HE WAS 'THE DEVIL'

To his father, he was "the devil."

To old friends, he was a "freak" and to be feared.

Everyone seemed to agree that from an early age, James Roszko was one
dangerous guy, with one huge chip on his shoulder.

And he really didn't like the RCMP.

In his home south of Mayerthorpe, Roszko's father Bill was glued to
his radio during the four-hour siege at the farm house near Rochfort
Bridge. It ended after his son had slain four Mounties, then shot himself.

"He's been in trouble so many other times, I hate it," said the senior
Roszko, telling reporters his 47-year-old son was "the devil." "I
don't want him as my son. He must be doped up. That's when he's very
dangerous."

Bill Roszko said he was horrified by the Mountie deaths. "That's a
terrible thing," he said. "Horrible, horrible."

He last saw his son in 1994, when Jim worked on the farm. On a couple
of occasions, Bill says he saw a high-powered rifle in his son's trailer.

He believes his son broke off contact after a stint in jail in the
mid-'90s. "He just wandered out of my life. I think he was ashamed to
see me."

Roszko, 80, said his son started misbehaving following his parents'
marital break-up when he was about 12 years old. Roszko said his son
had three sisters and four brothers.

An old acquaintance who partied with Roszko as a teenager, told the
Sun that the cop killer was notorious locally.

"The guy was a freak. He's been in trouble ever since I've known him,"
said the man, who requested anonymity.

Local Mounties had trouble with Roszko "for years and years," the man
said.

"It just amazes me that they would go in there like that. I know I
wouldn't go in there unless I was prepared for the worst - because
that's all you could expect from this fellow. It doesn't surprise me
if he shot himself either. He wasn't the type of guy to give up."

Donna Toker, 62, had reason to fear Roszko. She'd known him for years.
Toker and her husband were at Roszko's property at the end of August
2004, enumerating for the provincial election. All four tires of their
truck were punctured when they drove over a spike belt at the entrance.

She said the place looked like a military compound, with guard dogs
and two fences around the perimeter.

They didn't approach Roszko at the time, instead complaining to the
RCMP. Roszko was due in Stony Plain court next month on two counts of
mischief related to the spike belt.

"I thought he might retaliate because I had heard when he gets mad, he
gets really mad. I was afraid he'd come and shoot us or burn our house
down," Toker said.

The spike belt was in use as far back as Aug. 4, 1999, when a group of
Mounties went to Roszko's farm with a bailiff who had a warrant to
seize two trucks and a herd of cattle from him as part of a lawsuit
over an outstanding debt.

In an affidavit later filed with court, the bailiff said Mounties
warned her Roszko had a long record and was "known to have
booby-trapped land."

"It has been my experience that several people are quite afraid to
give information about (Roszko) because even though I have reassured
them that it is confidential, they are really afraid of retaliation of
a violent sort from (him)," the bailiff's affidavit adds.

It notes Mounties who went to the farm with her were told to watch
what they said over the airwaves because Roszko "had a scanner and
listened to it constantly."

RCMP officers decided not to enter the property that day, the
affidavit states. When the bailiff insisted on breaking through the
gate to serve Roszko with papers by herself - to which she was
entitled by court order - Mounties loaned her a radio and flak jacket
for her own safety, the document adds.

A local veterinarian, called to the property with RCMP officers and
the bailiff in case cattle were seized that day, refused to go in at
any time out of fear for his own safety.

The bailiff eventually got onto the farm accompanied by Roszko's
mother and stepfather. She found none of the property she was looking
for, but managed to speak with Roszko.

"He constantly manipulated the conversation to blame the RCMP for all
his troubles," she stated in the affidavit.