Roger Craig and the Deputy Interviews

[Tom Gram]

1 hour ago, Jonathan Cohen said:

Tom, I have a hard time taking Marion Meharg's deposition seriously on this matter ... do you believe him, given all the circumstances?

I think with all the corroborative witnesses, Meharg’s core statement of seeing someone run and jump in a station wagon after the assassination is likely credible. However, as far as I know, he didn’t talk to the FBI until a week after the assassination. It’s possible he pulled the story from available press reports, but I’m not sure what press reports were available on the Rambler incident by Dec. 2nd. 

[Joe Bauer]

5 hours ago, Allen Lowe said:

People have said Craig went a little crazy, and cite this as a way of discrediting him - but if you read his book, he was fired from one job after another, likely for his outspokenness on the assassination - and as a result he lost his home, his family - something that would push the most stable person over the line. Also, just to get a sense of his Craig's credibility about harassment, in Barry Earnest's book he tells of sitting in a car with Craig when two cops come over and start to give them a hard time, clearly because  of Craig's presence. So to me he has plenty of justification for losing it. I have had a mild version of this kind of personal harassment, and it makes you paranoid and hostile.

Agree.

[Joe Bauer]

Has anyone ever heard or read anything about Craig's early childhood, anything about why he left home and hit the road at 12 years old?

And how he survived doing that and throughout the next 5 years?

Wonder what his daughter knows about it all?

Edited July 22, 2023 by Joe Bauer

[Nick Bartetzko]

On 7/20/2023 at 11:59 PM, James DiEugenio said:

Thanks for that input from both of you.

As for the south knoll shot, Mantik and others think it happened.  And he will be speaking in Pittsburgh I think on this point.

I am not familiar with the ricochet off the fender.  In fact, you are the first one I have heard that from.

Jonathan, Cameron makes the argument that the witnesses about what Oswald officially did are questionable.

But I am sure you are aware of the double Oswald theory.  And Bernard Haire.

I did a quick search on the motorcycle fender strike allegation and came up empty. I read about it only once and the likely source would be either Walt Brown's journal or The Third/Fourth Decade publication from Jerry Rose many years ago. 

As to the location of the bullet strike near the limousine, the questioning of Virgie Rachley/Baker was very poor in trying to determine the exact area. Here is Royce Skelton's same day account. I wasn't aware he said 2 shots hit the street.

https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth339349/

[Greg Doudna]

On 7/21/2023 at 12:30 PM, Jonathan Cohen said:

Tom, I have a hard time taking Marion Meharg's deposition seriously on this matter ... do you believe him, given all the circumstances?

If I may interject here, there are two things that support Meharg's claim to have seen "the" station wagon that day that go beyond what Tom mentioned in his reply to you, and I am not sure you may be aware of.

Number one, notes from a same-day phone call from Meharg to the Dallas Police on Nov 22, claiming to have seen "the" station wagon. Alveeta Treon (of the John Hurt note story) was interviewed by Harold Rose of the HSCA in 1978 and told Rose the following:

“Alveeta Treon, who worked as a telephone operator at Dallas City Hall on Nov. 22, 1963, had told me [HSCA investigator Harold Rose] on a prior occasion that on the night of the assassination, a man called the Dallas Police Department several times and wanted to report that there was a second assassin but she said that the P.D. dismissed it as a prank call. Mrs. Treon told me that she copied the information down and would try to locate it and call me. On this date [5/15/78], she called and stated that the man that called never gave his name, but he gave the name of the man that he said was the second assassin. The man’s name was David Miller and that he fired the second shot. He carried the rifle with him when he exited out of the rear of the TSBD. David Miller then left in a car bearing Texas license plates T W 1784. This car was reportedly listed to David Miller’s wife Mildred. Mrs. Treon stated that the original notes she took are in her hand writing and we have them if we wanted.” 

And number two, "the" station wagon, which Roger Craig described variously as looking "white" (before later "green") and with a rack, "seems" to correspond to police radio tracking or taking interest in a suspicious white station wagon with a rack that was spotted in Oak Cliff seen with a rifle on the seat, Oak Cliff being the direction "the" station wagon of the TSBD front was last seen headed. Although that police interest in that station wagon went nowhere (no further information on it, and no evidence it was involved in anything wrong to begin with other than legitimate suspicion to run down), the detail of interest--not previously noted to my knowledge--is the correspondence of the license plate number to what Meharg claimed he saw:

"Meharg stated that he did furnish SA Ellington [in FBI interview of 12/2/63] this information and advised that he was worried about his two boys who are in the custody of his former wife, Mildred, and is afraid she might have gotten mixed up in this affair. He stated he is sure he observed a 1956 green and white Chevrolet station wagon on Houston Street with Texas license starting with PW or PB or PF or something, and was afraid it was hers." (FBI interview of Meharg, 12/13/63, https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10672#relPageId=57)

Compare that with these police radio dispatches. (Without looking up all the links, I am getting these from chapter 14 of Donald Thomas, Hear No Evil [2010]. Note the license plate first two initials.

Dallas Police radio dispatcher (information from a service station attendant):

"Said he pulled in there and bought some gas. Driving a white Pontiac, '61 or '62 station wagon with a prefix 'Pecos' 'Ellis' [PE]. He had a rifle laying in the seat".

Reply to DPD dispatcher from Nelson:

"A white station wagon believed to be PE-3435, unknown make and model, occupied by two white males, left this fellow's station going east on Davis and believed to have a shotgun or rifle laying in back seat."

A trace of the license number turned up the car of those plates was a Ford Falcon and not a station wagon (!). DPD dispatcher asks Nelson for clarification:

"was that a Pontiac or a Falcon?"

Nelson replies:

"He didn't say what kind of a car it would be. He said it was a white car with a luggage rack on top. He wasn't sure of the model, talked like it was a big car, though."

The Sheriff's office, listening in on police radio, issues its own radio dispatch (mixed in with Tippit killing information):

"...West Jefferson. White male, about 30, 5'8", black hair, white jacket and black trousers. Also be on lookout for 1961 white Pontiac station wagon, color white, license prefix PE."

1:31 pm, DPD dispatcher again after getting Nelson's report (associating now the station wagon with the Tippit killing):

"That was 501 E. 10th Street running west from that location. A white male, 30, 5'8", black hair, white jacket, black trousers, white shirt. Had either shotgun or rifle in back seat, license prefix PE -- no other information."

Officers in Oak Cliff already searching for a man on foot call in for clarification: was he on foot or in a station wagon? Dispatcher replies "on foot at the time" (i.e. suspected formerly in the station wagon, but now on foot). Dispatcher continues:

"Any units spotting a white Pontiac station wagon with license prefix PE, proceed with caution and advise. In area of West Jefferson."

Back to Meharg: Meharg's ex-wife's station wagon was a two-tone white over green 1956 Chevrolet station wagon, license plate PE 1784, which was not "the" station wagon of the TSBD or the Oak Cliff police dispatches (since Meharg's ex-wife's station wagon, as well as the wrongly maligned new husband of Meharg's ex-wife, both were in Atlanta, Georgia at the time).

But the issue is not whether Meharg correctly identified the station wagon or its passenger (Meharg did not), but whether he saw "the" station wagon that he said he saw in the first place, and these two twin points--the report that he phoned it in the same day to the Dallas Police; and the similarity of the two letter-prefix initials--weigh in favor that Meharg did see "the" station wagon, misinterpreted what he saw, but he did see it.

If Meharg was fabricating that, starting from the day of the assassination, how did he accidentally get the first prefix letter right of the license plate? It looks like it was that coincidence that caused Meharg to leap to the mistaken conclusions he did.

[James DiEugenio]

Thanks for that Nick. Man there are a lot of witnesses to shots hitting on Elm Street.  When, in fact, according to the WC, none should have.

Roger Craig had many employment problems after he was let got by the Decker.

It was just one after another job which he lost for one reason or another.

Garrison got him a really easy job in New Orleans, where he did almost nothing and got paid for it.  But he did not like that so he went back to Texas.

Which was probably a mistake.

His description of how Belin conducted his interview was interesting.

[Joe Bauer]

3 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Thanks for that Nick. Man there are a lot of witnesses to shots hitting on Elm Street.  When, in fact, according to the WC, none should have.

Roger Craig had many employment problems after he was let got by the Decker.

It was just one after another job which he lost for one reason or another.

Garrison got him a really easy job in New Orleans, where he did almost nothing and got paid for it.  But he did not like that so he went back to Texas.

Which was probably a mistake.

His description of how Belin conducted his interview was interesting.

What was the job in NO Garrison helped secure for Craig?

From everything I have learned about New Orleans in my life...it's really the dregs.

I have had friends and family who have visited there say they couldn't wait to get out of there. A generally dirty city. High crime. Depressing actually.

Couldn't compare to better cities in Texas.

Could be one of the reasons Craig didn't want to stay there no matter the job.

[Joe Bauer]

Based on no response to my earlier post asking if anyone here has ever read anything about Craig's early life as a child through his teen years, I assume Craig just never shared his story.

Yet, it always intrigues me when you hear of a 12 year old hitting the road on his or her own and how they survived doing so until they became young adults.

Things must have been rough enough for Craig to risk leaving on his own at 12 and never look back. Often when you hear such true-life stories these children flee because of extreme abuse and neglect. A desperate act for sure.

Heck, even Lee Oswald didn't hit the road by himself at that age.

And he had reason to.

Life with his monster mother sounded like a burden no one would want to bear.

I would have left home at 12 if the only parent I had was like her.

Part of my contemplations regards Craig lead to wondering about his emotional state before and after the JFKA.

And how this may or may not explain some of his motivation to become a Paladin justice fighter with great personal risk.

Wonder if Craig's daughter knew anything about her father's childhood and mind blowing road hitting at 12.