George Crossley dies

George Crossley was one of the more intriguing newsmakers in Central Florida. He was a man you couldn't stereotype.

His early appearances were as a preacher organizing protests against what you might consider the usual social sins of the time-- Pornography, abortion, depraved music.

There were other preachers with their own protests at the time, but somehow Crossley was different.

He didn't come across as quite so self-righteous, and you could talk to him without feeling you were being preached at. Not to say he didn't believe strongly in his causes, he always did, even when those causes changed.

And they did change. Crossley changed, changed after spending several years in prison for a crime that when he was first accused, shocked almost everyone who knew him.

He was convicted of hiring a hit man to kill the husband of a woman he had been having an affair with.

Even that story didn't fit a stereotype as it played out. He was guilty, but some of the circumstances generated sympathy for Crossley.

After several years in prison with, according to Crossley, all the bad things that you hear about happening to inmates he came out with a passion for championing the downtrodden of society.

For a time he served as head of the local ACLU, and worked just as passionately as he ever did in his more conservative days.

He worked his passion to the end, collapsing Wednesday night at the radio station where he had a talk show.

George Crossley-- a Central Floridian who made his mark, and fit no stereotypes.