Unit 1012 Cover Photo

Unit 1012 Cover Photo

Monday, December 9, 2013

IN LOVING MEMORY OF POLICE OFFICER JAMES C. BOSWELL (END OF WATCH: DECEMBER 9, 1989)



            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. 


Officer James C. Boswell
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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