James Craig: 'Narcissistic' killer dentist may have seen wife Angela as an 'impediment', expert claims
Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers' discretion advised.
AURORA, COLORADO: A criminal psychologist reportedly claimed that the Colorado dentist, who poisoned his wife and murdered her, showed signs of narcissistic and sociopathic tendencies and believed he was "too smart to be caught" despite searching for lethal drugs on his office computer. James Craig, 45, was arrested on charges of first degree murder of his wife, Angela, 43, who died on March 19, after her health steadily deteriorated over weeks from being poisoned with potassium cyanide.
Dr Gail Saltz MD, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, explained how the father-of-six considered his wife of 16 years an "impediment he needed to remove" to start a new life with his lover, an orthodontist in Texas. She spoke about how Angela chose to stay with Craig despite learning of his several affairs, gambling and porn addiction. Saltz claimed she was "in denial," despite knowing that he drugged her in 2017. Angela's sister claimed she thought of leaving James several times but he talked her out of it.
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Why was James Craig arrested?
Craig was arrested on suspicion of his wife's murder after police discovered his Google searches, which included, "Top 5 Undetectable Poisons" and several orders of the deadly substance. Initially, he was found out by an employee at his office, who opened a package he had received, to find a biohazard sticker and a canister marked potassium cyanide. She googled the chemical compound and found the symptoms of cyanide poisoning to be be similar to what Angela was showing and alerted the police. However, Craig defended his actions by telling investigators that his wife had been intentionally overdosing on opioids since he had asked for a divorce in December 2022. Police also found that he had placed an order on Amazon for "Arsenic Metal 99.9999% Crystalline Metalloid 10 grams for Element Collection" for $13.
'Being pathologically consumed with your needs'
Saltz, host of the 'How Can I Help?' podcast from iHeartRadio, said, "His behavior, the lying, the deception could speak to all kinds of things, the narcissism to believe that you are too smart too good to get caught," per Daily Mail. She continued, "That kind of irrational grandiose view of yourself, the searches could also speak to a lack of understanding about computer history and technology. Obviously there was a lack of familiarity, comfort, and astuteness in terms of purchasing and computer use so I am not implying this person is highly astute or an intelligent person. Lying and being deceptive happens in all manner of relationships including where no one has any intention of murdering anyone and so really this is a person who was obviously comfortable with deception and lying for a very long time – having had multiple affairs in his marriage."
She continued, "I think that people who are liars and are deceptive and have a questionable moral compass do not find lying difficult at all. Being pathologically consumed with your needs and your need to be special and center of the universe for everyone is definitely a sign of having a narcissistic personality."
She added, "He could fall into the category of sociopathic men who decide that they want a different life and a different wife and a different freedom and to not have the financial constraint of an ex-wife and believe that they are entitled to remove that impediment. They could really compartmentalize their wife as sort of not really their wife or a person or mother of their children but just an impediment they need to remove."
'Reliving the past'
Messages between Craig and Angela showed how the latter complained she felt "dizzy" and "nauseous" which police said was due to the poison he put in her smoothies. Shockingly, while Angela was fighting for her life as doctors were trying to figure out what happened to her, Craig flew his mistress over from Texas while messaging her to say he "wished he could stay longer" at the hospital. In a text, she refers to "reliving the past" days before her death, which her sister said was in reference to the time she was drugged by James.
Saltz added, "It is a little mystifying that she would stay with him, and I would say it is a good bit of denial to stay with a man who as drugged you. And then it is a good bit of denial when you are hospitalized and not feeling well after drinking a strange tasting smoothie that your husband gave you to then go back home and live with him. I guess somewhere towards the end she acknowledged it to herself, but it is just unusual given the prior situation. You would think 'this doesn't feel right. It just goes to show the power of relationships at times."
After Angela was declared dead, Craig allegedly refused the hospital staffers from conducting an autopsy, with family members pressing that it take place to check if her condition was "genetic" and to avoid it from being passed down on to the family.