Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

by United States. Warren Commission

POSSIBLE CONSPIRACY INVOLVING JACK RUBY

Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald at 11:21 a.m., on Sunday, November 24, 1963, shortly after Ruby entered the basement of the Dallas Police Department. Almost immediately, speculation arose that Ruby had acted on behalf of members of a conspiracy who had planned the killing of President Kennedy and wanted to silence Oswald. This section of chapter VI sets forth the Commission’s investigation into the possibility that Ruby, together with Oswald or with others, conspired to kill the President, or that Ruby, though not part of any such conspiracy, had accomplices in the slaying of Oswald. Presented first are the results of the Commission’s detailed inquiry into Ruby’s actions from November 21 to November 24. In addition, this section analyzes the numerous rumors and suspicions that Ruby and Oswald were acquainted and examines Ruby’s background and associations for evidence of any conspiratorial relationship or motive. A detailed life of Ruby is given in appendix XVI which provides supplemental information about Ruby and his associations.

Ruby’s Activities From November 21 to November 24, 1963

The Commission has attempted to reconstruct as precisely as possible the movements of Jack Ruby during the period November 21-November 24, 1963. It has done so on the premise that, if Jack Ruby were involved in a conspiracy, his activities and associations during this period would, in some way, have reflected the conspiratorial relationship. The Commission has not attempted to determine the time at which Ruby first decided to make his attack on Lee Harvey Oswald, nor does it purport to evaluate the psychiatric and related legal questions which have arisen from the assault upon Oswald. Ruby’s activities during this 3-day period have been scrutinized, however, for the insight they provide into whether the shooting of Oswald was grounded in any form of conspiracy.

The eve of the President’s visit.—On Thursday, November 21, Jack Ruby was attending to his usual duties as the proprietor of two Dallas night spots—the Carousel Club, a downtown nightclub featuring striptease dancers, and the Vegas Club, a rock-and-roll establishment in the Oaklawn section of Dallas. Both clubs opened for business each day in the early evening and continued 7 days a week until after midnight.[C6-830] Ruby arrived at the Carousel Club at about 3 p.m. Thursday afternoon, as was his custom,[C6-831] and remained long enough to chat with a friend and receive messages from Larry Crafard, a handyman and helper who lived at the Carousel.[C6-832] Earlier in the day Ruby had visited with a young lady who was job hunting in Dallas,[C6-833] paid his rent for the Carousel premises,[C6-834] conferred about a peace bond he had been obliged to post as a result of a fight with one of his striptease dancers,[C6-835] consulted with an attorney about problems he was having with Federal tax authorities,[C6-836] distributed membership cards for the Carousel Club,[C6-837] talked with Dallas County Assistant District Attorney William F. Alexander about insufficient fund checks which a friend had passed,[C6-838] and submitted advertising copy for his nightclubs to the Dallas Morning News.[C6-839]

Ruby’s evening activities on Thursday, November 21, were a combination of business and pleasure. At approximately 7:30 p.m., he drove Larry Crafard to the Vegas Club which Crafard was overseeing because Ruby’s sister, Eva Grant, who normally managed the club, was convalescing from a recent illness.[C6-840] Thereafter, Ruby returned to the Carousel Club and conversed for about an hour with Lawrence Meyers, a Chicago businessman.[C6-841] Between 9:45 and 10:45 p.m., Ruby had dinner with Ralph Paul, his close friend and financial backer. While dining Ruby spoke briefly with a Dallas Morning News employee, Don Campbell, who suggested that they go to the Castaway Club, but Ruby declined.[C6-842] Thereafter, Ruby returned to the Carousel Club where he acted as master of ceremonies for his show and peacefully ejected an unruly patron.[C6-843] At about midnight Ruby rejoined Meyers at the Bon Vivant Room of the Dallas Cabana where they met Meyers’ brother and sister-in-law.[C6-844] Neither Ralph Paul nor Lawrence Meyers recalled that Ruby mentioned the President’s trip to Dallas.[C6-845] Leaving Meyers at the Cabana after a brief visit, Ruby returned to close the Carousel Club and obtain the night’s receipts.[C6-846] He then went to the Vegas Club which he helped Larry Crafard close for the night;[C6-847] and, as late as 2:30 a.m., Ruby was seen eating at a restaurant near the Vegas Club.[C6-848]

Friday morning at the Dallas Morning News.—Jack Ruby learned of the shooting of President Kennedy while in the second-floor advertising offices of the Dallas Morning News, five blocks from the Texas School Book Depository, where he had come Friday morning to place regular weekend advertisements for his two nightclubs.[C6-849] On arriving at the newspaper building at about 11 or 11:30 a.m., he talked briefly with two newspaper employees concerning some diet pills he had recommended to them.[C6-850] Ruby then went to the office of Morning News columnist, Tony Zoppi, where he states he obtained a brochure on his new master of ceremonies that he wanted to use in preparing copy for his advertisements.[C6-851] Proceeding to the advertising department, he spoke with advertising employee Don Campbell from about noon until 12:25 p.m. when Campbell left the office.[C6-852] In addition to the business at hand, much of the conversation concerned Ruby’s unhappiness over the financial condition of his clubs and his professed ability to handle the physical fights which arose in connection with the clubs.[C6-853] According to Campbell, Ruby did not mention the Presidential motorcade nor did he display any unusual behavior.[C6-854]

About 10 minutes after the President had been shot but before word had spread to the second floor, John Newnam, an advertising department employee, observed Ruby sitting at the same spot where Campbell had left him. At that time Ruby had completed the advertisement, which he had apparently begun to compose when Campbell departed, and was reading a newspaper.[C6-855] To Newnam, Ruby voiced criticism of the black-bordered advertisement entitled “Welcome, Mr. Kennedy” appearing in the morning paper and bearing the name of Bernard Weissman as the chairman of the committee sponsoring the advertisement.[C6-856] (See Commission Exhibit No. 1031, [p. 294].) According to Eva Grant, Ruby’s sister, he had telephoned her earlier in the morning to call her attention to the ad.[C6-857] At about 12:45 p.m., an employee entered the office and announced that shots had been fired at the President. Newnam remembered that Ruby responded with a look of “stunned disbelief.”[C6-858]

Shortly afterward, according to Newnam, “confusion reigned” in the office as advertisers telephoned to cancel advertising they had placed for the weekend.[C6-859] Ruby appears to have believed that some of those cancellations were motivated by the Weissman advertisement.[C6-860] After Newnam accepted a few telephone calls, he and Ruby walked toward a room where other persons were watching television.[C6-861] One of the newspaper employees recalled that Ruby then appeared “obviously shaken, and an ashen color—just very pale * * *”[C6-862] showed little disposition to converse,[C6-863] and sat for a while with a dazed expression in his eyes.[C6-864]

After a few minutes, Ruby placed telephone calls to Andrew Armstrong, his assistant at the Carousel Club, and to his sister, Mrs. Grant. He told Armstrong, “If anything happens we are going to close the club” and said he would see him in about 30 minutes.[C6-865] During the call to his sister, Ruby again referred to the Weissman advertisement; at one point he put the telephone to Newnam’s ear, and Newnam heard Mrs. Grant exclaim, “My God, what do they want?” It was Newnam’s recollection that Ruby tried to calm her.[C6-866]

Ruby testified that after calling his sister he said, “John, I will have to leave Dallas.”[C6-867] Ruby explained to the Commission:

I don’t know why I said that, but it is a funny reaction that you feel; the city is terribly let down by the tragedy that happened. And I said, “John, I am not opening up tonight.”

And I don’t know what else transpired. I know people were just heartbroken * * *.

I left the building and I went down and I got in my car and I couldn’t stop crying. * * * [C6-868]

Newnam estimated that Ruby departed from the Morning News at about 1:30 p.m., but other testimony indicated that Ruby may have left earlier.[C6-869]

Ruby’s alleged visit to Parkland Hospital.—The Commission has investigated claims that Jack Ruby was at Parkland Hospital at about 1:30 p.m., when a Presidential press secretary, Malcolm Kilduff, announced that President Kennedy was dead. Seth Kantor, a newspaperman who had previously met Ruby in Dallas, reported and later testified that Jack Ruby stopped him momentarily inside the main entrance to Parkland Hospital some time between 1:30 and 2 p.m., Friday, November 22, 1963.[C6-870] The only other person besides Kantor who recalled seeing Ruby at the hospital did not make known her observation until April 1964, had never seen Ruby before, allegedly saw him only briefly then, had an obstructed view, and was uncertain of the time.[C6-871] Ruby has firmly denied going to Parkland and has stated that he went to the Carousel Club upon leaving the Morning News.[C6-872] Video tapes of the scene at Parkland do not show Ruby there, although Kantor can be seen.[C6-873]

Investigation has limited the period during which Kantor could have met Ruby at Parkland Hospital on Friday to a few minutes before and after 1:30 p.m. Telephone company records and the testimony of Andrew Armstrong established that Ruby arrived at the Carousel Club no later than 1:45 p.m. and probably a few minutes earlier.[C6-874] Kantor was engaged in a long-distance telephone call to his Washington office from 1:02 p.m. until 1:27 p.m.[C6-875] Kantor testified that, after completing that call, he immediately left the building from which he had been telephoning, traveled perhaps 100 yards, and entered the main entrance of the hospital. It was there, as he walked through a small doorway, that he believed he saw Jack Ruby, who, Kantor said, tugged at his coattails and asked, “Should I close my places for the next three nights, do you think?” Kantor recalled that he turned briefly to Ruby and proceeded to the press conference at which the President’s death was announced. Kantor was certain he encountered Ruby at Parkland but had doubts about the exact time and place.[C6-876]

Kantor probably did not see Ruby at Parkland Hospital in the few minutes before or after 1:30 p.m., the only time it would have been possible for Kantor to have done so. If Ruby immediately returned to the Carousel Club after Kantor saw him, it would have been necessary for him to have covered the distance from Parkland in approximately 10 or 15 minutes in order to have arrived at the club before 1:45 p.m., when a telephone call was placed at Ruby’s request to his entertainer, Karen Bennett Carlin.[C6-877] At a normal driving speed under normal conditions the trip can be made in 9 or 10 minutes.[C6-878] However, it is likely that congested traffic conditions on November 22 would have extended the driving time.[C6-879] Even if Ruby had been able to drive from Parkland to the Carousel in 15 minutes, his presence at the Dallas Morning News until after 1 p.m., and at the Carousel prior to 1:45 p.m., would have made his visit at Parkland exceedingly brief. Since Ruby was observed at the Dallas Police Department during a 2 hour period after 11 p.m. on Friday,[C6-880] when Kantor was also present, and since Kantor did not remember seeing Ruby there,[C6-881] Kantor may have been mistaken about both the time and the place that he saw Ruby. When seeing Ruby, Kantor was preoccupied with the important event that a press conference represented. Both Ruby and Kantor were present at another important event, a press conference held about midnight, November 22, in the assembly room of the Dallas Police Department. It is conceivable that Kantor’s encounter with Ruby occurred at that time, perhaps near the small doorway there.[C6-882]

Ruby’s decision to close his clubs.—Upon arriving at the Carousel Club shortly before 1:45 p.m., Ruby instructed Andrew Armstrong, the Carousel’s bartender, to notify employees that the club would be closed that night.[C6-883] During much of the next hour Ruby talked by telephone to several persons who were or had been especially close to him, and the remainder of the time he watched television and spoke with Armstrong and Larry Crafard about the assassination.[C6-884] At 1:51 p.m., Ruby telephoned Ralph Paul in Arlington, Tex., to say that he was going to close his clubs. He urged Paul to do likewise with his drive-in restaurant.[C6-885] Unable to reach Alice Nichols, a former girl friend, who was at lunch, Ruby telephoned his sister, Eileen Kaminsky, in Chicago.[C6-886] Mrs. Kaminsky described her brother as completely unnerved and crying about President Kennedy’s death.[C6-887] To Mrs. Nichols, whose return call caused Ruby to cut short his conversation with Mrs. Kaminsky, Ruby expressed shock over the assassination.[C6-888] Although Mrs. Nichols had dated Ruby for nearly 11 years, she was surprised to hear from him on November 22 since they had not seen one another socially for some time.[C6-889] Thereafter, Ruby telephoned at 2:37 p.m. to Alex Gruber, a boyhood friend from Chicago who was living in Los Angeles.[C6-890] Gruber recalled that in their 3-minute conversation Ruby talked about a dog he had promised to send Gruber, a carwash business Gruber had considered starting, and the assassination.[C6-891] Ruby apparently lost his self-control during the conversation and terminated it.[C6-892] However, 2 minutes after that call ended, Ruby telephoned again to Ralph Paul.[C6-893]

Upon leaving the Carousel Club at about 3:15 p.m., Ruby drove to Eva Grant’s home but left soon after he arrived, to obtain some weekend food for his sister and himself.[C6-894] He first returned to the Carousel Club and directed Larry Crafard to prepare a sign indicating that the club would be closed; however, Ruby instructed Crafard not to post the sign until later in the evening to avoid informing his competitors that he would be closed.[C6-895] (See Commission Exhibit 2427, [p. 339].) Before leaving the club, Ruby telephoned Mrs. Grant who reminded him to purchase food.[C6-896] As a result he went to the Ritz Delicatessen, about two blocks from the Carousel Club, and bought a great quantity of cold cuts.[C6-897]

Ruby probably arrived a second time at his sister’s home close to 5:30 p.m. and remained for about 2 hours. He continued his rapid rate of telephone calls, ate sparingly, became ill, and attempted to get some rest.[C6-898] While at the apartment, Ruby decided to close his clubs for 3 days. He testified that after talking to Don Saffran, a columnist for the Dallas Times-Herald:

I put the receiver down and talked to my sister, and I said, “Eva, what shall we do?”

And she said, “Jack, let’s close for the 3 days.” She said, “We don’t have anything anyway, but we owe it to—” (chokes up.)

So I called Don Saffran back immediately and I said, “Don, we decided to close for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.”

And he said, “Okay.”[C6-899]

Ruby then telephoned the Dallas Morning News to cancel his advertisement and, when unable to do so, he changed his ad to read that his clubs would be closed for the weekend.[C6-900] Ruby also telephoned Cecil Hamlin, a friend of many years. Sounding very “broken up,” he told Hamlin that he had closed the clubs since he thought most people would not be in the mood to visit them and that he felt concern for President Kennedy’s “kids.”[C6-901] Thereafter he made two calls to ascertain when services at Temple Shearith Israel would be held.[C6-902] He placed a second call to Alice Nichols to tell her of his intention to attend those services[C6-903] and phoned Larry Crafard at the Carousel to ask whether he had received any messages.[C6-904] Eva Grant testified:

When he was leaving, he looked pretty bad. This I remember. I can’t explain it to you. He looked too broken, a broken man already. He did make the remark, he said, “I never felt so bad in my life, even when Ma or Pa died.”

So I said, “Well, Pa was an old man. He was almost 89 years. * * *”[C6-905]

Friday evening.—Ruby is uncertain whether he went directly from his sister’s home to his apartment or possibly first to his club.[C6-906] At least 5 witnesses recall seeing a man they believe was Ruby on the third floor of police headquarters at times they have estimated between 6 and 9 p.m.;[C6-907] however, it is not clear that Ruby was present at the Police and Courts Building before 11 p.m. With respect to three of the witnesses, it is doubtful that the man observed was Ruby. Two of those persons had not known Ruby previously and described wearing apparel which differed both from Ruby’s known dress that night and from his known wardrobe.[C6-908] The third, who viewed from the rear the person he believed was Ruby, said the man unsuccessfully attempted to enter the homicide office.[C6-909] Of the police officers on duty near homicide at the time of the alleged event, only one remembered the episode, and he said the man in question definitely was not Ruby.[C6-910] The remaining witnesses knew or talked with Ruby, and their testimony leaves little doubt that they did see him on the third floor at some point on Friday night; however the possibility remains that they observed Ruby later in the evening, when his presence is conclusively established.[C6-911] Ruby has denied being at the police department Friday night before approximately 11:15 p.m.[C6-912]

In any event, Ruby eventually returned to his own apartment before 9 p.m. There he telephoned Ralph Paul but was unable to persuade Paul to join him at synagogue services.[C6-913] Shortly after 9 p.m., Ruby called the Chicago home of his oldest brother, Hyman Rubenstein, and two of his sisters, Marion Carroll and Ann Volpert.[C6-914] Hyman Rubenstein testified that, during the call, his brother was so disturbed about the situation in Dallas that he mentioned selling his business and returning to Chicago.[C6-915] From his apartment, Ruby drove to Temple Shearith Israel, arriving near the end of a 2-hour service which had begun at 8 p.m.[C6-916] Rabbi Hillel Silverman, who greeted him among the crowd leaving the services[C6-917] was surprised that Ruby, who appeared depressed, mentioned only his sister’s recent illness and said nothing about the assassination.[C6-918]

(COMMISSION EXHIBIT 2427)

“CLOSED” SIGN POSTED IN THE WINDOW OF THE CAROUSEL CLUB AND RUBY’S NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENT ANNOUNCING THAT THE VEGAS AND CAROUSEL CLUBS WILL BE CLOSED

DALLAS TIMES HERALD
SATURDAY, NOV. 23, 1963
PAGE A-13

Ruby related that, after joining in the postservice refreshments,[C6-919] he drove by some night clubs, noticing whether or not they had been closed as his were.[C6-920] He testified that, as he drove toward town, a radio announcement that the Dallas police were working overtime prompted the thought that he might bring those at police headquarters something to eat.[C6-921] At about 10:30 p.m., he stopped at a delicatessen near the Vegas Club and purchased 8 kosher sandwiches and 10 soft drinks.[C6-922] From the delicatessen, he called the police department but was told that the officers had already eaten.[C6-923] He said he then tried to offer the food to employees at radio station KLIF but failed in several attempts to obtain the private night line number to the station.[C6-924] On three occasions between phone calls, Ruby spoke with a group of students whom he did not know, lamenting the President’s death, teasing one of the young men about being too young for his clubs, borrowing their copy of the Dallas Times Herald to see how his advertisements had been run, and stating that his clubs were the only ones that had closed because of the assassination. He also expressed the opinion, as he had earlier in the day, that the assassination would be harmful to the convention business in Dallas.[C6-925] Upon leaving the delicatessen with his purchases, Ruby gave the counterman as a tip a card granting free admission to his clubs.[C6-926] He drove downtown to the police station where he has said he hoped to find an employee from KLIF who could give him the “hot line” phone number for the radio station.[C6-927]

The third floor of police headquarters.—Ruby is known to have made his way, by about 11:30 p.m., to the third floor of the Dallas Police Department where reporters were congregated near the homicide bureau.[C6-928] Newsman John Rutledge, one of those who may well have been mistaken as to time, gave the following description of his first encounter with Ruby at the police station:

I saw Jack and two out-of-state reporters, whom I did not know, leave the elevator door and proceed toward those television cameras, to go around the corner where Captain Fritz’s office was. Jack walked between them. These two out-of-state reporters had big press cards pinned on their coats, great big red ones, I think they said “President Kennedy’s Visit to Dallas—Press”, or something like that. And Jack didn’t have one, but the man on either side of him did. And they walked pretty rapidly from the elevator area past the policeman, and Jack was bent over like this—writing on a piece of paper, and talking to one of the reporters, and pointing to something on the piece of paper, he was kind of hunched over.[C6-929]

Commission Exhibit No. 2424

Jack Ruby at press conference in basement assembly room about midnight November 22, 1963. (Jack Ruby is the individual in the dark suit, back row, right-hand side, wearing horn-rimmed glasses.)

Detective Augustus M. Eberhardt, who also recalled that he first saw Ruby earlier in the evening, said Ruby carried a note pad and professed to be a translator for the Israeli press. He remembered Ruby’s remarking how unfortunate the assassination was for the city of Dallas and that it was “hard to realize that a complete nothing, a zero like that, could kill a man like President Kennedy * * *.”[C6-930]

Video tapes confirm Ruby’s statement that he was present on the third floor when Chief Jesse E. Curry and District Attorney Henry M. Wade announced that Oswald would be shown to the newsmen at a press conference in the basement.[C6-931] Though he has said his original purpose was only to locate a KLIF employee, Ruby has stated that while at the police station he was “carried away with the excitement of history.”[C6-932] He accompanied the newsmen to the basement to observe Oswald. His presence at the midnight news conference is established by television tapes and by at least 12 witnesses.[C6-933] When Oswald arrived, Ruby, together with a number of newsmen, was standing atop a table on one side of the room.[C6-934] (See Commission Exhibit No. 2424, [p. 341].) Oswald was taken from the room after a brief appearance, and Ruby remained to hear reporters question District Attorney Wade. During the press conference, Wade stated that Oswald would probably be moved to the county jail at the beginning of the next week.[C6-935] In answer to one question, Wade said that Oswald belonged to the “Free Cuba Committee.” A few reporters spoke up correcting Wade and among the voices was that of Jack Ruby.[C6-936]

Ruby later followed the district attorney out of the press conference, walked up to him and, according to Wade, said “Hi Henry * * * Don’t you know me? * * * I am Jack Ruby, I run the Vegas Club. * * *”[C6-937] Ruby also introduced himself to Justice of the Peace David L. Johnston, shook his hand, gave Johnston a business card to the Carousel Club, and, upon learning Johnston’s official position, shook Johnston’s hand again.[C6-938] After talking with Johnston, he gave another card to Icarus M. Pappas, a reporter for New York radio station WNEW.[C6-939] From a representative of radio station KBOX in Dallas, Ruby obtained the “hot line” telephone number to KLIF.[C6-940] He then called the station and told one of the employees that he would like to come up to distribute the sandwiches and cold drinks he had purchased.[C6-941] Observing Pappas holding a telephone line open and attempting to get the attention of District Attorney Wade, Ruby directed Wade to Pappas, who proceeded to interview the district attorney.[C6-942] Ruby then called KLIF a second time and offered to secure an interview with Wade; he next summoned Wade to his phone, whereupon KLIF recorded a telephone interview with the district attorney.[C6-943] A few minutes later. Ruby encountered Russ Knight, a reporter from KLIF who had left the station for the police department at the beginning of Ruby’s second telephone call. Ruby directed Knight to Wade and waited a short distance away while the reporter conducted another interview with the district attorney.[C6-944]

At radio station KLIF.—When Ruby left police headquarters, he drove to radio station KLIF, arriving at approximately 1:45 a.m. and remaining for about 45 minutes.[C6-945] After first distributing his sandwiches and soft drinks, Ruby settled in the newsroom for the 2 a.m. newscast in which he was credited with suggesting that Russ Knight ask District Attorney Wade whether or not Oswald was sane.[C6-946] After the newscast, Ruby gave a Carousel card to one KLIF employee, although another did not recall that Ruby was promoting his club as he normally did.[C6-947] When speaking with KLIF’s Danny Patrick McCurdy, Ruby mentioned that he was going to close his clubs for the weekend and that he would rather lose $1,200 or $1,500 than remain open at that time in the Nation’s history. McCurdy remembered that Ruby “looked rather pale to me as he was talking to me and he kept looking at the floor.”[C6-948] To announcer Glen Duncan, Ruby expressed satisfaction that the evidence was mounting against Oswald. Duncan said that Ruby did not appear to be grieving but, instead, seemed pleased about the personal contact he had had with the investigation earlier in the evening.[C6-949]

Ruby left the radio station accompanied by Russ Knight. Engaging Knight in a short conversation, Ruby handed him a radio script entitled “Heroism” from a conservative radio program called “Life Line.” It was apparently one of the scripts that had come into Ruby’s hands a few weeks before at the Texas Products Show when Hunt Foods were including such scripts with samples of their products.[C6-950] The script extolled the virtues of those who embark upon risky business ventures and stand firmly for causes they believe to be correct.[C6-951] Ruby asked Knight’s views on the script and suggested that there was a group of “radicals” in Dallas which hated President Kennedy and that the owner of the radio station should editorialize against this group. Knight could not clearly determine whether Ruby had reference to persons who sponsored programs like “Life Line” or to those who held leftwing views.[C6-952] Knight gained the impression that Ruby believed such persons, whoever they might be, were partially responsible for the assassination.[C6-953]

Early morning of November 23.—At about 2:30 a.m., Ruby entered his automobile and departed for the Dallas Times-Herald Building. En route, he stopped for about an hour to speak with Kay Helen Coleman, one of his dancers, and Harry Olsen, a member of the Dallas Police Department, who had hailed him from a parking garage at the corner of Jackson and Field Streets. The couple were crying and extremely upset over the assassination. At one point, according to Ruby, the police officer remarked that “they should cut this guy [Oswald] inch by inch into ribbons,” and the dancer said that “in England they would drag him through the streets and would have hung him.”[C6-954] Although Ruby failed to mention this episode during his first two FBI interviews,[C6-955] he later explained that his reason for failing to do so was that he did not “want to involve them in anything, because it was supposed to be a secret that he [the police officer] was going with this young lady.”[C6-956] About 6 weeks after the assassination, Olsen left the Dallas Police Department and married Miss Coleman. Both Olsen and his wife testified that they were greatly upset during their lengthy conversation with Ruby early Saturday morning; but Mrs. Olsen denied and Olsen did not recall the remarks ascribed to them.[C6-957] The Olsens claimed instead that Ruby had cursed Oswald.[C6-958] Mrs. Olsen also mentioned that Ruby expressed sympathy for Mrs. Kennedy and her children.[C6-959]

From Jackson and Field Streets, Ruby drove to the Dallas Times-Herald, where he talked for about 15 minutes with composing room employee Roy Pryor, who had just finished a shift at 4 a.m. Ruby mentioned that he had seen Oswald earlier in the night, that he had corrected Henry Wade in connection with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, and that he had set up a telephone interview with Wade. Pryor testified that Ruby explicitly stated to him that he believed he was in good favor with the district attorney.[C6-960] Recalling that Ruby described Oswald as a “little weasel of a guy” and was emotionally concerned about the President’s wife and children, Pryor also was impressed by Ruby’s sorrowful mood and remembered that, as he talked, Ruby shook a newspaper to emphasize his concern over the assassination.[C6-961]

When Pryor left the composing room, Ruby remained and continued speaking with other employees, including Arthur Watherwax and the foreman, Clyde Gadash. Ruby, who often visited the Times-Herald at that early morning hour in connection with his ads, sought Watherwax’s views on his decision to close his clubs and indicated he was going to attempt to persuade other club owners to do likewise. Watherwax described Ruby as “pretty shaken up” about the assassination and at the same time “excited” that he had attended Oswald’s Friday night press conference.[C6-962]

While at the Times-Herald, Ruby displayed to the composing room employees a “twistboard” he had previously promised to Gadash.[C6-963] The twistboard was an exercising device consisting of two pieces of hardened materials joined together by a lazy susan bearing so that one piece could remain stationary on the floor while a person stood atop it and swiveled to and fro.[C6-964] Ruby had been trying to promote sales of the board in the weeks before President Kennedy was killed.[C6-965] Considerable merriment developed when one of the women employees at the Times-Herald demonstrated the board, and Ruby himself, put on a demonstration for those assembled.[C6-966] He later testified: “* * * not that I wanted to get in with the hilarity of frolicking, but he [Gadash] asked me to show him, and the other men gathered around.”[C6-967] Gadash agreed that Ruby’s general mood was one of sorrow.[C6-968]

At about 4:30 a.m., Ruby drove from the Dallas Times-Herald to his apartment where he awakened his roommate George Senator.[C6-969] During his visit in the composing room Ruby had expressed the view that the Weissman advertisement was an effort to discredit the Jews.[C6-970] Senator testified that when Ruby returned to the apartment, he began to discuss the Weissman advertisement and also a signboard he had seen in Dallas urging that Chief Justice Earl Warren be impeached.[C6-971] Shortly thereafter, Ruby telephoned Larry Crafard at the Carousel Club.[C6-972] He told Crafard to meet him and Senator at the Nichols Garage adjacent to the Carousel Club and to bring a Polaroid camera kept in the club.[C6-973] After Crafard joined Ruby and Senator, the three men drove to the “Impeach Earl Warren” sign near Hall Avenue and Central Expressway in Dallas. There Ruby instructed Crafard to take three photographs of the billboard. Believing that the sign and the Weissman newspaper ad might somehow be connected, Ruby noted on the back of an envelope a name and post office box number that appeared on the sign.[C6-974] According to George Senator:

* * * when he was looking at the sign and taking pictures of it, and the newspaper ad, * * * this is where he really wanted to know the whys or why these things had to be out. He is trying to combine these two together, which I did hear him say, “This is the work of the John Birch Society or the Communist Party or maybe a combination of both.”[C6-975]

Pursuing a possible connection between the billboard and the newspaper advertisement, Ruby drove to the post office and asked a postal employee for the name of the man who had rented the box indicated on the billboard, but the employee said that he could not provide such information. Ruby inspected the box, however, and was upset to find it stuffed with mail.[C6-976] The three men then drove to a coffeeshop where Ruby continued to discuss the two advertisements. After about 30 minutes, they left the coffeeshop. Crafard was taken to the Carousel Club; Ruby and Senator returned to their apartment,[C6-977] and Ruby retired at about 6 a.m.[C6-978]

The morning and afternoon of November 23.—At 8 or 8:30 a.m. Crafard, who had been asked to feed Ruby’s dogs, telephoned Ruby at his apartment to inquire about food for the animals.[C6-979] Ruby forgot that he had told Crafard he did not plan to go to bed and reprimanded Crafard for waking him.[C6-980] A few hours thereafter Crafard assembled his few belongings, took from the Carousel cash register $5 of money due him from Ruby, left a receipt and thank-you note, and began hitchhiking to Michigan. Later that day, Andrew Armstrong found the note and telephoned Ruby.[C6-981]

Ruby apparently did not return to bed following Crafard’s call. During the morning hours, he watched a rabbi deliver on television a moving eulogy of President Kennedy.[C6-982] According to Ruby, the rabbi:

went ahead and eulogized that here is a man that fought in every battle, went to every country, and had to come back to his own country to be shot in the back [starts crying] * * *. That created a tremendous emotional feeling for me, the way he said that. Prior to all the other times, I was carried away.[C6-983]

An employee from the Carousel Club who telephoned Ruby during the morning remembered that his “voice was shaking” when he spoke of the assassination.[C6-984]

Ruby has stated that, upon leaving his apartment some time between noon and 1:30 p.m., he drove to Dealey Plaza where a police officer, who noted Ruby’s solemnity, pointed out to him the window from which the rifleshots had been fired the day before.[C6-985] Ruby related that he inspected the wreaths that had been placed in memory of the President and became filled with emotion while speaking with the police officer.[C6-986] Ruby introduced himself to a reporter for radio station KRLD who was working inside a mobile news unit at the plaza; the newsman mentioned to Ruby that he had heard of Ruby’s help to KLIF in obtaining an interview with Henry Wade, and Ruby pointed out to the reporter that Capt. J. Will Fritz and Chief Curry were then in the vicinity. Thereafter, the newsman interviewed and photographed the officers.[C6-987] Ruby said that he next drove home and returned downtown to Sol’s Turf Bar on Commerce Street.[C6-988]

The evidence indicated, however, that sometime after leaving Dealey Plaza, Ruby went to the Nichols Parking Garage adjacent to the Carousel Club, where he was seen by Garnett C. Hallmark, general manager of the garage, and Tom Brown, an attendant. Brown believed that at about 1:30 p.m. he heard Ruby mention Chief Curry’s name in a telephone conversation from the garage. Brown also recalled that, before finally departing, Ruby asked him to inform acquaintances whom he expected to stop by the garage that the Carousel would be closed.[C6-989] Hallmark testified that Ruby drove into the garage at about 3 p.m., walked to the telephone, inquired whether or not a competing burlesque club would be closed that night, and told Hallmark that he (Ruby) was “acting like a reporter.”[C6-990] Hallmark then heard Ruby address someone at the other end of the telephone as “Ken” and caught portions of a conversation concerning the transfer of Oswald.[C6-991] Hallmark said Ruby never called Oswald by name but used the pronoun “he” and remarked to the recipient of the call, “you know I’ll be there.”[C6-992]

Ken Dowe, a KLIF announcer, to whom Ruby made at least two telephone calls within a short span of time Saturday afternoon, confirmed that he was probably the person to whom Hallmark and Brown overheard Ruby speaking. In one call to Dowe, Ruby asked whether the station knew when Oswald would be moved; and, in another, he stated he was going to attempt to locate Henry Wade.[C6-993] After Ruby finished his calls, he walked onto Commerce Street, passed the Carousel Club, and returned a few minutes later to get his car.[C6-994]

Ruby’s comment that he was “acting like a reporter” and that he would be at the Oswald transfer suggests that Ruby may have spent part of Saturday afternoon shuttling back and forth from the Police and Courts Building to Dealey Plaza. Such activity would explain the fact that Tom Brown at the Nichols Garage believed he saw Ruby at 1:30 p.m. while Garnett Hallmark placed Ruby at the garage at 3 p.m. It would also explain Ken Dowe’s receiving two phone calls from Ruby. The testimony of five news reporters supports the possibility that Ruby was at the Police and Courts Building Saturday afternoon.[C6-995] One stated that Ruby provided sandwiches for newsmen on duty there Saturday afternoon, although no news representative has mentioned personally receiving such sandwiches.[C6-996] Another testified that he received a card to the Carousel Club from Ruby about 4 p.m. that day at the police station.[C6-997] A third believed he saw Ruby enter an office in which Henry Wade was working, but no one else reported a similar event.[C6-998] The remaining two witnesses mentioned no specific activities.[C6-999] None of the persons who believed they saw Ruby at the police department on Saturday had known him previously, and no police officer has reported Ruby’s presence on that day. Ruby has not mentioned such a visit. The Commission, therefore, reached no firm conclusion as to whether or not Ruby visited the Dallas Police Department on Saturday.

Shortly after 3 p.m. Ruby went to Sol’s Turf Bar on Commerce Street where he remained for about 45 minutes. Ruby, a nondrinker, stated that he visited Sol’s for the purpose of talking with his accountant, who customarily prepared the bar’s payroll on Saturday afternoon. The accountant testified, however, that he saw Ruby only briefly and mentioned no business conversation with Ruby.[C6-1000] Ruby was first noticed at the Turf Bar by jeweler Frank Bellochio, who, after seeing Ruby, began to berate the people of Dallas for the assassination.[C6-1001] Ruby disagreed and, when Bellochio said he might close his jewelry business and leave Dallas, Ruby attempted to calm him, saying that there were many good citizens in Dallas.[C6-1002] In response, Bellochio pointed to a copy of the Bernard Weissman advertisement.[C6-1003] To Bellochio’s bewilderment, Ruby then said he believed that the advertisement was the work of a group attempting to create anti-Semitic feelings in Dallas and that he had learned from the Dallas Morning News that the ad had been paid for partly in cash.[C6-1004] Ruby thereupon produced one of the photographs he had taken Saturday morning of the “Impeach Earl Warren” sign and excitedly began to rail against the sign as if he agreed with Bellochio’s original criticism of Dallas.[C6-1005] He “seemed to be taking two sides—he wasn’t coherent,” Bellochio testified.[C6-1006] When Bellochio saw Ruby’s photographs, which Bellochio thought supported his argument against Dallas, he walked to the front of the bar and showed them to Tom Apple, with whom he had been previously arguing. In Apple’s presence, Bellochio asked Ruby for one of the pictures but Ruby refused, mentioning that he regarded the pictures as a scoop.[C6-1007] Bellochio testified: “I spoke to Tom and said a few more words to Tom, and Ruby was gone—never said ‘Goodbye’ or ‘I’ll be seeing you.’”[C6-1008]

Ruby may have left in order to telephone Stanley Kaufman, a friend and attorney who had represented him in civil matters.[C6-1009] Kaufman testified that, at approximately 4 p.m., Ruby called him about the Bernard Weissman advertisement. According to Kaufman, “Jack was particularly impressed with the [black] border as being a tipoff of some sort—that this man knew the President was going to be assassinated * * *.”[C6-1010] Ruby told Kaufman that he had tried to locate Weissman by going to the post office and said that he was attempting to be helpful to law enforcement authorities.[C6-1011]

Considerable confusion exists as to the place from which Ruby placed the call to Kaufman and as to his activities after leaving Sol’s Turf Bar. Eva Grant stated that the call was made from her apartment about 4 p.m.[C6-1012] Ruby, however, believed it was made from the Turf Bar. He stated that from the Turf Bar he went to the Carousel and then home and has not provided additional details on his activities during the hours from about 4 to 9:30 p.m.[C6-1013] Robert Larkin saw him downtown at about 6 p.m.[C6-1014] and Andrew Armstrong testified that Ruby visited the Carousel Club between 6 and 7 p.m. and remained about an hour.[C6-1015]

At Eva Grant’s apartment Saturday evening.—Eva Grant believed that, for most of the period from 4 until 8 p.m., Ruby was at her apartment. Mrs. Grant testified that her brother was still disturbed about the Weissman advertisement when he arrived, showed her the photograph of the Warren sign, and recounted his argument with Bellochio about the city of Dallas. Still curious as to whether or not Weissman was Jewish, Mrs. Grant asked her brother whether he had been able to find the name Bernard Weissman in the Dallas city directory, and Ruby said he had not. Their doubts about Weissman’s existence having been confirmed, both began to speculate that the Weissman ad and the Warren sign were the work of either “Commies or the Birchers,” and were designed to discredit the Jews.[C6-1016] Apparently in the midst of that conversation Ruby telephoned Russ Knight at KLIF and, according to Knight, asked who Earl Warren was.[C6-1017]

Mrs. Grant has testified that Ruby eventually retired to her bedroom where he made telephone calls and slept.[C6-1018] About 8:30 p.m., Ruby telephoned to Thomas J. O’Grady, a friend and former Dallas police officer who had once worked for Ruby as a bouncer. To O’Grady, Ruby mentioned closing the Carousel Club, criticized his competitors for remaining open, and complained about the “Impeach Earl Warren” sign.[C6-1019]

Saturday evening at Ruby’s apartment.—By 9:30 p.m., Ruby had apparently returned to his apartment where he received a telephone call from one of his striptease dancers, Karen Bennett Carlin, who, together with her husband, had been driven from Fort Worth to Dallas that evening by another dancer, Nancy Powell.[C6-1020] All three had stopped at the Colony Club, a burlesque nightclub which competed with the Carousel.[C6-1021] Mrs. Carlin testified that, in need of money, she telephoned Ruby, asked whether the Carousel would be open that night, and requested part of her salary.[C6-1022] According to Mrs. Carlin, Ruby became angry at the suggestion that the Carousel Club might be open for business but told her he would come to the Carousel in about an hour.[C6-1023]

Thereafter, in a depressed mood, Ruby telephoned his sister Eva Grant, who suggested he visit a friend.[C6-1024] Possibly in response to that suggestion, Ruby called Lawrence Meyers, a friend from Chicago with whom he had visited two nights previously.[C6-1025] Meyers testified that, during their telephone conversation, Ruby asked him what he thought of this “terrible thing,” Ruby then began to criticize his competitors, Abe and Barney Weinstein, for failing to close their clubs on Saturday night. In the course of his conversation about the Weinsteins and the assassination, Ruby said “I’ve got to do something about this.”[C6-1026] Meyers initially understood that remark to refer to the Weinsteins. Upon reflection after Oswald was shot, Meyers was uncertain whether Ruby was referring to his competitors, or to the assassination of President Kennedy; for Ruby had also spoken at length about Mrs. Kennedy and had repeated “those poor people, those poor people.”[C6-1027] At the conclusion of their conversation, Meyers declined Ruby’s invitation to join him for a cup of coffee but invited Ruby to join him at the motel. When Ruby also declined, the two agreed to meet for dinner the following evening.[C6-1028]

Meanwhile, Karen Carlin and her husband grew anxious over Ruby’s failure to appear with the money they had requested.[C6-1029] After a substantial wait, they returned together to the Nichols Garage where Mr. Carlin telephoned to Ruby.[C6-1030] Carlin testified that he told Ruby they needed money in order to return to Fort Worth[C6-1031] although Nancy Powell testified that she drove the Carlins home that evening.[C6-1032] Agreeing to advance a small sum, Ruby asked to speak to Mrs. Carlin, who claimed that Ruby told her that if she needed more money she should call him on Sunday.[C6-1033] Thereafter, at Ruby’s request, garage attendant Huey Reeves gave Mrs. Carlin $5, and she signed with her stage name “Little Lynn” a receipt which Reeves time-stamped 10:33 p.m., November 23.[C6-1034] (See Commission Exhibit No. 1476, [p. 351].)

Inconsistent testimony was developed regarding Ruby’s activities during the next 45 minutes. Eva Grant testified that she did not see her brother on Saturday night after 8 p.m. and has denied calling Ralph Paul herself that night.[C6-1035] Nonetheless, telephone company records revealed that at 10:44 p.m. a call was made to Ralph Paul’s Bull Pen Drive-In in Arlington, Tex., from Mrs. Grant’s apartment.[C6-1036] It was the only call to Paul from her apartment on Friday or Saturday;[C6-1037] she recalled her brother making such a call that weekend;[C6-1038] and Ralph Paul has testified that Ruby telephoned him Saturday night from Eva Grant’s apartment and said he and his sister were there crying.[C6-1039]

Nineteen-year-old Wanda Helmick, a former waitress at the Bull Pen Drive-In, first reported in June, 1964 that some time during the evening she saw the cashier answer the Bull Pan’s pay telephone and heard her call out to Paul, “It is for you. It is Jack.”[C6-1040] Mrs. Helmick claimed she overheard Paul, speaking on the telephone, mention something about a gun which, she understood from Paul’s conversation, the caller had in his possession. She said she also heard Paul exclaim “Are you crazy?”[C6-1041] She provided no other details of the conversation. Mrs. Helmick claimed that on Sunday, November 24, after Oswald had been shot, she heard Paul repeat the substance of the call to other employees as she had related it and that Paul said Ruby was the caller.[C6-1042] Ralph Paul denied the allegations of Mrs. Helmick.[C6-1043] Both Paul and Mrs. Helmick agreed that Paul went home soon after the call, apparently about 11 p.m.[C6-1044]

Shortly after 11 p.m., Ruby arrived at the Nichols Garage where he repaid Huey Reeves and obtained the receipt Mrs. Carlin had signed.[C6-1045] Outside the Carousel, Ruby exchanged greetings with Police Officer Harry Olsen and Kay Coleman, whom he had seen late the previous night.[C6-1046] Going upstairs to the club, Ruby made a series of five brief long-distance phone calls, the first being to the Bull Pen Drive-In at 11:18 p.m. and lasting only 1 minute.[C6-1047] Apparently unable to reach Paul there, Ruby telephoned Paul’s home in Arlington, Tex., for 3 minutes.[C6-1048] A third call was placed at 11:36 p.m. for 2 minutes, again to Paul’s home.[C6-1049] At 11:44 p.m. Ruby telephoned Breck Wall, a friend and entertainer who had gone to Galveston, Tex., when his show in Dallas suspended its performance out of respect to President Kennedy. The call lasted 2 minutes.[C6-1050] Thereafter, Ruby immediately placed a 1-minute phone call to Paul’s home.[C6-1051]

Although Ruby has mentioned those calls, he has not provided details to the Commission; however, he has denied ever indicating to Paul or Wall that he was going to shoot Oswald and has said he did not consider such action until Sunday morning.[C6-1052] Ralph Paul did not mention the late evening calls in his interview with FBI agents on November 24, 1963.[C6-1053] Later Paul testified that Ruby called him from downtown to say that nobody was doing any business.[C6-1054] Breck Wall testified that Ruby called him to determine whether or not the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA), which represented striptease dancers in Dallas, had met concerning a dispute Ruby was having with the union.[C6-1055] Ruby’s major difference with AGVA during the preceding 2 weeks had involved what Ruby considered to be AGVA’s failure to enforce against his 2 competitors, Abe and Barney Weinstein, AGVA’s ban on “striptease contests” and performances by “amateurs.”[C6-1056] As recently as Wednesday, November 20, Ruby had telephoned an AGVA representative in Chicago about that complaint and earlier in November he had unsuccessfully sought to obtain assistance from a San Francisco gambler and a Chicagoan reputed for his heavyhanded union activities.[C6-1057] Wall testified that Ruby “was very upset the President was assassinated and he called Abe Weinstein or Bernie Weinstein * * * some names for staying open * * *.” Wall added, “he was very upset * * * that they did not have the decency to close on such a day and he thought out of respect they should close.”[C6-1058]

Ruby’s activities after midnight.—After completing the series of calls to Paul and Wall at 11:48 p.m., Ruby went to the Pago Club, about a 10-minute drive from the Carousel Club.[C6-1059] He took a table near the middle of the club and, after ordering a Coke, asked the waitress in a disapproving tone, “Why are you open?”[C6-1060] When Robert Norton, the club’s manager, joined Ruby a few minutes later he expressed to Ruby his concern as to whether or not it was proper to operate the Pago Club that evening. Ruby indicated that the Carousel was closed but did not criticize Norton for remaining open.[C6-1061] Norton raised the topic of President Kennedy’s death and said, “[W]e couldn’t do enough to the person that [did] this sort of thing.” Norton added, however, that “Nobody has the right to take the life of another one.”[C6-1062] Ruby expressed no strong opinion, and closed the conversation by saying he was going home because he was tired.[C6-1063] Later, Ruby told the Commission: “he knew something was wrong with me in the certain mood I was in.”[C6-1064]

(COMMISSION EXHIBIT 1476)
COPY OF RECEIPT GIVEN BY LITTLE LYNN TO HUEY REEVES AT 10:33 P.M., NOVEMBER 23, 1963

(DOYLE LANE DEPOSITION 5118)
COPY OF TELEGRAM ORDER FOR MONEY SENT TO LITTLE LYNN ON NOVEMBER 24, 1963, STAMPED 11:17 A.M.

(DOYLE LANE DEPOSITION 5119)
COPY OF WESTERN UNION OFFICE COPY OF RECEIPT GIVEN TO JACK RUBY ON NOVEMBER 24, 1963, STAMPED 11:17 A.M.

(COMMISSION EXHIBIT 2420)
COPY OF FACE OF WESTERN UNION RECEIPT GIVEN TO JACK RUBY ON NOVEMBER 24, 1963

(COMMISSION EXHIBIT 2421)
COPY OF BACK OF WESTERN UNION RECEIPT GIVEN TO JACK RUBY ON NOVEMBER 24, 1963, STAMPED 11:16 A.M.

Ruby testified that he went home after speaking with Norton and went to bed about 1:30 a.m.[C6-1065] By that time, George Senator claimed, he had retired for the night and did not remember Ruby’s return.[C6-1066] Eva Grant testified that her brother telephoned her at about 12:45 a.m. to learn how she was feeling.[C6-1067]

Sunday morning.—Ruby’s activities on Sunday morning are the subject of conflicting testimony. George Senator believed that Ruby did not rise until 9 or 9:30 a.m.;[C6-1068] both Ruby and Senator maintained that Ruby did not leave their apartment until shortly before 11:00 a.m., and two other witnesses have provided testimony which supports that account of Ruby’s whereabouts.[C6-1069] On the other hand, three WBAP-TV television technicians—Warren Richey, John Smith, and Ira Walker—believed they saw Ruby near the Police and Courts Building at various times between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m.[C6-1070] But there are substantial reasons to doubt the accuracy of their identifications. None had ever seen Ruby on a prior occasion. None looked for an extended period at the man believed to be Ruby,[C6-1071] and all were occupied with their duties and had no reason to remember the man’s appearance until they saw Ruby’s picture on television.[C6-1072]

Smith, for one, was not entirely positive about his identification of Ruby as the man he saw;[C6-1073] and Richey was looking down from atop a TV mobile unit when he observed on the sidewalk the man he believed was Ruby.[C6-1074] In addition, Richey and Smith provided descriptions of Ruby which differ substantially from information about Ruby gathered from other sources. Smith described the man he saw as being an “unkempt person that possibly could have slept with his clothes on * * *.”[C6-1075] Ruby was characteristically clean and well groomed.[C6-1076] In fact, Senator testified that Ruby shaved and dressed before leaving their apartment that morning, and at the time Ruby shot Oswald he was dressed in a hat and business suit.[C6-1077] Richey described Ruby as wearing a grayish overcoat,[C6-1078] while investigation indicated that Ruby did not own an overcoat and was not wearing one at the time of the shooting.[C6-1079] (See Pappas Deposition Exhibit No. 1, [p. 356].) Although Walker’s identification of Ruby is the most positive, his certainty must be contrasted with the indefinite identification made by Smith, who had seen the man on one additional occasion.[C6-1080] Both Smith and Walker saw a man resembling Ruby when the man, on two occasions, looked through the window of their mobile news unit and once asked whether Oswald had been transferred. Both saw only the man’s head, and Smith was closer to the window; yet Smith would not state positively that the man was Ruby.[C6-1081] Finally, video tapes of scenes on Sunday morning near the NBC van show a man close to the Commerce Street entrance who might have been mistaken for Ruby.[C6-1082]

George Senator said that when he arose, before 9 a.m., he began to do his laundry in the basement of the apartment building while Ruby slept.[C6-1083] During Senator’s absence, Ruby received a telephone call from his cleaning lady, Mrs. Elnora Pitts, who testified that she called sometime between 8:30 and 9 a.m. to learn whether Ruby wanted her to clean his apartment that day.[C6-1084] Mrs. Pitts remembered that Ruby “sounded terrible strange to me.” She said that “there was something wrong with him the way he was talking to me.”[C6-1085] Mrs. Pitts explained that, although she had regularly been cleaning Ruby’s apartment on Sundays, Ruby seemed not to comprehend who she was or the reason for her call and required her to repeat herself several times.[C6-1086] As Senator returned to the apartment after the call, he was apparently mistaken for Ruby by a neighbor, Sidney Evans, Jr. Evans had never seen Ruby before but recalled observing a man resembling Ruby, clad in trousers and T-shirt, walk upstairs from the “washateria” in the basement of their building and enter Ruby’s suite with a load of laundry. Later in the morning, Malcolm Slaughter who shared an apartment with Evans, saw an individual, similarly clad, on the same floor as Ruby’s apartment.[C6-1087] Senator stated that it was not Ruby’s custom to do his own washing and that Ruby did not do so that morning.[C6-1088]

While Senator was in the apartment, Ruby watched television, made himself coffee and scrambled eggs, and received, at 10:19 a.m., a telephone call from his entertainer, Karen Carlin.[C6-1089] Mrs. Carlin testified that in her telephone conversation she asked Ruby for $25 inasmuch as her rent was delinquent and she needed groceries.[C6-1090] She said that Ruby, who seemed upset, mentioned that he was going downtown anyway and that he would send the money from the Western Union office.[C6-1091] According to George Senator, Ruby then probably took a half hour or more to bathe and dress.[C6-1092]

Supporting the accounts given by Mrs. Carlin and Mrs. Pitts of Ruby’s emotional state, Senator testified that during the morning Ruby:

* * * was even mumbling, which I didn’t understand. And right after breakfast he got dressed. Then after he got dressed he was pacing the floor from the living room to the bedroom, from the bedroom to the living room, and his lips were going. What he was jabbering I don’t know. But he was really pacing.[C6-1093]

Ruby has described to the Commission his own emotions of Sunday morning as follows:

* * * Sunday morning * * * [I] saw a letter to Caroline, two columns about a 16-inch area. Someone had written a letter to Caroline. The most heartbreaking letter. I don’t remember the contents. * * * alongside that letter on the same sheet of paper was a small comment in the newspaper that, I don’t know how it was stated, that Mrs. Kennedy may have to come back for the trial of Lee Harvey Oswald. * * *

I don’t know what bug got ahold of me. I don’t know what it is, but I am going to tell the truth word for word.

I am taking a pill called Preludin. It is a harmless pill, and it is very easy to get in the drugstore. It isn’t a highly prescribed pill. I use it for dieting.

I don’t partake of that much food. I think that was a stimulus to give me an emotional feeling that suddenly I felt, which was so stupid, that I wanted to show my love for our faith, being of the Jewish faith, and I never used the term and I don’t want to go into that—suddenly the feeling, the emotional feeling came within me that someone owed this debt to our beloved President to save her the ordeal of coming back. I don’t know why that came through my mind.[C6-1094]

(See Commission Exhibit No. 2426, [p. 355].)

Sunday morning trip to police department.—Leaving his apartment a few minutes before 11 a.m., Ruby went to his automobile taking with him his dachshund, Sheba, and a portable radio.[C6-1095] He placed in his pocket a revolver which he routinely carried in a bank moneybag in the trunk of his car.[C6-1096] Listening to the radio, he drove downtown, according to his own testimony, by a route that took him past Dealey Plaza where he observed the scattered wreaths. Ruby related that he noted the crowd that had gathered outside the county jail and assumed that Oswald had already been transferred. However, when he passed the Main Street side of the Police and Courts Building, which is situated on the same block as the Western Union office, he also noted the crowd that was gathered outside that building.[C6-1097] Normal driving time for the trip from his apartment would have been about 15 minutes, but Ruby’s possible haste and the slow movement of traffic through Dealey Plaza make a reliable estimate difficult.[C6-1098]

Ruby parked his car in a lot directly across the street from the Western Union office. He apparently placed his keys and billfold in the trunk of the car, then locked the trunk, which contained approximately $1,000 in cash, and placed the trunk key in the glove compartment of the car. He did not lock the car doors.[C6-1099]

With his revolver, more than $2,000 in cash, and no personal identification, Ruby walked from the parking lot across the street to the Western Union office where he filled out forms for sending $25 by telegraph to Karen Carlin.[C6-1100] After waiting in line while one other Western Union customer completed her business,[C6-1101] Ruby paid for the telegram and retained as a receipt one of three time-stamped documents which show that the transaction was completed at almost exactly 11:17 a.m., c.s.t.[C6-1102] (See Commission Exhibits Nos. 1476, 2420, 2421; D. Lane Deposition Exhibits Nos. 5118, 5119, [p. 351].) The Western Union clerk who accepted Ruby’s order recalls that Ruby promptly turned, walked out of the door onto Main Street, and proceeded in the direction of the police department one block away.[C6-1103] The evidence set forth in chapter V indicates that Ruby entered the police basement through the auto ramp from Main Street and stood behind the front rank of newsmen and police officers who were crowded together at the base of the ramp awaiting the transfer of Oswald to the county jail.[C6-1104] As Oswald emerged from a basement office at approximately 11:21 a.m., Ruby moved quickly forward and, without speaking,[C6-1105] fired one fatal shot into Oswald’s abdomen before being subdued by a rush of police officers.[C6-1106]

BEDROOM OF JACK RUBY’S APARTMENT

(COMMISSION EXHIBIT 2426)

ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON NOVEMBER 24, 1963, A COPY OF THAT MORNING’S DALLAS TIMES HERALD WAS FOUND AT THE FOOT OF JACK RUBY’S BED (B). AS REVEALED IN THE BLOW-UP (A), THE PAPER WAS OPEN TO PAGE A-3 (A AND D). THE FACING PAGE, 2-A, BORE A LETTER TO CAROLINE KENNEDY (C) WHICH JACK RUBY TESTIFIED THAT HE READ THAT MORNING BEFORE SHOOTING LEE HARVEY OSWALD.

---

JACK RUBY MOVING TOWARD OSWALD IN FRONT OF NEWSMAN IKE PAPPAS

PAPPAS DEPOSITION EXHIBIT 1

PAPPAS DEPOSITION EXHIBIT 2

Evaluation of activities.—Examination of Ruby’s activities immediately preceding and following the death of President Kennedy revealed no sign of any conduct which suggests that he was involved in the assassination. Prior to the tragedy, Ruby’s activities were routine. Though persons who saw him between November 22 and 24 disagree as to whether or not he appeared more upset than others around him, his response to the assassination appears to have been one of genuine shock and grief. His indications of concern over the possible effects of the assassination upon his businesses seem consistent with other evidence of his character.[C6-1107] During the course of the weekend, Ruby seems to have become obsessed with the possibility that the Impeach Earl Warren sign and the Bernard Weissman ad were somehow connected and related to the assassination. However, Ruby’s interest in these public notices was openly expressed and, as discussed below, the evidence reveals no connection between him and any political organization.

Examination of Larry Crafard’s sudden departure from Dallas shortly before noon on November 23 does not suggest that Ruby was involved in a conspiracy. To be sure, Crafard started hitchhiking to Michigan, where members of his family lived, with only $7 in his pocket.[C6-1108] He made no attempt to communicate with law enforcement officials after Oswald’s death;[C6-1109] and a relative in Michigan recalled that Crafard spoke very little of his association with Ruby.[C6-1110] When finally located by the FBI 6 days later, he stated that he left Ruby’s employ because he did not wish to be subjected to further verbal abuse by Ruby and that he went north to see his sister, from whom he had not heard in some time.[C6-1111]

An investigation of Crafard’s unusual behavior confirms that his departure from Dallas was innocent. After Oswald was shot, FBI agents obtained from the Carousel Club an unmailed letter drafted by Crafard to a relative in Michigan at least a week before the assassination.[C6-1112] The letter revealed that he was considering leaving Dallas at that time.[C6-1113] On November 17, Crafard, who had been receiving only room, board, and incidental expenses, told Ruby he wanted to stop working for him; however, Crafard agreed to remain when Ruby promised a salary.[C6-1114] Then on the morning of November 23, Ruby and Crafard had a minor altercation over the telephone.[C6-1115] Although Crafard did not voluntarily make known to the authorities his associations with Ruby, he spoke freely and with verifiable accuracy when questioned. The automobile driver who provided Crafard his first ride from Dallas has been located; his statement generally conforms with Crafard’s story; and he did not recall any unusual or troubled behavior by Crafard during that ride.[C6-1116]

Although Crafard’s peremptory decision to leave Dallas might be unusual for most persons, such behavior does not appear to have been uncommon for him. His family residence had shifted frequently among California, Michigan, and Oregon.[C6-1117] During his 22 years, he had earned his livelihood picking crops, working in carnivals, and taking other odd jobs throughout the country.[C6-1118] According to his testimony, he had previously hitchhiked across the country with his then wife and two infant children.[C6-1119] Against such a background, it is most probable that the factors motivating Crafard’s departure from Dallas on November 23 were dissatisfaction with his existence in Ruby’s employ, which he had never considered more than temporary, Ruby’s decision to close his clubs for 3 days, the argument on Saturday morning, and his own desire to see his relatives in Michigan. There is no evidence to suggest any connection between Crafard’s departure and the assassination of the President or the shooting of Oswald.

The allegations of Wanda Helmick raised speculation that Ruby’s Saturday night phone calls to Ralph Paul and Breck Wall might have concerned the shooting of Oswald, but investigation has found nothing to indicate that the calls had conspiratorial implications. Paul was a close friend, business associate, and adviser to Jack Ruby. Ruby normally kept in close telephone contact with Paul, who had a substantial sum of money committed to the Carousel Club.[C6-1120] Paul explained that Ruby called him Saturday evening once to point out his ads, another time to say that nobody seemed to be doing any business in downtown Dallas, and a third time to relate that both he and his sister were crying over the assassination.[C6-1121] Between two of those phone calls to Paul, Ruby telephoned to Galveston, Tex., to speak with Wall, a friend and former business associate who was an official of the American Guild of Variety Artists. Wall related that during that call Ruby criticized the Weinsteins for failing to close their clubs.

Having earlier made the same complaint to Lawrence Meyers to whom he mentioned a need “to do something about this” it would have been characteristic for Ruby to want to direct Breck Wall’s attention, as an AGVA official, to what he regarded as the Weinsteins’ improper conduct. The view that the calls to Wall and Paul could have had conspiratorial implications also is belied in large measure by the conduct of both men before and after the events of November 22-24. A check of long-distance telephone records reveals no suspicious activity by either man.[C6-1122] Paul, in fact, is not known to have visited Dallas during the weekend of the assassination except to appear openly in an effort to arrange counsel for Ruby within a few hours of the attack on Oswald. Neither the FBI nor the CIA has been able to provide any information that Ralph Paul or Breck Wall ever engaged in any form of subversive activity.[C6-1123]

Moreover, Mrs. Helmick’s reliability is undermined by her failure to report her information to any investigative official until June 9, 1964.[C6-1124] Although a sister-in-law confirms that Mrs. Helmick wrote her “something about a gun” shortly after the shooting,[C6-1125] the only mention of any statement by Paul which was included in a letter written by Mrs. Helmick after the Ruby trial was that Paul believed Ruby was “not in his right mind.”[C6-1126] No corroborating witness named by Mrs. Helmick has been found who remembers the conversations she mentioned.[C6-1127] Both Ruby and Paul have denied that anything was said, as Mrs. Helmick suggests, about a gun or an intent to shoot Oswald, and Wall has stated that Ruby did not discuss such matters with him.[C6-1128] Even if Mrs. Helmick is accurate the statements ascribed to Paul indicate only that he may have heard of a possible reference by Ruby to shooting Oswald. According to her, Paul’s response was to exclaim “Are you crazy?” But under no circumstances does the report of Mrs. Helmick or any other fact support a belief that Paul or Wall was involved in the shooting of Oswald.

The Commission has conducted an investigation of the telephone call Ruby received from Karen Carlin at 10:19 Sunday morning to determine whether that call was prearranged for the purpose of conveying information about the transfer of Oswald or to provide Ruby an excuse for being near the police department. The Commission has examined the records of long-distance telephone calls on Sunday morning for Jack Ruby,[C6-1129] the Carlins,[C6-1130] the Dallas police,[C6-1131] and several other persons[C6-1132] and has found no sign of any indirect communication to Ruby through Mr. or Mrs. Carlin. No other evidence showing any link between the Carlins and the shooting of Oswald has been developed.

Ruby and Oswald Were Not Acquainted

The possibility of a prior acquaintanceship between Ruby and Oswald has been suggested by some persons who viewed the shooting on television and believed that a look of recognition appeared on Oswald’s face as Ruby moved toward him in the jail basement. The Commission has examined the television tapes and movie films which were made as Oswald moved through the basement and has observed no facial expressions which can be interpreted as signifying recognition of Ruby by Oswald. It is doubtful even that Oswald could have seen Ruby sufficiently clearly to discern his identity since Oswald was walking from a dark corridor into “the flash from the many cameras” and the lights of TV cameramen which were “blinding.”[C6-1133] In addition to such generalized suspicion, there have been numerous specific allegations that Oswald was seen in the company of Ruby prior to November 22, often at Ruby’s Carousel Club. All such allegations have been investigated, but the Commission has found none which merits credence. In all but a few instances where the Commission was able to trace the claim to its source, the person responsible for the report either denied making it or admitted that he had no basis for the original allegations.[C6-1134] Frequently those responsible for the allegations have proved to be persons of erratic memory or dubious mental stability.[C6-1135] In a few instances, the source of the story has remained unidentified, and no person has come forward to substantiate the rumor.[C6-1136]

The testimony of a few witnesses who claim to have seen Ruby with a person who they feel may have been Oswald warrants further comment. One such witness, Robert K. Patterson, a Dallas electronics salesman, has stated that on a date established from sales records as November 1, 1963, Ruby, accompanied by a man who resembled Oswald, purchased some equipment at his business establishment.[C6-1137] However, Patterson did not claim positively that the man he saw was Oswald,[C6-1138] and two of his associates who were also present at the time could not state that the man was Oswald.[C6-1139] Other evidence indicates that Ruby’s companion was Larry Crafard. Crafard, who lived at the Carousel Club while working for Ruby from mid-October until November 23, 1963, stated that sometime in late October or early November he accompanied Ruby to an electronics store in connection with the purchase of electronics equipment.[C6-1140] Ruth Paine testified that Crafard’s photograph bears a strong resemblance to Oswald; and employment records of the Texas School Book Depository show that Oswald worked a full day on November 1, 1963.[C6-1141]

William D. Crowe, Jr., a young nightclub master of ceremonies who had worked for Ruby on three occasions and had begun a 4- or 5-week engagement at the Carousel Club on November 11, 1963, was the first person who reported a possible association between Ruby and Oswald.[C6-1142] While attempting to enter the Carousel Club on November 24, shortly after Oswald was shot, Crowe encountered two news media representatives who were gathering information on Jack Ruby.[C6-1143] At that time, Crowe, who included a memory act in his repertoire,[C6-1144] mentioned the “possibility” that he had seen Oswald at the Carousel Club.[C6-1145] As a result he was asked to appear on television. In Crowe’s own words, the story “started snowballing.” He testified:

They built up the memory thing and they built up the bit of having seen Oswald there, and I never stated definitely, positively, and they said that I did, and all in all, what they had in the paper was hardly even close to what I told them.[C6-1146]

Crowe added that his memory act involved a limited system which did not, in fact, improve his memory and that his memory might not even be as good as that of the average person. When asked how certain he was that the man he saw was Oswald, Crowe testified: “* * * the face seemed familiar as some faces do, and I had associated him with a patron that I had seen in the club a week before. That was about it.”[C6-1147]

A possible explanation for Crowe’s belief that Oswald’s face seemed familiar was supplied by a freelance photographer, Eddie Rocco, who had taken pictures at the Carousel Club for Ruby at about the time Crowe was employed there. Rocco produced one of those photographs which depicted a man who might have been mistaken for Oswald by persons having no reason to remember the man at the time they saw him.[C6-1148] When shown the Rocco photograph, Crowe said that there was as strong a possibility that the man he recalled seeing was the man in the photograph as there was that he was Oswald.[C6-1149] Crowe’s uncertainty was further underscored by his failure initially to provide his information about Oswald to David Hoy, a news-media friend whom Crowe telephoned in Evansville, Ind., less than 20 minutes after Oswald was shot.[C6-1150] By then the possible recognition had occurred to Crowe,[C6-1151] and Hoy said he was quite surprised that Crowe had given the information first to other news representatives instead of telling him in that early conversation.[C6-1152]

After Crowe’s identification had been publicized, four other persons also reported seeing Oswald at the Carousel Club. One man said he saw Ruby and Oswald seated at a table together and recalled that the man resembling Oswald was addressed by a blond-haired waitress as “Bettit” or “Pettit.” The witness was unable to give any description of “Pettit” except that he was the man who had been shot by Ruby. He could not describe the inside of the Carousel and was unable to give a precise location for the club.[C6-1153] Another witness, a resident of Tennessee, related seeing a man resembling Oswald at the Carousel Club on November 10.[C6-1154] Ruth Paine has testified, however, that Oswald spent the entire holiday weekend of November 9, 10, and 11 at her home in Irving, Tex.[C6-1155] Two of Ruby’s former employees, Karen Carlin and Billy Joe Willis, also believed they had seen a person who resembled Oswald. Willis believed he saw the man at the Carousel Club but did not think the man was Oswald.[C6-1156] Mrs. Carlin likewise was not certain that the man was Oswald nor was she sure where she had seen him.[C6-1157] Neither reported any connection between the man and Ruby. No other employees recalled seeing Oswald or a person resembling him at the Carousel Club.[C6-1158]

Wilbryn Waldon (Robert) Litchfield II also claimed to have seen at the Carousel Club a man resembling Oswald. Litchfield stated that during a visit to the Carousel Club in late October or early November 1963, he saw such a man enter Ruby’s office, apparently to confer with Ruby.[C6-1159] Although there is substantial evidence that Litchfield did see Ruby at the Carousel Club about that time,[C6-1160] there is strong reason to believe that Litchfield did not see Lee Harvey Oswald. Litchfield described the man he saw as having pockmarks on the right side of his chin;[C6-1161] Oswald did not have such identifying marks.[C6-1162] Moreover, the Commission has substantial doubts concerning Litchfield’s credibility. Although present at an FBI interview of another witness on November 29, Litchfield made no mention of his observation to public officials until December 2, 1963.[C6-1163] Litchfield, who had twice been convicted for offenses involving forged checks,[C6-1164] testified that he first recalled that Oswald resembled the visitor he saw at the Carousel Club while watching a television showing on Sunday morning, November 24, of the shooting by Ruby.[C6-1165] At that time Litchfield was playing poker with three friends, and he testified that he promptly informed them of the resemblance he observed.[C6-1166] However, none of the three poker companions remembered Litchfield’s making such a remark; and two added that Litchfield’s statements were often untrustworthy.[C6-1167]

With regard to all of the persons who claimed to have seen Ruby and Oswald together, it is significant that none had particular reason to pay close attention to either man, that substantial periods of time elapsed before the events they assertedly witnessed became meaningful, and that, unlike the eyewitnesses who claimed to have seen Oswald on November 22, none reported their observations soon after Oswald was arrested. In the course of its investigation, the Commission has encountered numerous clear mistakes of identification. For example, at least four persons, other than Crafard, are known to have been mistaken for Oswald.[C6-1168] Other persons have been misidentified as Jack Ruby.[C6-1169] Under all the available evidence there is no substantial likelihood that the person the various witnesses claimed to have seen with Ruby was in fact Oswald.

In addition to probing the reported evidence that Ruby and Oswald had been seen together, the Commission has examined other circumstances for signs that the two men were acquainted. From the time Oswald returned from Mexico, both he and Jack Ruby lived in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, slightly more than a mile apart. Numerous neighbors of both Oswald and Ruby were interviewed, and none knew of any association between the two.[C6-1170] Oswald’s work began at 8 each weekday morning and terminated at 4:45 each afternoon.[C6-1171] Jack Ruby usually remained in his apartment until past 9 a.m. each day.[C6-1172] Although both men worked in downtown Dallas, they normally traveled to their places of employment by different routes. Ruby owned an automobile, and the shortest route downtown from his home was via a freeway adjacent to his apartment.[C6-1173] Oswald did not own a car and had, at best, a rudimentary ability to drive.[C6-1174] From his roominghouses on North Beckley Avenue and on Marsalis Street, he normally took public transportation which did not bring him within six blocks of either Ruby’s apartment or his downtown nightclub, nor did Oswald’s route from the bus stop to home or work bring him near Ruby’s home or business.[C6-1175] Persons at Oswald’s roominghouse testified that he regularly came home promptly after work and remained in his room.[C6-1176] While in Dallas, he is not known to have visited any nightclub.[C6-1177] Ruby was generally at the Carousel Club from 9 o’clock each evening until after 1 a.m.[C6-1178] In a few instances, Ruby and Oswald patronized the same stores, but no indication has been found that they ever met at such stores.[C6-1179] Ruby at one time frequented a restaurant where Oswald occasionally ate breakfast, but the times of their patronage were widely separated and restaurant employees knew of no acquaintance between Ruby and Oswald.[C6-1180] Likewise, Ruby has held various memberships in the Dallas YMCA and Oswald lived there for brief periods; however, there is no indication that they were there at the same time.[C6-1181]

Both Ruby and Oswald maintained post office boxes at the terminal annex of the U.S. post office in Dallas, but there is no indication that those facts were more than coincidental. On November 1, 1963, Oswald rented box No. 6225, his third since October 1962.[C6-1182] Oswald’s possible purpose has been discussed previously in this chapter. On November 7, 1963, Jack Ruby rented post office box No. 5475 because he hoped to receive mail responses to advertisements for the twistboard exercise device which he was then promoting.[C6-1183] Although it is conceivable that Oswald and Ruby coincidentally encountered one another while checking their boxes, the different daily schedules of the two men render even this possibility unlikely. Moreover, Oswald’s withdrawn personality makes it improbable that the two would have spoken if their paths had crossed.

The Commission has also examined the known friends and acquaintances of Ruby and Oswald for evidence that the two were acquainted, but it has found very few possible links. One conceivable association was through John Carter, a boarder at 1026 North Beckley Avenue while Oswald lived there. Carter was friendly with Wanda Joyce Killam, who had known Jack Ruby since shortly after he moved to Dallas in 1947 and worked for him from July 1963 to early November 1963. Mrs. Killam, who volunteered the information about Carter’s residence during an interview with an agent of the FBI, has stated that she did not believe Carter ever visited the Carousel Club and that she did not think Carter knew Ruby.[C6-1184] Carter stated that he had not heard of Ruby until Oswald was shot, had talked briefly with Oswald only once or twice, and had never heard Oswald mention Ruby or the Carousel Club.[C6-1185] The Commission has no reason to disbelieve either Mrs. Killam or Mr. Carter.

A second possible link between Oswald and Ruby was through Earlene Roberts, the housekeeper at 1026 North Beckley Avenue. Bertha Cheek, the sister of Mrs. Roberts, is known to have visited Jack Ruby at the Carousel Club during the afternoon of November 18, 1963. Mrs. Cheek testified that she had met with Ruby and a person whom Ruby represented to be an interior decorator for the purpose of discussing the possibility of financially backing Ruby in a new nightclub which he planned to open. Mrs. Cheek said she had met Ruby only once, a few years before, and that she had not heard of Oswald until he shot President Kennedy.[C6-1186] Mr. Frank Boerder, the decorator who was present at the November 18 meeting, confirmed the substance of the discussion reported by Mrs. Cheek,[C6-1187] and other witnesses establish that Ruby was, in fact, seeking an associate for a new nightclub venture.[C6-1188] There is no evidence that Jack Ruby ever associated with Earlene Roberts, nor is there any indication that Mrs. Cheek knew of Lee Harvey Oswald prior to November 22.[C6-1189]

Oswald’s trips to the home of Mrs. Ruth Paine at 2115 West Fifth Street in Irving, Tex., presented another possible link to Ruby. While Oswald’s family resided with Mrs. Paine, William F. Simmons, pianoplayer in the musical combo which worked at the Carousel Club from September 17, 1963, until November 21, 1963, lived at 2539 West Fifth Street, in Irving. Simmons has stated that his only relationship to Ruby was as an employee, that Ruby never visited him, that he did not know Oswald, and that he had never seen Oswald at the Carousel Club.[C6-1190] Other persons in the neighborhood knew of no connection between Ruby and Oswald.[C6-1191]

The Commission has investigated rumors that Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald were both homosexuals and, thus, might have known each other in that respect. However, no evidence has been uncovered to support the rumors, the closest acquaintances of both men emphatically deny them,[C6-1192] and Ruby’s nightclubs were not known to have been frequented by homosexuals.[C6-1193]

A final suggestion of a connection between Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald arises from the testimony of Oswald’s mother, Marguerite Oswald. When appearing before the Commission, Mrs. Oswald related that on November 23, 1963, before Ruby shot Oswald, FBI Agent Bardwell D. Odum showed her a picture of a man she believed was Jack Ruby, and asked whether the man shown was familiar to her. Odum had first attempted to see Marina Oswald, but Marguerite refused to allow Marina to be disturbed at that time.[C6-1194] In the course of Marguerite’s testimony, the Commission asked the FBI for a copy of the photograph displayed by Odum to her. When Marguerite viewed the photograph provided the Commission, she stated that the picture was different from the one she saw in November, in part because the “top two corners” were cut differently and because the man depicted was not Jack Ruby.[C6-1195]

The Commission has investigated this matter and determined that Special Agent Odum did show a picture to Marguerite Oswald for possible identification but that the picture was not of Jack Ruby. On November 22 the CIA had provided the FBI with a photograph of a man who, it was thought at the time, might have been associated with Oswald. To prevent the viewer from determining precisely where the picture had been taken, FBI Agent Odum had trimmed the background from the photograph by making a series of straight cuts which reduced the picture to an irregular hexagonal shape.[C6-1196] The picture which was displayed by the Commission to Marguerite Oswald was a copy of the same picture shown her by Agent Odum; however, in supplying a duplicate photograph for Commission use the FBI had cropped the background by cutting along the contours of the body of the man shown,[C6-1197] resulting in a photograph without any background, unlike the first photograph Marguerite viewed on November 23. Affidavits obtained from the CIA and from the two FBI agents who trimmed the photographs established that the one shown to Mrs. Oswald before the Commission, though trimmed differently from the one shown her on November 23, was a copy of the same picture. Neither picture was of Jack Ruby.[C6-1198] The original photograph had been taken by the CIA outside of the United States sometime between July 1, 1963, and November 22, 1963, during all of which time Ruby was within the country.[C6-1199]

Ruby’s Background and Associations

In addition to examining in detail Jack Ruby’s activities from November 21 to November 24 and his possible acquaintanceship with Lee Harvey Oswald, the Commission has considered whether or not Ruby had ties with individuals or groups that might have obviated the need for any direct contact near the time of the assassination. Study of Jack Ruby’s background, which is set out more fully in appendix XVI, leads to the firm conclusion that he had no such ties.

Business activities.—Ruby’s entire life is characteristic of a rigorously independent person. He moved from his family home soon after leaving high school at age 16, although a “family” residence has been maintained in Chicago throughout the years.[C6-1200] Later, in 1947, he moved from Chicago to Dallas and maintained only sporadic contact with most of his family.[C6-1201] For most of his working years and continuously since 1947, Jack Ruby was self-employed.[C6-1202] Although he had partners from time to time, the partnerships were not lasting, and Ruby seems to have preferred to operate independently.

Ruby’s main sources of income were his two nightclubs—the Carousel Club and the Vegas Club—although he also frequently pursued a number of independent, short-lived business promotions. (Ruby’s business dealings are described in greater detail in [app. XVI].) At the time of the assassination, the United States claimed approximately $44,000 in delinquent taxes, and he was in substantial debt to his brother Earl and to his friend Ralph Paul.[C6-1203] However, there are no indications that Earl Ruby or Ralph Paul was exerting pressure for payment or that Ruby’s tax liabilities were not susceptible to an acceptable settlement. Ruby operated his clubs on a cash basis, usually carrying large amounts of cash on his person; thus there is no particular significance to the fact that approximately $3,000 in cash was found on his person and in his automobile when arrested. Nor do his meager financial records reflect any suspicious activities. He used his bank accounts only infrequently, with no unexplained large transactions; and no entries were made to Ruby’s safe-deposit boxes in over a year prior to the shooting of Oswald.[C6-1204] There is no evidence that Ruby received any sums after his arrest except royalties from a syndicated newspaper article on his life and small contributions for his defense from friends, sympathizers, and family members.[C6-1205]

Ruby’s political activities.—Jack Ruby considered himself a Democrat, perhaps in part because his brother Hyman had been active in Democratic ward politics in Chicago.[C6-1206] When Ruby was arrested, police officers found in his apartment, 10 political cards urging the election of the “Conservative Democratic slate,”[C6-1207] but the Commission has found no evidence that Ruby had distributed that literature and he is not known ever to have campaigned for any political candidates.[C6-1208] None of his friends or associates expressed any knowledge that he belonged to any groups interested in political issues, nor did they remember that he had discussed political problems except on rare occasions.[C6-1209]

As a young man, Ruby participated in attacks upon meetings of the German-American Bund in Chicago, but the assaults were the efforts of poolhall associates from his predominantly Jewish neighborhood rather than the work of any political group. His only other known activities which had any political flavor possessed stronger overtones of financial self-interest. In early 1942 he registered a copyright for a placard which displayed an American flag and bore the inscription “Remember Pearl Harbor.” The placard was never successfully promoted. At other times, he is reported to have attempted to sell busts of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[C6-1210] The rabbi of Ruby’s synagogue expressed the belief that Ruby was too unsophisticated to grasp or have a significant interest in any political creed.[C6-1211] Although various views have been given concerning Ruby’s attitude toward President Kennedy prior to the assassination, the overwhelming number of witnesses reported that Ruby had considerable respect for the President, and there has been no report of any hostility toward him.[C6-1212]

There is also no reliable indication that Ruby was ever associated with any Communist or radical causes. Jack Ruby’s parents were born in Poland in the 1870’s and his father served in the Czarist Russian army from 1893-98. Though neither parent became a citizen after emigrating to the United States in the early 1900’s, the evidence indicates that neither Ruby nor his family maintained any ties with relatives in Europe.[C6-1213] Jack Ruby has denied ever being connected with any Communist activities. The FBI has reported that, prior to the shooting of Oswald, its nationwide files contained no information of any subversive activities by Ruby.[C6-1214] In addition, a Commission staff member has personally examined all subversive activities reports from the Dallas-Fort Worth office of the FBI for the year 1963 and has found no reports pertaining to Jack Ruby or any of his known acquaintances.[C6-1215]

The Commission has directed considerable attention to an allegation that Jack Ruby was connected with Communist Party activities in Muncie, Ind. On the day after Oswald’s death, a former resident of Muncie claimed that between 1943 and 1947 a Chicagoan resembling Ruby and known to him as Jack Rubenstein was in Muncie on three occasions and associated with persons who the witness suspected were Communists. The witness stated that the man resembling Ruby visited Muncie during these years as a guest of the son-in-law of a now-deceased jeweler for whom the witness worked.[C6-1216] A second son-in-law of the jewelry store owner suggested that he may have known Ruby while the two resided in Chicago,[C6-1217] but the son-in-law whom Ruby allegedly visited disclaimed any acquaintanceship with Ruby.[C6-1218] Both sons-in-law denied any Communist activities and the Commission has found no contrary evidence other than the testimony of the witness.

On the first two occasions on which Ruby is alleged to have been in Muncie, military records show him to have been on active military duty in the South.[C6-1219] The witness also said that the man he knew as Rubenstein owned or managed a nightclub when he met him, but the Commission has no reliable evidence that Jack Ruby ever owned or worked in any nightclubs when he lived in Chicago.[C6-1220] The witness further stated that on one occasion he found the name of Jack Rubenstein, or perhaps a similar name, together with the names of others he believed were Communists, on a list which had been left in a room above the jewelry store after a meeting held there. The witness said he gave the list to his wife’s cousin, now deceased, who was then the chief of detectives in Muncie.[C6-1221] However, neither the list nor a person identifiable as Jack Ruby has been located after a thorough search by the FBI of its own files and those of the Muncie Police Department, the Indiana State Police, and other agencies.[C6-1222] The witness did not recall seeing Rubenstein in Muncie during the period of that meeting, and he had never heard Rubenstein say anything which would indicate he was a Communist.[C6-1223]

The FBI has interviewed all living persons who the witness stated were involved with Ruby in Communist activities in Muncie. One person named by the witness was known previously to have been involved in Communist Party activities, but subversive activities files have revealed no such activities for any of the others.[C6-1224] The admitted former Communist denied knowing Ruby and stated that the jewelry store owner was not known to him as a Communist and that Communist meetings were never held above the store.[C6-1225] All other Muncie residents named by the witness as possible associates of Ruby denied knowing Ruby.[C6-1226] Similarly, fellow employees of the witness whom he did not claim were Communists knew of no Communist activities connected with the jewelry store owner or any visits of Jack Ruby, and FBI informants familiar with Communist activities in Indiana and Chicago did not know of any participation by Ruby.[C6-1227] Finally, the witness testified that even though he believed as early as 1947 that all of the persons named by him were Communists he had never brought his information to the attention of any authority investigating such activities, except for providing the alleged list to his cousin.[C6-1228] The Commission finds no basis for accepting the witness’s testimony.

The Commission has also investigated the possibility that Ruby was associated with ultraconservative political endeavors in Dallas. Upon his arrest, there were found in Ruby’s possession two radio scripts of a right-wing program promoted by H. L. Hunt, whose political views are highly conservative. Ruby had acquired the scripts a few weeks earlier at the Texas Products Show, where they were enclosed in bags of Hunt food products. Ruby is reported to have become enraged when he discovered the scripts, and threatened to send one to “Kennedy.”[C6-1229] He is not known to have done anything with them prior to giving one to a radio announcer on Nevember 23; and on that day he seemed to confuse organizations of the extreme right with those of the far left.[C6-1230] On November 21, Ruby drove Connie Trammel, a young college graduate whom he had met some months previously, to the office of Lamar Hunt, the son of H. L. Hunt, for a job interview. Although Ruby stated that he would like to meet Hunt, seemingly to establish a business connection, he did not enter Hunt’s office with her.[C6-1231]

An allegation that Ruby was a visitor at the home of Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker (Resigned, U.S. Army) appears totally unfounded. The allegation was made in late May 1964 to an agent of the U.S. Secret Service by William McEwan Duff. Duff, who was discharged from military service in June 1964 because of a fraudulent enlistment, disclaimed any knowledge of Ruby or Oswald when questioned by FBI agents in January 1964.[C6-1232]

Another allegation connecting Jack Ruby with right-wing activities was Mark Lane’s assertion, mentioned previously, that an unnamed informant told him of a meeting lasting more than 2 hours in the Carousel Club on November 14, 1963, between Jack Ruby, Patrolman J. D. Tippit, and Bernard Weissman.[C6-1233] Although the name of Lane’s informant has never been revealed to the Commission, an investigation has been conducted in an effort to find corroboration for the claimed Tippit, Weissman, and Ruby meeting. No employee of the Carousel Club has any knowledge of the meeting described by Lane.[C6-1234] Ruby and Weissman both deny that such a meeting occurred, and Officer Tippit’s widow has no knowledge that her late husband ever went to the Carousel Club.[C6-1235]

Some confusion has arisen, however, because early Friday afternoon, November 22, Ruby remarked that he knew the Tippit who had been shot by Oswald. Later Ruby stated that he did not know J. D. Tippit but that his reference was to G. M. Tippit, a member of the special services bureau of the Dallas Police Department who had visited Ruby establishments occasionally in the course of his official duties.[C6-1236] Larry Crafard was unable to recognize photographs of J. D. Tippit and had no recollection of a Tippit, Weissman, and Ruby meeting at any time.[C6-1237] However, uncertainty was introduced when Crafard identified a photograph of Bernard Weissman as resembling a man who had visited the Carousel Club and had been referred to by Ruby as “Weissman.”[C6-1238] In a subsequent interview Crafard stated that he believed Weissman was a detective on the Dallas Police Department, that his first name may have been Johnny, and that he was in his late thirties or early forties.[C6-1239] As set forth previously, Bernard Weissman was a 26-year-old New York carpet salesman. Crafard added “I could have my recollection of a Mr. Weissman mixed up with someone else”.[C6-1240]

Ruby’s conduct on November 22 and 23, 1963, corroborates his denial that he knew Bernard Weissman. Ruby expressed hostility to the November 22 full-page advertisement to many persons. To none did he give any indication that he was familiar with the person listed as responsible for the advertisement.[C6-1241] His attempt on November 23 to trace the holder of the post office box shown on the “Impeach Earl Warren” sign and to locate Weissman’s name in a Dallas city directory[C6-1242] also tends to indicate that in fact he was not familiar with Weissman. Had he been involved in some type of unlawful activity with Weissman, it is highly unlikely that Ruby would have called attention to Weissman as he did.

Investigation has disclosed no evidence that Officer J. D. Tippit was acquainted with either Ruby or Oswald. Neither Tippit’s wife nor his close friends knew of such an acquaintanceship.[C6-1243] Tippit was not known to frequent nightclubs[C6-1244] and he had no reason during the course of his police duties to enter Ruby’s clubs.[C6-1245] Although at the time of the assassination Tippit was working weekends in a Dallas restaurant owned by a member of the John Birch Society, the restaurant owner stated that he never discussed politics with Tippit.[C6-1246] Persons close to Tippit related that Tippit rarely discussed political matters with any person and that he was a member of no political organization.[C6-1247] Telephone records for the period following September 26, 1963, revealed no suspicious long-distance calls from the Tippit household.[C6-1248]

Tippit’s encounter with Oswald following the shooting of the President is indicative of no prior association between the two men. Police radio logs show that, as part of general directions issued to all officers immediately after the assassination, Tippit was specifically directed to patrol the Oak Cliff area where he came upon Oswald.[C6-1249] His movement from the area which he had been patrolling into the central Oak Cliff area was also in conformity with the normal procedure of the Dallas Police Department for patrol cars to cover nearby districts when the patrol cars in that district became otherwise engaged, as occurred after the assassination.[C6-1250] Oswald fit the general description, which, 15 minutes after the assassination, was broadcast to all police cars of a suspect described by a bystander who had seen Oswald in the sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository.[C6-1251] There is thus no basis for any inference that, in approaching Oswald, Tippit was acting other than in the line of police duty.

Allegations of Cuban activity.—No substantiation has been found for rumors linking Ruby with pro- or anti-Castro Cuban activities,[C6-1252] except for one incident in January 1959 when Ruby made preliminary inquiries, as a middleman, concerning the possible sale to Cuba of some surplus jeeps located in Shreveport, La., and asked about the possible release of prisoners from a Cuban prison. No evidence has been developed that the project ever became more than a “possibility”. Ruby explained that in early 1959 United States sentiment toward Cuba was still favorable and that he was merely pursuing a money-making opportunity.[C6-1253]

During the period of the “jeep sale”, R. D. Matthews, a gambler and a “passing acquaintance” of Ruby, returned to Dallas from Havana where he had been living. In mid-1959, he returned to Cuba until mid-1960.[C6-1254] On October 3, 1963, a telephone call was made from the Carousel Club to Matthews’ former wife in Shreveport.[C6-1255] No evidence has been uncovered that Matthews was associated with the sale of jeeps or the release of prisoners or that he knew of Oswald prior to the assassination.[C6-1256] Matthews’ ex-wife did not recall the phone call in October of 1963, and she asserted that she did not know Jack Ruby or anybody working for him.[C6-1257]

In September 1959, Ruby traveled to Havana as a guest of a close friend and known gambler, Lewis J. McWillie. Both Ruby and McWillie state the trip was purely social.[C6-1258] In January 1961, McWillie left Cuba with strong feelings of hostility to the Castro regime. In early 1963, Ruby purchased a pistol which he shipped to McWillie in Nevada, but McWillie did not accept the package.[C6-1259] The Commission has found no evidence that McWillie has engaged in any activities since leaving Cuba that are related to pro- or anti-Castro political movements or that he was involved in Ruby’s abortive jeep transaction.

The Commission has also received evidence that in April 1962, a telegram sent to Havana, Cuba, was charged to the business telephone of Earl Ruby, brother of Jack Ruby.[C6-1260] Earl Ruby stated that he was unable to recall that telegram but testified that he had never traveled to Cuba nor had any dealings with persons in Cuba.[C6-1261] Jack Ruby is not known to have visited his brother at that time, and during that period Earl and Jack did not maintain a close relationship.[C6-1262] Earl Ruby is not known to have been involved in any subversive activities.[C6-1263]

Finally, examination of FBI information relative to Cuban groups in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for the year 1963 fails to disclose any person who might provide a link between Ruby and such groups.[C6-1264] The Central Intelligence Agency has no information suggesting that Jack Ruby or any of his closest associates have been involved in any type of revolutionary or subversive Cuban activity.[C6-1265]

Possible underworld connections.—The Commission has investigated Ruby’s possible criminal activities, looking with particular concern for evidence that he engaged in illegal activities with members of the organized underworld or that, on his own, he was a promoter of illegal endeavors. The results of that investigation are more fully detailed in appendix XVI. Ruby was reared in a Chicago neighborhood where he became acquainted with local criminals and with persons who later became criminals. Throughout his life, Ruby’s friendships with persons of that character were limited largely to professional gamblers, although his night club businesses brought him in contact with persons who had been convicted of other offenses. There is no credible evidence that Ruby, himself, gambled on other than a social basis or that he had any unpaid gambling debts.[C6-1266] He had never been charged with a felony prior to his attack on Oswald; his only encounters in Chicago stemmed from ticket scalping and the unauthorized sale of copyrighted music; and, in Dallas, his law violations, excluding traffic charges, resulted from the operation of his clubs or outbursts of temper.[C6-1267] Ruby has disclaimed that he was associated with organized criminal activities, and law enforcement agencies have confirmed that denial.[C6-1268]

Investigation of George Senator.—In addition to examining Ruby’s own activities and background, the Commission has paid careful attention to the activities and background of George Senator, Ruby’s roommate and one of his closest friends in Dallas. Senator was interrogated by staff members over a 2-day period; he provided a detailed account of his own life and cooperated fully in all aspects of the Commission’s inquiry into the activities of Jack Ruby.

Senator was 50 years old at the time Ruby shot Oswald. He had been born September 4, 1913, in Gloversville, N.Y., and had received an eighth grade education. Upon leaving school, he worked in Gloversville and New York City until about age 25. For the next few years he worked in various restaurants and cafeterias in New York and Florida until enlisting in the Army in August 1941.[C6-1269] After his honorable discharge in September 1945, Senator was employed for most of the next 13 years selling inexpensive dresses throughout the South and Southwest. In the course of that employment he moved to Dallas where he met Jack Ruby while visiting Ruby’s Vegas Club in about 1955 or 1956.[C6-1270] Ruby was one of many who helped Senator when he encountered financial difficulties during the years 1958 to 1962. For a while in 1962, Ruby provided room and board in exchange for Senator’s help in his clubs and apartment. In August 1963, Senator was unable to maintain his own apartment alone following his roommate’s marriage. Ruby again offered to help and on November 1, 1963, Senator moved into Ruby’s apartment.[C6-1271] The Commission has found no evidence that Senator ever engaged in any political activities.[C6-1272]

Against this background the Commission has evaluated Senator’s account of his own activities on November 22, 23, and 24. When questioned by Dallas and Federal authorities hours after the shooting of Oswald, Senator omitted mention of having accompanied Ruby to photograph the “Impeach Earl Warren” sign on Saturday morning. Senator stated to Commission staff members that in the interviews of November 24 he omitted the incident because of oversight.[C6-1273] However, he spoke freely about it in his sworn testimony and no inaccuracies have been noted in that portion of his testimony. Senator also failed to mention to the Commission and to previous interrogators that, shortly after Ruby left their apartment Sunday morning, he called friends, Mr. and Mrs. William Downey, and offered to visit their apartment and make breakfast for them.[C6-1274] Downey stated, in June 1964, that Senator said he was alone and that, after Downey declined the offer, Senator remarked that he would then go downtown for breakfast.[C6-1275] When told of Downey’s account, Senator denied it and explained that the two were not friendly by the time Senator left Dallas about six weeks after the assassination.[C6-1276]

The Commission also experienced difficulty in ascertaining the activities of Senator on November 22 and 23. He was unable to account specifically for large segments of time when he was not with Ruby.[C6-1277] And, as to places and people Senator says he visited on those days prior to the time Oswald was shot, the Commission has been unsuccessful in obtaining verification.[C6-1278] Senator admitted that he had spent much of that time drinking but denied that he was intoxicated.[C6-1279]

It is difficult to know with complete certainty whether Senator had any foreknowledge of the shooting of Oswald. Ruby testified that at about 10:15 a.m. on Sunday morning, November 24, he said, in Senator’s presence, “If something happened to this person, that then Mrs. Kennedy won’t have to come back for the trial.”[C6-1280] According to Ruby, this is the most explicit statement he made concerning Oswald that morning.[C6-1281] Senator denies any knowledge of Ruby’s intentions.[C6-1282]

Senator’s general response to the shooting was not like that of a person seeking to conceal his guilt. Shortly before it was known that Ruby was the slayer of Oswald, Senator visited the Eatwell Restaurant in downtown Dallas. Upon being informed that Ruby was the attacker, Senator exclaimed, “My God,” in what appeared to be a genuinely surprised tone.[C6-1283] He then ran to a telephone, returned to gulp down his coffee, and quickly departed.[C6-1284] He drove promptly to the home of James Martin, an attorney and friend. Martin recalled that Senator’s concern was for his friend Ruby and not for himself.[C6-1285] Martin and Senator drove to the Dallas Police Department where Senator voluntarily submitted himself to police questioning, and gave interviews to newspaper and television reporters.[C6-1286] The Commission has concluded, on the basis of its investigation into Senator’s background, activities, and reaction to the shooting, that Senator did not aid or conspire with Jack Ruby in the killing of Oswald.

Ruby’s activities preceding President’s trip.—In addition to the broad investigation into Ruby’s background and associations, the Commission delved particularly into Ruby’s pattern of activities during the 2 months preceding President Kennedy’s visit to Dallas in order to determine whether there was unusual conduct which might be linked to the President’s forthcoming trip.

The Commission has been able to account specifically for Jack Ruby’s presence in Dallas on every day after September 26, 1963, except five—September 29, 30 and October 11, 14, and 24—and there is no evidence that he was out of the Dallas-Fort Worth area on those days.[C6-1287] The report of one person who saw Ruby on September 28 indicates that Ruby probably remained in Dallas on September 29 and 30,[C6-1288] when Oswald was in Mexico City. The Commission has looked for but has found no evidence that Ruby traveled to Mexico at that time.[C6-1289] Both Ruby and Ralph Paul have stated that Ruby did not leave the Dallas-Fort Worth area during September, October, or November 1963.[C6-1290]

During October and November of 1963, Jack Ruby maintained his usual vigorous pace of business activities. In particular, he directed considerable attention to his two nightclubs and to other business promotions.[C6-1291] During the final month before the Kennedy trip, his time was increasingly occupied with personnel problems at both his clubs. There is no indication that he devoted less than full attention to these matters or that he appeared preoccupied with other affairs. His acquaintances did feel that Ruby seemed depressed and concerned that his friends were deserting him.[C6-1292] However, there were no signs of secretive conduct.

Scrutiny of Ruby’s activities during the several days preceding the President’s arrival in Dallas has revealed no indication of any unusual activity. Ruby is remembered to have discussed the President’s impending trip with only two persons and only briefly.[C6-1293] Two newspapers containing a description of the expected motorcade routes through Dallas and Fort Worth were found in Ruby’s car at the time of this arrest. However, such papers circulated widely in Dallas, and Ruby’s car, like his apartment, was so cluttered with other newspapers, notebooks, brochures, cards, clothing, and personal items[C6-1294] that there is no reason to attach any significance to the papers.

Aside from the results of the Commission’s investigation reported above, there are other reasons to doubt that Jack Ruby would have shot Oswald as he did if he had been involved in a conspiracy to carry out the assassination, or that he would have been delegated to perform the shooting of Oswald on behalf of others who were involved in the slaying of the President. By striking in the city jail, Ruby was certain to be apprehended. An attempt to silence Oswald by having Ruby kill him would have presented exceptionally grave dangers to any other persons involved in the scheme. If the attempt had failed, Oswald might have been moved to disclose his confederates to the authorities. If it succeeded, as it did, the additional killing might itself have produced a trail to them. Moreover, Ruby was regarded by most persons who knew him as moody and unstable—hardly one to have encouraged the confidence of persons involved in a sensitive conspiracy.[C6-1295]

Since his apprehension, Jack Ruby has provided the Federal authorities with several detailed accounts of his activities both preceding and following the assassination of President Kennedy. Ruby has shown no reluctance to answer any questions addressed to him. The accounts provided by Ruby are consistent with evidence available to the Commission from other sources.

These additional considerations are thus fully consistent with the results of the Commission’s investigation. Rumors of a connection between Ruby and Oswald have proved groundless, while examination of Ruby’s background and associations, his behavior prior to the assassination, and his activities during the November 22-24 weekend has yielded no evidence that Ruby conspired with anyone in planning or executing the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald. Whatever the legal culpability of Jack Ruby for his act of November 24, the evidence is persuasive that he acted independently in shooting Oswald.