12:40 p.m. Oswald, according to the Warren Commission, boards a
westbound bus, some seven blocks away from the Book
Depository. Note, that Oswald, had to walk past
several bus stops to be in the exact spot he caught the
bus, which by the way was heading back into town!
Oswald could have caught that bus at any of the stops
along the route he would have had to take.
12:45 p.m. Officer J. D. Tippit and Officer R. C. Nelson, both
patrol-car drivers, are ordered into the central Oak
Cliff area. There was no actual acknowledgement of the
orders from either patrolman.
1:08 p.m. Officer Tippit calls into headquarters but this time,
the police dispatcher does not respond.
1:16 p.m. A private citizen, T. F. Bowley, using officer
Tippitt's radio, reports the shooting of the officer.
Roger Craig was a deputy Sheriff in Dallas at the time of the assassination
of President Kennedy. He was a member of a group of men from Dallas County
Sheriff James Eric "Bill" Decker's office that was directed to stand out in
front of the Sheriff's office on Main Street (at the corner of Houston) and
"take no part whatsoever in the security of that motorcade." Once he heard
the first shot, Roger Craig immediately bolted towards Houston Street. His
participation in the formative hours of the investigation during the rest
of that day and into the evening included observations and experiences that
would have singlehandedly destroyed the Warren Commission fairy tale before
a grand jury or a Congressional investigation.
Roger Craig was named the Dallas Sheriff's Department "Officer of the Year"
in 1960 by the Dallas Traffic Commission. He received four promotions
while he was deputy Sheriff. Among the most important events he witnessed:
* at approximately 12:40 p.m., deputy Craig was standing on the
south side of Elm Street when he heard a shrill whistle coming
from the north side of Elm and turned to see a man--wearing
faded blue trousers and a long sleeved work shirt made of some
type of grainy material--come running down the grassy knoll
from the direction of the TSBD. He saw a light green Rambler
station wagon coming slowly west on Elm Street, pull over to
the north curb and pick up the man coming down the hill. By
this time the traffic was too heavy for him to be able to reach
them before the car drove away going west on Elm.
* after witnessing the above scene, deputy Craig ran to the
command post at Elm and Houston to report the incident to the
authorities. When he got there and asked who was involved in
the investigation, a man turned to him and said "I'm with the
Secret Service." Craig recounted what he had just seen. This
"Secret Service" man showed little interest in Craig's
description of the people leaving, but seemed extremely
interested in the description of the Rambler to the degree
this was the only part of the recounting that he wrote down.
(On 12/22/67, Roger Craig learned from Jim Garrison that this
man's name was Edgar Eugene Bradley, a right wing preacher from
North Hollywood, California and part-time assistant to Carl
McIntire, the fundamentalist minister who had founded the
American Counsel of Christian Churches. Then-governor Ronald
Reagan refused to grant the extradition request from Garrison
for the indictment of Bradley during the New Orleans Probe.)
* immediately after this Craig was told by Sheriff Decker to help
the police search the TSBD. Deputy Craig was one of the two
people to find the three rifle cartridges on the floor beneath
the window on the southeast corner of the sixth floor. All
three were no more than an inch apart and all were lined up in
the same direction. One of the three shells was crimped on the
end which would have held the slug. It had not been stepped on
but merely crimped over on one small portion of the rim. The
rest of that end was perfectly round.
* he was present at when the rifle was found, and, along with
Deputy Eugene Boone who had first spotted the weapon, was
immediately joined by police Lt. Day, Homicide Capt. Fritz, and
deputy constable Seymour Weitzman, an expert on weapons who had
been in the sporting goods business for many years and was
familiar with all domestic and foreign makes. Lt. Day briefly
inspected the rifle and handed it to Capt. Fritz who asked if
anyone knew what kind of rifle it was. After a close
examination, Weitzman declared it to be a 7.65 German Mauser.
Capt. Fritz agreed with him.
* at the moment when Capt. Fritz concurred with Weitzman's
identification 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. Craig
instinctively looked at his watch. The time was 1:06 p.m.
(The Warren Commission attempted to move this time back beyond
1:15 to plausible claim Oswald had reached the Tippit murder
scene in a more humanly possible time-frame than would be the
case if Tippit had the encounter with his murderer any earlier.)
* Later in the afternoon Craig received word of Oswald's arrest
and that he was suspected of being involved in the Kennedy's
murder. He immediately thought of the man running down the
grassy knoll and made a telephone call to Capt. Will Fritz to
gave him the description of the man he had seen. Fritz said
Craig's description sounded like the man they had and asked
him to come take a look. When he saw Oswald in Fritz's
personal office Deputy Craig confirmed that this was indeed
the man, dressed in the same way, that he had seen running
down the knoll and into the Rambler. They went into the
office together and Fritz told Oswald,
"This man (pointing to me) saw you leave." At which time
the suspect replied, "I told you people I did." Fritz,
apparently trying to console Oswald, said, "Take it easy,
son--we're just trying to find out what happened." Fritz
then said, "What about the car?" Oswald replied, leaning
forward on Fritz' desk, "That station wagon belongs to
Mrs. Paine--don't try to drag her into this." Sitting
back in his chair, Oswald said very disgustedly and very
low, "Everybody will know who I am now."
The fact that Fritz said "car" and this elicited Oswald's
outburst about a "station wagon"--that no one else had
mentioned--confirms the veracity of Roger Craig's story.
* junior counsel for the Warren Commission Dave Belin, was the
man who interview Roger Craig in April of 1964. After the
being questioned in what Craig recounts as a very manipulative
and selective way, Belin asked "Do you want to follow or waive
your signature or sign now?" Craig noted, "Since there was
nothing but a tape recording and a stenographer's note book,
there was obviously nothing to sign. All other testimony which
I have read (a considerable amount) included an explanation
that the person could waive his signature then or his statement
would be typed and he would be notified when it was ready for
signature. Belin did not say this to me." After Craig first
saw the transcript in January of 1968 he discoverd that the
testimony he gave had been changed in fourteen different
places.
Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig never changed his account of what he witnessed
and experienced on Friday, November 22, 1963. (The passage where he
describes the methodology employed by David Belin in selectively recording
his testimony is highly illuminating and provides us with a glimpse of how
the "W.C." interviewed witnesses in a very controlled way.) He remained
convinced, for the rest of this life, that the man entering the Rambler
station wagon was Lee Harvey Oswald. He was fired from the Sheriff's
office on July 4, 1967, and from that day forward he never again could
find steady work. Multiple attempts were made on his life, his wife
finally left him, and in the end, he was alleged to have shot himself to
death on May 15, 1975.
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