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Craig I. Kettleman is the husband of Betsy Kettleman and the father of Warren and Jo Jo Kettleman. He was a treasurer for Bernalillo County who embezzled $1.6 million, and is trying to flee away his conviction while mostly getting help from his wife. He and Betsy currently own the company Sweet Liberty Tax Services.

History[]

Better Call Saul[]

Season 1[]

Craig and his wife Betsy meet with Jimmy McGill to sort out Craig's case of being accused of embezzling $1.6 million. Just as a letter of engagement is about to get signed, Betsy stays her husband's hand and asks for time to think it over. ("Uno")

After being warned by Jimmy, Craig and his family go into hiding. After a fruitless search, Jimmy finally comes across them in the woods near their home. Jimmy tells them that they need to go back home, but Betsy disagrees. Jimmy picks up a bag and attempts to leave with it, but Betsy grabs ahold of it. Craig watches in panic. Eventually the bag tears open revealing the money Craig had stolen. ("Nacho")

Craig and Betsy plead with Jimmy not to expose them, offering him a portion of the money as a bribe, which Jimmy initially refuses. Jimmy retorts with the option of them hiring him as their lawyer, which is refused in turn by them, who refer back to the cash bribe. ("Hero")

Craig and Betsy meet with Kim Wexler, who advises them not to take their case to trial because their chances of winning are very low, instead urging them to take the plea deal she's negotiated which would reduce Craig's sentence to only sixteen months in prison. The Kettlemans reject the offer and fire Kim, returning to Jimmy for legal help. When Jimmy tells the Kettlemans to return to Kim and take the plea deal, they remind Jimmy that he would go down with them after taking their bribe. Realizing this, Jimmy reluctantly takes their case.

Jimmy has Mike Ehrmantraut break into the Kettlemans' house to collect the stolen money. Once they have it in their possession, Jimmy returns the funds he took from the bribe and has Mike take the money to the district attorney's office. The following day, Jimmy informs Craig and Betsy about where the money is heading and tells them for the final time to take Kim's deal. Betsy doesn't want to go through with it, but Craig makes her come around by asking her to think of their kids. Jimmy escorts the Kettlemans to HHM, where the deal is finally made. ("Bingo")

Season 6[]

Some time later, after Craig has paid his debt to society, Betsy and her husband have their lives deteriorate a bit as Craig is no longer the county treasurer and they have resigned themselves to running an independent small tax service business inside a small trailer in the New Mexico desert. Due to this, their children have to attend public school, a fact that makes Betsy really upset. Desperate to get their standard-of-living back, Craig and Betsy fall into their criminal habits again and resolve to defraud their elderly customers by filing proper tax returns with the IRS, giving their clients false ones, and pocketing the difference.

One day, Jimmy enters their trailer in hopes of making them patsies in a scheme to implicate Howard Hamlin for drug use. Betsy is very upset at seeing him and soon, she and Craig explain to Jimmy that since their last encounter, their lives have gone downhill (though they refuse to recognize their own actions). Jimmy tells them that they could have their lives back by accusing Howard of giving them unreliable legal counseling due to drug use, thus granting them exoneration; they just need to sign a Letter of Engagement. Reluctant at first, the Kettleman’s agree, but they refuse to hire Jimmy to represent them, which Jimmy pretends to feel offended towards.

Betsy and Craig visit lawyer Clifford Main in hopes of representing them against Howard. However, Clifford turns them down, due to working together with Howard on a case for Sandpiper Crossing, and also stating that their potential case is a lost cause, so Betsy haughtily bids him farewell (though Clifford actually believes that Howard may be abusing drugs due to false evidence planted by Jimmy earlier). They try to get other lawyers to help them, but are also turned down, convinced that their case against Howard is hopeless.

They call-up Jimmy and ask him to come to their trailer. When he does so and brings Kim with him, Betsy reveals that she has discovered that Jimmy was using them as pawns to take down Howard and after refusing a bribe Jimmy has, threatens to report him to the authorities if he does not represent them against Howard, but is forced to keep silent when Kim, who has found out that they are scamming their elderly customers, threatens to report their unscrupulous acts to the IRS unless they refund their customers. ("Carrot and Stick")

Personality[]

In radical contrast to his more domineering wife, Craig is quite meek and non-confrontational. A pushover at heart, Craig often lets others, more specifically his wife, walk all over him rather than speaking up and putting his foot down. It is very likely that Betsy pressured him into embezzling from the county (and later overcharge customers when they become tax-service people) in order to lead a life of luxury. He's also the more good-natured of the two as shown in "Carrot and Stick" where Betsy spews vile at Jimmy when he re-enters their lives, Craig greets him more politely and reacts with happiness when Kim told them she and Jimmy are married.

Despite his cowardly nature, Craig has shown to have some sense of assertiveness as in "Bingo", where Jimmy states that if they do not accept the deal of how Craig will serve short-term jail time as opposed to a 3-decade sentence, they both will go the prison, Craig finally decides to end this insanity by taking the deal and putting his foot down to Betsy when she remains stubborn.

Appearances[]

Better Call Saul[]

Episodes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6

The entire Kettleman family also appeared during in "No Picnic", a short film that premiered during the live broadcast on AMC of the Season 3 finale "Lantern".

Craig and Betsy appear in an episode of the CNBC true crime documentary series American Greed, apparently broadcast after Jimmy's flight from the law in 2010, in which the couple attempt to portray themselves as Jimmy's victims.

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