Career
According to contemporaneous reports published in Georgia newspapers, Green was shot and killed by 15-year-old Mose (or Moses) Houston late on Christmas Day, 1900, in the Yamacraw neighborhood of Savannah, Georgia, after an argument earlier in the evening. Houston, the newspapers implied, had been involved in a sexual relationship with Green for several months. The shooting took place at the home of Willie West, who chased down Houston after the shooting and turned him over to the city police.
Green"s murder and Houston"s trial in the spring of 1901 were reported in the Savannah Morning News and the Savannah Evening Press.
Although Houston reportedly had confessed to the murder at the time of his arrest, at his trial he claimed the shooting was accidental. Other witnesses, however, testified that Houston had become angry after Green called him "a son of a bitch." Houston was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, on the jury"s recommendation of mercy.
After serving more than twelve years, he was paroled by Governor John M. Slaton in 1913. Accounts of his later life are sketchy, but he is said to have died in New York City in 1927 after other brushes with the law.
Green was buried in an unmarked grave in Laurel Grove Cemetery South in Savannah. based on Delia Green"s murder became both common and popular in the next few decades.