Pseudonym: Crafard, Curtis
FBI 44-24016 Ruby HQ File, Section 3
Carnival worker. Known as Curtis La Verne Craford aka Larry Curtis La Verne Craford. Birthdate 3/10/41. Received general discharge from US Army in 1959. Met Ruby at a state fair in October 1963. Hired as a handyman and bartender at the Carousel Club. Given room at the club and compensation was room, board, and spending money. Answered phone and kept lists of names of people who called. Would see Ruby each day during early afternoon and at closing time. "Claimed Ruby's closest acquaintances were Andy Armstrong, who handled club affairs, Billie Willis, drummer in band and a bartender. Mickey Ryan who works at a gun club...(after describing Ruby's movements on 11/22-23) at 12 noon (Craford) packed his bag and started hitchhiking north. Craford could give no reason for hasty departure..."
104-10300-10404: NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS
Joachim Joesten wrote that Craford was an excellent sniper (note: Gaeton Fonzi wrote that Craford described himself to him as a "master sniper" and a Marine), he owned a foreign rifle similar to Oswald's with a Japanese telescopic sight, he practiced shooting in two rifle ranges in Irving, where Oswald's wife lived, he resembled Oswald, he was the same age, and he vanished from Dallas the day after the assassination. Even though the Warren Commission eventually found him and obtained his testimony, they did not press him.
11/29/63 FBI interview with Crafard: "Crafard explained that his surname is Crafard rather than Craford as is the rest of his family, because when he entered the Army his name was misspelled Crafard and he has considered this his name ever since." Said "at no time did Ruby ever demonstrate any homosexual tendencies". Ruby "claimed to know the majority of men on the (police) force."
Warren Commission Hearings, Volume X Current Section: Malcolm Howard Price, Jr.
4/2/64: Malcolm Price said that the Crafard photo resembled the man that he saw at the Sports Drome rifle range.
Warren Commission Hearings, Volume XIII Current Section: Curtis LaVerne Crafard
4/8/64: Testified that his true name was Curtis LaVerne Crafard. The WC attorney referred to him as "Larry". He testified in multiple sessions. He was living at 1219 Birch Street, Dallas, Oregon, with other family members. Birthdate: March 10, 1941. He believed that both Ruby and his housemate George Senator were homosexual. He said goodbye to no one when he left Dallas on 11/23/63, just a message of goodbye to Jack when he left the key with "the boy in the parking lot". He said he heard from Andy Armstrong that Oswald had been seen in the club, but he denied that was a reason for his sudden departure. He admitted that he made no such statement to the FBI when he spoke to them on Thanksgiving shortly after 11/23, but didn't know why other than "I didn't remember it at the time". There was never any question or comment regarding his physical resemblance to Lee Harvey Oswald.
Commission Document 1079 - FBI Letterhead Memorandum of 08 Jun 1964 re: Gale Ann Cascaddan Interview
6/5/64: His cousin Gale Cascaddan said Crafard's family in Michigan did not know why he left Ruby on 11/23. Described him as indifferent to the assassination. "Oversexed", demonstrated sexual cruelty towards women, and a "religious fanatic". She felt he was below normal in intelligence. Cousin said that Crafard was "nuts" and "made her puke".
FBI 62-109060 JFK HQ File, Section 83
8/6/64 FBI memo - here, the Bureau agent describes Curtis Laverne Crafard as his real name and that his alias is Larry Craford. Described as "a drifter whose current whereabouts are unknown". Lists his parents and other members of his family and their addresses. The FBI is trying to find him at the request of the Warren Commission.
8/21/64 FBI memo: "(Crafard recalls that he was in the presence of Ruby at the time the news came over the air concerning the assassination of President Kennedy and the death of Officer Tippit, and at that time Crafard recalls Ruby referring to Tippit by name in a manner indicating to Crafard that Ruby knew Tippit..."
Penn Jones, Forgive My Grief, Volume IV, p. 63
"It is the opinion of this editor Larry Crafard was one of the two gunmen who shot Officer J. D. Tippit. Crafard fitted the description given by most of the wit- nesses. only two witnesses claimed the Tippit killer was Oswald. Crafard was missing for several hours that day. He was living at the Carousel Club, and left Dallas two days later, about the time Ruby was killing Oswald."
"Having now identified Crafard as an Oswald imposter, we should examine Crafard's background and what he was doing during the month of October 1963. Curtis LeVerne (Larry) Crafard was 22 years old at the time of the assassination. For the imposture to work, Crafard had to know who Kittrell was and what information Oswald had given her. Where could he have gotten this information? There were several eyewitnesses who made statements that Oswald was at the Carousel Club during the month of November when Crafard was also there. One of these witnesses was William Crowe, who had the stage name of Bill DeMar..."
FBI 105-82555 Oswald HQ File, Section 227
August 1965 FBI memo that is a lengthy rebuttal of the Kitrell claim that she saw two Oswalds in late 1963 visiting her at the Texas Employment Commission. One of them could have been Curtis Crafard. She said that she had written RFK in December 1963 and never received a reply. Also attached is a 12 page letter by Kittrell. Also see an April 1964 letter by US Attorney Barefoot Sanders describing briefly that he received a 20 page letter from Kittrell. Oswald, Lee H. - Pre-Russian Period - 7 - Psychiatric Examinations, p. 54 of 80. p. 197 mentions that Kittell's boss called the FBI on 11/23/63 and said that Kittrell had mentioned an 11/20/63 client meeting that might be relevant to the investigation involving Oswald. p. 200 mentions that Pauline Elrod, a claims investigator, sent Oswald to her. p. 201 "Miss Kittrell said she could not be certain the man was in fact Lee Harvey Oswald; she said her recolletion of the person is that he seemed to fit the description later published concerning the real Oswald..." p. 213 A Teamster man she met at a subsequent interview looked "very, very, much like, and yet not exactly like, the man I remember as Oswald...Incidentally, I am not as sure as it would seem...that this man was Oswald, in spite of what I have outlined, my memory remains of TWO men, one the one I remember as Oswald, and the other, the Teamster person, both men having recently worked in New Orleans. This seems pretty illogical, I know, and I told them so, in my letters, but that is the way I remembered things, and I can't help that. Working for the public, I am acutely aware of the prevalence of coincidence, and wary of it."
104-10061-10115: LIST OF NAMES RE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION INVESTIGATION.
1977-1978 list created by HSCA investigators: "a. Col. Sporl - b. F. Lee Chrisman - c. Laverne Crafard - d. Charles J. Stein - e. Lemar Wilson - f. Louis P. Davis - g. Charles Siragusa - h. James Earl Ray - i. Arthur Hanes." Note appears to be a question: "Were above employees agents or informants".