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News (Media Awareness Project) - CN AB: Portrait Of A Killer
Title:CN AB: Portrait Of A Killer
Published On:2005-03-04
Source:Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Fetched On:2008-01-16 22:42:27
PORTRAIT OF A KILLER

'I Wouldn't Go In There Unless I Was Prepared For The Worst'

To his father, he was "the devil." To old friends, he was a "freak" and a
man they 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, Alta., 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," the senior Roszko
said, 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 last night he had not heard that his son had been killed
but he was horrified to think that Mounties were dead.

"That's a terrible thing," he said. "Horrible, horrible."

He last saw his son in 1994, when Jim would come by to help him with the
hay on his farm, for pay, he said. At that time, he lived on a trailer on
the property.

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."

Marital Breakup

Roszko, 80, said his son started misbehaving following his parents' marital
breakup when he was about 12 years old.

"He had a lot of ability to do really well for himself when he wasn't on
dope or hanging out with bad boys," the devastated father said.

Roszko said his son had three sisters and four brothers.

An old acquaintance who partied with Roszko when they were teenagers told
Sun Media the cop-killer was notorious in the community.

"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, also knew Roszko. He was a few years younger and "was
kinda shy, that's all I can remember."

But things were a lot more memorable -- and a lot more dangerous -- when
they next met.

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 to his property.

Military Compound

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 the next month on two counts of
mischief related to people's tires getting flattened by 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 the court, the bailiff said Mounties
warned her Roszko had a long criminal record and was "known to have
booby-trapped land and used a spike belt to discourage visitors."

"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 says.

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.

Flak Jacket

When the bailiff insisted on breaking through the gate and going onto the
property to serve Roszko with papers by herself -- which she was entitled
to do 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 because he lived nearby.

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 spoke
with Roszko.

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