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Learn more about M.F. Gross and his book HERE

A quiet Florida beach town. A polite visitor who lingers over coffee. By afternoon, a man lies dead, his wife barely alive, and a shotgun-toting stranger vanishes into the woods. We sit down with best-selling author MF Gross to unpack the 1949 Crystal Beach murder that locals still whisper about—and the chase that turned a neighborhood horror into a regional legend.

We start with the world as it was: Crystal Beach, a place so safe neighbors swapped keys and kids roamed free. Then we meet Norman and Ann Brown, modest retirees with a complicated backstory, and John “Rastus” Russell, a muscular charmer known to police, institutions, and—perhaps—to the Browns themselves. Gross walks us through the three-and-a-half-hour kitchen conversation that makes everything feel off. Ann’s shifting explanations. A shotgun kept in the bathroom for rattlesnakes. The moment hospitality turns into terror. The beating, the knife, the demands for money that might have existed—or might be myth.

The story doesn’t end at the bedroom door. A young couple arrives to drop off their baby and collides head-on with Russell on the porch. A desperate fight, a gut-shot escape, a near-tragedy averted by a mis-thrown gear, and then the woods swallow the killer. What follows is a month-long manhunt across multiple counties, threaded with a taboo love story and rumors of powerful friends. Gross shares research, interviews, and a theory that the survivor’s contradictions hint at hidden ties. He also explores Russell’s Jekyll and Hyde psychology—courteous and calm until something flips—and explains why this saga feels destined for a miniseries more than a single film.

If you love true crime that digs deeper than gore—into small-town memory, flawed systems, and the muddy space between rumor and truth—this conversation delivers. Stay to the end for where to find the book, bonus materials from the real locations, and the audiobook narrated by George Newbern.

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