The final episode of *Band of Brothers*, titled "Points," depicts Sergeant Charles "Chuck" Grant being shot in the head by a drunken replacement from another company. The series condenses and alters several details of what actually happened. The real story involves two murders, a dramatic rescue, a controversial trial, and two very different lives that followed.
Staff Sergeant Charles Ainsworth Grant was born on March 1, 1922, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was young, and he grew up there. Before enlisting in the army on August 18, 1942, at age 20, he worked at the Vega Aircraft Factory, a Lockheed subsidiary producing military aircraft. The job exempted him from service, but he chose to enlist anyway.
The blond-haired, blue-eyed, athletic Californian volunteered for the paratroopers and was sent to Camp Toccoa, Georgia. He joined Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, under Captain Herbert Sobel. Grant was among the NCOs who threatened to turn in their stripes in England to protest Sobel leading them into battle.
Babe Heffron described Grant as a great soldier and a great guy who loved life, women, and beer. He always wore his hat sideways, hanging over one ear, and looked like a movie star. Heffron noted that Grant did not care who was a replacement and who was a veteran. He took care of everyone.
Grant jumped into Normandy on D-Day and into the Netherlands in September 1944 for Operation Market Garden. On September 20, 1944, he was wounded in Nuenen shortly after Easy Company left Eindhoven. He was shot in the buttock and hip after helping destroy a German 88-mm artillery gun. He recovered and rejoined Easy Company in Belgium in November 1944, serving as a squad leader through Bastogne and the race to Berchtesgaden.
The war in Europe ended, but danger had not passed for men like Grant. In the series, Grant is driving privates to a roadblock in Salzburg, Austria, when they encounter a drunken GI standing next to a dead German soldier. The man is identified as 23-year-old Private Floyd W. Craver, a replacement from I Company. Craver says he ran out of gas, stopped a German officer's car, demanded gas, and shot the occupants.
The series also shows a dead British major nearby. Stephen Ambrose's book indicates Craver also shot a British sergeant with the major. The book and series implied as many as four murders. In reality, the 1946 Board of Review documents for United States vs. Floyd W. Craver show he committed two murders: the British major and the German officer.
The timeline was condensed for television. The two murders occurred almost an hour apart on May 27, 1945, at different locations. The first happened as Craver and Private First Class Dewey H. Hoob headed toward Saalfelden, Austria, driven by a German chauffeur they had secured. Their car, taken from German civilians earlier, ran out of gas several miles outside Zell am See.
Craver stopped a passing German civilian car driven by an army officer later identified as Captain Edward Altiker. Altiker was alone. Craver spotted the captain's pistol, which he was legally allowed to carry under the terms of the surrender, and demanded it. Craver clearly wanted the sidearm for himself rather than believing Altiker posed a threat.
Hoob told Altiker to drive on. As the car pulled away, Craver fired three to five shots into its rear from about 20 feet. The car veered into a ditch. Craver walked over, pushed Altiker to check if he was alive, stepped back, and fired a single shot. "That finished him," Craver said. "I shot him in the head." He then took the German officer's pistol, remarking, "This one has never been fired."
Craver and the chauffeur headed down the road for gasoline. Hoob said he would wait with the car, but as soon as they were out of sight, he hurried to the command post at Saalfelden to get an ambulance and report the incident. Craver and the chauffeur found a farmhouse about three miles away and returned with gas. They took the car back to the farmhouse, where they were given drinks.
Thirty to forty minutes later, a British major from military intelligence named Martin R. G. Watkin drove by with Warrant Officer Dodd. They noticed the German civilian car and stopped to investigate. Craver came out, claimed the car was his, and asked for help pushing it to start.
It was then that Sergeant Chuck Grant drove by in an American truck with at least one other man. Unlike the series, Major Watkin was still alive when Grant arrived. Craver called for help, and Grant slowed down. Watkin told Grant the situation was handled, and Grant began to drive away.
Craver fired two shots at Grant's truck, prompting Grant to stop and get out. Grant demanded to know who shot at him, and Craver admitted it was him. Grant asked for Craver's weapon. Craver then fired at the unarmed Grant, hitting him in the forehead. Grant fell backward onto the road.
The two British soldiers ran for cover as Craver turned and fired at them. Major Watkin ran down an alley and was shot dead. Warrant Officer Dodd survived and found Watkin's body minutes later, after Craver fled on foot.
In the series and in real life, Grant survived because Captain Ronald Speirs refused to accept the doctor's prognosis at the aid station. The doctor said there was no hope. Speirs loaded Grant onto a jeep and raced to Saalfelden, where he had heard German specialists were available. There he found a brain surgeon from Berlin.
*Band of Brothers* shows Speirs holding the surgeon at gunpoint to force him to operate. Don Malarkey said it was actually Grant's best friend, Private Herman "Hack" Hansen, who held the surgeon at gunpoint and delivered the ultimatum, "Save him or I'll kill you." The surgeon operated despite believing it was useless. After saving Grant's life, he called Grant the toughest man he had ever seen.
The series shows Easy Company men hunting for Craver but not how he was caught. According to Ambrose's book, Craver was found trying to rape an Austrian girl in Zell am See. Many men wanted him dead, but he was brought back alive.
A large number of Easy Company men surrounded Craver, threatening him and beating him. Captain Speirs entered and demanded, "Where's the weapon?" Craver responded, "What weapon?" Speirs struck him in the temple with the barrel of his sidearm, then hit him again, demanding, "When you talk to an officer, you say, 'Sir.'"
In the series, Speirs points his pistol at Craver as some men look away, trembling with rage before deciding to let him live. That scene is fiction. In reality, it was Hack Hansen who burst in and pointed his pistol at Craver, yelling, "You son of a — I've killed better men than you." Four men grabbed Hansen from behind to restrain him. The men beat Craver unconscious before taking him to the regimental guardhouse, where the provost sergeant beat him until blood ran.
Speirs told Ambrose he did not kill Craver because some doubt remained that he was the right man. This makes sense, as Speirs had asked about the weapon, likely to confirm it was the one used in the killings and to shoot Grant.
What the series does not show is that Craver escaped from the Division Stockade on September 8, 1945, weeks after his apprehension. He was arrested the next day by French civilian police near Chablis, France. In a sworn statement, Craver claimed he feared remaining in military confinement because of abusive and brutal treatment.
Craver was tried on four charges: the murders of Captain Altiker and Major Watkin, the shooting of Grant, and two counts related to his escape and desertion. He pleaded not guilty, and the defense argued he was insane at the time, partly because he had smoked several marijuana cigarettes that morning.
The insanity argument did not hold. Dewey Hoob testified that Craver appeared insane when he shot the German captain, with eyes "like balls of fire," but Craver was found guilty on May 6, 1946. He was sentenced to a dishonorable discharge and life in prison with hard labor at the United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
As of the 1950 census, Craver was still at Lewisburg. For reasons unknown, he was released sometime in the 1950s. His military records were among the millions destroyed in the July 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.
It is possible the beatings Craver received after his capture led to his release on appeal, since the army would not have wanted such actions exposed at another trial. Other possibilities include procedural mistakes or early release due to overcrowding, good behavior, or presidential pardon.
Despite his crimes, Craver went on to marry and have a family, including a son, Steve, born in 1959, and four daughters. On July 6, 1987, more than 40 years after the shootings, the 65-year-old Craver was riding a moped in Charlotte, North Carolina. A creamery truck blew a stop sign and hit him broadside. He died that afternoon at Charlotte Memorial Hospital, just 17 days after his wife's death.
Years later, Craver's son, Steve Wilkinson Craver, then 36, pleaded guilty to indecent liberties with a female child. He died at age 54 in 2014.
Chuck Grant's life was forever altered. He spent six months in a hospital in Germany before being sent home. His recovery was long and grueling, marked by infections. He suffered permanent brain damage, leaving him with difficulty speaking and, according to his discharge record, partial paralysis of the upper and lower extremities on his right side. He was discharged on November 3, 1945, with full disability.
The injury did not stop Grant from living fully. He settled in San Francisco, where he ran a small cigar shop. He married a woman named Norma, and they had a son and eventually grandchildren. He was active in veteran circles, attending Easy Company reunions and serving as a representative for the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the 101st Airborne Association.
Babe Heffron said of Grant's wounding, "It was terrible. One of those strange things that happens. Chuck was one of the best guys and one of the best soldiers in the platoon. He was sharp as a tack, too. But that all changed after he got shot. He came to a couple of our reunions, but life was hard for him. It was tough to see him like that. For that to happen after the war was over was hard to take."
Chuck Grant died at age 60 on October 12, 1982, 37 years after Floyd Craver shot him.