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5/9/2015 Roger Craig -- The Rambler Man

Roger Craig
The Rambler Man

Dallas County Sheriff's Deputy Roger Craig had quite a lot of interesting stories to tell. And in good
storyteller fashion, his stories got better over time.

Craig was one of the conspiracy witnesses that the Warren Commission called to testify. He was given
featured treatment in early conspiracy works such as Mark Lane's Rush to Judgment. More recently, his
testimony is treated as credible in most conspiracy books. You can see him in the video "Two Men in
Dallas."

The essay, "The Rambler Man" is David Perry's investigation into the Craig story. It's excellent
indeed indispensible background reading.

The table below summarizes key elements of Craig's testimony, and what the evidence is on each.

The Testimony of Roger Craig


Was
he
saying
Statement Evaluation
this in
1963-
64?

Was standing on Main Street near


Dealey Plaza at time of shooting Yes Entirely plausible.
heard three shots

Saw officer running up Grassy


Yes Supported by photographic evidence
Knoll

Talked to Arnold Rowland who


Almost certainly true. Consistent with Rowland's
saw second man on 6th floor of Yes
testimony to Warren Commission.
Depository

Absolutely zero supporting evidence. Claim contradicts


Saw .45 slug in Dealey Plaza
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with piece of Kennedy's head No his own Warren Commission testimony, and the
testimony of everyone else in the area..

Heard shrill whistle, saw Oswald


run from direction of Depository Implies absurd escape scenario both reliable
and get into Rambler station Yes testimony and a transfer found in Oswald's pocket
wagon on Elm Street with dark show him to have been on a bus at this time.
complected man

Saw three hulls in Sniper's Nest Flatly contradicted by officers who discovered Sniper's
lined up an inch apart, all pointing Nest. Hulls were photographed in place, and Deputy
in the same direction. Click here No Luke Mooney marked photograph showing their
for illustration from video "Two locations.
Men in Dallas"

Looked at his watch upon hearing


Contradicted by other evidence, and by Craig's own
of the Tippit shooting, and saw the No
1968 interview.
time was 1:06 p.m.

Contradicted by testimony of all officers present


newsfilm at scene shot by Tom Alyea shows rifle to be
Saw inscription "7.65 Mauser" on
No Mannlicher-Carcano. Here is one frame from his 16
recovered rifle
mm. film, and here is another. In 1968, Craig gave a
contradictory account.

Confronted Oswald in Fritz' office Contradicted by officers present in Fritz' office. Dallas
Oswald said Rambler was Mrs. Yes Police and FBI documents show that Mrs. Paine's
Paine's station wagon station wagon was a Chevrolet.

No supporting evidence has been produced. If attempts


There were attempts on his life No
described were real, they were extremely lame.

The Station Wagon that Changed Color


The following is from David Perry's essay, "The Rambler Man."

It was one thing for Mrs. Paine to own a station wagon with a luggage rack but was the vehicle a
Nash Rambler? Was it green? Why did Buddy Walthers bring the subject up? Why was Craig not
positive but only believed someone went by the house? Who was the "they" that went to the Paine
home to check on the car?

Craig's autobiographical declaration that "Mrs. Ruth Paine, the woman Marina Oswald lived with in
Irving, Texas, owned a Rambler station wagon, at that time, of this same color." was on the verge of
collapse. What is more important, Fritz challenged not only Craig's story but his credibility as well. . . .

What about the color of the station wagon? Craig made it a point to claim his testimony was changed
with respect to the color of the car. "I said the Rambler station wagon was light green. The Warren
Commission: Changed [it] to a white station wagon . . ."

Curious, I went back to Craig's deposition of November 25, 1963. I concluded the Warren
Commission could alter the testimony but would have to go to extreme lengths to change a document
obtained three days after the assassination. FBI Special Agent Benjamin O. Keutzer took Craig's
statement. It appears in Commission Exhibit No. 1993, [CE 1993].

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"He stated he also noticed an automobile traveling west on Elm, which he feels was a white Nash
Rambler station wagon with a luggage rack on top."

This seemed to confirm that Craig originally thought the car was white. I still couldn't understand why
color was so important. Why was it necessary for the station wagon to be green rather than white? A
little more research resolved the issue. In Warren Commission Volume II, pg. 506, [2H506] the
following exchange takes place.
Mr. Jenner: "Describe your automobile, will you please?"

Mrs. Paine: "It is a 1955 Chevrolet station wagon, green, needing paint, which we bought secondhand. It
is in my name."

I thought I was seeing things! Ruth Paine owned a green Chevrolet not a Nash Rambler?

. . . One can almost picture Roger Craig, trying to stir the assassination conspiracy pot. Failing to
verify facts, depending upon memories inactive for four years, assuming "they" whoever "they" were
checked the automobile at the Paine house, relying on Buddy Walthers spotty remarks, accusing the
Warren Commission of altering testimony so the color of the vehicles matched . . . . To what
purpose? To implicate Ruth Paine in the plot? If not, why the great charade?

The Bullet Not Seen


The following is from the Warren Commission testimony of Craig:

Mr. CRAIG. Well, I looked around for a little bit, you know, just observing the people and things. . . . And
then it was either Lemmy Lewis or Buddy Walthers-(spelling) W-a-l-t-h-e-r-s, one of our other criminal
investigators, said that one of the bullets had ricocheted off the south curb of Elm Street. So, Officer
Lewis and I crossed-walked down the hill and crossed Elm Street to look for the place where the bullet
might have hit.

Mr. BELIN. Did he say why he believed one of the bullets ricocheted off the south curb of Elm?

Mr. CRAIG. No; he just said that someone said that one of them had. So we checked it.

Mr. BELIN. So, you searched the south curb of Elm?

Mr. CRAIG. Right.

Mr. BELIN. Did you find anything there to indicate the ricocheted bullet?

Mr. CRAIG. No; we didn't find anything at that time. (6H265)

So Craig originally said he saw no bullet near the south curb of Elm Street. But by the 1970s (when he
recorded the interview found in "Two Men in Dallas") he was giving a vivid description of the discovery
of the supposed .45 slug.

The "Mauser"

Early reports said the rifle recovered on the 6th floor of the Depository was a Mauser, but this was
quickly corrected when the Dallas police had sufficient time to examine the rifle. Craig's early account, as
given to the Los Angeles Free Press (March 1968), provides an interesting variation on the "Mauser"
story. In the following, "FP" is "Free Press," "RC" is "Roger Craig," and "PJ" is conspiracist
newspaperman "Penn Jones."
FP: Did you handle that rifle?

RC: Yes, I did. I couldn't give its name because I don't know foreign rifles, I know it was foreign made,

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and you loaded it downward into a built-in clip. The ID man took it and ejected one live round from it.
The scope was facing north, the bolt facing upwards and the trigger south.

But there was another rifle, a Mauser, found up on the roof of the depository that afternoon.

FP: A Mauser on the roof? Who found it?

PJ: I don't know who found it, but I do know that a police officer verified its existence.

In later years, however, Craig's account changed and he adopted the orthodox conspiracy version that has
the Mauser found on the 6th floor. In his memoir When They Kill a President Craig claims:
Lt. Day inspected the rifle briefly, then handed it to Capt. Fritz who had a puzzled look on his face.
Seymour Weitzman, a deputy constable, was standing beside me at the time. Weitzman was an expert
on weapons. He had been in the sporting goods business for many years and was familiar with all
domestic and foreign weapons. Capt. Fritz asked if anyone knew what kind of rifle it was. Weitzman
asked to see it. After a close examination (much longer than Fritz or Day's examination) Weitzman
declared that it was a 7.65 German Mauser. Fritz agreed with him. Apparently, someone at the Dallas
Police Department also loses things but, at least, they are more conscientious. They did replace it
even if the replacement was made in a different country. (See Warren Report for Italian Mannlicher-
Carcano 6.5 Caliber).

It now seems that the Mauser on the roof, which Craig didn't claim to have seen, has become the Mauser
on the 6th floor. A few years later, when he was interviewed for "Two Men in Dallas," Craig claimed to
have viewed the rifle close-up and seen the notation "7.65 Mauser."

Tippit Shot by 1:06?


The time of the Tippit shooting is an important issue, since the Warren Commission placed it at about
1:15 p.m. If Tippit was shot substantially earlier than this, it could not have been Lee Oswald who did it,
since Oswald would not have had time to walk from his rooming house at 1026 North Beckley to the
corner of 10th and Patton where the shooting happened.

In When They Kill a President Craig claims that Tippit had to have been shot before 1:06.
At that exact moment [of the discovery of the rifle] an unknown Dallas police officer came running up
the stairs and advised Capt. Fritz that a Dallas policeman had been shot in the Oak Cliff area. I
instinctively looked at my watch. The time was 1:06 p.m. A token force of uniformed officers was left
to keep the sixth floor secure and Fritz, Day, Boone, Mooney, Weitzman and I left the building.

The first problem with this is that the rifle was in fact discovered about 1:22 p.m. (7H109). Yet Craig
describes the officer announcing the death of Tippit after the discovery of the rifle.

But another problem is the fact that this "1:06 p.m." account seems to be a late addition to his story. In the
March 1968 Los Angeles Free Press is an interview with Craig and Penn Jones:

RC: Tippit went to Oak Cliff, and subsequently was killed. Why he went to Oak Cliff I can't tell you; I
can only make an observation. He was going to meet somebody.

FP: Do you know what time he was killed?

RC: It was about 1:40

PJ: No, I think it was a little before 1:15.

RC: Was it?

PJ: Yes, Bill Alexander


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RC: Oh, that's right. The broadcast was put out shortly after 1:15 on Tippit's killer, and it had not been
put out yet on Oswald as the assassin of President Kennedy.

So Craig, rather than saying that he knew that Tippit had been killed before 1:06, estimates it was at 1:40
and then accepts Penn Jones' correction that it was "a little before 1:15."

Some Conspiracists Didn't Believe Craig

Mary Ferrell was a icon among conspiracy-oriented researchers (and highly respected among
people who didn't believe in a conspiracy. She had considerable personal interaction with Craig, an in an
early 1990s post on the old Prodigy discussion board, explained the man.
TIME: 8/24 1:25 PM
TO: BILL AMBROSINO
FROM: MARY FERRELL
SUBJECT: JFK-CIA EXPERTISE

I knew Roger Craig for several years before his death. It is my belief that Roger was a very sick
young man. He had made a name for himself as a very promising young law enforcement officer.
When he came forward with some of the "stories" he told following the events of that November
weekend, he believed that he would be offered a great deal of money and, possibly, speaking
engagements. I am very sorry to say that I am one of the few conspiracy nuts who never believed
Roger Craig.

When Roger made a number of speeches about the fact that "they" prevented him from getting a job,
I talked my husband into giving him a job. Roger did not want to work. He wanted people to give him
money because he had "seen something or other."

I have made enemies because I have continued to say that I have never really believed him.

Mary Ferrell

Roger Craig also charged that his Warren Commission testimony had been altered or tampered with.
While most conspiracists will readily believe such charges, another icon among conspiracy researchers,
Harold Weisberg, strongly rejected his claims.
Roger Craig may be a brave guy and all of that, but he is also full of what is generally reserved for
toilets. I have gone over his annotation of his testimony, as printed, and his account of the changes is
utterly impossible. I spent too many years working with court reporters, particularly, the firm the
Commission used, to find it possible to credit this in any way. More, have traced that testimony all the
way from Dallas to the Government Printing Office, and it is printed as it was taken down, I have
copies of the typescript sent to the GPO, and I have the letter of transmittal to DC the bills for taking
it, the whole story. Roger is, despite Penn's [Penn Jones] great love for him, at best simply wrong, in
the newer areas, what he embellished his original testimony with. Now I have met Roger, and he is a
finelooking, clean-cut kind of guy who appears to be truthful, serious and all that-just like dozens of
guys I once guarded in an Army locked ward in a large mental institution. He does not impress me as
the kind of guy who is out to make trouble. But he is.

You might want to read Craig's unpublished biography, When They Kill a President. It details his
claims of Warren Commission distortion of his testimony, his firing from the Dallas County Sheriff's
office, and the Garrison investigation.

A Mysterious Death?

Given the "interesting" stories that Roger Craig was telling, it might seem quite logical that a conspiracy
would want to silence him. So Craig's death at age 39 in 1975 by suicide (conspiracy books usually put
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quotes around "suicide") might seem suspicious. But do the details of his death actually seem suspicious?

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