Strange Fruit 

Jeffries reopens a 1963 case in which he, as a child, found the body of a 16-year-old African American boy who had been planning to attend Martin Luther King's March on Washington.

Director:

Paris Barclay

Writers:

Meredith Stiehm (created by), Veena Sud

Stars:

Kathryn Morris, Danny Pino, John Finn

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Kathryn Morris	...	Lilly Rush
Danny Pino	...	Scotty Valens
John Finn	...	John Stillman
Jeremy Ratchford	...	Nick Vera
Thom Barry	...	Will Jeffries
Adilah Barnes	...	Mathilde 2005
Billy Brown	...	Donald Williams
Dana Davis	...	Mathilde Jefferson
Paul James	...	Zeke Williams
Brian Glanney	...	Toby
Chaney Kley	...	Billy Jones 1963
Scott Alan Smith	...	Henry Jones
Drew Snyder	...	Billy Jones 2005
Dee Wallace	...	Charlotte Jones (as Dee Wallace Stone)
John Wesley	...	Clyde

Storyline

Jeffries reopens a 1963 case in which he, as a child, found the body of a 16-year-old African American boy who had been planning to attend Martin Luther King's March on Washington.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 April 2005 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Stage 22, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jerry Bruckheimer Television,CBS Productions,Warner Bros. Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

44 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Zeke Williams was murdered on August 27, 1963.

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Goofs

Will is 12 years old when he finds the body of another boy. That makes him born in 1951. However, in Best Friends (#2.22) Will celebrates his 60th birthday.

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Quotes

Leader: Holy Moldy!
Kid #1: What is that?... Ewww, don't touch it!
Leader: [Young Will Jeffries, the leader of the group of kids, gazes down in horror at a mutilated body ditched on the playground] ... It's a kid...
Kid #1: I said don't touch it, Willy! Those cops'll throw you in the slammer!
Leader: [Will sadly gazes at the dead kid and picks up a piece of paper lying on the ground nearby] What?
[the paper has a weird bunch of letters and numbers written on it]

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Soundtracks

Till Death Do Us Part
Performed by Opus 1 Music Library

User Reviews

A 1963 timepiece portraying B&W racism at home and the job.

Good acting,good story, good placement of details. Besides the usual insightful flashbacks ColdCase employs, I found this episode to be well supported by the choice of music and the timing of MLK's speech to the beating and subsequent death of Zeke Williams, a ploy that I would normally find corny and trite somehow works. Touching on all the tough issues of B&W racism, it accurately portrays the 'slightly' more subtle prejudices of the North. Mathilde's rape serves as a steppingstone to illustrate the complexities of relationships between the races. Tough love and self-preservation run neck and neck in a losing race to save family and Zeke's life. This episode is an excellent medium to encourage discussion about racism and how it plays out in real life. I would love to know if anyone knows the name of the last song played and the singer. Simply a beautiful closing to a tragic tale.