TESTIMONY OF CURTIS LaVERNE CRAFARD--
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/crafard.htmWas it just filler for the voluminous Warren Report or was there any reason why the Commission would be interested in his childhood history?....his parents history?...his brother and his wife's history?...his sister's family's history?...his wife's family history?..his military history might have been pertinent but it wasn't explored exactly what he did in the Army. He just said 'anti-aircraft' and that was it. Crafard received what used to be called a blue discharge [he only served 13 months]
It seems as one might see it, you could look in the dictionary for the definition of 'drifter' and you would see his picture. [I know..he looks vaguely like Lee Harvey Oswald] He had jobs and wandered around places he had forgotten about. It is not remarkable then that he was married but his wife left him after 6 months----
Mr. HUBERT. What was the cause of your breakup?
Mr. CRAFARD. That, I do not know.
Maybe she no longer wanted to live in his parents basement
But not leaving before she was expecting their child. They tried to reconcile when in Dallas he testified...but by around August of 1963 it was pretty much over.
He ultimately wound up in with a job at the State Fair of Texas which runs for the first three weeks in October...1963. It was then [third day of the fair] that he met Jack Ruby. Mr Ruby had a vision of promoting an idea which ultimately was patented elsewhere called the Twister. Crafard's fair employers went broke even before the fair ended. He was living in a tent on the fair grounds...paid with food, cigarettes, and $5 a day. After staying with some band members, the fair closed and Crafard was broke...he was offered a job working for Jack Ruby. He would do handy man stuff, operate stage lights, set up props, feed the dogs, and kept the Carousel Club clean and tidy. Larry Crafard had a room set up at the club. There he stayed for just a couple of weeks until the day after the assassination...then he skipped town.
Commission Counsel Hubert asked about Ruby associates ...did he ever overhear conversations...was there any relationships with the show girls at the club...about Mr Ruby's sister Eva who managed the nearby Vegas club. It almost seemed like there was a miniature career for Crafard as an employee of Jack Ruby. He had met so many people in only little over a month.
On Nov 23 Larry Crafard walked to the highway stuck out his thumb and hitch-hiked back to Michigan.
He testified that he had been in Chicago on his way to Michigan when he heard that Jack Ruby had shot Oswald to death.
