As a businessman helping to raise two school-age kids, Gregory S. Crammer was a busy man, yet he consistently found time to help others in need, including his Spring Township community.
“He gave so much to everybody,” Patrice Crammer said in an interview the day after her husband was shot and killed in his rented office along the 2100 block of Penn Avenue in West Lawn. “I just called all of his customers that I could get ahold of this morning. Every single person was shocked. All remembered how bright and kind and always willing to help and go above and beyond in everything he did.”
It wasn’t just his customers. Despite the demands of his business, supplying prosthetics to dental offices, Crammer, 55, of West Wyomissing found the time to coach his son’s Wilson Youth Baseball team, among other volunteer roles.
He and Patrice organized the annual Spring Township Lions Club Halloween Parade, no small feat as it’s one of the largest Halloween parades in Pennsylvania.
“He was probably the ultimate volunteer,” said John Lehr, who worked with Crammer for about a decade on projects undertaken by the Spring Township Lions Club, including its chicken barbecue fundraiser. “The community is going to miss him even though they might not know who he is.”
If there was a project that addressed a need, Lehr said, Crammer threw himself in and gave his time and labor.
“Greg was a doer,” Lehr said. “He was relentless in his approach.”
The chicken fundraiser is an example. Along with helping to put meals together and setting up tents for the quarterly chicken sales, Crammer served as the cashier, engaging directly with people.
“He was always friendly with people,” Lehr said.
Though he sought no credit, Crammer was given the Melvin Jones Award, the highest form of recognition by Lions Club International. The award recognizes selfless service that embodies humanitarian ideas consistent with Lionism.
Crammer also took great joy in fatherhood. He and Patrice have four children, including two adult children who no longer live with them.
Their two youngest are their older son’s children. They legally adopted both siblings, now 13 and 11, at an early age.
“He fell in love with his grandchildren,” Patrice said. “Everybody called him ‘Baby Whisperer’ because you could hand him a baby and the baby would stop crying.”
The way her husband’s life suddenly ended — killed when he arrived at his first-floor office Tuesday morning by an upstairs tenant, according to Spring police — is nearly impossible to fathom, Patrice said.
The Crammers were on a summer vacation this week in Ocean City, Md. Greg left Patrice and the two youngest children because one of his dentist clients needed a prosthetic. He planned to do some work in West Lawn for a few days and rejoin them in Ocean City on Friday.
He went into the office Tuesday morning just before 7, as he did almost every day, when he was ambushed by the man who killed him, police said.
The suspect, Angel L. Adames, 56, had broken in and was lying in wait, investigators said.
According to the arrest affidavit. Adames admitted he decided the previous night that he was going to kill Crammer.
The following morning, Adames said, he forced open the doors to the basem*nt in the back of the building. He then went up the interior basem*nt stairs, forced open the door leading to Crammer’s office and waited for him to arrive.
Crammer rented the office because he had run out of space in his West Wyomissing home for his business, his wife said.
“He would get orders from dentists,” Patrice explained, “and either make them or have them made. He built the business from scratch, from nothing.”
Her husband had known Adames for many years, she said. They worked at Exide Corp. decades ago.
Their relationship was cordial until several months ago, she said. As Adames’ life spiraled downhill, Patrice said, he blamed Greg for his health and financial problems.
Adames was in the process of being evicted by the landlord. Court records show the property owner successfully sued for eviction in November. A recovery of real property hearing was scheduled for July before District Judge Ann L. Young.
Greg wanted no part of the eviction process, but their landlord asked Greg for a favor, according to Patrice.
“The landlord sent an eviction notice to Angel, but it was posted to my husband’s door in the back,” Patrice said. “My husband called the landlord, saying it was posted to the wrong door, and she asked him to remove it and post it to Angel’s door. He said he felt uncomfortable doing that, but being the person he is, he did.”
He waited for Adames to leave before posting the notice, and it was unclear if Adames knew he had posted it.
She said Greg repeatedly called the landlord to complain about something Adames was doing to harass him. A week before the murder, someone cut the padlock on the doors to access the basem*nt and shut off electricity in Crammer’s office, she said.
According to Patrice, police were called, but no one was arrested. After that, she said, the landlord asked Greg to place a new padlock on the exterior basem*nt doors, which he did, again reluctantly.
Police Chief Stephen Powell confirmed Thursday that police were called to 2105 Penn Ave., which is Crammer’s office address, twice in the past two months. He declined to comment further, citing the ongoing investigation.
Patrice said Greg knew that Adames was somewhat volatile, but his behavior became more concerning in recent months.
“Angel started saying, ‘I know you guys are all poisoning my water,’” Patrice said.
Crammer told him that he doesn’t use chemicals for his business.
The landlord couldn’t be reached for comment.
Greg began to fear Adames and considered no longer parking in the rear lot, his wife said. The entrance to the second-floor apartment and Crammer’s office, respectively, are accessed from the rear of the building.
On Tuesday morning, Adames told police, he waited in the bathroom for Crammer to arrive.
When Crammer entered the apartment, Adames came out and shot him multiple times with a semiautomatic pistol, police said.
Adames left the office through the rear door, replaced the lock on the basem*nt doors and returned to his apartment, calling 911 to report that he just shot and killed a man in the first-floor unit, police said.
Police arrived, found Crammer dead on the first floor and arrested Adames without incident.
Adames is being held in Berks County Prison without bail awaiting a hearing on first- and third-degree murder, burglary and related counts.
Patrice had to drive back to Pennsylvania from the Maryland coast with their two youngest children after being informed of her husband’s death.
The loss was just beginning to sink in when she spoke to the Reading Eagle, hoping that her husband’s impact on the community would be more prominent in the follow-up news coverage than the senseless way his life was taken.
“He was very involved with everybody he met,” she sobbed. “I don’t have him, my children don’t have him and the community doesn’t have him.
“It was revenge taken out by Angel, who took all of his anger and rage out on Greg for some reason. I don’t understand it. The police don’t understand it.”
