Did Larry Crafard kill J.D. Tippit?

[Please note: The following essay was proofread and edited by researcher Jim DiEugenio prior to it being published on this blog].

Previously, in the essay entitled “Gerald Hill and the Framing of Lee Harvey Oswald”, this writer discussed the likelihood that DPD Seargent Gerald Hill framed Oswald for the murder of Officer J.D. Tippit during Oswald’s arrest at the Texas Theater (click here to read that essay).

What follows below is a discussion of the possibility that the man who murdered Tippit was Curtis LaVerne Crafard, also known as Larry Crafard. At the time of the assassination, Crafard was purportedly employed at Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club as a multi-purpose employee. His job allegedly consisted of being a handyman, clean-up man, part-time bartender, and also answering the telephone (WCE 2250). Crafard was also ostensibly living at the Carousel Club at the time of the assassination. According to the official version of events, on the day following the assassination, Crafard made a sudden departure from Dallas and allegedly hitchhiked to his cousin’s home in Clare, Michigan (ibid). As this writer explains below, Crafard was not only demonstrably mistaken for Oswald by several witnesses, but there is a chance that he was the man who murdered Tippit.

Crafard’s Alibi

When Crafard was interviewed by the FBI on November 28, 1963, he allegedly informed them that at the time of the assassination, he was fast asleep in his room at the Carousel Club (ibid). Crafard repeated this claim when he testified before the Warren Commission on April 8, 1964 (WC Volume XIII, page 448). The man who provided Crafard with an alibi was Andrew (Andy) Armstrong. Armstrong was employed at the Carousel club as a bartender, and was also the assistant manager of the club. According to both Crafard and Armstrong, after Armstrong learned that the President had been shot, he awakened Crafard and informed him of this. However, there are many problems with this claim. First of all, the reader should consider that during his aforementioned interview with the FBI, Crafard allegedly claimed that Armstrong awakened him by calling him on the phone at approximately 11:30 in the morning, and that after he awoke, he went back to sleep.

But this is not what Crafard told the Warren Commission. According to Crafard; “I guess [Armstrong] said he had called me or something and I hadn’t [woken] up, I hadn’t [gotten] up or something.” (ibid, page 449). Further on during his testimony, he added that “[Armstrong] said he called me but I hadn’t [woken] up… I don’t know whether he called me by telephone, he said he tried to call me by telephone or called me when he [came] to the club or what.” (ibid, page 450). Not only do these statements by Crafard contradict what he allegedly told the FBI during his aforementioned interview with them, but there is no confirmation by Armstrong in either his interview with the FBI on January 22, 1964, or during his testimony before the Warren Commission on April 14, 1964, that he had telephoned Crafard prior to his arrival at the club (WCE 2275). Crafard told the Warren Commission that the door to his room was closed when Armstrong arrived at the club, and that he “…closed it all the time.” (WC Volume XIII, page 450). Armstrong, on the other hand, testified that the door to Crafard’s room wasn’t closed. (ibid, page 327).

Let’s also take into consideration the following contradictions between the statements of Crafard and Armstrong. Crafard told the Warren Commission “Andy woke me that morning. He [came] in early. Andy always put the beer [into the cooler] and he [would] come in early to do that so he could have the rest of the day off.” (ibid, page 448). When Crafard was asked by counsel Leon Hubert what time it was when Armstrong arrived at the club, he explained “I think it was about 9:30 or something like that.” (ibid). Bear in mind that this statement undermines his claim that Armstrong woke him up by telephoning him at approximately 11:30 in the morning. Further on during his testimony, Hubert asked Crafard how he knew that Armstrong came into the club earlier. Crafard responded “The beer was all taken care of, so I figured he had been in the club.” (ibid, page 449). Although Crafard agreed that he wasn’t sure if Armstrong had put the beer into the cooler when he was asked by Hubert, he then remarked that “Andy said something about doing it, he had done it earlier, or something.” (ibid).

When Armstrong testified before the Warren Commission, he was asked by Hubert if it was his job to “See that the beer was kept on ice.” (ibid, page 327). Armstrong claimed that it was, and after telling Hubert that he did this every day, he claimed “That’s the first thing I did…When I came [to the club] in the afternoon.” (ibid). Although this implies that Armstrong had taken care of the beer prior to allegedly waking up Crafard, he told the Warren Commission that after he arrived at the club, he had to use the rest room and that after he had done so, he heard “a lot of sirens,” then found out that the President had been shot by listening to his transistor radio, and subsequently woke up Crafard. The reader should also bear in mind that during his interview with the FBI on January 22, 1964, he claimed that he went into the men’s room after taking off his jacket, and then woke up Crafard after learning that the President had been shot (WCE 2275).

Keeping the above in mind, it is clear that Armstrong didn’t take care of the beer prior to allegedly waking up Crafard; with the implication being that Crafard was lying when he claimed that it had been taken care of, and that “Andy said something about doing it, he had done it earlier, or something.” We should also bear in mind that Armstrong made no mention of taking care of the beer after learning that the President had been shot and after allegedly waking up Crafard. According to Crafard; “Andy, when he came [into the club] he should have woke me up,” thus implying that it was Armstrong’s duty to wake him up if he wasn’t already awake (WC Volume XIII, page 449). But this is not what Armstrong told the Warren Commission. When Counsel Leon Hubert asked Armstrong if it was his custom/duty to wake up Crafard every morning, he remarked “No. If he was asleep I didn’t even bother him. Usually he was awake, but there was sometimes that he was asleep and I didn’t bother him” (ibid, page 328).

It is also perhaps worth keeping in mind that Crafard told the Warren Commission that Armstrong told him (Crafard) that he “…called me two or three times at that time when he woke me up there he called me two or three times” (ibid, page 450). However, Armstrong told the Warren Commission that he woke Crafard up by shaking him, and implied that he did this only twice (ibid, pages 327 and 329). When Counsel Hubert asked Crafard if he had an explanation for why it was difficult to wake him “that morning,” he remarked “None that I can think of except that I probably was a little tired from the night before when I went to bed” (ibid, page 451). When he was asked previously during his testimony if it was unusual for him to have slept until the time Armstrong allegedly woke him up on the day of the assassination, Crafard explained “Not if I was tired and they didn’t call me, I’d sleep if they didn’t call me” and then claimed “At the club a couple of times I slept until 1:30 or 2 o’clock in the afternoon before somebody woke me up” (ibid, page 449).

The reader may believe that the aforementioned contradictions between the statements of Crafard and Armstrong are simply due to faulty memory resulting from the passage of time. But there is good reason to believe that the FBI (with help perhaps from the DPD and the Secret Service), coerced Armstrong into providing Crafard with an alibi. On the day of the assassination, DPD Officer Marrion L. Baker wrote an affidavit on what had transpired after he entered the TSBD following the assassination. In his affidavit, Baker wrote that he had encountered a man walking away from the stairway on either the third or fourth floor, and described the man as “a white man approximately 30 years old, 5’ 9,” 165 pounds, dark hair and wearing a light brown jacket” (Dallas Municipal archives, Box 2, Folder 1, Item 4). When the FBI interviewed Crafard on November 28, 1963, they took five colored photographs of him (WCE 451, 453 to 456). At the time these photographs were taken, Crafard was wearing a light brown/tan colored jacket (click here to view the colored version of three of these photographs).

As far as this writer is aware, only two witnesses who testified before the Warren Commission were shown these photographs. One was the highly suspicious Ruth Paine (in whose garage, we should remember, Oswald allegedly kept the Mannlicher Carcano rifle he purportedly used to assassinate the President). The other was George Bouhe, a member of the Dallas White Russian community who was acquainted with both Oswald and his wife Marina (WC Volume III, page 95, WC Volume VIII, pages 377 and 378). Although Bouhe denied that he thought there was a resemblance between Oswald and Crafard, Paine admitted that she thought there was. And as this writer explains below, several other witnesses had mistaken Crafard for Oswald. Whilst some researchers may believe that it was merely a coincidence that Officer Baker wrote in his first day affidavit that he had encountered a man walking away from the stairway wearing a light brown jacket, and that the FBI took five photographs of Crafard wearing a light brown/tan jacket when they interviewed him, this writer does not believe that was the case.

It is this writer’s belief that the FBI took the aforementioned photographs of Crafard with the purpose of showing them to Baker, and that Baker may have identified Crafard as the man he had encountered walking away from the stairway.  If Oswald was framed for the assassination--and the evidence discussed by countless researchers demonstrates that he was--then it stands to reason that the sniper shooting at the President from the sixth floor of the TSBD would have somewhat resembled Oswald; with the hope that any witnesses outside the TSBD who had seen the sniper would believe that he was Oswald. As a matter of fact, Ronald Fischer; who had seen the sniper in the so-called sniper’s nest window shortly before the assassination, told the DPD that the man he had seen in the window looked like Oswald but that he wouldn’t definitely state that Oswald was the man (Dallas Municipal archives Box 5, Folder 5, Item 38, Dallas Municipal archives Box 3, Folder 13, Item 1). When Fischer testified before the Warren Commission, he confirmed that he told the DPD that Oswald could have been the man he had seen in the window, but that he couldn’t be sure (WC Volume VI, page 197).

Most researchers are also familiar with the fact that Howard Brennan, who had also witnessed the assassination, claimed that the sniper in the sixth floor window of the TSBD resembled Oswald, and subsequently identified Oswald as the sniper. Although dyed-in-the-wool defenders of the Warren Commission such as David Von Pein uphold Brennan as a credible witness, as researchers such as Gil Jesus have explained, Brennan is by no means a credible witness (click here to read Jesus’ discussion on Brennan). In addition to the fact that Officer Baker had encountered a man wearing a light brown jacket walking away from the stairway inside the TSBD; and the fact that the FBI photographed Crafard wearing a light brown/tan colored jacket when they interviewed him six days after the assassination, the reader should also consider the following:

On January 23, 1979, an article entitled “Cult Leader is No.1 Suspect in JFK Assassination” was printed in the National Enquirer. The suspect was Ervil LeBaron; a psychotic cult leader who was not only convicted for the murder of his brother and said to have had his daughter strangled to death, but was also wanted for questioning by the U.S. Secret service for death threats made against President Jimmy Carter (the article can be read here). According to the article, through the freedom of information act, the National Enquirer had obtained a formerly classified memorandum from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to the special agent in charge of the Salt Lake City office of the FBI in Utah (dated January 27, 1964), in which Hoover wrote that LeBaron and his followers are “believed to have been responsible for President Kennedy’s death.”

From 1962 to 1967, LeBaron was the presiding patriarch of the Church of the First Born of the Fullness of Times; which was founded by his brothers in 1955. When Crafard testified before the Warren Commission, he claimed that he was affiliated with the General Assembly and Church of the First Born (WC Volume XIII, page 418). Although this writer is unaware of any direct or indirect connection between the Church of the First Born of the Fullness of Times, and the General Assembly and Church of the First Born; or any direct or indirect connection between LeBaron and Crafard, it is entirely possible that the reason Hoover and the FBI considered LeBaron a prime suspect in the assassination was because they may have had good reason to believe that there was a connection between LeBaron and Crafard. (This writer should point out that according to Wikipedia; there was no affiliation between the Church of the First Born of the Fullness of Times, and the General Assembly and Church of the First Born).

The Oswald misidentifications

Although there is much debate amongst researchers as to whether or not Ruby and Oswald knew each other; and whether or not Oswald was ever at the Carousel Club, there can be no doubt that Larry Crafard was mistaken for Oswald-- or believed to have looked like Oswald--by a number of different witnesses. On November 24, 1963, detective Jim Leavelle of the DPD wrote a memorandum to Captain Will Fritz in which he claimed that a man named Don Stewart (Stuart); co-owner of the contract electronics store at 2533 Elm Street, had telephonically informed him that Ruby had come into his store “about a month ago” to check the sound equipment in the Carousel Club, and that Ruby was with a man who he thought looked “an awful lot like” Oswald (Dallas Municipal archives, Box 1, Folder 7, Item 71). According to the memorandum, Robert Kermit Patterson; who co-owned the store with Stuart, and an employee of the store named Charles Arndt, agreed with Stuart that the man with Ruby looked like Oswald (ibid).

When Crafard was interviewed by the FBI on November 28, 1963, he informed them that about three weeks ago he had accompanied Ruby to an “electronics company” (WCE 2250). According to Crafard; “…Ruby checked about some sound equipment for the club” while they were there (ibid). Crafard confirmed that he had gone with Ruby to the store when he testified before the Warren Commission (WC Volume XIV, pages 69 and 70). When the FBI interviewed Donald Stuart on November 26, 1963, he was shown a photograph of Oswald, and according to the FBI he “…cannot be sure at this time whether or not Oswald is identical to the person who accompanied Ruby” (WCD 4, page 804). Stuart described the man with Ruby as being a white man in his 20’s, weighing about 140 pounds, with a slight build, and dark brown hair which he thought may have been thicker than Oswald’s (ibid).

When Charles Arndt was interviewed by the FBI on the same day, he was also shown a photograph of Oswald, and claimed that he “…could not definitely state whether or not Oswald is identical with the younger man who accompanied Ruby” (ibid, page 807). Arndt described the man with Ruby as a white male in his 20’s, 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighing 140 pounds or possibly slightly more, with a slight build, and dark brown hair of average thickness (ibid). As for Robert Kermit Patterson, he told the FBI that based on photographs he had seen of Oswald in various newspapers, that Oswald was the man with Ruby at the electronics store (ibid, page 798). Patterson described the man with Ruby as an American white male in his 20’s, 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 9 inches tall, and not too heavy, but not too thin either (ibid, pages 798 and 799). Patterson also claimed that he thought the man with Ruby had a tattoo on his left forearm (ibid, page 799).

What’s important to bear in mind is that Oswald did not have a tattoo on his left forearm when he was shot. And according to Dr. Earl Rose--the medical examiner who had performed the autopsy on Oswald--if there had been a removal of a tattoo from Oswald’s forearm within a period of two months prior to Oswald’s autopsy, he would have noticed it and made a note of it in his autopsy report (WCD 1066, page 389). Although the FBI wrote in their report concerning their interview of Crafard on November 28, 1963, that Crafard didn’t have any tattoos; it is entirely feasible that Crafard had the tattoo removed sometime prior to his interview with them (the greater significance of Patterson’s observation of the tattoo is explained below).

This writer should also point out that according to Patterson, after Ruby told him and Stuart that he would give both of them passes to his Carousel club, Ruby gave the man with him what Patterson described as a notebook and instructed him to write down Patterson’s and Stuart’s names in the book, and that he (Patterson) observed the man do this (WCD 4, page 797). After Ruby was arrested for Oswald’s murder by the DPD, the DPD discovered permanent pass cards to Ruby’s Carousel Club under Patterson’s and Stuart’s names, and a small notebook containing business receipt notations with Patterson’s name in it (WCE 1322). This writer should point out that contrary to Patterson’s claim that the man with Ruby wrote down Stuart’s and his (Patterson’s) name in the notebook, both Stuart and Arndt claimed that it was actually Ruby who wrote down their names (WCD 4, pages 804 and 807). Furthermore, although Patterson claimed that the man with Ruby was wearing very tightly fitted blue jeans and possibly a white T-shirt, Crafard told the FBI that he was wearing a suit when he went with Ruby to the electronics store (ibid, page 799, WCE 2250).

Despite this contradiction, the weight of the evidence says the man who accompanied Ruby to the store was Crafard--and that Stuart, Patterson, and Arndt all thought that he looked like Oswald. Another good example of Crafard being mistaken for Oswald was at the Lucas B & B restaurant, located in the same block as the Vegas club which was run by Jack Ruby’s sister, Eva L. Grant. Mary Lawrence, who worked at the restaurant as a waitress, informed the DPD that she had seen a man she thought was Oswald enter the restaurant at around 2:15 am on the day of the assassination, and that after Ruby entered the restaurant a short time later, the man went and sat with Ruby, after which they both left the restaurant at approximately 2:45 am (Dallas Municipal archives, Box 18, Folder 7, Item 24). Lawrence described the man with Ruby as a white male, 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighing 140 pounds, and with dark hair (ibid). This writer should point out that when Lawrence was previously interviewed by the FBI on December 5, 1963, she claimed that the man she thought was Oswald entered the restaurant at approximately 1:30 am (WCD 223, page 367).

Although Pete Lucas, the manager of the Lucas B and B restaurant, informed the FBI on November 25, 1963, that he told Ruby to never come back to the restaurant, and subsequently told the DPD that Ruby was forbidden from entering the restaurant, Crafard told the FBI that on the morning of the assassination he had met up with Ruby at the restaurant, and implied that this was at approximately 2:30 am (WCE 1224, WCE 2250), (Dallas Municipal archives, Box 18, Folder 7, Item 25). Furthermore, although Lawrence told the DPD that the man with Ruby had a small, deep scar on his left cheek, she had previously informed the FBI that the man with Ruby had a small scar near his mouth on either the left or right side (WCD 223, page 368). The significance of this observation is that when the FBI interviewed Crafard, they noted that he had a scar on the centre of his upper lip (WCE 2250).

It should be apparent to the reader that the man Mary Lawrence thought was Oswald was in fact Larry Crafard. Let’s also consider that on November 26, 1963, a salesman at the commercial tire company named William Cooper told the FBI that Jack Wise; who worked at the tire company as a bookkeeper, had information that a man who resembled Oswald was seen in the Carousel Club by a piano tuner, and that “…from the manner in which [the Oswald lookalike] was hanging around [the piano tuner] assumed he worked there” (WCD 4, page 785). When the FBI subsequently interviewed Wise on November 27, 1963, he informed them that the piano tuner’s name was Karl Wahrmund, and that Wahrmund’s father had told him (Wise) that Wahrmund assumed that Oswald worked at the Carousel Club (ibid, page 786). Although Karl Wahrmund denied telling anyone that he had seen Oswald in the Carousel club when he was interviewed by the FBI on November 27, 1963, his denial may have been because he was threatened to keep silent about any possible association between Oswald and Ruby (ibid, page 377). Despite what the reader may believe about Wahrmund’s denial, as discussed above, multiple witnesses thought that Crafard resembled Oswald.

Was Crafard at the Tippit murder scene?

The significance of the above is that if Crafard was Tippit’s killer, the witnesses who identified Oswald as Tippit’s killer may have done so because they also thought that Crafard resembled Oswald. As this writer has also discussed previously, Crafard’s alibi for the time of President Kennedy’s assassination is questionable. Therefore, his claim that he was at the Carousel Club at the time Tippit was likely shot should also be taken with a grain of salt (WCE 2250, WC Volume XIII, pages 451 and 452). As discussed in Part 1 of this writer’s review of Dale Myers’ book With Malice (here), Tippit was most likely shot at approximately 1:06 pm (see under the subheading IV: Murder on Tenth Street). If Oswald was framed for Tippit’s murder by Tippit’s killer leaving behind a mock-up wallet with identification for Oswald and his alleged alias, Alek James Hidell (as discussed here under the subheading IX: Hints and allegations); and by Gerald Hill pretending to remove the gun (WCE 143) most likely used to kill Tippit from Oswald during his arrest at the Texas Theater, then it only makes perfect sense that the real killer was someone who bore a resemblance to him and could be mistaken for him. With that said, let’s now discuss the possibility that Crafard was Tippit’s killer.

First of all, let’s keep in mind that when the FBI interviewed Crafard on November 28, 1963, they described him as a 22 year old white male; with a “medium” complexion, 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 150 pounds, and with brown hair and brown eyes (WCE 2250). The reader should note that this description of Crafard is somewhat similar to the aforementioned descriptions of the man thought to be Oswald by Robert Patterson, Donald Stuart, Charles Arndt, and Mary Lawrence. Although the description of Tippit’s killer (understandably) varied from witness to witness, according to the transcripts of the DPD radio recordings, at approximately 1:22 pm, Officer Roy W. Walker broadcasted a description of Tippit’s killer over the DPD radio (WC Volume XXI, Sawyer Exhibit WCE 705/1974). According to Walker’s broadcast, Tippit’s killer was a white male about 30 years old, 5 feet 8 inches tall, with a slender build and black hair, and was wearing a white jacket (ibid). The witness who gave Walker this description was purportedly Warren Reynolds; who was employed as a salesman at the Johnny Reynolds used car lot, which was located on the south east corner of the Patton Street and Jefferson Blvd. intersection (With Malice, Chapter 5).

According to the same transcripts, at approximately 1:37 pm, Officer Howell W. Summers informs the DPD radio dispatchers that he has an “eye ball” witness who observed Tippit’s killer, and that the killer was a 27 year old white male, with a fair complexion, 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighing 165 pounds, with black wavy hair, and was wearing a light gray “Eisenhower type” jacket (ibid). Although Dale Myers claims that the witness who provided Summers with this description was Ted Callaway; who was the manager of the Harris Bros. auto sales on Patton Street, as explained in part 1 of this writer’s review of With Malice, there is good reason to believe that Callaway never observed Tippit’s killer (see under the subheading VII: A bird in the hand). As this writer also explains, there is good reason to believe that Sam Guinyard; who worked for Harris Bros. auto sales as a porter, never observed Tippit’s killer as he claimed he did (ibid).

At the time Tippit was killed, the closet witness to the murder was Domingo Benavides, who worked for Harris Bros. auto sales as a mechanic (WC Volume VI, page 445). When Benavides testified before the Warren Commission, he claimed that he was driving west on tenth street in his pick-up truck, and that after he heard a shot fired at Tippit, he pulled up to the curb almost next to Tippit’s squad car (WC Volume VI, page 447). Benavides claimed that Tippit’s killer resembled Oswald, and described him as being about 5 feet 11 inches tall, of average weight, and with a complexion that was “a little bit darker than average” (ibid, pages 450 and 451). However, after Counsel David Belin asked Benavides if the complexion of Tippit’s killer was the same as his (Belin’s), Benavides remarked “I would say he is about your complexion, sir. Of course he looked, his skin looked a little bit ruddier than mine” (ibid, page 451).

The significance of Benavides’ initial claim is that, as pointed out previously, when the FBI interviewed Crafard on November 28, 1963, they noted that he had a “medium” complexion. In fact, the colored photographs the FBI took of Crafard show that he had a slightly brownish complexion; which is consistent with Benavides’ claim that the killer’s complexion was “a little bit darker than average.” It is also curious that Benavides remarked that the killer’s skin looked “a little bit ruddier” than his own. Although this writer is unaware of what Benavides’ complexion looked like at the time he testified before the Warren Commission in 1964, during a filmed interview with Eddie Barker of CBS-TV in 1967, Benavides complexion appeared to be brownish; but not what could be described as ruddy (click here to view the footage). We should also keep in mind that Benavides told the Warren Commission that the hairline of the back of the killer’s hair “sort of went square instead of [tapering] off” (WC Volume VI, page 451). Unfortunately, the photographs the FBI took of Crafard do not reveal whether this was the case with the back of his hair.

Should the reader believe that Benavides was simply mistaken about what the killer’s complexion appeared to be, then the reader should also take the following into account. When Tippit murder witness, Helen Markham, was interviewed by the FBI on the day of the assassination, she claimed that Tippit’s killer had a “red” complexion (WCD 5, page 79). Although Markham denied that the killer had a red complexion when she testified before the Warren Commission, during a filmed interview shown on The Men Who Killed Kennedy series, she remarked that the killer had a ruddy complexion (click here to view the interview, see also WC Volume III, page 320). Furthermore, when Julia Postal; the ticket seller at the Texas Theater, testified before the Warren Commission, she claimed that when she called the DPD from the Theater, she informed them that the man who ducked into the Theater was “ruddy looking” (WC Volume VII, page 11).

Whilst there are problems with the credibility of Benavides, Markham, and Postal as witnesses, as this writer discusses below, there is evidence that an Oswald lookalike was arrested in the balcony of the Texas Theater, and then placed into a DPD squad car at the rear of the Theater (for a discussion of the credibility of the aforementioned witnesses, see here under the subheadings VI: Closing in and VII: A bird in the hand). Then there’s Wilbyrn Waldon (Robert) Litchfield; an ex-convict who told the DPD that on either a Tuesday or Thursday night in the first two weeks of November, he had a meeting with Jack Ruby inside the Carousel club (Dallas Municipal archives, Box 5, Folder 7, Item 30). On June 18, 1964, Litchfield told the FBI that on the night he had his meeting with Ruby at the club, he observed a man whom he thought looked like Oswald (WCD 1193, page 240). Litchfield described the Oswald lookalike as being in his mid-twenties, between 5 feet 7 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall, with medium brown hair, and that his complexion was “somewhat ruddy” (ibid). Litchfield also claimed that the man’s chin area was either slightly pimpled or had “slight acne pockmarks,” and that he was dressed sloppily (ibid).

During the same interview, the FBI showed Litchfield the five colored photographs they had taken of Larry Crafard when they interviewed him on November 28, 1963. After he carefully examined the photographs, Litchfield allegedly told the FBI that he “could not state with any degree of certainty” that Crafard was the Oswald lookalike he had seen in the Carousel club on the night in question (ibid, page 241). However, Litchfield also remarked that “The overall general appearance of [Crafard and the Oswald lookalike in the club] are about the same, although [Crafard’s hair] appears to be a bit more full than that of the individual he had seen in the Carousel club” (ibid). The FBI noted that due to the passage of time since Litchfield observed the Oswald lookalike in the club “…it is utterly impossible for him to comment more specifically at this time” (ibid).

As the reader can see, Litchfield’s comment implies that Crafard was the Oswald lookalike he had seen in the club. Although the aforementioned photographs of Crafard do not show that he had what could be described as a ruddy/red complexion, or pimples/acne pockmarks, the possibility that Crafard was infected with a disease (such as Rosacea) which causes a ruddy/red complexion; and what could be described as pimples or acne pockmarks from time to time cannot be ruled out. This writer should point out that on December 2, 1963; detective R.D. Lewis of the DPD gave Litchfield a polygraph test to determine whether or not he was being truthful when he claimed that he had seen Oswald at the Carousel club (Dallas Municipal archives, Box 5, Folder 7, Item 31). According to Lewis, Litchfield was being untruthful (ibid). However, Lewis and the DPD may have stated this in order to cover-up the possibility that Oswald and Ruby were involved in a conspiracy to assassinate the President; and that Ruby shot him to prevent him from revealing the names of any conspirators.

This writer should also point out that on June 19, 1964, the FBI interviewed J.W. Grubbs and Max Lewis; two of the men with whom Litchfield was playing poker at the time he learned that Ruby had shot Oswald (WCD 1193, pages 243 and 244). According to the interviews with both men, Litchfield’s claim that he was acquainted with Ruby is not to be believed (ibid). On the other hand, when the FBI interviewed Ernest Francis Stoy; another one of the men with whom Litchfield was playing poker at the time he learned that Ruby had shot Oswald, he claimed that he considers Litchfield to be an honest man (ibid, page 242). Stoy was interviewed on June 17, 1964. But despite what Grubbs and Lewis told the FBI with regards to Litchfield’s credibility, as pointed out above, Litchfield implied during his interview with the FBI On June 18, 1964, that the Oswald lookalike he had seen in the Carousel club was in fact Larry Crafard; who was not only acquainted with Ruby, but also worked at the club.

It is also important to bear in mind what William W. Scoggins; the cab driver who allegedly witnessed Tippit being shot whilst eating lunch inside his parked cab, told the Warren Commission with regards to the killer’s complexion. When Counsel David Belin asked Scoggins whether Tippit’s killer was a Negro or a white man, Scoggins replied that he was “White, light complected, not real brown,” thus implying that he had a slightly brownish complexion (WC Volume III, page 333). The reader should keep in mind that not only is this consistent with Benavides’ claim that the killer’s complexion was “a little bit darker than average,” but that as stated previously; the colored photographs the FBI took of Crafard show that he had a slightly brownish complexion. Although Scoggins identified Oswald as Tippit’s killer, it is important to note that when the FBI interviewed Scoggins on November 25, 1963, he remarked that he couldn’t be sure if Oswald was the man who killed Tippit (WCD 5, page 77). For more information on Scoggins, please refer to part 1 of this writer’s review of With Malice; under the subheading VII: A bird in the hand.

Let’s now discuss the Davis sister-in-laws; Barbara and Virginia Davis. On the day of the assassination, the Davis sister-in-laws were living inside a two story apartment house located on the southeast corner of the Tenth and Patton Street intersection. Although both women claimed to have witnessed Tippit’s killer walking across their front lawn heading towards Patton Street, and identified Oswald as the killer, there is good reason to believe that they were planted witnesses. Consider that one of the names inside Larry Crafard’s notebook which contained the names and phone numbers of Jack Ruby’s various contacts was Leona Miller (WCD 717, page 6, WCD 4, page 497). When Crafard was asked about Miller during his testimony before the Warren Commission, he explained “I believe she was a girl that called in connection with or in answer to an ad that Jack Ruby had in the paper for waitresses” (WC Volume XIV, page 10).

Although Jack Ruby was acquainted with a Leona Lane (whose maiden name appears to have been Miller), this writer is unaware of any evidence that she had called Ruby in response to the advertisement for waitresses (WCE 2282/2283). Furthermore, as researcher Greg Parker has pointed out, Miller’s name and phone number (WH3-8120) was written in the part of Crafard’s notebook which contained the names and phone numbers for regular contacts (see here). The significance of this is that when Barbara and Virginia Davis provided the DPD with sworn affidavits as to what they had witnessed at the time Tippit was shot, they wrote down their phone number as WH3-8120; the same number which was written inside Crafard’s notebook for Leona Miller (Dallas Municipal archives, Box 2, Folder 1, Items 21 and 22). In his book, Dale Myers writes that “Given the transient nature of the occupants of the apartments along East Tenth Street at the time, it would not be surprising to learn that [Leona] Miller might have occupied the same apartment immediately before Barbara Jeanette and Virginia Davis, and consequently had the same phone number, although there is nothing in the record to indicate that such a thing occurred” (With Malice, Chapter 9).

Myers also writes that “…apart from the phone number, there is no known connection between Leona Miller, Barbara Jeannette and Virginia Davis, and Jack Ruby” and that the Davis sister-in-laws and their husbands had moved into the apartment located on the southeast corner of the Tenth and Patton street intersection “…around the first or second week in November, 1963…” (ibid). However, let’s now take the following into account. Contained within Larry Crafard’s notebook is the reminder “Mr. Miller. Friday 15 people Collins Radio Co.” (WCD 4, page 502, WCD 717, page 19). When Crafard was asked about this reminder during his testimony before the Warren Commission, he remarked that “It would be somebody called in for reservations for 15 people” (WC Volume XIV, page 32). As several researchers such as William Kelly have noted, shortly following Oswald’s arrest at the Texas Theater, T.F. White; a mechanic working at Mack Pate’s garage located several blocks to the north of the Theater, observed an Oswald lookalike acting suspiciously inside a car parked at the El Chico restaurant car park across the street from the garage.

White approached the car, and wrote down the license plate number, which was PP 4537 (WCD 205, pages 369 and 375). When the FBI investigated White’s claim, they discovered that the license number was assigned to a 1957 Plymouth which belonged to Carl Amos Mather; an employee of the Collins Radio Company, and a friend of the Tippit family (ibid, pages 370 and 372). Although there is no record that the FBI interviewed Mather, when they interviewed his wife on December 14, 1963, she informed them that Mather left work at about 2:00 or 2:30 in the afternoon, after which they went to the Tippit family home to express their condolences to Tippit’s wife and to “…assist her in any way possible” (ibid, page 373). Several researchers have argued that White’s claim of seeing an Oswald lookalike driving the car with the aforementioned license plate number is not credible, because he first claimed that the car was a red 1957 Plymouth and then claimed that it was a red 1961 Ford Falcon; whereas the FBI determined that the car was in fact a light blue over medium blue 1957 Plymouth (ibid, pages 372 and 375).

But in spite of these discrepancies, it defies belief that White identified the license plate of the car owned by a friend of the Tippit family who worked at the Collins Radio Company. In this writer’s opinion, the car observed by White was in fact Mather’s. It is also this writer’s opinion that the significance of this connection is that, as pointed out previously, a Mr. Miller from the Collins Radio Company had made a reservation at the Carousel Club, and that a Leona Miller, who happened to share the same phone number as two of the witnesses to Tippit’s murder, was listed as one of Jack Ruby’s contacts in Crafard’s notebook. Although this writer is unaware of the identity of Mr. Miller from the Collins Radio Company, or of any direct connection between Mr. Miller and Leona Miller, it is nevertheless this writer’s belief that Leona Miller was quite likely the real name of one of the Davis sister-in-laws, and that they (the Davis sister-in-laws) were related to Mr. Miller from the Collins Radio Company (for further information on why the Davis sister-in-laws were likely planted witnesses, please refer to part 1 of this writer’s review of With Malice under the subheading VII: A bird in the hand).

Readers are also strongly encouraged to read through this blog post by William Kelly concerning the connection of the Collins Radio Company to the assassination. In an upcoming essay, this writer will be discussing further possible connections between the assassination and people with the surname Miller. As for the identity of the Oswald lookalike observed by T.F. White driving what was by all likelihood Carl Mather’s car, it is this writer’s belief that he was the highly suspicious and mysterious Igor Vaganov (see here for important information on Vaganov by researcher Lee Farley). Most researchers are aware of the fact that Tippit’s killer had discarded a light gray jacket (designated WCE 162) in the parking lot located behind the Texaco service station on Jefferson Blvd. Although Marina Oswald told the Warren Commission that her husband owned the light gray jacket, as discussed in part 2 of this writer’s review of With Malice, this was most certainly a lie (see under the subheading VIII: Proof Positive).

According to researcher and investigative reporter, Mark Groubert, the light gray jacket discarded in the parking lot by Tippit’s killer and the jacket Crafard was wearing when he was photographed by the FBI on November 28, 1963, were both made by the same manufacturer; namely Maurice Holman from California (see the thread entitled The Stevenson Incident and the Assassination at Greg Parker’s research forum). A photographic comparison of the two jackets shows that they are somewhat similar in appearance. As a matter of fact, Groubert discovered a zipper jacket on eBay made by Maurice Holman which is similar to both the light gray jacket, and the jacket Crafard was wearing in the aforementioned photographs. Groubert speculates that after Crafard discarded the jacket at the parking lot; he brought another one as a replacement. Furthermore, according to researcher Staffan H. Westerberg, Crafard owned a “…white cotton jacket with a zipper, similar to the one found between the Tippit killing scene and the Texas Theatre” (see the thread entitled Why JD Tippit Had To Die at Greg Burnham’s research forum). However, this writer has been unable to verify whether this claim is true.

One pertinent question concerning the jacket is: Why did Tippit’s killer discard it? In his book, Dale Myers writes that, “Tippit’s killer… was believed to have ditched his jacket under the car [in the parking lot] in an attempt to change his appearance” (With Malice, Chapter 8). However, there may be another explanation for why Tippit’s killer discarded the jacket. Consider that the wallet containing identification for Oswald and Hidell was left inside one of its pockets when the killer discarded it; in order to make it appear as though Oswald accidentally incriminated himself whilst trying to alter his appearance. As several researchers (including this writer) have pointed out, the DPD concealed the existence of this wallet. With this in mind, if the wallet was in fact discovered inside one of the pockets of the jacket, then this could explain why the officer(s) who discovered the jacket was never identified by the DPD; and why the officer who reported the discovery of the jacket over the DPD radio was not identified by his name in the transcripts of the DPD radio communications (WC Volume XXI, Sawyer Exhibit No. A), (WCE 1974). Of course, this writer cannot state with any degree of certainty that the wallet was discovered inside one of the pockets of the jacket.

In conclusion, there is no solid evidence that the light gray jacket belonged to Crafard. We should nevertheless keep in mind the words of Earlene Roberts, the housekeeper of the rooming house at 1026 North Beckley Avenue where Oswald was allegedly living at the time of the assassination. She told KLIF radio reporter Gary DeLaune on the day of the assassination that Oswald left the rooming house, after he had allegedly returned there half an hour following the assassination, wearing a “short gray coat” (see here). But as this writer discusses below, there is good reason to believe that it was actually Crafard who was living there; and whom Roberts saw leaving with the jacket (WCE 162). This writer should also stress that the reason why the FBI took the aforementioned photographs of Crafard may have been to show them to the Tippit murder witnesses such as Helen Markham, who apparently claimed that Tippit’s killer was wearing a brown jacket (Dallas Municipal archives, Box 1, Folder 4, Item 5). In an interesting twist, Markham worked as a waitress at the Eat Well cafe on Commerce Street, where Crafard told the FBI he ate his meals (WCD 5, page 79, WCE 2250). Whilst some might argue that Markham would have recognized Crafard as a regular customer at the restaurant, like Robert Patterson, Donald Stuart, Charles Arndt, Mary Lawrence and others, she may have confused Crafard with Oswald.

Was Crafard arrested at the Texas Theater?

As stated previously, there is evidence that an Oswald lookalike was arrested in the balcony of the Texas Theater, and then placed into a DPD squad car at the rear of the Theater. Although readers may consider this to be a ridiculous assertion, there is good reason to believe that after shooting Tippit, Crafard entered the Theater; and was the Oswald lookalike who was put into the DPD squad car at the rear of the Theater. First of all, as pointed out above, Julia Postal; the ticket seller at the Texas Theater, told the Warren Commission that she told the DPD that the man who ducked into the Theater without paying for a ticket was “ruddy looking.” Secondly, according to the report by DPD detective L.D. Stringfellow to Captain W.P. Gannaway regarding Oswald’s arrest, Oswald was arrested in the balcony of the Theater (see here). However, Oswald was arrested in the Orchestra section of the Theater.

Should the reader believe that this was merely a mistake by Stringfellow, then the reader should also take the following into account. In 1987, Bernard Haire, the owner of Bernie’s hobby house located two doors east of the Theater, told author Jim Marrs that he had seen DPD officers place a man into a squad car at the rear of the theater. According to Haire; “The man was dressed in a pullover shirt and sacks. He seemed to be flushed, as if he’d been in a struggle” (Marrs, Crossfire, page 354). The significance of Haire’s claim that the man appeared to be “flushed” is that it is consistent with Julia Postal’s claim that the man who had ducked into the Theater was “ruddy looking.” When Marrs informed Haire that Oswald was brought out from the front of the Theater following his arrest, he stated to Marrs in bewilderment “I don’t know who I saw arrested” (ibid).

In the endnotes of his book, Dale Myers acknowledges that Haire claimed that he had seen someone being taken out from the back of the theater (With Malice). However, he hides from his readers the fact that Warren “Butch” Burroughs, who ran the concession stand inside the theatre, told author Jim Douglass during an interview in 2007 that he witnessed a second arrest inside the Theater “three or four minutes later” (Douglass, JFK & the Unspeakable, pages 292 -294). Burroughs remarked to Douglass that the second man who was arrested inside the Theater “looked almost like Oswald, like he was his brother or something” (ibid). When Douglass asked Burroughs if he could see the second man arrested as well as he could see Oswald, Burroughs claimed, “Yes, I could see both of them. They looked alike” (bid).

Myers also hides from his readers the fact that detective L.D. Stringfellow wrote in his report to Captain Gannaway that Oswald was arrested in the balcony of the theater, writing instead in the endnotes of his book that “…there is no evidence that anyone other than Oswald was arrested at the Texas Theater” (With Malice). The reader should bear in mind that during a filmed interview for The Men who Killed Kennedy series, Burroughs stated that Oswald “slipped” into the Theater between 1:00 pm and 1:07 pm (click here to view the footage). As pointed out above, there is good reason to believe that Tippit was most likely shot at approximately 1:06 pm. Therefore, if Oswald had entered the theater in the time period described by Burroughs during his interview, Oswald couldn’t have been Tippit’s killer.

Several researchers have argued that Burroughs should not be considered credible on this point because he denied that he had seen Oswald enter the theater, or that he had sold him popcorn, when he testified before the Warren Commission (WC Volume VII, page 15). However, if Burroughs had informed the DPD and/or the FBI that Oswald had entered the Theater during the aforementioned period of time, he may have been coerced into denying that he had seen Oswald enter the theater. During an interview with Jim Marrs in 1987, Burroughs remarked that Oswald had entered the theater “…shortly after 1 P.M.,” and that at approximately 1:15 pm, Oswald bought popcorn from him at the concession stand (Marrs, Crossfire, page 353). We should also consider that Julia Postal told the Warren Commission that Burroughs initially told her (Postal) that he had seen Oswald, only to allegedly change his mind (WC Volume VII, page 13). Burroughs also told Marrs that about 20 minutes after Oswald entered the ground floor of the theater and sat next to a pregnant lady, Johnny Calvin Brewer; the shoe store owner who allegedly observed Oswald slip into the theater, arrived at the theater through the front doors (Marrs, Crossfire, page 353). On a further note, Burroughs informed Marrs that somebody had slipped into the theater at approximately 1:35 pm (ibid).

Indirect corroboration for Burroughs’ claim that Oswald entered the Theater much sooner than he allegedly did comes from theater patron Jack Davis. In 1988, Davis was interviewed by Jim Marrs. As Marrs explains in his book “…Davis found a seat in the right rear section of the theater and recalled seeing the opening credits of the first film, which was only minutes past the 1 P.M. starting time for the feature film. He said he was somewhat startled by [Oswald] who squeezed past him and sat down in the seat next to him… Davis said [Oswald] didn’t say a word but quickly got up and moved across the aisle and took a seat next to another person. Then shortly, [Oswald] got up and walked into the theater’s lobby. A few minutes later, Davis, whose attention had returned to the movie, vaguely remembered seeing [Oswald] enter the center section of the theater from the far side. After twenty minutes or so after this incident, according to Davis, the house lights came on and when he walked to the lobby to ask why, he saw policeman running in the front door” (ibid).

As the reader can see, Marrs’ account of what Davis told him implies that Oswald entered the theater and sat next to him a few minutes past 1:00 pm; which is consistent with Burroughs’ claim that Oswald had entered the theater between 1:00 pm and 1:07 pm. Furthermore, Davis’ claim that Oswald walked into the lobby of the theater shortly after he sat down next to another person; and then returned a few minutes later, is consistent with Burroughs’ claim that Oswald bought popcorn from him at about 1:15 pm. This writer should point out that in the endnotes of his book, Dale Myers writes that George Jefferson Applin; a patron of the Theater who witnessed Oswald’s arrest, told the FBI that the movie started at approximately 1:00 pm with a cartoon and newsreel, and that the main feature, War is Hell, didn’t begin until about twenty minutes later According to Applin’s interview with the FBI, Myers’ claim is accurate (WCD 206, page 68). Myers also writes in his endnotes that “Newspaper ads confirm a 1:20 p.m. start time for the feature…” (However, we should keep in mind the possibility that Oswald sat next to Davis before the opening credits of War is Hell, and that Davis’ recollection was in error.

It is also important to bear in mind that according to the transcripts of the DPD radio recordings, at approximately 1:46 pm, the dispatchers announced over the radio that the suspect was allegedly hiding in the balcony of the theater (WC Volume XXI, Sawyer Exhibit No. A), (WCE 705/1974). The person who allegedly informed the DPD of this was Julia Postal. When Postal testified before the Warren Commission, she more or less explained that the reason why she informed the DPD that the suspect was hiding in the balcony of the theater was because Warren Burroughs would have seen the suspect if he had gone past him (Burroughs) into the Orchestra section of the Theater, but that he didn’t see him (click here to view a diagram of the Theater’s layout), (WC Volume VII, page 13). However, as discussed above, Burroughs claimed during his interview for The Men who Killed Kennedy series and during his interview with Jim Marrs that Oswald entered the Theater shortly after 1:00 pm.

With the above in mind, and based on the layout of the theater, it stands to reason that a second man (Crafard) entered the theater and went up the steps near the front entrance which led to the balcony. Several researchers are of the belief that an Oswald lookalike had lured Johnny Brewer to the Theater; by acting suspicious outside the front door of Brewer’s store and then entering the theater, so that Brewer would inform the DPD that the suspect was inside the theater. Although this writer believes that this is certainly a feasible notion, as discussed in part 1 of this writer’s review of With Malice, it is this writer’s belief that Brewer was lured to the Theater by the two men inside his store who were allegedly IBM employees (see under the subheading VI: Closing in). Once the DPD was notified that the suspect was inside the theater, this would enable Gerald Hill to frame Oswald for Tippit’s murder by pretending to remove the gun (WCE 143) most likely used to kill Tippit from Oswald during his arrest inside the Theater.

Aside from Warren Burroughs, the notion that an Oswald lookalike was arrested in the Texas Theater is supported by the statements of John Franklin Elrod, who was arrested by the DPD at approximately 2:45 pm on the day of the assassination for walking along the railroad tracks to the west of the TSBD (Dallas Municipal archives Box 3, Folder 20, Item 2). According to Elrod, he was placed into the same jail cell as Oswald. Although several researchers such as Ian Griggs have refuted this claim, there is good reason to believe that Elrod’s cellmate was in fact Larry Crafard. When Elrod was interviewed by the FBI on August 8, 1964, he informed them that his cellmate told him about a meeting between five men at a motel where “…they had been advanced some money under some type [of] contract,” and that one of the men at the motel was Jack Ruby (WCD 1472, pages 117 and 118). Whilst there is no solid evidence that Oswald knew Ruby or knew about his affairs, or that Crafard was at the meeting in the motel described by Elrod, the fact is that Crafard was not only acquainted with Ruby but was also someone who was demonstrably mistaken for Oswald by multiple witnesses.

According to the same interview, when Elrod was inside the jail cell with his cellmate, a man whose face was “smashed up” was brought into the hallway where he and his cellmate could observe him; and that his cellmate mentioned that he was one of the men he met at the motel with Jack Ruby (ibid). Elrod further explained: “The man with the injured face had received some money, and he was reported to have been driving a Thunderbird automobile with a large quantity of guns contained therein” (ibid). Researchers have identified the man with the smashed face as Lawrence Reginald Miller, who was arrested along with Donnell Darius Whitter/Whittier by the DPD on November 18, 1963, for the possession of two machine guns and two automatic rifles which had been stolen during a burglary at the National Guard Headquarters at Terrell, Texas (WCD 847). Whitter/Whittier was driving a 1962 Thunderbird when he and Miller were arrested by the DPD; and had once serviced Jack Ruby’s car at the Texaco Service Station on Clarendon and Ewing Streets in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas (ibid).

The reader should bear in mind that as several researchers such as John Armstrong have explained, Ruby was involved in illegally running guns to Cuba (see here). Therefore, the aforementioned meeting at the motel could have been about the theft of weapons from the National Guard Headquarters in Terrell, Texas. Although Elrod denied during a filmed interview in 1993 with investigative journalists, Ray and Mary LaFontaine, that he told the FBI anything about Ruby and guns, due to the passage of time, and perhaps also due to the fact that he was an alcoholic, he may simply have forgotten that he had done so (click here to view the interview). During his interview with the LaFontaines, Elrod claimed “I can’t say for sure, but in my mind I thought [Oswald] was bruised slightly some wheres around this…this…this area in here,” whilst pointing out the area of his cheeks near his mouth.

Photographs and film footage of Oswald show that he didn’t have bruises in the area of his cheeks near his mouth following his arrest at the Texas Theater. However, let’s keep in mind that the man Bernard Haire claimed he saw being put into a DPD squad car at the rear of the Theater was “flushed.” With this in mind, could Elrod have misremembered/misinterpreted the “flushed” appearance of the Oswald lookalikes’ face as slight red bruises on his cheeks? In this writer’s opinion, it is entirely possible that he did. When we also take into account the fact that the man Wilbyrn Litchfield observed in the Carousel club, and whom he described as having a “somewhat ruddy” complexion and also described as having the same general characteristics as Crafard; the man who was placed into the same jail cell as John Elrod was in by all likelihood Crafard.    

This writer should also note that in their book Oswald Talked, Ray and Mary LaFontaine write that DPD Officer H.R. Arnold; who was purportedly a personal friend of Elrod and his brother Lindy, confirmed to Lindy that Elrod was placed into the same jail cell as Oswald (LaFontaines, Oswald Talked, page 392). According to the DPD personnel assignments booklet for November, 1963, Arnold was an officer working in the Special Service Bureau under the command of Captain W.P. Gannaway (WC Volume XIX, Batchelor Exhibit No. 5002). The LaFontaines write that “Today Arnold claims he cannot remember either of the Elrods” (Oswald Talked, page 392). However, we should consider that Arnold may have only stated this because he realized that his admission to Lindy Elrod would have created a huge controversy involving him. According to the LaFontaines, both of the Elrods claimed that John Elrod also shared a cell with a “kid from Tennessee who had stolen a car in Memphis,” whose name the LaFontaines claim was Daniel Wayne Douglas (ibid). The LaFontaines also claim that neither of the Elrods “…were shown the Douglas arrest record or even told of its existence…” (ibid).

The records of the DPD show that Douglas, who was 19 years old at the time, was indeed arrested (at approximately 2:30 pm) on the day of the assassination, after he turned himself in to the DPD for Auto Theft and Burglary offenses in Memphis, Tennessee and Birmingham, Alabama (Dallas Municipal archives, Box 3, Folder 20, Item 3). This writer would also like to point out that despite the fact that the records of the DPD show that Elrod was arrested, the FBI claimed that “The identification record of John Franklin Elrod… dated August 12, 1964… does not reflect incarceration of Elrod in the Dallas City jail as claimed” (WCD 1472, page 119). The FBI also claimed that Elrod’s cellmate was “…a man whose identity he could not recall,” and that “His arrest had nothing to do with the assassination of the President” (ibid, page 117).

But during his aforementioned filmed interview with the LaFontaines, Elrod claimed that he told the FBI that he was “…arrested for the…for the murder down there and [that] I was in a cell with Oswald and…that was it.” During the same interview, Elrod’s brother Lindy claimed that “Oswald” told Elrod “I did not shoot no President.” If Lindy Elrod is to be believed, and if Crafard was John Elrod’s cellmate, then it’s certainly curious that Crafard would make such a statement. Although there is nothing amongst the records of the DPD that shows Crafard was arrested at the Texas Theater, such a record(s) would most likely have been destroyed (or amongst the still classified assassination related documents) in order to conceal evidence that Oswald was framed for Tippit’s murder and the assassination, and that there was a conspiracy. In conclusion, there is absolutely no solid evidence that Larry Crafard was John Elrod’s cell mate. However, given all of the above, there is good reason to believe that an Oswald lookalike was arrested in the balcony section of the Theater; and that he was placed into the same jail cell as Elrod.

Why did Crafard leave Dallas?

As stated towards the beginning of this essay, according to the “official” version of events, on the day following the assassination, Crafard made a sudden departure from Dallas and allegedly hitchhiked to his cousin’s home in Clare, Michigan. Crafard told both the FBI and the Warren Commission that the name of his cousin was Clifford Roberts (WCE 2250, WC Volume XIII, page 483). This writer has been unable to locate any interview of Roberts by the FBI. Crafard told the FBI that on the morning of November 23, 1963 at about 8:00 am, he telephoned Ruby to tell him that they needed food for the three dogs which Ruby kept at the Carousel Club, and that after Ruby allegedly berated him for waking him (Ruby) up, he decided to leave the club because he “did not want to take any other verbal abuse” (WCE 2250). Crafard also claimed that his main reason for heading north (to Michigan) was to recontact his sister, Corabelle Ingersoll (ibid).

When Crafard testified before the Warren Commission, he explained that the only reason he left Dallas was because he wanted to visit his sister, as he had not heard from her and became concerned (WC Volume XIII, page 469). According to the FBI, Crafard was visiting his sister when they interviewed him (WCE 2250). However, there are problems with Crafard’s claim that he left Dallas because he wanted to visit his sister. On June 5, 1964, the FBI interviewed Crafard’s cousin, Gale Ann Cascaddan (nee Eaton). Cascaddan told the FBI that on November 26, 1963, Crafard visited the home of her parents (where she was residing), and that on the very next day; he hitchhiked to Kalkaska, Michigan, to visit his sister (WCD 1079, page 2). Crafard confirmed this during his testimony before the Warren Commission, but gave the impression that he was confused as to exactly which day he arrived at his aunt and uncle’s home (WC Volume XIII, page 485).

According to Cascaddan, neither she nor her parents could understand why Crafard left Dallas on the day following the assassination (WCD 1079, page 3). In fact, Cascaddan told the FBI that when she asked Crafard why he left Dallas, he never answered her question, and recalled that he changed the topic of their conversation (ibid). Cascaddan added that her parents were also unable to obtain an answer from Crafard as to why he left Dallas (ibid). We should also bear in mind that Cascaddan told the FBI that in her opinion, Crafard “…exhibited an indifferent attitude toward the assassination of the President,” claiming that whilst she, her parents, and her brothers, spent most of their time watching television coverage of the assassination, Crafard “…seemed mildly interested in these programs,” and instead spent some time reading comic books (ibid). Cascaddan further explained that Crafard “…seemed about as disturbed over the President’s assassination as he would be ‘over killing a cat’” (ibid).

This writer should point out that Cascaddan told the FBI that Crafard was “nuts” and made her “puke,” further explaining that she didn’t want to be alone with him as he always wanted to put his hands on her body, smell her hair, and kiss her (ibid, pages 4 and 5). Although the reader may believe that Cascaddan told the FBI that Crafard never explained why he left Dallas and “…exhibited an indifferent attitude toward the assassination of the President” because she didn’t like him, the reader should keep in mind that Cascaddan’s mother confirmed to the FBI that Crafard never explained to her and other members of her family why he left Dallas, and that he “…expressed relative unconcern over the assassination…” (ibid, page 5). This writer should also point out that during an interview with Canadian researcher Peter Whitmey; Crafard more or less explained that the reason why he didn’t watch television coverage of the assassination (and President Kennedy’s funeral) was because he didn’t want to show his emotions to his relatives (see here).

During his interview with the FBI, Crafard claimed that he didn’t tell anyone that he was leaving Dallas (WCE 2250). According to Gale Ann Cascaddan, Crafard claimed that he didn’t tell Ruby that he was leaving was because he and Ruby were “buddies,” and that Ruby wouldn’t want him to leave (WCD 1079, pages 3 and 4). However, when Crafard was asked during his testimony before the Warren Commission why he didn’t call Ruby to tell him that he wanted to visit his sister, Crafard remarked “I don’t know. I haven’t got any idea” (WC Volume XIII, page 469). When Crafard was further asked why he didn’t wait for Ruby to come into the Carousel Club to tell him that he wanted to visit his sister, he remarked “I made up my mind to go, and that was it” (ibid). We should also bear in mind that Crafard told the Warren Commission that his decision to leave Dallas had nothing to do with Ruby allegedly berating him for waking him (Ruby) up to ask about food for the dogs which were kept at the club (ibid).

As the reader can see, Crafard’s failure to explain to his relatives why he left Dallas is suspicious. On a final note, Joyce Lee McDonald; who worked at the Carousel Club as a stripper under the stage name Joy Dale, told the FBI that several days prior to leaving Dallas, Crafard had indicated that he was “getting itchy feet” and was ready to move on (WCD 4, page 518). Did the Warren Commission suspect that Crafard’s departure from Dallas was suspicious? As it turns out, the answer to that question is, yes they did. According to Peter Whitmey, former Warren Commission counsel Burt Griffin; who interviewed Crafard along with Leon Hubert, told the HSCA in November, 1978, that “one of the most important issues we never resolved… is why Larry Crafard split town like he did” and that he (Griffin) had “always been bothered by that very much, the whole circumstance of it.”

Whitmey also writes that Griffin told him (Whitmey) at a conference in Chicago in 1993 that he and Leon Hubert believed that Crafard was holding back and wasn’t being honest about himself and his activities while he was in Dallas. But perhaps the strongest indication that the Warren Commission thought Crafard’s departure from Dallas was suspicious is the fact that during his testimony before the Warren Commission, Counsel Leon Hubert told Crafard; “I suggest to you that [your] real motivation for leaving Dallas was that you had found out that Oswald had been in the [Carousel] club, and that the matter was getting a little too thick for you and you wanted out of it” (WC Volume XIV, page 51). Crafard denied that this was the case, but one has to wonder why Hubert felt the need to suggest this to Crafard. In this writer’s opinion, the most viable explanation is that he; and by implication the Warren Commission, suspected that Crafard was involved in Tippit’s murder and/or the President’s assassination.

It is also curious that, as researcher Walt Brown explains (here), Crafard was asked the second highest number of questions by the Warren Commission out of all witnesses who were called to testify, namely 3,972. We should also consider that when the FBI interviewed Crafard’s mother, Alice, on March 17, 1964, she purportedly described him as being “very unreliable” (see here). Should the reader believe that this explains the aforementioned contradictions between the statements of Crafard and witnesses such as Andrew Armstrong (with regards to his alibi at the time of both the President’s assassination and Tippit’s murder), and the inconsistencies between Crafard’s own statements to the FBI and to the Warren Commission, the reader should nevertheless consider that the FBI may have made up this statement in order to try and explain any contradictions between the statements of Crafard and Armstrong, and the inconsistencies between Crafard’s own statements. Alternatively, Crafard’s mother may actually have made the statement to the FBI that Crafard was “very unreliable,” with the purpose of undermining any suspicions the FBI may have had about her son.

Was Crafard living at 1026 North Beckley?

The overwhelming majority of JFK assassination researchers are of the belief that, for several weeks prior to the assassination, Oswald was living at the rooming house on 1026 North Beckley Avenue which was owned by Amy Gladys Johnson and her husband, Arthur Carl Johnson. Many researchers are also of the belief that on the day of the assassination, Oswald returned to the rooming house where he allegedly retrieved the revolver most likely used to kill Tippit (WCE 143) and then left. However, in August, 2013, researcher Lee Farley began discussing the likelihood that it was in fact Larry Crafard who was living at 1026 North Beckley Avenue, not Oswald. This writer elaborates on this likelihood below. But before reading through this writer’s discussion, the reader is strongly encouraged to first read through Farley’s fascinating discussion (which can be read here) on Greg Parker’s research forum.

As discussed in previous essays on Gerald Hill, it is this writer’s belief that Hill was one of the two officers inside the DPD squad which the housekeeper, Earlene Roberts, claimed she observed in front of the rooming house after Oswald allegedly returned to his room there. And that Hill picked-up Tippit’s killer from the rooming house and then dropped him off near the intersection of Tenth and North Marsalis streets. Although many researchers have argued that Roberts’ claim is not credible, as this writer discusses in the essay entitled “Gerald Hill and 1026 North Beckley”, the arguments against Roberts’ credibility are rather narrow minded (click here to read the essay). Furthermore, in the essay entitled “Gerald Hill and the Tippit murder scene – Part 1”, this writer explains that Hill was most likely lying when he claimed that he went to the Tippit murder scene with DPD sergeant Calvin “Bud” Owens and assistant Dallas district attorney, William F. Alexander (click here to read the essay).

As the reader can see, towards the end of that essay, this writer discusses the likelihood that Hill was the unidentified officer who told DPD Captain Will Fritz that Oswald was living at the rooming house at 1026 North Beckley Avenue. This writer would now like to elaborate on why this was likely the case. First of all, consider that during his testimony before the Warren Commission, counsel David Belin asked Hill, “To the best of your knowledge, did anyone in the car in which you were riding down to the police station [with Oswald] ever mention any Beckley Street address for the suspect?” Hill replied “No” (WC Volume VII, page 60). Hill was then asked “To the best of your knowledge, when [Oswald] was brought into the police station, up to the time you left him with Captain Fritz there, had anyone mentioned a Beckley Street address?” Hill again replied “No” (ibid, page 61). Later on during his testimony, Hill was asked, “Where did the police get ahold of [Oswald’s] address on Beckley?” Hill claimed that he didn’t know (ibid, page 62).

Let’s also take into account the fact that Hill was then asked “If the suspect had told anyone his address from the time he was apprehended until the time he was turned over to Captain Fritz, would you have been in a position to hear that statement made?” To which Hill responded that Oswald may have given his address to Officer Charles Walker; who was with Oswald inside the interrogation room at DPD headquarters following his arrest, without him (Hill) hearing it (ibid). Evidently becoming frustrated, Belin then asked Hill, “Well, did you hear any Beckley Street address mentioned?” Hill remarked that he didn’t hear anything about a Beckley address until “probably” 7 or 8 pm on the evening of the assassination (ibid). Following this question, Hill was asked if Walker ever mentioned to him (Hill) any conversation which he had with Oswald inside the interrogation room (ibid). One is at a loss to understand why Belin asked Hill these questions; unless of course, he had information that it was Hill who told Fritz that Oswald was living at the rooming house!

We should bear in mind that when Walker testified before the Warren Commission (five days before Hill), he was not asked a single question about Oswald’s address on North Beckley Avenue. Furthermore, when detective Bob Carroll; who drove the squad car in which Oswald was taken to police headquarters following his arrest, testified before the Warren Commission, he was asked if he heard anyone say anything about Oswald having an address on North Beckley Avenue (ibid, page 25). Carroll claimed that he heard about this after they relinquished custody of Oswald (ibid, page 26). It’s important to bear in mind that Carroll wasn’t asked about the address to the extent that Hill was during his own testimony. The reader should also keep in mind that, as this writer points out in the essay entitled “Gerald Hill and the Tippit murder scene – Part 1”, researcher Lee Farley believes that Oswald’s belongings may have been moved into the rooming house following the assassination by certain DPD officers such as Harry Olsen; whilst all of Crafard’s belongings were moved out. Let’s now look at additional evidence that Crafard was living at the rooming house at the time of the assassination.

First of all, let’s take into consideration the fact that on November 28, 1963, the Dallas office of the FBI received a letter from a man named Armour E. Kreischer, who claimed that a close friend of a lady named Mrs. Dan H. Foley operated a boarding house where Oswald was residing (WCE 3007). According to the letter, at the time “Oswald” was residing at the boarding house, he was “...known to have been employed (exact capacity unknown) as a man of all work for one Jack Rubinstein, alias Ruby” (ibid). On December 9, 1963, Mrs. Foley informed the FBI that she received this information from her neighbours, Mr. and Mrs. Happy Brockman (ibid). Mrs. Brockman telephonically informed Foley that this information had originated with “…an employee of a Humble service station in about the 1000 or 1100 block of Zangs Street” (ibid).

Although this writer is not aware if Mrs. Foley was in fact a close friend of Arthur or Amy Gladys Johnson, the significance of this information is that (as previously stated) Crafard worked at the Carousel Club as a multi-purpose employee; with his job allegedly consisting of being a handyman, clean-up man, part-time bartender, and also answering the telephone. As for the identity of the employee of the “Humble service station,” this writer believes it was John Laurel Ford; who worked at the Enco service station at 1030 North Beckley Avenue (across the street from the rooming house) which was operated by Gerald Duncan (WCD 205, page 228). According to Google Maps, both Duncan’s service station and the rooming house were within the 1000 block of North Zangs Blvd. When the FBI interviewed Duncan on November 24, 1963, he informed them that about six weeks ago, “Oswald” went out with John Laurell Ford to drink beer (ibid).

It’s important to bear in mind that Marina Oswald told the Warren Commission that her husband didn’t drink beer; whereas Crafard told the Warren Commission that he (Crafard) was a beer drinker (WC Volume I, page 100), (WC Volume XIII, page 451). When Ford was interviewed by the FBI, he allegedly told them that he didn’t believe he ever met Oswald (WCD 205, page 236). However, if we are to believe that this is truly what Ford told the FBI, he may have only stated this because he may have thought that by telling the FBI he was acquainted with Oswald, the FBI might suspect him of possibly being involved in a conspiracy with Oswald to assassinate the President. The reader should note that in the report of their interview with Ford, the FBI referred to Duncan’s service station as the “Duncan-Humble service station” (ibid). The FBI also interviewed a man named Ellijo Davis; who apparently worked at the Gulf service station located on the corner of Beckley Avenue and Zangs Blvd., and reported that Davis could furnish no information with regards to Oswald’s activities (WCD 5, page 360).

Most researchers of the assassination are probably aware of the allegation that Oswald was living at the Beckley rooming house under the name, O.H. Lee. Given that Oswald’s full name was Lee Harvey Oswald; O.H. Lee could have been an abbreviation for “Oswald Harvey Lee.” Or if one is to believe that Oswald used the name Hidell as an alias; O.H. Lee could have been an abbreviation for “Oswald Hidell Lee.” Is there evidence that Crafard used a name similar to “Oswald Harvey Lee?” As it turns out, there is. On May 19, 1964, the FBI interviewed a resident of Grand Prairie, Texas, named Mrs. James Willie Walker; who told them that on a Thursday night about seven days before Halloween in 1963, she spent about two hours with a man who was introduced to her as “Oswald Lee” at the home of a dope peddler and bootlegger named Harold Zotch (WCD 1066, page 386).

A check of the calendar for 1963 reveals that the Thursday seven days before Halloween was October 24. According to Walker, “Oswald Lee” was identical to Oswald (ibid). Walker went on to explain that “Oswald Lee” told her that he worked at either the TSBD or the Taylor book store; and that he had been working there for only eight days (ibid). As the reader is probably aware, Oswald commenced working at the TSBD on October 16, 1963. What’s particularly significant is that “Oswald Lee” also told her that he “had a room in Oak Cliff” (ibid). As we know, Oswald allegedly rented a room at the rooming house at 1026 North Beckley Avenue in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. Walker also informed the FBI that Junior Biggs, the man who introduced “Oswald Lee” to her, told her that she didn’t have to worry about “Oswald Lee’s” wife as she lived in Irving (ibid).

Junior Biggs also told her that “Oswald Lee” was writing a book; which “Oswald Lee” claimed was about life in Russia, where he had allegedly been (ibid, page 387). Although the person whom Walker described sounds like Oswald, there is good reason to believe that it was in fact Larry Crafard. First of all, let’s consider that Walker claimed that “Oswald Lee” had a tattoo of a dagger with a snake on his left forearm (ibid, page 388). As this writer has discussed previously, Dr. Earl Rose; the medical examiner who had performed the autopsy on Oswald’s body after he was pronounced dead at Parkland memorial hospital, told the FBI that if there had been a removal of a tattoo from Oswald’s forearm within a period of two months prior to Oswald’s autopsy, he would have noticed it and made a note of it in his autopsy report. As this writer also discussed previously, Robert Kermit Patterson; co-owner of the contract electronics store on Elm Street, informed the FBI that the Oswald lookalike who accompanied Jack Ruby to his store (who was most certainly Crafard) had what he thought was a tattoo on his left forearm.

During her interview with the FBI, Walker also described “Oswald Lee” as a 24 year old white male, 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighing 140 pounds, with a medium complexion, dark eyes, dark brown hair which was “slicked down,” and “wearing old clothes, clean and neat” (ibid, page 388). The reader should keep in mind that the FBI described Crafard as a 22 year old white male, 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 150 pounds, with a medium complexion, brown eyes, and brown hair (WCE 2250). Although Walker’s description of “Oswald Lee’s” age, height, and weight were slightly off, her description of his complexion, and eye and hair color, is consistent with the description which the FBI provided of Crafard’s complexion, and his eye and hair color. We should also bear in mind that FBI agent Bardwell Odum; who interviewed Walker, noted that when Walker was shown a photograph of Oswald (which was taken by the DPD following his arrest), she informed him that she believed “Oswald Lee” was Oswald, but asked him twice if he was positive that the photograph he showed her was of Oswald (WCD 1066, page 388).

This suggests that Walker thought “Oswald Lee” was not actually Oswald, but rather an Oswald lookalike. If Crafard killed Tippit in order to frame Oswald for Tippit’s murder, then it is not ridiculous to believe that he would be impersonating him, and would claim that he worked at the TSBD etc. It is perhaps also worth keeping in mind that Mrs. Walker told the FBI that “Oswald Lee” drank coffee (ibid, page 387). When Crafard testified before the Warren Commission, he indicated that he was a coffee drinker (WC Volume XIII, page 473). Furthermore, Pauline Hall, who had worked for both Ruby and his sister Eva Grant, Informed the FBI that she thought Crafard was “creepy,” and that in effect he “looked like a bum” (WCE 2403). Bear in mind that Walker told the FBI that “Oswald Lee” was wearing “old clothes.” On a final note, as researcher Greg Parker has pointed out at his research forum, a Dallas businesswoman (who refused to be identified) claimed that she thought she saw Oswald picketing at the Dallas memorial auditorium, where ambassador Adlai Stevenson was giving a speech on the night of October 24, 1963 (see here).

If the person the unidentified businesswoman observed really was Oswald, it seems unlikely that he was at Grand Prairie on the same night. Let’s now take into consideration the statements by Donald P. Norton; a man who claimed to have been employed by the CIA from 1957 to 1966. According to Norton, he was given the assignment by the CIA of delivering $50,000 to a man named “Harvey Lee” (whom Norton thought was Oswald) at a hotel in Monterrey, Mexico, in March, 1962 (see here). Other sources claim that Norton made the delivery to “Harvey Lee” at the aforementioned hotel in September, 1962 (see for example the first post by researcher William Kelly in this thread at the Spartacus education forum; and also page 16 of this digitized file at Baylor University). However, if the alleged delivery by Norton occurred in March, 1962, then the man Norton claimed was “Harvey Lee” could not have been Oswald; as Oswald was still residing in the Soviet Union at this time.

As we have already seen, the man who was introduced to Mrs. James Willie Walker as “Oswald Lee” was likely Larry Crafard. This then raises the question of whether the man whom Donald Norton knew as “Harvey Lee” was Crafard. In order to answer that question, let’s take the following account. According to Norton, it was Clay Shaw who gave him the assignment of delivering the $50,000 to “Harvey Lee” at the aforementioned hotel in Monterrey, Mexico. As many researchers, such as Jim DiEugenio have demonstrated, Shaw was most certainly working for the CIA (see the second edition of DiEugenio’s book Destiny Betrayed). In fact, Norton claimed that Shaw was not only the “CIA recruiting chief for Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Mexican personnel,” but that Shaw told him that he (Shaw) personally knew the man known to Norton as “Harvey Lee.”

But what evidence is there that Crafard and Shaw knew each other? On December 11, 1967, researcher and attorney Mark Lane interviewed Darrell Wayne Garner: a man who author Joan Mellen describes as a pimp, an alcoholic, a thief, and a gunrunner. As the reader may already be aware, Garner was also the prime suspect in the shooting of Tippit murder witness Warren Reynolds. There are several things Garner told Lane which, if true, are quite significant. For one thing, Garner told Lane that Jack Ruby and Clay Shaw knew each other; and that Shaw discussed with him (Garner) the possibility of assassinating the President. According to Garner, this discussion took place in an office at the Carousel Club. Garner also told Lane that he knew Oswald, and that Oswald and Ruby were both homosexuals who were having homosexual relations with each other (click here to read through the transcript of Garner’s interview with Lane).

Although the reader may believe that Garner is a witness to Oswald and Ruby being acquainted, there is good reason to believe that the man Garner thought was Oswald was in fact Larry Crafard. First of all, Crafard and Ruby most certainly knew each other. Secondly, let’s consider the fact that Garner claimed “Oswald” had been in Germany. As researcher Greg Parker pointed out to this writer, there was a sketch of a location in Germany by Oswald inside his notebook. But as far as this writer is aware, Oswald never travelled to Germany. On the other hand, Crafard told the Warren Commission that whilst he was in the U.S. Army, he was sent to Germany in April, 1959 (WC Volume XIII, page 405). There is also good reason to believe that Crafard was a homosexual. For one thing, as Greg Parker has pointed out, the research by investigative reporter Mark Groubert suggests that Maurice Holman jackets (which Crafard was likely wearing when photographed by the FBI) were popular amongst the “young gay set” (see the thread entitled “The Stevenson Incident and the Assassination” at Parker’s research forum).

Furthermore, Crafard’s cousin Gale told the FBI that Crafard exclaimed that he “…got tired of watching naked women” at the Carousel Club (WCD 1079, page 2). In this writer’s opinion, this is a curious statement to make, which suggests that Crafard may have had homosexual feelings. On a final note, Crafard told the FBI and the Warren Commission that he received a general discharge from the U.S. Army; under “honorable” conditions (WCE 2250), (WC Volume XIII, page 405). As Greg Parker has pointed out (here), a general discharge from the Army was given to homosexual/bisexual servicemen and women. This writer should also note that, as several researchers have claimed, Oswald himself may have had homosexual feelings. For example, Buell Wesley Frazier told the FBI that Oswald “…spoke in a very light speaking voice, somewhat girlish…” (WCD 5, page 319). Another thing to keep in mind is that Elena Hall, Marina Oswald’s alleged friend, told the Warren Commission that Marina told her that she (Marina) and Oswald had sex “very seldom” (WC Volume VIII, page 396).

Although the reader may believe that the aforementioned statements by Frazier and Hall meant Oswald had homosexual feelings, as both Greg Parker and this writer have discussed, Oswald was likely an undiagnosed sufferer of Asperger’s Syndrome (see the thread entitled “Why Oswald was More Likely to Have Suffered Asperger’s Than Dyslexia” on Greg Parker’s research forum). In his online book on Asperger’s Syndrome, Dr. Tony Attwood; a world renowned expert on Asperger’s Syndrome, writes that the feminine characteristics and behaviour, and the lack of interest in sex of certain men can be explained by Asperger’s Syndrome (Attwood, A Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome, pages 80, 305, 309, and 333). Another indication that the man Darrell Wayne Garner thought was Oswald was actually Crafard is that, as Garner told Mark Lane, he (Garner) drove “Oswald” to the Bull Pen in Arlington, Texas, which was owned by Ruby’s friend, Ralph Paul.

When Paul testified before the Warren Commission, he claimed that he never spoke to Crafard (WC Volume XIV, page 148). But when Crafard testified before the Warren Commission, he claimed that Ruby had introduced him to Paul at the Carousel Club (WC Volume XIII, page 425). However, Crafard also indicated that he didn’t know Paul too well (ibid, page 443). Paul’s denial that he had spoken to Crafard may have been because, as Garner told Lane; “…this guy that owns the Bull pen, I didn’t know this here till I’ve been talking to Jim [Garrison] , but the guy that owns the Bull Pen had a finger all in this here assassination deal.” Suffice it to say, there is no solid evidence that the man Garner thought was Oswald was actually Crafard. In fact, let’s consider the following which casts doubt on the notion that the man Garner thought was Oswald was in fact Crafard.

Garner told Mark Lane that he knew “Oswald” before “Oswald” went to Germany. This therefore suggests that Garner couldn’t have confused Crafard for Oswald. Although Crafard could have been impersonating Oswald prior to April, 1959, we should consider the possibility that Garner knew both Oswald and Crafard, and that in this particular instance, he was confusing the two. Although the reader may also believe that Garner’s claim that Ruby and Shaw knew each other was a lie, we should keep in mind that Cuban exile Emilio Santana; and the reverend Clyde Johnson, both claimed that Ruby and Shaw were acquainted (DiEugenio, Destiny Betrayed, 2nd edition, page 217). Furthermore, Thomas Edward Beckham; who allegedly worked for the CIA and was acquainted with David Ferrie, also claimed that Shaw and Ruby knew each other (Baylor University, John Armstrong research collection, tab entitled Thomas Edward Beckham).

In assessing Garner’s credibility as a witness, it is also worth keeping in mind that author Joan Mellen writes in her book on former New Orleans district attorney, Jim Garrison, that Darrell Wayne Garner claimed Emilio Santana “…was with Jack Ruby a lot,” and also claimed that Santana was undoubtedly the man who shot Tippit murder witness Warren Reynolds (Mellen, A Farewell to Justice, page 260). Mellen also writes in her book that Richard and June Rolfe, public relations people who had worked for Cuban exile Sergio Arcacha Smith and who were witnesses for Jim Garrison, testified to Garner’s credibility (ibid, page 261). According to Mellen, Rolfe observed Ruby put his arm around Garner, and that Rolfe thought Garner was a “totally honest person” (ibid). Returning now to Donald Norton, the CIA denied that Norton worked for them, and according to a dispatch from the chief of the Western Hemisphere division of the CIA “Norton has a record of psychiatric problems and received a medical discharge from the Armed services for these reasons” (see here).

Given the fact that Norton claimed that the man he thought was Oswald was acquainted with Clay Shaw (whom, we should keep in mind, worked for the CIA), this is precisely the sort of things we would expect the CIA to state with regards to Norton. This writer should also point out that there is also a good chance that the man Norton thought was Oswald was in fact Oswald. According to the information posted by researcher William Kelly, Norton noted that “Harvey Lee” refused to look him in the eye; which is a characteristic of people with Asperger’s Syndrome. As researcher Greg Parker has pointed out, Oswald could not make eye contact with Ruanne Kloepfer; a friend of Ruth Paine who visited Oswald in September, 1963 (see the thread entitled “Why Oswald was More Likely to Have Suffered Asperger’s Than Dyslexia“ on Parker’s research forum).

Although this writer is not aware if Crafard was in the habit of not looking at people in their eyes whilst speaking to them, when we take into account the likelihood that Crafard was the man who was introduced to Mrs. James Willie Walker as “Oswald Lee,” and that it was Crafard who was living at the rooming house at 1026 North Beckley Avenue as “O.H. Lee,” it is also more than likely that Crafard was the man who was known to Donald Norton as “Harvey Lee” and not Oswald. Let’s now consider the following evidence that Crafard was impersonating Oswald. On April 18, 1975, Allen L. Capwell; the Sheriff of Wyoming county, New York, related the following information to the FBI which he had received from a man named Richard Monroe Margeson/Magison on April 14, 1975. According to Capwell, Margeson/Magison; whom he had known for the past five years and considered to be “stable,” told him that he met a man named “Tex” who arrived from New Orleans in either late 1962 or early 1963, and who he (Margeson/Magison) described as a “hit man” in his late 20’s, 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 9 inches tall, with a slender build, and weighing 135 pounds (Baylor University, John Armstrong research collection, tab entitled Lawrence Howard). The reader should keep in mind that Darrell Wayne Garner told Mark Lane that “Oswald” had been inside Wanda’s bar; a homosexual hang out in New Orleans.

Margeson/Magison also told Capwell that “Tex” was a man with a “rotten disposition” and former military service, and that he (“Tex”) furnished his name as “Lee Harvey” (ibid). During his interview with Peter Whitmey in December, 2001, Crafard confessed to Whitmey that he had been a hit man in San Francisco in the early 1960’s before he went to Dallas. According to Whitmey, Crafard’s older brother, Edward Crafard, “appeared to confirm” to him (Whitmey) during a telephone interview that Crafard had been a hit man. Whilst some might believe that Crafard would not have confessed to being a hit man if he was the man who shot Tippit, we should bear in mind that if Crafard was insane enough to shoot a policeman in broad daylight in a suburban street, then it stands to reason that he was also insane enough to confess to a researcher that he had been a hit man. Furthermore, it is perhaps worth keeping in mind that Crafard’s cousin, Gale, told the FBI that Crafard was conceited and frequently bragged about his muscular strength and physique (WCD 1079, page 4). Thus, this might also explain why he confessed to being a hit man.

As this writer has pointed out previously, Crafard served in the U.S. Army. As this writer has also pointed out previously, his cousin Gale described Crafard as a pervert during her interview with the FBI, and that Pauline Hall told the FBI that Crafard was “creepy,” and that in effect he “looked like a bum.” Therefore, if Crafard was the man whom Margeson/Magison knew as “Tex/Lee Harvey,” then this could explain why he (Margeson/Magison) claimed that “Tex/Lee Harvey” had a “rotten disposition.” Significantly, Margeson/Magison claimed that one of the people through whom he met “Tex/Lee Harvey” was Lawrence Howard. As many researchers have pointed out, Howard was a Mexican American who was involved in activities against Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro. As author Joan Mellen writes in her book, Darrell Wayne Garner had engaged in a “skirmish” with Howard at the Carousel Club (Mellen, A Farewell to Justice, page 261). Therefore, Howard and Crafard could very well have been acquainted.

In assessing the likelihood that Howard and Crafard were acquainted, we should also take into account the following. According to Richard G. Lubic, a man named Stephen Jaffe related to him that Lawrence Howard was a member of a group given $10 million to locate “…appropriate individuals to carry out the assassination of John F. Kennedy” (Baylor University, John Armstrong research collection, tab entitled Lawrence Howard). Betsy Palmer of the HSCA noted that this was a similar story to the one which they received from a person named Lila Hurtado (ibid). In a memorandum to Robert Tanenbaum; the former deputy chief counsel of the HSCA, Counsel Kenneth D. Klein wrote that Margeson/Magison remarked that after the end of the CIA’s operation Mongoose, Howard claimed that “…they were going to do ‘something very bad that will make the U.S. invade Cuba’” (ibid). As many researchers have argued, Oswald was being set-up as a Castro sympathizer. Thus, by blaming the assassination on Oswald, the conspirators may have hoped that this would have forced the U.S. to invade Cuba. 

It is also noteworthy that Margeson/Magison claimed that in 1959/1960, Howard bought a light blue or green Nash Rambler. As many researchers are aware, Dallas deputy Sheriff Roger Craig claimed that he observed an Oswald lookalike enter a Nash Rambler station driven by a man whom Craig described in his report to Sheriff Decker as a “dark complected White male” (see here). During his testimony before the Warren Commission, Craig remarked that the driver of the Rambler was “very dark complected” with “real dark short hair”; and in and his own manuscript When They Kill a President, Craig claimed that the driver was a “husky looking Latin, with dark wavy hair” (WC Volume VI, page 266), (click here to read Craig’s manuscript). When the FBI interviewed Lawrence Howard on September 20, 1964, he described himself to the FBI as 29 years old, 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighing 222 pounds (200 pounds in September, 1963), with black wavy hair, and a medium olive complexion (Baylor University, John Armstrong research collection, tab entitled William Seymour).

On a final note, Thomas Edward Beckham told L.J. Delsa and Jonathan Blackmer from the HSCA that about two weeks prior to the assassination, at the behest of David Ferrie, he delivered a package containing photographs of buildings and maps of streets to Lawrence Howard at the Executive Inn Motel in Dallas (Baylor University, John Armstrong research collection, tab entitled Thomas Edward Beckham). If Beckham’s claim is true, one has to wonder what Howard would need the photographs and maps for. We should also keep in mind that in the aforementioned memorandum from Kenneth D. Klein to Robert Tanenbaum, Klein wrote that it had been revealed that “Tex” was in fact William Seymour; a friend of Howard’s who was also involved in activities against Fidel Castro. However, it is not stated in the memorandum how this was allegedly revealed.

According to the memorandum, Margeson/Magison claimed that “Tex” told him that he worked for the CIA, and showed him a piece of paper with the name “E.H. Hunt” and a phone number on it. If Margeson/Magison is to be believed, “E.H. Hunt” was by all likelihood E. Howard Hunt; the CIA officer who is not only suspected by many researchers of being involved in the assassination, but who actually confessed to being involved in the assassination (click here to view Hunt’s confession). However, this writer has doubts about the legitimacy of Hunt’s so-called confession. In this writer’s opinion, Klein (and his fellow investigators) may have only claimed that it had been revealed that Seymour was “Tex” to cover up the fact that Larry Crafard and Lawrence Howard were acquainted. We should also take note of the fact that Klein wrote in his aforementioned memorandum that “Magison, it should be noted, is very well versed in this case” and that “It appears that [Magison] has read most of the prominent literature about the assassination. For this reason, it is difficult to tell how much of his story is true and how much is speculation based on his readings.”

In conclusion, Klein wrote that “It also should be noted that Magison wants to work for this committee as an investigator.” Suffice it to say though, based on everything discussed above, there is good reason to believe that “Tex/Lee Harvey” was Larry Crafard; and that not only was he acquainted with Lawrence Howard, but that both he and Howard were involved in the assassination; and by implication, Tippit’s murder. Before concluding the discussion of the likelihood that Crafard was impersonating Oswald and living at the rooming house at 1026 North Beckley Avenue, this writer would like to discuss the following. On December 2, 1963, Edward A. Brand; who owned the Tower Insurance Agency at 1045 North Zangs Blvd., telephonically informed the FBI that about two weeks before the assassination, a man who identified himself as “O.H. Lee” entered his office enquiring about automobile liability insurance (WCD 6, page 195).

According to Brand, “O.H. Lee” told him (Brand) that he lived directly across the Street in a rooming house owned by “A.C. Johnson” (ibid). He also told him that he had just moved from San Antonio, Texas, to Dallas and that he didn’t own a car but that he “intended to buy one in the near future” (ibid). The FBI noted that Brand was of the opinion that the only identification of “O.H. Lee’s” which he had seen was a Texas driver’s license, and that he believed the surname on the license was “Lee” (ibid). The FBI further noted that Brand “…concluded by saying he did not immediately recognize Lee Harvey Oswald’s photograph in the Dallas newspapers, or on television, until after reading Oswald had in the past used the name Lee, at which time he did recognize Oswald’s photograph as being the individual who contacted him regarding insurance under the name of O.H. Lee” (ibid). This writer should point out that one of the tenants at the rooming house was named Herbert Leon Lee. However, the reader should keep in mind that Lee told the FBI that he moved out of the rooming house on November 1, 1963 (WCD 206, page 140). As far as this writer is concerned, there is no evidence that Herbert Lee had recently been in San Antonio, Texas.

On the day following the assassination, DPD detective Paul Bentley claimed during a filmed interview with WFAA-TV that he removed what he thought was a driver’s license from Oswald’s wallet following his arrest at the Texas Theater (click here to view the footage). However, there is no evidence that a driver’s license was found amongst Oswald’s belongings; let alone a license with the surname “Lee” on it. Let’s now consider the following evidence that Crafard was the man who visited Brand’s office. When Crafard testified before the Warren Commission, he was asked if he ever drove Jack Ruby’s car. Crafard remarked “No. At the time I was working for Ruby all I had, the only license I had, was a restricted motorcycle operator’s license” (WC Volume XIII, page 500). Although this writer cannot offer a definitive opinion as to why Crafard would intend to buy a car in the near future if he was going to kill Tippit as part of the frame-up against Oswald (though he may not have known at the time he visited Brand’s office that he would be killing Tippit), the reader should take into account the following evidence that Crafard had been in San Antonio, Texas.

On December 2, 1963, Stanley Moczygemba; a resident of San Antonio, Texas, informed the FBI that on or about October 5, 1963, he picked-up a hitchhiker whom he thought may have been Oswald in the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas, as he was leaving San Antonio en route to a farm he owned in Leming, Texas (WCD 71, page 22). Moczygemba claimed that the hitchhiker said very little, and indicated that he had come to San Antonio from Laredo, Texas, and that he was returning to Leming, Texas (ibid). Moczygemba described the man as being about the same age as Oswald (24), about 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 150 pounds, with dark hair, and wearing a hat and a heavy coat (ibid). Moczygemba claimed that he didn’t take a good look at the hitchhiker’s face, but by looking at a profile view of Oswald, he thought that Oswald was the hitchhiker (ibid).

As far as this writer is aware, Crafard never claimed that he had been in Leming, San Antonio, or Laredo. However, by his own admission, Crafard was a hitchhiker; and Moczygemba’s description of the hitchhiker is similar to the FBI’s description of Crafard (WCE 2250). It is also interesting to note that the time period in which Moczygemba claims that he picked-up the hitchhiker corresponds to the time period in which Oswald was allegedly returning from his so-called trip to Mexico City. As the reader may be aware, on September 27, 1963, Oswald allegedly registered at the Hotel Del Comercio in Mexico City under the name “Lee, Harvey Oswald” (Warren Report, Appendix XIII, page 733). In others words, Oswald allegedly registered as “Harvey Oswald Lee” or “H.O. Lee,” which, as the reader can see, is similar to the name “O.H. Lee.” Upon his alleged departure from Mexico City on October 2, 1963, Oswald allegedly boarded the Transportes del Norte bus No. 332 from Mexico City to Laredo, Texas, under the name “H.O. Lee” (ibid, page 736). He then allegedly travelled to San Antonio, Texas, on greyhound bus No. 1265 (ibid), (WCE 2129).

Given all of the above, it is entirely possible that it was Crafard who registered at the Hotel Del Comercio, and who travelled by bus from Mexico City to Laredo, Texas and then to San Antonio, Texas. Although the man impersonating Oswald at the Cuban embassy in Mexico City was described as having blond hair by the secretary, Sylvia Duran, and the consul, Eusebio Azcue Lopez, it is possible that Crafard dyed his hair blond and then changed it back to brown (DiEugenio, Destiny Betrayed, 2nd edition, page 349). In conclusion, there is no solid evidence that Crafard was living at the rooming house at 1026 North Beckley Avenue under the name O.H. Lee. When Amy Gladys Johnson testified before the Warren Commission, she was asked about the rooming house register on which Oswald, according to Johnson, wrote the name O.H. Lee (WC Volume X, 294). If Oswald wasn’t living at the rooming house, the name O.H. Lee may have been forged onto the so-called register in Oswald’s handwriting (click here to view the register).

Whilst there is no proof that Crafard was Tippit’s killer, based on everything this writer has discussed above, it is nevertheless this writer’s belief that Crafard likely was the killer. It is perhaps worth keeping in mind that, as Joan Mellen writes in her book, Jim Garrison suspected Crafard of being a professional killer (Mellen, A Farewell to Justice, page 260). As Mellen also writes in her book, Crafard’s older brother Edward claimed that Crafard was “heavily involved in the assassination,” that Crafard knew Ruby and Oswald were acquainted before the assassination, and that Crafard didn’t leave Dallas until after Ruby shot Oswald (ibid). But as Peter Whitmey writes in his aforementioned essay, during a telephone interview with Edward, Edward was “…quite vague about his brother’s activities in Dallas, but suggested he was merely an observer and not a participant.” Whitmey also writes that Edward “…also seemed indifferent to Prof. Mellen’s comments.” If Crafard was Tippit’s killer (and the man who shot the President from the sixth floor of the TSBD) it seems unlikely to this writer that he would wait until November 24, 1963 to leave Dallas. In fact, it would make more sense if he left Dallas on the day of the assassination; and this is precisely what Whitmey claims Crafard and Crafard’s second wife (Shirley) told him. On a final note, Whitmey writes that Jim Garrison “wondered if Craford had shot Tippit, whom (he) now admits to knowing.” If this claim is accurate, and if Crafard was Tippit’s killer, he may have made this admission so that people wouldn’t suspect him of being the killer.

The Larger Conspiracy

But what about Crafard’s so-called knowledge that Ruby and Oswald were acquainted with each other? Crafard told the Warren Commission that he thought that before he left Dallas, Andrew Armstrong had made the statement that Oswald had been in the Carousel Club (WC Volume XIV, page 45). However, Armstrong denied telling Crafard (and anyone else for that matter) that he had seen Oswald in the Club (WC Volume XIII, page 343). In this writer’s opinion, Crafard probably claimed that Armstrong made the statement that Oswald was in the Club to make it look like Oswald and Ruby knew each other; and that they could have been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate the President. Let’s also consider the following. On August 21, 1964, the FBI showed Crafard photographs of Bernard Weissman; the Jewish right wing activist whose name was on the infamous black boarder advertisement (WCE 1031) in the Dallas Morning News newspaper on the day of the assassination denouncing President Kennedy. The FBI noted that Crafard “…recalled the photographs as being of a man he recognizes as having been at the Carousel Club… on a number of occasions” (WCE 2430).

The FBI also noted that Crafard “…has heard Ruby refer to Weissman by the name of ‘Weissman,’ and on several occasions has served Weissman drinks at the Carousel Club” (ibid). In a subsequent interview with the FBI on August 27, 1964, Crafard claimed that he “…has a very vague recollection of having heard either Ruby or the man in charge of the Carousel Club in Ruby’s absence, whose name is either Andy Alexander or Andy Armstrong, mention the name Weissman” and that Crafard “…does not remember in what connection [Weissman’s] name was mentioned, unless possibly it was simply an order to serve Mr. Weissman. Crafard believes he served such a ‘fellow’ two or three times at the bar at the Carousel Club in the late evening and that he was a detective from the Dallas, Texas, Police Department” (ibid). According to the FBI, Crafard was “inclined” to think that Weissman’s first name might have been “Johnny” (ibid). This writer should point out that according to the DPD personnel assignments booklet for November, 1963, there was no officer with the surname Weissman (WC Volume XIX, Batchelor Exhibit No. 5002).

As far as this writer is aware, no other employee of the Carousel Club has ever claimed that Ruby and Weissman were acquainted; or that Weissman had been in the Club. As a matter of fact, Andrew Armstrong, and Nancy Powell and Karen Bennett Carlin, both of whom worked at the Club as strippers, all told the FBI that they never saw Weissman at the Club or with Ruby prior to the assassination (WCE 2984). Weissman himself denied having known Ruby or ever being at the Carousel Club when he testified before the Warren Commission (WC Volume V, page 514). Ruby also denied knowing Weissman when he testified before the Warren Commission (ibid, page 203). In this writer’s opinion, the significance of Crafard’s claim that Weissman knew Ruby (a fellow Jew) and was in the Carousel Club is that those responsible for President Kennedy’s assassination wanted to implicate the Jews as being involved in the assassination. This writer should note that when Crafard was asked during his testimony before the Warren Commission if Weissman had been in the Carousel Club, he remarked “I don’t remember any indication of that, either” (WC Volume XIV, page 69).

But before discussing the possibility that the conspirators wanted to implicate the Jews as being involved in the assassination, this writer would like to point out that when attorney Mark Lane testified before the Warren Commission, he claimed that he had information from a confidential informant that Weissman had a meeting with Ruby and J.D. Tippit at the Carousel Club, on the evening of November 14, 1963 (WC Volume II, pages 57 and 58). As researcher Robert Howard explains, the FBI had information that Lane’s informant was a man named Paul Bridewell a.k.a. Phil Burns (see the thread entitled “Ruby, Tippit and Weissman at the Carousel Club” at the Education Forum). During his aforementioned interview with the FBI on August 21, 1964, Crafard claimed that he was “quite certain” that he was at the Vegas Club on the night of November 14, 1963. Furthermore, Crafard denied that he had any information about a meeting between Ruby, Weissman, and Tippit.

When Weissman was interviewed by the FBI on December 5, 1963, he informed them that the decision to use his (Weissman’s) name on the black border ad was made by him and Larrie Schmidt.   The latter was the leader of the ultra-conservative/right wing organisation known as Conservatism USA (CUSA) which Weissman was a member of, in order to “offset” anti-Semitic charges made against the “conservative movement” in Dallas (WCE 1052). Schmidt also made this claim during his own interview with the FBI on December 3, 1963 (WCE 1815). One of the most interesting members of CUSA was a man named Larry Jones. As researcher Greg Parker explains, there is good reason to believe that Jones may have been involved in the assassination (see here). The reader is also encouraged to read page 691 of WCD 7 in addition to the information discussed by Parker. During his testimony before the Warren Commission, Weissman was asked the following question by Senator John Sherman Cooper; “Would you state now to this Commission the idea of printing this [black border] ad was conceived by you and Larry Jones – what is the others name?" Weissman remarked that it was Larrie Schmidt (WC Volume V, page 510).

The significance of Weissman’s response is that despite the fact he claimed that Jones had left Dallas before he (Weissman) arrived in early November, he failed to contradict Cooper, thus indicating that Jones was involved in placing the black border ad into the Dallas Morning News newspaper (ibid, page 498). As this writer explains at Greg Parker’s research forum, Jones (according to Larrie Schmidt) was closely associated with a man named Warren Hasty Carroll (see the thread entitled “Warren Hasty Carroll” at Parker’s research forum). As the reader can see by reading that thread, Carroll was not only once employed by the CIA’s anti-communism division as a Communist propaganda analyst, but was also employed by H.L. Hunt’s ultra-right wing radio show, Life-Line, as a script writer. As several researchers have pointed out, Hunt had anti-Semitic beliefs. In fact, in an article for the Washington Post entitled “H.L. Hunt Accused by Ex-Aides”, Jack Anderson and Les Whitten write that Hunt’s former personal assistant John Curington, and Hunt’s trusted corporate aide John Brown, accused Hunt of furnishing money to “a leading anti-Semitic propagandist…with instructions for the funds to be used to create an unfavorable image for Jews” and that Hunt “‘spent huge sums of cash’ to mail out ‘an attack on John F. Kennedy and the Roman Catholic Church’” (click here to read the article).

Curington has also claimed that the day before Ruby shot Oswald, Hunt ordered him (Curington) to “spy on Police security surrounding Oswald” and that Hunt was “elated” to learn that it was lax (see here). Whilst this writer does not advocate that the allegations by Curington and Brown are necessarily true, it is nevertheless significant to this writer that one of the financial contributors to the black border ad was Hunt’s ultra-right-wing/conservative son, Nelson Bunker Hunt; who was affiliated with the right-wing intelligence network known as ”The International Committee for the Defence of Christian Culture”, founded by an ex-Nazi (WCE 1885). Bunker Hunt told the FBI that the advertisement “…was a criticism of President Kennedy in a dignified way” (ibid). This writer should point out that another person who was responsible for the placement of the black border advertisement into the Dallas Morning News newspaper was Joseph P. Grinnan; an independent oil operator whom Weissman described as “the volunteer coordinator for the John Birch Society” when he testified before the Warren Commission (WC Volume V, page 504). The reader should bear in mind that as several researchers have noted, H.L. Hunt was also a member of the John Birch Society.

When Grinnan was interviewed by the FBI on April 24, 1963, he informed them that the reason the ad was placed into the newspaper was because “…he and the other individuals responsible for this advertisement considered it a dignified way of protesting the policies of [the] President… with due respect to the office of the President” (WCE 1882). We should bear in mind that during his testimony before the Warren Commission, Weissman claimed that “too many” members of the John Birch Society were “anti-Jewish” (WC Volume V, page 500). We should also bear in mind that both Weissman and Larrie Schmidt told the FBI that it was Schmidt’s idea to place the advertisement into the newspaper (WCE 1052, 1815). However, they may have only made this claim after being coerced by the FBI to do so, in order to cover-up the possibility that there was a conspiracy to assassinate the President; and to lay the blame on the Jews by placing Weissman’s name onto the advertisement.

Returning now to Bunker Hunt, whilst some might argue that it is ridiculous to believe that he (Bunker Hunt) would have admitted to the FBI that he contributed funds for the purpose of placing the advertisement into the newspaper if he was involved in trying to implicate the Jews as being involved in the assassination, we should consider the possibility that Hunt may have believed that if he lied to the FBI by telling them that he didn’t contribute any money, he would come under suspicion of trying to pin the blame for the assassination on the Jews. As for Crafard, there is no way of knowing for sure whether he was involved in trying to pin the blame for the assassination on the Jews. It is also curious that Andrew Armstrong, whom, we should bear in mind, was the man who provided Crafard with an alibi for the time of the assassination, told the Warren Commission that he once worked at the Holiday Hills Apartments in Dallas which was owned by the Hunt Oil Company (WC Volume XIII, page 304).

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank researchers Greg Parker, Mark Groubert, Jim DiEugenio, and Lee Farley for all the help they have provided me. I would also like to thank the fantastic team of researchers at the Reopen Kennedy Case forum for all the support and encouragement they have given me to complete this essay. On a final note, I would like to thank Jim DiEugenio for taking the time to proofread this essay prior to it being published on my blog.

The reader may also be interested in reading through the discussion of the essay (here) at Greg Parker's research forum.