THE RAMBLER MAN


     One wouldn't consider it much of an obituary. A life reduced
to eleven paragraphs in The Dallas Morning News. The commentary is
not remarkable for a person of the prominence of ex-deputy sheriff
Roger Craig. Not for the employee the Dallas County sheriff's
office proclaimed "Man of the Year" in 1960. 

     Roger Craig's popularity grew among Kennedy assassination
investigators when he maintained he witnessed an event involving a
Nash Rambler station wagon in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. He
spoke freely about the incident, disputed details of the
assassination with superior officers, lost his job, aided in Jim
Garrison's probe of Clay Shaw, became the friend of several
researchers' and died by his own hand on May 15, 1975.
 
     Sadly, Craig's father discovered the body in a back bedroom of
the small house on Luna Road in Dallas, this a few minutes after
the old man had returned from mowing his lawn. There was a note.
The physical and mental anguish resulting from a car wreck in 1973
and a shotgun wound to the shoulder sustained in 1974 was too much.
Roger was sorry for what he had to do but he just "couldn't stand
the pain."

     In the quiet of the Dallas Public Library I reviewed the
eighteen year old obituary. I remembered the story of Craig's
sighting of the Nash Rambler station wagon in front of the Texas
School Book Depository on November 22nd. His account became
important when a claim arose that Marina Oswald's friend and
confidant, Ruth Paine, owned a similar vehicle.  

     Author and researcher Penn Jones Jr. briefly reviewed the
episode in his 1969 paperback Forgive My Grief III. On page twenty
nine, Jones asserted, "Craig insisted from the day of the
assassination that he saw Oswald race down the grassy area and get
into a station wagon like the one owned by Mrs. Ruth Paine of
Irving." Curiously this important allegation, that the Paine
vehicle might have been used in the assassination, lay dormant
until Jones published the story.

     Over the years, looking into what was written about Lee Bowers
Jr., Roscoe White, Beverly Oliver, John Crawford and Dr. Charles
Crenshaw, I discovered some researcher's accounts contained
historical inaccuracies, embellishments and occasionally outright
deception. I wondered if Craig's story had received similar
treatment. 

       I concluded more information could be obtained from Craig's
unpublished 1971 autobiography, When They Kill a President. In that
work he described how his life was influenced by the assassination,
often in staccato paragraphs and frequently railing at the Warren
Commission for altering his testimony.

     Here is how he described the occurrence:

     "As I have earlier stated, the time was approximately 12:40
p.m. when I ran into [fellow Deputy Sheriff] Buddy Walthers.  The
traffic was very heavy as Patrolman Baker (assigned to Elm and
Houston Streets) had left his post, allowing the traffic to travel
west on Elm Street.  As we were scanning the curb I heard a shrill
whistle coming from the north side of Elm Street.  I turned and saw
a white male in his twenties running down the grassy knoll from the
direction of the Texas School Book Depository Building.  A light
green Rambler station wagon was coming slowly west on Elm Street.
The driver of the station wagon was a husky looking Latin, with
dark wavy hair, wearing a tan wind-breaker type jacket.  He was
looking up at the man running toward him.  He pulled over to the
north curb and picked up the man coming down the hill.  I tried to
cross Elm Street to stop them and find out who they were.  The
traffic was too heavy and I was unable to reach them.  They drove
away going west on Elm Street."
  
     "I ran to the front of the Texas School Book Depository where
I asked for anyone involved in the investigation. There was a man
standing on the steps of the Book Depository Building and he turned
to me and said, 'I'm with the Secret Service.'" ". . . He showed
little interest in the persons leaving. However, he seemed
extremely interested in the description of the Rambler. This was
the only part of my statement which he wrote down in his little pad
he was holding. Point: Mrs. Ruth Paine, the woman Marina Oswald
lived with in Irving, Texas, owned a Rambler station wagon, at that
time, of this same color."    


     The next paragraph, also from the autobiography, reveals the
relationship between Lee Harvey Oswald, Ruth Hyde Paine and the
light green Nash Rambler station wagon.

          "I had said that [Dallas Police Captain Will] Fritz
     had said to Oswald, 'This man saw you leave' (indicating
     me).  Oswald said, 'I told you people I did.'  Fritz then
     said, 'Now take it easy, son, we're just trying to find
     out what happened, ' and then (to Oswald), 'What about
     the car? ' to which Oswald replied, 'That station wagon
     belongs to Mrs. Paine.  Don't try to drag her into this.' 
     Fritz said car -- station wagon was not mentioned by
     anyone but Oswald." 

     Craig was reinforcing a point he made to the Warren Commission
in 1964. Warren Commission Counsel David Belin asked Roger if there
was anything of importance that had not been discussed. From Warren
Volume VI, page 271 [6H271]:

     Mr. Craig. "No; except-uh-except for the fact that it
     came out later that Mrs. Paine does own a station wagon
     and-uh-it has a luggage rack on top. And this came out of
     course, later after I got back to the office. I didn't
     know about this. Buddy Walthers brought it up. I believe
     they went by the house and the car was parked in the
     driveway."

     Clearly, Jones' article depended on Craig's confirmation to
support the Rambler story. However, where was Craig's proof that
Ruth Paine owned a Rambler station wagon let alone of the same
color. Granted, Craig was an ex-sheriff and likely had extensive
investigative skill, but I never heard claims he was a student of
the Kennedy assassination.
 
     Craig acknowledged he first saw his testimony in 1968 ". . .
when [he] looked at the twenty-six [Warren Commission] volumes that
belonged to Penn Jones." Jones charged in Forgive My Grief III that
"Craig's testimony was so devastating to the intentions of the
Warren Commission that Craig's statements had to be changed." 


     To verify Jones' allegations, I reviewed those parts of the
autobiography searching for areas where Craig indicated Warren
Commission staff made modifications. Was there proof the Warren
Commission had altered his Fritz/Oswald/Rambler statement? I found
no such inference.

     Craig testified in Dallas on April 1, 1964. The passage
dealing with Fritz's interrogation of Oswald can be found in Warren
Commission Volume VI, page 270, [6H270].
 
     Mr. Belin. All right. Then what did Captain Fritz say and
     what did you say and what did the suspect say?

     Mr. Craig. Captain Fritz then asked him about the-uh-he
     said, "What about this station wagon?"
     
     Wait a minute! Craig never charged the Warren Commission
altered this portion of his testimony. He also claimed Fritz never
mentioned the station wagon. The cracks in the "story" began to
appear.

     I soon found Fritz didn't even remember Roger Craig being in
on the Oswald interrogation! Warren Commission Counsel Joseph Ball
asked Fritz if he remembered Craig being in his office "in the
presence of Oswald." In Warren Volume IV, page 245, [4H245].

     Fritz. "No, sir; I am sure he did not, I believe that man
     did come to my office in that little hallway, you know
     outside my office, and I believe I stepped outside the
     door and talked to him for a minute and I let someone
     else take an affidavit from him." 

      I now had more questions than answers.

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


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

     I felt Fritz's recollection was best countered in J. Gary
Shaw's Cover-Up. That is until I looked into it. On page twenty
seven, Shaw suggests "Fritz complied [with the Warren Commission by
supplying perjured testimony] that Craig had not been in Fritz's
office and had not even seen Oswald. The Fritz lie, however, was
unintentionally exposed when Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry
published his personal JFK Assassination File. A photograph on page
72 of that book shows Craig standing in the background in Fritz's
office; the caption is: 'The Homicide Bureau Office under guard
while Oswald is being interrogated.'"

     Not so fast, "perjured testimony" and "lie" is a little
strong. The photograph Shaw claims is of Fritz's office during the
Oswald interrogation, is not. It is of the outer office of Room
317, the Homicide and Robbery Bureau. There are two other
photographs that by coincidence appear in Cover-Up on pages
twenty-seven and 101. They are of the same scene but shot from
different perspectives. Those photographs show at least five men,
one Dallas Police Officer Gerald Hill, and a secretary. Some
individuals might be conversing while drinking coffee or water. The
secretary looks like she is eating a sandwich. These are hardly
activities one would expect Fritz to condone while questioning the
prized suspect. Oswald is nowhere to be seen. While there is no
evidence that Craig wasn't in Fritz's office, Shaw's alleged
photographic confirmation is no proof at all. In fact it only shows
Craig was outside the office close to the spot Fritz claimed he
was.

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

     
     Curious, I went back to Craig's deposition of November 25,
1963. I concluded the Warren Commission could alter the testimony
but would have to go to extreme lengths to change a document
obtained three days after the assassination. FBI Special Agent
Benjamin O. Keutzer took Craig's statement. It appears in
Commission Exhibit No. 1993, [CE 1993].
     
     "He stated he also noticed an automobile traveling west
     on Elm, which he feels was a white Nash Rambler station
     wagon with a luggage rack on top."

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

     Mr. Jenner: "Describe your automobile, will you please?"

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

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

     The episode in Will Fritz's office, if it ever occurred, must
now be looked upon in a new light. One not as sinister as
originally believed, one that modifies the perception of the entire
Rambler scenario. Everything hinges on the simplification of
Fritz's question and Oswald's response not the enhancement of it.
Let's say Fritz did ask Oswald about the Nash Rambler station
wagon, Roger Craig observed. Perhaps when Oswald heard the words
station wagon, he immediately thought of Ruth Paine's Chevrolet
station wagon. His response to Fritz could then be predicated by
the fact Mrs. Paine had given him driving lessons in the Chevy a
few short weeks before. [See 2H502 to 2H517] Craig and Oswald would
then be referring to different station wagons!


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

     We are left with another story we thought had possibilities,
turned sour. At one point I thought there was independent
corroboration of Craig's Nash Rambler story in High Treason. The
Groden/Livingstone book describes the episode on pages 161 and 162.
Imagine my disappointment when I discovered the authors were merely
rehashing Penn Jones' "investigation." 

     And what of Penn Jones Jr.? Consider it was Jones who wrote in
The Importance of Roger Craig that "Craig insisted from the day of
the assassination that he saw Oswald race down the grassy area and
get into a station wagon like (emphasis mine) the one owned by Mrs.
Ruth Paine of Irving." 

     As J. Gary Shaw, protege of Penn Jones Jr. whose research
appears in the "Forgive My Grief" series, told Baltimore's "City
Paper" staff writer David Dudley, "We can correct our pasts even if
we find we have to knock down a few statues to do it." 

(C) Copyright 1993 David B. Perry 
	4601 Ainsworth Circle
	Grapevine, Texas 76051