27-09-2021, 07:16 PM
Larry Crafard part 1
Few assassination characters have engendered more speculation with less foundation than Larry Crafard, Ruby associate/employee during a critical period & purported LHO lookalike. The hypothetical facial resemblance and similar age & size positioned him to readily serve as a plug-in replacement whenever needed to dispose of an LHO sighting, even dislodging LHO from places of habitation, taking up his residence therein.
It started on 11/26/63 when naval gay-informant, Robert Kermit Patterson, escorted by his ONI handler, Special Agent J. M. Lankford, appeared at the FBI's Dallas Field Office to report a sighting of LHO in the company of Ruby at Patterson's electronics business.
This seemingly dovetailed with two small notebooks (more like memo pads) supplied to the FBI by Andy Armstrong, who associated daily with both Ruby & Crafard at the Carousel. With Ruby in jail and Crafard on the lam Armstrong had the run of the club. The name "Bobby Patterson" appears in both notebooks in rough writing.
Sensing a misidentification of Crafard as LHO, Dallas FBI immediately sent an urgent teletype to the Detroit office to track down Crafard from a lead as to his location also supplied by Armstrong:
WHEN CRAFARD IS LOCATED, SEVERAL GOOD COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS, BOTH CLOSEUP AND FULLLENGTH, SHOULD BE SECURED AND FORWARDED THE DALLAS DIVISION TO SHOW TO THE PARTNERS AND EMPLOYEES OF THE CONTRACTS [sic] ELECTRONICS COMPANY TO ASCERTAIN IF CRAFARD WAS, IN FACT, WITH JACK RUBY APPROXIMATELY THREE WEEKS AGO.
FBI DL 44-1639
Detroit got on the job right away but the impatient Dallas office did not wait for the photos of Crafard to arrive, instead presented photos of LHO & five non-entities to Patterson and an LHO photo to his associates at Contract Electronics, Stuart & Arndt. Patterson fingered Oswald but both Stuart & Arndt declined to do so, the resemblance to the person who accompanied RUBY being insufficient to declare an identification.
Despite being outvoted 2-1 the legend of Larry the LHO functional near-twin was born with no implied limit as to the degree of possible impersonation. He was even spotted in this role by Roger Craig running to the Rambler in front of TSBD!
BTW the "Bobby Patterson" scribbled in the notebooks referred to a musician, Robert Carl Patterson, who performed at the Vegas Club run by Ruby's sister.
Few assassination characters have engendered more speculation with less foundation than Larry Crafard, Ruby associate/employee during a critical period & purported LHO lookalike. The hypothetical facial resemblance and similar age & size positioned him to readily serve as a plug-in replacement whenever needed to dispose of an LHO sighting, even dislodging LHO from places of habitation, taking up his residence therein.
It started on 11/26/63 when naval gay-informant, Robert Kermit Patterson, escorted by his ONI handler, Special Agent J. M. Lankford, appeared at the FBI's Dallas Field Office to report a sighting of LHO in the company of Ruby at Patterson's electronics business.
This seemingly dovetailed with two small notebooks (more like memo pads) supplied to the FBI by Andy Armstrong, who associated daily with both Ruby & Crafard at the Carousel. With Ruby in jail and Crafard on the lam Armstrong had the run of the club. The name "Bobby Patterson" appears in both notebooks in rough writing.
Sensing a misidentification of Crafard as LHO, Dallas FBI immediately sent an urgent teletype to the Detroit office to track down Crafard from a lead as to his location also supplied by Armstrong:
WHEN CRAFARD IS LOCATED, SEVERAL GOOD COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS, BOTH CLOSEUP AND FULLLENGTH, SHOULD BE SECURED AND FORWARDED THE DALLAS DIVISION TO SHOW TO THE PARTNERS AND EMPLOYEES OF THE CONTRACTS [sic] ELECTRONICS COMPANY TO ASCERTAIN IF CRAFARD WAS, IN FACT, WITH JACK RUBY APPROXIMATELY THREE WEEKS AGO.
FBI DL 44-1639
Detroit got on the job right away but the impatient Dallas office did not wait for the photos of Crafard to arrive, instead presented photos of LHO & five non-entities to Patterson and an LHO photo to his associates at Contract Electronics, Stuart & Arndt. Patterson fingered Oswald but both Stuart & Arndt declined to do so, the resemblance to the person who accompanied RUBY being insufficient to declare an identification.
Despite being outvoted 2-1 the legend of Larry the LHO functional near-twin was born with no implied limit as to the degree of possible impersonation. He was even spotted in this role by Roger Craig running to the Rambler in front of TSBD!
BTW the "Bobby Patterson" scribbled in the notebooks referred to a musician, Robert Carl Patterson, who performed at the Vegas Club run by Ruby's sister.