Bone Valley · Lava for Good Podcasts

Chapter 5 | The Receipts

October 8, 2025·42 min·2 clips

Rosie says detectives paid her $100 to call relatives and push the Quincy Cross story.

1. Bone Valley's Chapter 5, "The Receipts," focuses on recorded witness payments and receipts in the Jessica Curran case. 2. Maggie Freeling guides the reporting, while Miranda Hellman of the Kentucky Innocence Project and private investigator Noble Faulkner supply the main case analysis. 3. The episode asks how prosecutors built Quincy Cross's conviction if key witnesses say police paid, threatened, and coached them. 4. Rosie Kreiss says Kentucky State Police gave her a "$100 bill" to call people about Quincy Cross. 5. A June 5, 2006 detective recording shows Detective Sam Steger directing a call to Tamara Caldwell about Quincy's involvement. 6. Rosie says she was on crack cocaine and would have said anything for money. 7. Miranda says law enforcement targeted people with "a lot to lose" and "a lot to gain." 8. Victoria Caldwell later says officers told her what to say and gave her Quincy Cross's name. 9. Victoria says she did not know Quincy and that she never met him before the case was built. 10. Miranda says she found about 200 pages of receipts while reviewing Quincy's trial footage. 11. Those receipts include groceries, gas, car repairs, clothes, bowling, movie theaters, restaurants, margaritas, beers, phone cards, and items for Victoria's children. 12. Miranda says one receipt appears to be for a sex shop purchase and another for a vibrator. 13. The Kentucky Innocence Project says Victoria received at least $17,000 in one year. 14. Miranda argues the Attorney General's office and Kentucky State Police concealed the extent of those payments at trial. 15. The episode also quotes Victoria saying she was threatened with prison unless she "came forward and told the truth" on Quincy. 16. Noble Faulkner says the case does not "make common sense" and concludes that Quincy, Tamara Caldwell, and Jeffrey Burton were framed. 17. The tone is investigative and procedural, with taped calls, witness interviews, and legal argument. 18. The pacing is dense and document-driven, with long stretches of direct quotation from interviews and court material. 19. Anyone interested in wrongful-conviction reporting and witness coercion. 20. Skip if you want a lighter, less case-heavy narrative.

As heard by us

A steady promo reel that keeps its focus on hosts, angles, and where to listen.

The chapter plays like a run of promos rather than a single story, moving from Two Percent to Look Back At It and Learn the Hard Way with a steady push to listen.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Follow the conversation into a year that feels bigger the more they unpack it.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Bone Valley