On this date, December 9, 1989,
Officer James C. Boswell was shot dead. The Cop Killer, Craig Neil Ogan, Jr.
was executed by lethal injection in Texas on November 19, 2002. Let us hear
from the slain cop’s family.
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Officer James C.
Boswell
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Summary: Ogan worked as a DEA
informant in the Houston area. Despite explicit instructions to possess no
deadly weapons, Ogan stepped out of his motel after an argument over long
distance calls, armed himself, and walked across the street to a police car
that had pulled over a vehicle for a traffic stop. Ogan went to the side of the
police car and knocked on the window. Officer James C. Boswell rolled down his
window and asked what Ogan wanted. Ogan responded, "DEA dropped me off out
here, and I'm cold." Officer Boswell told Ogan to back away from the car
until the officers finished the traffic stop. When Ogan persisted, demanding
that Boswell give him immediate assistance, Officer Boswell took his gun from
the holster and, holding it behind his right leg, reached into the police car
to unlock the back door. Ogan then, without warning or provocation, shot
Officer Boswell in the head. After seeing his partner fall against the back
door of the police car, Officer Gainer chased and caught Ogan, wounding him in
the process.
Boswell's mother, three brothers and a
sister remained silent during Ogan's final statement, but spoke briefly to
reporters afterward. "He didn't say anything he
hadn't already said," Martha Boswell, the slain officer's mother,
said. "It didn't surprise me; I was OK with
it." Martha Boswell called Ogan "Jim's judge, jury and executioner,
without a second thought." "(Tuesday) is the night justice was
finally served, plain and simple," she said. "It's way past time."
Boswell's father Sonny, confined to a
wheelchair, waited outside the "Walls" Unit with nearly 80
motorcyclists who came to show their support for the Boswell family. Most of
the motorcyclists were members of the Houston Police Department or Harris
County Sheriff's Department and included Gainer, Boswell's partner. "It's time. It's just time," Gainer said. "I want justice to be done," Sonny Boswell
said as he clutched a picture of his son. "The
State of Texas pronounced sentence on him, and I think it should be carried
out."
Ogan's execution took place after the
Supreme Court rejected two appeals filed on his behalf. The Texas Board of
Pardons and Paroles also declined to block the execution. As Ogan went to his
death, about 80 law enforcement officers and their sympathizers -- members of
two Houston motorcycle clubs -- gathered at the Walls Unit to show support for
Boswell's family.
"Justice was finally
served tonight,"
said Martha Boswell, the slain officer's mother. "We
have waited for this 12 years. . . . I had faith this would happen, and it
did." She said she felt no compassion in watching her son's killer
die. "Nothing has changed," she said
of her feelings.
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