{"id":53224,"date":"2025-09-09T15:50:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/53224\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T15:50:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:50:12","slug":"new-book-brings-to-life-1949-crystal-beach-murder-manhunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/53224\/","title":{"rendered":"New book brings to life 1949 Crystal Beach murder, manhunt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"New New book looks back at Crystal Beach murder<\/a> <\/p>\n

A murder that gripped the Tampa Bay area over 75 years ago is coming back to life. A new book traces the story of a double homicide that shook Crystal Beach in 1949. Evan Axelbank reports.<\/p>\n

CRYSTAL BEACH, Fla.<\/strong> – Author MF Gross discovered the story of the 1949 Crystal Beach murder while flipping through an old book. When he read eyewitness descriptions of what happened, he was captivated.<\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

“(They said) don’t go out at night, stay away from the woods, Rastus comes out at night.”<\/p>\n

Rastus was the childhood nickname given to John Calvin Russell, a Thonotosassa boy who became a small-time thief, going in and out of mental institutions and sometimes jail.<\/p>\n

\"Rastus <\/p>\n

There’s a reason he made such a splash in Crystal Beach.<\/p>\n

“This looks much like in 1949,” Gross said. “Even the houses here are mostly from that era. So it’s still one of the places in Florida where you get that old Florida feel.”<\/p>\n

That’s why Gross still lives in Crystal Beach.<\/p>\n

“I actually went through and realized what happened right here on this spot, it was, you can almost feel it.”<\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

On Aug. 9, 1949, Russell was in the home of Annie and Norman Browne near what is now the intersection of Vincent and Florida, joining them for a morning coffee.<\/p>\n

Within hours, he had them tied up at gunpoint, demanding money.<\/p>\n

He killed Norman but let Annie go.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Macabre Scene of Norman Browne’s Body still tied to the bedposts. Bed where Anne Browne was tortured is on left. <\/p>\n

During his getaway, he shot someone else and pistol whipped a woman, causing her to drop her baby, who would die six years later.<\/p>\n

\"Outside <\/p>\n

Outside murder scene of Norman Browne. <\/p>\n

He was captured two weeks later by sheriff’s deputies, but attacked a jail guard and got away.<\/p>\n

The manhunt left every resident in Crystal Beach terrified they were next.<\/p>\n

\"Florida <\/p>\n

Florida National Guard arrives to hunt Russell. <\/p>\n

“To a person, they described it as terrified,” said Gross. “I heard stories of they were locked in their bedrooms and the dad sat out in the front porch with a shotgun all night.”<\/p>\n

Gross describes the terror he left behind over the course of 400 action-packed pages.<\/p>\n

He catalogs the fear, the search and the impact it all had on law enforcement and the community.<\/p>\n

\"Pinellas <\/p>\n

Pinellas County Deputy Sheriff Bob Fulle examines evidence found in Russell’s room. Note murder weapon at top of table. The shotgun underneath is Mr. Browne’s. <\/p>\n

Maybe the only thing he can’t fully answer, is why?<\/p>\n

Even an old roommate couldn’t explain.<\/p>\n

“He was helpful. He was polite, ate dinner with (them), told jokes,” said Gross. “Never suspect anything like this about him. Jekyll and Hyde personality, that’s what he was.”<\/p>\n

After five days of fear, Rastus Russell was captured in Thonotosassa after his car got stuck.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Police fired after he attacked.<\/p>\n

The story of Rastus Russell was over, forgotten until now.<\/p>\n

“There were so many sub-stories mixed into this,” said Gross. “There were so many rabbit holes to go down. I just became fascinated with it and I had to find where it ended.”<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

Gross is doing a presentation at the Crystal Beach community center on Friday, Oct. 17, complete with props and a hayride to visit some of the sites that were part of the story of Rastus Russel.<\/p>\n

The Source:<\/b> Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13’s Evan Axelbank.<\/p>\n

Pinellas County<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New book looks back at Crystal Beach murder A murder that gripped the Tampa Bay area over 75…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[359,15812,18,117,1219,19,17,5,38966,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-53224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-crime-publicsafety","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-fl","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-pinellas","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}