Police Officer Roger Craig: Key JFK Assassination Witness or Disinformer?

ISGP section: Suspicious deaths index | Main article: JFK assassination

Roger Craig represents one of the many intriguing aspects of the Kennedy assassination. A Dallas sheriff's deputy, who made deputy of the year in 1960, he always kept insisting that he and his fellow officers had found a Mauser rifle on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository. The problem - according to ISGP and after many hours of research - is that all is claims appear to be disinformation. Three primary examples of these claims are:

That Oswald left the Texas School Book Depository 15 minutes after the assassination through the front door and was picked up by a man driving a green rambler. Reportedly Oswald himself admitted later that this car belonged to Mrs. Ruth Paine, a friend of the Oswald couple (and apparently an elitist "liberal CIA" asset) who was close to fellow CIA asset George de Mohrenschildt.
- Problem: Oswald is supposed to have sat in a bus just east of the TSBD and by this time even transferred to the cab of William Whaley. Oswald was also last seen by TSBD employees about 2.5 minutes after the shooting and witness James Worrell may just have seen Oswald leave the building 3 minutes after the shooting towards the south or possibly the east. If Oswald was picked up in front of the TSBD 15 minutes after the event, other employees would have seen him.
A Mauser was found at the TSBD, which was switched for a Mannlicher Carcano.
- Problem: Although it appears to have been misidentied at a first quick glance, largely because the Mauser and Carcano are virtual look-alikes, quickly thereafter the rifle was identified as a Carcano. On top of that, video and pictures of the rifle taken immediately when it was found, reveal a Carcano, certainly when looking at the scope mount.
Craig hinted that deputy sheriff Buddy Walthers was murdered, because he knew something he wasn't supposed to know.
- Problem: We don't know exactly what Walther's found, but his death couldn't not have been a set up. Walthers volunteered to tag along with deputy sheriff Alvin Maddox to apprehend an escaped convict. The convict turned out to be much bigger than they expected and, to make matters worse, had just freshly shot himself up with a drug. The officers told him to get dressed. Unfortunately, a gun was hidden under his clothes with which he threatened the deputy sheriffs. It wasn't until the deputy sheriff tried to wrestle the gun from him, that a fight/firefight broke out in which Walthers was killed and the other two men heavily wounded.

Mannlicher Carcano found at the Texas School Book Depository

Above: Photo of the rifle in the location where it was found and WFAA TV / Tom Alyea footage immediate after the shooting. There's also footage of the rifle being found. Below: Probably the most Carcano-like Mauser rifle I've seen, to the point that it is indistinguisable from Oswald's rifle in the picture. All other mausers miss the groove on the side, miss the elongated piece of metal around the trigger, or have some other difference. Below that: The rifle mount appears to give the Carcano away. Virtually all Mauser scopes have two distinct attachment points on the rifle instead of one single block - and even the few that don't, do not not look like the Carcanone one here (with the cross).

mannlicher-carcano-vs-mauser

Whatever reason Craig had for spreading disinformation, he will likely never know. The Jack Ruby case made it clear that the Dallas Police Department was completely corrupted and paid off by the Chicago mafia, with Ruby as an intermediary. The Ruby case also made it clear that the mob, in combination with the police and likely the CIA, can order someone to throw his life away. In that sense Craig may have been another Jack Ruby. Alleged attempts against Craig:

Late 1960s or early 1970s: Set up by a friend and almost shot. The bullet missed him by inches.
1973: A car forced Craig's car off a mountain road. He was badly injured but he survived the accident. Paralyzed and needs permanent pain medication.
1974: shot in the shoulder in Waxahachie, Texas, but lives. Needs even more pain medication.
Seriously wounded when his car engine exploded. He explained he was doing research for disinformation artist Jim Garrison and the questionable Pen Jones, Jr. at the time.
Finally committed suicide while his father was driving a lawnmower in the backyard. Reportedly only owned two pistols while he had been shot through the heart with a shotgun.

As for the claim of Oswald escaping in a light green rambler, this information roughly seems to jive with the Warren Commission statement of Oswald's landlady, Earlene Roberts, that a fake police car honked the horn twice in front of her house, prompting Oswald to leave again. The information given also somewhat fits that of Richard Carr, who only after some time reported to the FBI to have seen a man not looking remotely like Oswald high up at the TSBD, after which he saw this man fleeing the scene towards the south and getting into a Rambler station wagon. A young black man was waiting for this person. Problem is, besides there being no evidence, Carr only came forward after a discussion with two acquaintances of Jack Ruby who had already been interviewed by the FBI. Small world.

It's hard to say what has been going here, but Craig, Carr and Roberts all appear to have been victims of murder attempts and harrassment by the authorities. Another fake Garrison witness, Jim Hicks, might have been thrown through a window when he came down to testify at the Garrison trial. Also remember Nicholas Chetta, who was injecting Garrison's key "witness" with Sodium Pentothal to be combined with hypnosis sessions, and did the autopsy on David Ferrrie, who died in this period, as well as two close relatives/colleagues. BS artists and those guiding them do not seem to be safe from intimidation and assassination it seems. In fact, they seem even more vulnerable for some reason. At the same time seemingly more honest men as James Worrell and William Whaley, not to mention Lee Bowers, all died in motor vehicle accidents within three years of the assassination.

May 1996, Walter F. Graf and Richard R. Bartholomew, 'The Gun That Didn't Smoke':

In a 1974 filmed interview, Craig described Weitzman as a "gun buff" Craig added that Weitzman "had a sporting goods store at one time. He was very good at with weapons. He said, 'It looks like a Mauser . Captain Fritz was holding the rifle up in the air. I was standing next to Weitzman - who was standing next to Fritz. We weren't more than six to eight inches from the rifle and stamped right on the barrel was 7.65 Mauser. That's when Weitzman said, 'It is a Mauser' and pointed to the 7.65 Mauser stamp on the barrel." That interview was conducted in April 1974 by Lincoln Karle and can be seen in a videotape 'called Two Men in Dallas: John Kennedy and Roger Craig (Alps Productions, 1977).

In that film, Craig speaks very slowly and deliberately when he says the words "seven-point-six-five Mauser". In the space of a few sentences the word Mauser is used four times and the caliber is given twice. ...

According to [J.W.] Hughes, "The type of action 'Mauser' was the comment that Weitzman said he thought it was and Fritz concurred: "WFAA-TV cameraman Tom Alyea and 1 have talked about this several times. Tom was standing there next to Fritz when Weitzman stated that it was a Mauser rifle and that they saw 7.65 stamped on the action. Mannlicher-Carcano does have a 7.35 mm [but not a 7.65 caliber]. In the heat of the 'find' Weitzman stated 'Mauser' and everyone simply agreed. It wasn't until Day was showing the rifle off at the Police Station that it was properly identified as a 6.5 mm Mannlicher-Carcano. ...

Alyea's film viewed unedited (along with the Murray photo of Hill), settles many questions about the chronology of events and confirms the fact that no Mauser was found - only a Mannlicher-Carcano with no clip [visible]. That means Craig was lying about the Mauser for the reasons stated above but not necessarily about the time of discovery or the closeness of the shells to each other when found. Those aspects of Craig's story are corroborated by what Alyea says his film showed just prior to the rifle's discovery.

Unfortunately, Alyea never saw that part of the film after the film editors finished with it at WFAA-TV. Alyea claims he was filming the discovery of the spent shells when Fritz arrived and forbade him from squeezing behind the stack of boxes. Instead, says Alyea, Fritz picked up the shells and held them for him to film. Alyea describes the shells' position before being picked up as being so close together, "they could be covered with a bushel basket". Just after Fritz picked them up, Alyea says, someone yelled out the discovery of the rifle and Fritz threw them onto the floor. The official Dallas police photographs, Alyea claims, show them where they landed.

Had these film frames survived the editors "careless" handling, they would be proof of destruction of the crime scene by the head of Homicide Division. It would be easy to discount claims about such incriminating events were it not for the fact that Luke Mooney's testimony indicates that is just what Alyea's film showed:

Mr. Ball. Those were empty shells?
Mr. Mooney. Yes, sir.
Mr. Ball. They were turned over to Captain Fritz?
Mr. Mooney. Yes, sir; he was the first officer that picked them up as far as I know, because I stood there and watched him go over and pick them up and look at them. As far as I could tell, I couldn't even tell what caliber they were, because I didn't get down that close to them. They were brass cartridges, brass shells.

According to J.W. Hughes, who is now studying Alyea's film in detail, it begins with scenes of police officers searching the sixth floor, followed by footage of the sniper's nest. It then cuts to the moments after Fritz threw the shells on the floor. Fritz, at that point, is handling an unidentified rifle along with some plain clothes officers. The film then cuts to Fritz standing near the boxes where the Mannlicher-Carcano was found, It then cuts to Day removing the rifle from its hiding place. Another major discrepancy, however, between the crime scene testimony and Alyea's account of these events, is Alyea's claim that Lieutenant Day did not arrive until forty-five minutes after the shells were found. Day was not present, according to Alyea, when the rifle was found. He does say, however, that no one touched the rifle until Day arrived. ...

Is this more proof that no clip was found? Describing the moments right after the rifle's discovery, Trask writes, "By now most everyone on the sixth floor had congregated in the area around the discovered rifle-. "Alyea was right on the spot with the camera position. As Day crouched down to pluck the rifle from its hiding place, Alyea pressed his shutter release button. Trask reproduced a frame of Alyea's film in his book next to these statements. It shows Day holding the rifle for Alyea to film. There is no clip visible. ... Photographs of Day leaving the building with the rifle show the clip half-protruding from the magazine, it is reasonable to assume the clip was there but lodged firmly enough not to slip out during the operation of the bolt and subsequent handling at the scene. As mentioned repeatedly above, when they determined there were no more roundsin the magazine. Day and Fritz could not have avoided seeing the empty clip which was supposedly stuck inside the magazine...

**************** RAW DATA RELATED TO ROGER CRAIG ***************

Boone, Captain Fritz, Weitzman and Roger Craig had all come to the conclusion that the gun found at the 6th floor of the TSBD was a Mauser. Everybody withdrew that statement except, except Craig, who later even stated that they noticed the word Mauser on the barrel, immediately after identifying it. It's possible, but, as discussed, unlikely that Craig is telling the truth. It appears he's spreading disinformation, based on honest mistakes that were made at the time.

mauser_stamp

Boone later testified that Captain Fritz also thought that the gun was a Mauser. Boone testified in two written reports that the gun was a Mauser.

The Warren Commission photos show "CAL 6.5" on the rear sight and "Made in Italy" on the shoulder stock (the 1981 Time Life photos clearly show a different rifle with different markings, yet another inconsistency in the official story).

The next day Weitzman made it official when he wrote in an affidavit to the FBI (see scan lower on this page) that the "rifle was a 7.65 Mauser bolt action equipped". He even reports that the Captain Frits ejected a live 7.65 round from the gun.

Roger Craig to the Warren Commission

Mr.Berlin. Why did you go up to the sixth floor [of the TSBD]?
Mr. CRAIG. Well, someone said that’s where the shots came from. One of the
city officers, if I’m not mistaken.
Mr. BELIN. All right.
Mr. CBAKJ. So, we went to the sixth floor where-uh-some empty cartridges
were found.
Mr. BFLIN. Did you see the empty c&ridges when they were found?
Mr. C~lua. I didn’t see them when they were found. I saw them laying on
the floor.
ti. BELIN. About how soon after they were found did you see them laying on
the floor?
Mr. CRAm. Oh, a couple of minutes. I went right on over there. I was at
the far north end of the building. The cartridges were on the southeast
corner.
Mr. BELIN. Well, how did you know they had been found there? Did someone
yell-or what?
Mr. C~aro. Yes; someone yelled across the room that “here’s the shells.”
Mr. BELIN. Do you remember who that was?
Mr. CRAIG. No; I couldn’t recognize the voice.
Mr. BELIN. All right. Then, what did you do?
Mr. CRAIG. I went over there and-uh, didn’t get too close because the
shells were laying on the ground and there was-uh-oh, a sack and a bunch
of things laying over there. So, you know, not to bother the area, I just went
back across.
...
Then what did you do after that?
Mr. CRAIG. They wanted to search the building for the weapon, so I went
to the-I went to the northeast corner of the building and began to search west.
Mr. BELIN. Uh-huh.
Mr. CRAIG. Uh-everybody else took a different spot. And as I got nearly to
the west end of the building, Officer Boone-Eugene Boone with the sheriff's
office-hollered that here was the rifle.
Mr. BELIN. How far were you from Officer Boone when he hollered?
Mr. CRAIG. About 8 foot.
Mr. BELIN. What did you do then?
Mr. CRAIG. I went over to the-uh-cluster of boxes where he was standing
and looked down between the boxes and saw the rifle lying on the floor.

...

Mr. CRAIG. Oh, Officer Mooney and-uh-several of the city officers; Will
Fritz came over-Capt. Will Fritz, with the city of Dallas; some of his investigators, I didn’t know them; and a criminal identification man, I believe, from the city of Dallas, then came over there to take pictures of the weapon.
Mr. BELIN. The weapon was moved by the time the pictures were taken?
Mr. CRAIG. No; no. The pictures were taken as the weapon was found lying
there.
Mr. BELIN

Craig is not asked to identify the rifle.

Roger Craig to Warren Commission

He's talking about Oswald all the time.

Mr. CRAIG. No; we didn’t find anything at that time. Now, as we were
searching, we had just got over across the street, when I heard someone whistle.
Mr. BELIN. Now, about how many minutes was this after the time that you
had turned that young couple over to Lemmy Lewis that you heard this whistle?
Mr. CRAIG. Fourteen or 15 minutes.
Mr. BELIN. Fourteen or 15 minutes?
Mr. CRAIG. Yes.
Mr. BELIS. Was this, you mean, after the shooting?
Mr. CRAIG. After the-from the time I heard the first shot.
Mr. BELIN. All right.
You heard someone whistle
Mr. BELIN. You heard someone whistle?
Mr. CRAIG. Yes. So I turned and--uh--saw a man start to run down the hill on the north side of Elm Street, running down toward Elm Street.
Mr. BELIN. And, about where was he with relation to the School Book Depository Building?
Mr. CRAIG. Uh--directly across that little side street that runs in front of it. He was on the south side of it.
Mr. BELIN. And he was on the south side of what would be an extension of Elm Street, if Elm Street didn't curve down into the underpass?
Mr. CRAIG. Right; right.
Mr. BELIN. And where was he with relation to the west side of the School Book Depository Building?
Mr. CRAIG. Right by the--uh--well, actually, directly in line with the west corner--the southwest corner.
Mr. BELIN. He was directly in line with the southwest corner of the building?
Mr. CRAIG. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. And he was on the south curve of that street that runs right in front of the building there?
Mr. CRAIG. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. And he started to run toward Elm Street as it curves under the underpass?
Mr. CRAIG. Yes; directly down the grassy portion of the park.
Mr. BELIN. All right. And then what did you see happen?
Mr. CRAIG. I saw a light-colored station wagon, driving real slow, coming west on Elm Street from Houston. Uh--actually, it was nearly in line with him. And the driver was leaning to his right looking up the hill at the man running down.
Mr. BELIN. Uh-huh.
Mr. CRAIG. And the station wagon stopped almost directly across from me. And--uh--the man continued down the hill and got in the station wagon. And I attempted to cross the street. I wanted to talk to both of them. But the--uh--traffic was so heavy I couldn't get across the street. And--uh--they were gone before I could--
Mr. BELIN. Where did the station wagon head?
Mr. CRAIG. West on Elm Street.
Mr. BELIN. Under the triple underpass?
Mr. CRAIG. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. Where did the station wagon head?
Mr. CRAIG. West on Elm Street.
Mr. BELIN. Under the triple underpass?
Mr. CRAIG. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. Could you describe the man that you saw running down toward
the station wagon?
Mr. CRAIG. Oh, he was a white male in his twenties, five nine, five eight, something like that; about 140 to 150; had kind of medium brown sandy hair, you know, it was like it’d been blown-you know, he’d been in the wind or something-it was all wild-looking; had on-uh-blue trousers.
Mr. BELIN. What shade of blue? Dark blue, medium or light?
Mr. CRAIG. No; medium, probably; I’d say medium.
And, a-uh-light tan shirt, as I remember it.
Mr. BELIN. Anything else about him?
Mr. CRAIG. No; nothing except that he looked like he was in an awful hurry.
Mr. BELIN. What about the man who was driving the car?
Mr. CRAIG. Now, he struck me, at first, as being a colored male. He was
very dark complected, had real dark short hair, and was wearing a thin
white-looking jacket-uh, it looked like the short windbreaker type, you know,
because it was real thin and had the collar that came out over the shoulder
(indicating with hands) like that-just a short jacket.

...

Mr. CRAIG. And-uh-then I kept thinking about this man that had run down the hill and got in this car, so-uh-it was about, oh, I don’t recall exactly the time, nearly 5 or something like that, or after, when-uh-the city had apprehended a suspect in the city officer’s shooting. And-uh-information was floating around that they were trying to connect him with the assassination of the President - as the assassin.
So-uh, in the meantime, I kept thinking about this subject that had run and got in the car. So, I called Captain Fritz' office and talked to one of his officers and--uh--told him what I had saw and give him a description of the man, asked him how it fit the man they had picked up as a suspect. And--uh--they asked me to come up and look at him at Captain Fritz's office.
Mr. BELIN. All right. Then what did you do?
Mr. CRAIG. I drove up to Fritz' office about, oh, after 5-about 5:30 or something like that--and-uh-talked to Captain Fritz and told him what I had saw. And he took me in his ofice-I believe it was his office-it was a little office, and had the suspect sitting in a chair behind a desk--beside the desk. And another gentleman, I didn’t know him, he was sitting in another chair to my left as I walked in the office.
And Captain Fritz asked me was this the man I saw-and I said, “Yes,” it was.
Mr. BELIN. All right.
Will you describe the man you saw in Captain Fritz’ office?
Mr. CRAIG. Oh, he was sitting down but-uh-he had the same medium brown
hair; it was still-well, it was kinda wild looking; he was slender, and-uhwhat
I could tell of him slitting there, he was-uh-short. By that, I mean not-myself, I’m five eleven-he was shorter than I was. And-uh-fairly light build.
Mr. BELIN. Could you see his trousers?
Mr. CRAIG. No; I couldn’t see his trousers at all.
Mr. BELIN. What about his shirt?
Mr. CRAIG. I believe, as close as I can remember, a T-shirt-a white T-shirt.
Mr. BELIN. All right.
But you didn’t see him in a lineup ? You just saw him sitting there?
Mr. CRAIG. No; he was sitting there by himself in a chair off to one side.
Mr. BELIN. All right.
Then, what did Captain Fritz say and what did you say and what did the
suspect say?
Mr. CRAIG. Captain Fritz then asked him about the-uh-lie said, “What
about this station wagon?” [Craig claimed the Commission edited his words. He asked about a car - Oswald then confirmed by saying station wagon] but the suspect interrupted him and said, “That station wagon belongs to Mrs. Paine”- I believe is what he said. “Don’t try to tie her into this. She had nothing to do with it.”
And-uh-Captain Fritz then told him, as close as I can remember, that, “All we’re trying to do is flnd out what happened, and this man saw you leave
from the scene.”
And the suspect again interrupted Captain Fritz and said, “I told you people
I did.” And-uh-yeah-then, he said-then he continued and he said, “Everybody
will know who I am now.” [Craig said Oswald looked troubled, at this point, like he had been caught. The Commission concluded this to mean that Oswald was proud of what he did - then dismissed the claim.]
And he was leaning over the desk. At this time, he had risen partially out
of the chair and leaning over the desk, looking directly at Captain Fritz.
Mr. BELIN. What was he wearing-or could you see the color of his trousers
as he leaned over the desk?
Mr., CRAIG. No; because he never--he just leaned up, you know, sort of forward- not actually up, just out of his chair like that (indicating) forward.
Mr. BELIN. Then, did you say anything more?
Mr. CRAIG. No; I then left.
Mr. BELIN. Well, in other words, the only thing you ever said was, “This
was the man“ - or words to that effect?
Mr. CRAIG. Yes.

Roger Craig to Mark Lane on the rifle found

"It had been determined that the shots came from the South East window. How I don't know, but the Dallas police were saying this. So we immediately went there. And deputy sheriff Luke Moony was with me when we found the shells. We found three hulls, beside the window, on the sixth floor. They were laying three in a row, not more than an inch apart, all pointing in the same direction. Yes, three spent cartridges. Of course, I didn't touch them. They hadn't been photographed or fingerprinted or anything. I didn't touch those. And there was a lunch sack, very small, a brown paper lunch sack, up there. Had some chicken bones in it. And there was a soda bottle, sitting on a box.

And we began then to search for a weapon. Everybody body then tok a different direction. And deputy sheriff Boone and myself just happened to head for the North West corner. And Boone was ahead of me by about 8 feet. There was a stack of boxes, just at the head of the stairwell, going downstairs, and Boone looked over into it and said, 'Here it is. Here's the rifle.' So I immediately went over beside and him and there was a rifle. But we didn't touch it until Captain Fritz and Lt. Day [of the Dallas police] got there. ... They got there and took some pictures of the rifle and then I believe Day pulled out the rifle and handed it to Captain Fritz, who held it up by the strap and asked if anyone knew what kind of rifle it was. Well, by this time Deputy Constable Seymour Weitzman had joined us and Weitzman was a gun buff - he had a sporting good store at one time and he was very good with weapons. He said, 'It looks like a Mauser.' He walked over to Fritz, and Captain Fritz was holding the rifle up in the air, and I was standing next to Weitzman, who was standing next to Fritz, and we weren't any more than 6-8 inches from the rifle, and stamped right on the barrel of the rifle was '7.65 Mauser,' and that's when Weitzman said, 'It is a Mauser,' and pointed to the '7.65 Mauser' on the barrel.

Well, the shells we found came from a 6.5 Italian rifle [Manlicher Carcano]. The two don't relate. The three cartridges that were found at the South-East corner came from a 6.5 Italian carbine.

Colleague Seymour Weitzman's affidavit agreed:

Warren Commission testimony of Weitzman shows he changed his mind (it's likely disinformers familiar with the case decided to make a deal out of this aspect):

Mr. BALL. In the statement that you made to the Dallas Police Department
that afternoon, you referred to the rifle as a 7.65 Mauser bolt action?
Mr. WEITZMAN. In a glance, that’s what it looked like.
Mr. BALL. That’s what it looked like-did you say that or someone else say
that?
Mr. WEITZMAN. No; I said that. I thought it was one.
Mr. BALL. Are you fairly familiar with rifles?
Mr. WEITZMAN. Fairly familiar because I was in the sporting goods business
awhile.
Mr. BALL. What branch of service were you in?
Mr. WEITZMAN. U.S. Air Force.
Mr. BAL.L. Did you handle rifles?
Mr. WEITZMAN. Mostly Thompson machine guns and pistols.

Youtube video clip of an interview with Weitzman, 1960s. It must be said, he looks rather beat down and uncomfortable - and also seems to be making excuses. Source not mentioned.

[Narrator:] "And from that episode came a description that has plagued the Warren Commission for years. The identification of it as a German Mauser. Eddie Barker asks Constable Weitzman what happened."

[Weitzman:] "[Seems deperate to point out he too found the rifle] ... When the crime lab brought the gun out, after they had gone over it. I could see portions of the gun while they were doing a portial investigation over it in the building. [What kind of gun did you think it was?] To my sorrow I looked at it and it looked like Mauser, which I said it was, but I said the wrong one, because I just did a glance. I saw the Mauser action and, I don't know, it just came out, my words, that it was a Mauser, which it wasn't. That's all I saw, in a glance. I was mistaken and it was proven that my statement was a mistake, but it was an honest mistake."

Police officer Eugene Boone confirmed to the Warren Commission that all officers initially agreed the gun was a Mauser:

Mr. BALL - There is one question. Did you hear anybody refer to this rifle as a Mauser that day?
Mr. BOONE - Yes, I did. And at first, not knowing what it was, I thought it was 7.65 Mauser.
Mr. BALL - Who referred to it as a Mauser that day?
Mr. BOONE - I believe Captain Fritz. He had knelt down there to look at it, and before he removed it, not knowing what it was, he said that is what it looks like. This is when Lieutenant Day, I believe his name is, the ID man was getting ready to photograph it.
We were just discussing it back and forth. And he said it looks like a 7.65 Mauser.
Mr. BALL - Thank you.
The CHAIRMAN - Thank you very much, Sheriff. You have been very helpful.

Craig to Mark Lane, about how he kept talking to people about what he saw:

"My name appeared in several books that had come out, condemning this Warren Commission, so people began to come from all over the country. And they would come in and ask if they could talk to me and asked me what happened on that day. And I saw nothing wrong with telling them what I saw and heard. You know, I gave my statement. So the sheriff called me in and asked me what these people wanted that were coming down there. And I told him that they just wanted to talk to me about what happened. And he said: You tell them when they come down that you didn't see anything or didn't hear anything."

Roger Craig was fired from the Dallas Police Department as a result. The rest of what he said to Lane (all Youtube):

"No, I tried to get back to a normal way of life. You know, I had a family to support. And I took a job managing a bail bond company, but people weren't coming around so much asking me questions, as they were following me. People I had known for a long time, one in particular, asked him to meet him at a coffeeshop, at Columbia and Carroll Street. So he was about an hour late and I was sitting in my car, waiting outside of his place. And these two cars kept circling the block. Finally he arrived and we went over and we had our coffee. We were followed in by this men in a checkered jacket that was driving one of the cars. So by the time we finished our coffee, we started to leave, he jumped up and left first. And we walked out and went over to Columbia Street and we were standing on the curb and all of a sudden my friend fell to the ground. And I thought, well, he has stumbled, you know. And for some reason I had stepped of the curb and when I did a shot came from behind and passed over my left ear and I headed for my car immediately and went home. ... It's my conclusion now [that my friend knew what was gonna happen].

I was digging up some information actually for Jim Garrison and Penn Jones, Jr. of Midlothian. I was digging up some information that they wanted in Dalles. I parked my car on the side of the street and I went to get this information. And when I came back and cranked up my car, it blew up. The engine caught fire, the hood came up, the firewall blew out, all the fusions blew. I was burned in the chest area and I had pieces of glass and metal in my chest. Small pieces. I don't know what they put in it. ... Somebody put something in it.

This last time we had a case to work in West Texas, in the Davis Mountains. My boss sent me out there. He called the client, who was on a three party line, and told him what flight I was coming to Midland, where I was gonna rent my car, where I would meet him, and at what time. So I flew in to Midland. I rented the car and I arrive. I was about two miles from where I was supposed to meet the client. ... I'm supposed to meet him at 3 o'clock and it was 2:55 then. I rounded a curve and there were two men standing outside of car that was parked crossways on the road. And there wasn't anyway to try and get around them. I tried and I missed and I went over the edge of the mountain and I rolled end over end for ninety feet or so. I broke my back in two places, I tore my left shoulder, I tore the Ulnar Nerve and the ligaments out of my left elbow, crushed my left foot, my right leg. I spent a year in the hospital. Four major surgeries, two on my back. And I'm now totally disabled in the back, partially disabled in the right leg. And, unemployed again. [need painkillers all the time]

I don't know. I can't speak for anyone else [if they want or should come out]. ... If they knew something really important, one of us would have to go. You can't have corroborating witnesses. I'm sure there are [people who know important things]. Buddy Walthers was one of them, who knew something very important. But he was shot to death here a couple of years ago. And I have two friends that were on the bomb desk. One of them was still talking to me. He died of cancer. Then the other one, he died here, I believe last December, of a kidney infection. And then there was another one that was still talking to me. These were all people of the Sheriff's Office now. And he died. I'm not really sure what he died of. I called the sheriff and offered my condolances. Aall the sheriff had to say was: he had more chains than he could carry - the man that died.

Let me put it this way: when I get up in the morning, then I say: this is the tomorrow I worried about yesterday.

Mark Lane of Craig's own tragic death:

"Roger Craig died in Dallas, May 15, 1975, of a rifle wound in the chest. He owned two pistols. The coroner's verdict: suicide."

May 17, 1975, Dallas Morning News, 'Former Deputy Sheriff, Craig, Found Shot to Death':

Former Deputy Sheriff Roger Dean Craig, 39, was found to shot to death at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in his father's home at 10524 Luna Road.

Homicide investigator Robert Garza said a rifle and a note were found near the body. Garza said the wound in Craig's upper right chest apparently was self-inflicted.

Craig had been embroiled in controversy surrounding assassination of President Kennedy.

A DEPUTY at the time of the assassination, Craig said he saw Lee Harvery Oswald running west down Elm Street from the Texas School Book, Depository about 15 minutes after the assassination. He said Oswald then got into a station wagon that had pulled up alongside of him.

He also said he heard the shots fired at the presidential motorcade and that because of their close proximity, the shots had to have been fired from two different rifles.

Craig had recently appeared on radio talk shows expressing his views on assassination and his testimony appears in the Waren Report.

Patrolmen P.L. Anderson and R. W. Wood said Craig's father, Kristel Craig, discovered the body in a back bedroom in their 1-story frame home at 3:30 p.m. The father had talked to the victim 30 minutes earlier, but left the house to work on a lawn mower in the back yard.

POLICE SAID Craig said in the note he was sorry for what he has to do, but that he could not stand the pain.

Anderson and Wood said Craig's father told them Craig had been taking pain-killing medication for injuries in a car wreck two years ago and for a gunshot wound in the shoulder in Waxahachie six months ago.

At that time, Craig reported to Waxahachie police a stranger appeared at the door of a house at which Craig was waiting for a woman friend, and shot him with a shotgun when Craig answered a knock at the door.

Craig was under the supervision of Sheriff Bill Decker at the time of the assassination. He left the department shortly after the assassination.

Craig was named Man of the Year by the sheriff's office in 1960 for his work in aid in helping to capture an international jewel chief.

Michelle Palmer, his alleged daughter, in more recent years hyper aggressively tried to counter everything written about her father:

Bullshit. You are ALL so full of it. Roger Craig was unstable from childhood. His suicide had more to do with his own mental illness ( and being sucked into the GD conspiracy crap) than anything to do with JFK’s actual death. I am his child.

I knew him. I knew the people who used him to promote their theories. You are ALL full of it.

Michelle Palmer to John Simkin:

There are a few items in your article about Roger Craig you just might want to correct for the sake of accuracy and truth in reporting. i) His marriage didn't end due to repeated harassment or threats - unless you count his repeated threats to end his own life. ii) The man was disturbed. As his daughter I would place money on the fact that he suffered from either Borderline Personality Disorder or Bi-polar depression. Those last two attempts on his life? The husband of the woman he was fooling around with. Trust me, I met her AND her daughters before the bastard killed himself. The husband met him at the door with that shoulder shot.

Articles like yours only serve to continue the myth. My father was a disturbed man. I'm not disputing that what he thought he saw was something different than what was reported. But let's face it, my dad didn't know a Mauser from a whatever. He was a Wisconsin farmboy who joined the army illegally, and was released from duty because he kept injuring himself - I note you don't mention all the self-inflicted scars from his tour of duty. Furthermore, it is EXACTLY this kind of dramatic license that killed my father. It fed his disease. It fed his paranoia. And in the end, it contributed to his self-destruction. You should be ashamed of yourself for perpetuating this garbage.

They are peculiar emails, about as peculiar as some of Craig's statements. No compassion whatsoever about the pain her father was in. She viciously attacks not just his mental state, but also his intelligence and leaves out absolutely anything that might speak in his favor. And how could he sleep around and have affairs when he was paralyzed and in pain? More questions.