1977. He was held on a $15K bond, so it had to be a serious offense.
The 2 that were arreseted with Busch and Greene were Bennett and Hiram Becker. Flint office Tom Waldron confirmed that Bennett was the one that was close with Busch and Greene. And Becker came from a notable family in Michigan sports. So he was untouchable.
Thank you for the reply. I saw that Bennett lives in Alabama now but didn’t see much else outside of the 1983 arrest (where he was deemed ‘habitual offender’). What a debacle.
It looks like others in the family also live in Alabama. Doug’s older brother Harold (2 years older) is there also. So is their mother Lois Bates.
I also found a 1-27-1975 Flint Journal article that Harold was sentenced in Flint to 6 months in prison and 3 years probation for larceny from a building (value of $1,600). The incident occurred on October 17, 1974.
Then a 3-3-1975 Flint Journal article says he was sentenced to 2 years & 8 months to 4 years, for another larceny from a building. Both articles list him at the same address as Doug when Doug was arrested with Busch and Greene.
From a reader:
I saw your comments about your discussion with a reader about 1972 vs 1977 under Greene’s mugshot.
If someone wants to find out if Greene was arrested in Genesee County in 1972 [8-17-72] they could try the newspaper archives.
All of the following is according to AI:
The Flint Journal in 1972 routimely included police reports, arrests, etc., and with much more detail than is included by publications today. Names, addresses, circumstances, etc.
The police blotter or court news sections were standard in papers in the ’70’s.
The Flint Journal is available on microfilm at the Flint Public Library and the Genesee Historical Collections Center (at U of M – Flint), and available digitally through the paid historical newspaper database GenealogyBank. Local residents with a valid library card can look into digital options through the Genesee District Library databases.
Perhaps an interested reader in Genessee County, or elsewhere, would review the microfilm or digital options to see if it would resolve the 1972 vs 1977 question.
While they are looking at microfilm or digital archives, they could also look for mentions on and near the dates Greene was arrested, arraigned, pled, sentenced, sent away…..in 1977. [January 25, 1977-mid-June 1977.]
A good idea. However, there was no mention of him in the Flint Journal in 1972 or 1973. But there was a mention of his sister who gave birth to a son in August 1972.
The guy who was arrested with Greene in California, Edgar H Mohan Jr was the son of Captain Edgar Mohan Sr who started the Palomar School for Boys in 1936 in CA.
Capt Mohan, it appears, was a former big shot headmaster at an army/navy academy in CA before he founded the school. He was big into sports too.
Maybe this Captain Mohan was the reason Greene was sent back to MI on probation. Capt Mohan pulled some strings for Greene and Mohan Jr.
Or maybe being good at sports is how Greene ended up in California with Mohan?
Spitballing here. Doesn’t help answer the dates on mugshots but I didn’t want to keep the info to myself.
Capt Mohan bayoneted a Navy guy to death during a race riot in Chicago for not obeying orders. I think it was the 1920s.
Every single person connected to these guys are just more guys with weird backstories from the military, boys’ schools, etc.
A man named Weiss is called a co-owner of the Palomar School for Boys from an article in the 1950s. He was head of some nuclear program in New Mexico.
The west coast pedos always brush up against nuclear stuff, science labs, and NM and AZ.
Maybe it’s all just a coincidence but if I wrote a novel like this, I know an editor would throw it in the trash for unoriginal ideas.