By Federal records reveal that Thomas Matthew Crooks used the name of former Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole to receive packages before attempting to assassinate Donald Trump—and that an unidentified donor later paid for the gunman’s cremation.
The documents were provided to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley as part of his continuing investigation into the July 13, 2024, shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania. Crooks, then 20, fired eight rounds from a rooftop overlooking the Butler Farm Show Grounds, killing former fire chief Corey Comperatore and wounding Trump and two other rally attendees before a Secret Service counter-sniper killed him.
According to an FBI interview with Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, conducted two days after the attack, his son had packages delivered to the family’s Bethel Park home under the name “Bob Dole.” The shipments included “parts, tools and items to increase the capacity of his rifle,” according to the records reviewed by The New York Post.
The rifle was the same weapon Matthew Crooks gave his son on the morning of the rally. The father reportedly believed Crooks was taking it to a shooting range.
Matthew Crooks told investigators that his son began using the pseudonym after the father’s checking account was hacked and fraudulent gambling charges appeared. Crooks subsequently encouraged his father to use Cyber Ghost VPN and a BraveNet Browser, which he described as “less likely to be compromised by outside actors.”
The 10 Weirdest Things I Found in the Latest Thomas Crooks FBI Drop
1. The FBI had the ladder. A private citizen found it in a wood lot in Bethel Park on July 17, 2024, along with Crooks' rifle bag and his gun-club ID. A week later Christopher Wray told Congress "we did not find… pic.twitter.com/o5baH4vtUU
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 15, 2026
The documents do not explain why Crooks selected the name of Dole, the longtime Kansas senator who became the Republican presidential nominee in 1996. Crooks reportedly retrieved packages bearing the alias before his father returned home, allowing him to conceal at least some of the purchases from his family.
Investigators found that Crooks maintained more than 35 online accounts, including accounts hosted on overseas platforms. The FBI said it found no foreign connection to the attack and has continued to maintain that Crooks acted alone. More than two years later, however, federal officials still have not publicly identified his motive.
The records portray Crooks as socially isolated and difficult even for his family to understand. His father said Crooks never identified anyone as a friend during middle school or high school, although he interacted with classmates. He also described his son as quiet, stoic and increasingly interested in firearms.
A separate note attached to the FBI’s interview summary introduced another unanswered question about the aftermath of the shooting: “Anonymous donor paid for cremation.”
Thanks to the government source who got in touch and helped me find the funeral home.
It is in the Butler County Coroner’s file. Coroner William Young released the remains after the autopsy was completed and after the FBI said no further examination was needed. The report… https://t.co/H969KmDwft
— Gerald Posner (@geraldposner) September 15, 2026
The information apparently came from an attorney representing the Crooks family. Matthew Crooks was retired and unemployed at the time, while his wife was on leave from work, according to the documents. The records do not identify the donor or explain why that person paid for the cremation.
The FBI released Crooks’ body to a funeral home approximately 10 days after the shooting. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., who served on the House task force investigating the assassination attempt, later said he learned of the cremation only after requesting to examine the body on Aug. 5, 2024.
“My effort to examine Crooks’ body on Monday, August 5, caused quite a stir and revealed a disturbing fact… the FBI released the body for cremation 10 days after (July 13),” Higgins wrote in a preliminary investigative report.
Higgins argued that the decision prevented him from independently examining the body and reviewing the coroner’s work. The revelation about the unidentified donor does not establish outside involvement in the attack, but it adds another unresolved detail to a case already defined by government failures and unanswered questions.
Congressional and federal investigations have documented extensive security breakdowns at Butler, including poor communication, an unsecured building overlooking the stage and failures to act on warnings about Crooks before Trump began speaking. A subsequent Department of Homeland Security inspector general report concluded that the Secret Service missed opportunities to prevent the attack.
The new records do not prove that Crooks had help, but they deepen the mystery surrounding a gunman whose motive remains unknown more than two years after he came within inches of killing Trump. They show that Crooks concealed weapons-related purchases and tried to obscure his online activity. Now they raise another question federal authorities have yet to answer: Who paid to cremate the would-be assassin?
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