I wrote about Bishop Hubbard's tour of local Catholic parishes.
I also trailed a Cohoes man who murdered his wife and who then covered it up for two weeks, with the police hot on his trail. My jail-house confession from Michael Craver earned me a subpoena, which eventually did land me on the witness stand during Craver's murder trial.
Follows is the jail-house confession:
Section: MAIN
Page: A1
Date: FRIDAY, September 8, 1989
REMORSEFUL CRAVER SAYS HE ACCIDENTALLY KILLED HIS WIFE
By Laura Vecsey Staff writer
Michael S. Craver, the Cohoes supermarket clerk accused of strangling his wife and burying her corpse in an abandoned garage, admitted in an interview that he took her life but said Thursday that he doesn't want people to think he's a "cold-hearted killer."Craver spoke by telephone from the Albany County Jail in Colonie where he awaits trial on two counts of second-degree murder. In a series of interviews requested by the Times Union, he said he accidentally killed 26- year-old Mary Ann Craver during an argument in which she claimed he was not the father of their son.
"It was purely accidental, not intentional ... She came at me in the bedroom, slapped me a couple times," Craver said, when asked if he had killed his wife.
After weeks of marital tension, Craver said he snapped when his wife said he wasn't the father of their 9-year-old son, Jason, and she called Justin, Craver's 4-year-old child by another woman, his "bastard son.""She was laughing, saying that Jason wasn't my son, and that remark about Justin, my son by another woman. I grabbed hold (of her). I don't remember the rest."
Mary Ann Craver's body was found July 13 by Cohoes and State Police investigators in a garage several hundred yards from the Cravers' apartment on Lincoln Avenue in Cohoes. She had been strangled.
Craver had reported his wife's disappearance to Cohoes police April 17. He told them he had last seen her the night before, wearing a nightgown and reading a book in the living room.
In the interviews, the 33-year-old Craver said he was trying to hold his marriage together, but that his wife had "badgered" him with stories about her relationships with other men.
He said he was high on cocaine and marijuana April 16, the night of the killing.
"I was drinking kind of heavy," Craver said. "I didn't want to do it, but I was doing drugs - coke, marijuana. I don't really remember it all. But it was constant, her cutting me down, talking about the ... guys she had been with."
Craver said he was horrified at how quickly her death happened. "There was no loud noise," he said. "To realize she was actually dead was horrifying. I tried to wake her. I couldn't believe it ... happened."
Asked why he didn't call police immediately, Craver said he was concerned about his children.
"You have to put yourself in my position," he said. "I was in shock. I was trying to protect my kids."
Craver said he kept his wife's body in the apartment until the next day. "I had her with me there ... she was on the bed. I got her dressed," he said.
Asked why he removed her nightgown and dressed her in street clothes, Craver said it was because "she was cold."
Craver said he decided to bury the body in the garage after his dog, Lucky, got loose. "My dog was chasing the neighbor's dog over there," he said. "I guess that's where I got the idea. I didn't have a shovel. I just used my hands."
Craver said he put her body in the garage "to keep her close by."
Mary Ann Craver was 14 when she met Craver. She became pregnant by him when she was 16, and the two were married when Jason was 4 years old. While Craver worked in a supermarket, his wife worked in a Cohoes mill.
Between 1973 and 1983, Craver was arrested nine times in Watervliet on charges ranging from harassment to misdemeanor assault to violations of Family Court orders. Many of the charges involved his wife, but she withdrew most of them, ending prosecution.
The couple had been separated until about a year ago, Craver said, but his wife had wanted to get back together. For several months, things had been going well between them, he said. However, Craver said his wife wanted to break up with him after she renewed her relationship with Scott Heeter, a Mount McGregor Correctional Facility inmate she had met during her separation from Craver.
Craver, who found Heeter's letters, said he nagged his wife about that relationship. He said his wife "betrayed" him by seeing other men, by "writing to that guy."
He said he knew his wife wanted him to move out of their apartment, but, despite the quarreling, he couldn't leave.
"I knew the situation was getting bad, but I thought there was something I could do," he said.
"I really loved her and I was trying to fix things up," Craver said, "but she was doing things behind my back. I guess she didn't understand that (I still loved her.) She didn't care about me or Justin. She was just playing the game. But as far as I knew, we were husband and wife. We were a family."
Craver said he went back to the garage "once, a day or two after" burying her body. "I don't really know why, possibly just to see her."
He said he tried several times to turn himself in to Cohoes police. What stopped him, he said, were his children.
"I tried many times to turn myself in," he said. "I walked down to the post office, and the police station is right there across the street. I tried to turn myself in but I'd look down at my little kid and I couldn't do it. I was worried about what would happen (to him.)"
Craver never did turn himself in. Instead, he was arrested July 13, hours after he was questioned by police and, according to authorities, drew a map leading them to his wife's body. Craver said he is remorseful.
"I love my wife right now," he said, adding, "I have to live this hell."
He said he would prefer a plea-bargain agreement to a trial. Albany County Chief Assistant District Attorney Daniel Dwyer said Wednesday that he expects pretrial motions in Craver's case to be heard in the next four weeks.
"I'd like to avoid trial for one reason - to let her (Mary Ann Craver's) family avoid a trial and not bring it back, all the pain and suffering," Craver said.
Craver said he doesn't know how he'll explain to his sons what happened that April night. "The biggest thing on my mind is getting home to the children," he said. "I've got a lot of explaining to do to them. How would I even begin, I don't know. I guess I'll have to wait and find out what they know. As time goes on, I'm sure they'll learn more."
Seven different family members have petitioned Family Court for custody of the boys. A hearing was held Wednesday, but a decision on placement was delayed because several of the parties didn't have attorneys.
Mary Ann Craver's mother, Florence Tambolleo of Watervliet, wants the boys to stay together. So does Craver.
"They can't be split up," he said. "That's all they have left out there." Craver said he wants the children to live with his sister, Sharon Craver of Cohoes. He also said he has written to his wife's parents, "expressing my feelings to them," and hopes they won't turn his children against him.
Tambolleo said Wednesday that she did not believe her daughter would taunt Craver about Jason. She also said Craver should have nothing to say about where the boys live, "not when he took my daughter's life."
Craver said he also suffers a sense of loss with his wife's death. "I lost the woman I love the most," he said. "I stand to lose a lot more."
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