Commission Exhibit No. 2635
Ruby in basement (extreme right) immediately before shooting (Sunday, November 24).
The Main Street ramp provided the most direct route to the basement from the Western Union office. At normal stride, it requires approximately 1 minute to walk from that office to the top of the Main Street ramp and about 20-25 seconds to descend the ramp.[C5-146] It is certain, therefore, that Ruby entered the basement no more than 2-3 minutes before the shooting. This timetable indicates that a little more than 2 of the 4 minutes between Ruby’s departure from the Western Union office and the time of the shooting are unaccounted for. Ruby could have consumed this time in loitering along the way, at the top of the ramp, or inside the basement. However, if Ruby is correct that he passed Pierce’s car at the top of the ramp, he could have been in the basement no more than 30 seconds before the shooting.[C5-147]
The testimony of two witnesses partially corroborates Ruby’s claim that he entered by the Main Street ramp. James Turner, an employee of WBAP-TV Fort Worth, testified that while he was standing near the railing on the east side of the Main Street ramp, perhaps 30 seconds before the shooting, he observed a man he is confident was Jack Ruby moving slowly down the Main Street ramp about 10 feet from the bottom.[C5-148] Two other witnesses testified that they thought they had seen Ruby on the Main Street side of the ramp before the shooting.[C5-149]
One other witness has testified regarding the purported movements of a man on the Main Street ramp, but his testimony merits little credence. A former police officer, N. J. Daniels, who was standing at the top of the ramp with the single patrolman guarding this entrance, R. E. Vaughn, testified that “3 or 4 minutes, I guess”[C5-150] before the shooting, a man walked down the Main Street ramp in full view of Vaughn but was not stopped or questioned by the officer. Daniels did not identify the man as Ruby. Moreover, he gave a description which differed in important respects from Ruby’s appearance on November 24, and he has testified that he doesn’t think the man was Ruby.[C5-151] On November 24, Vaughn telephoned Daniels to ask him if he had seen anybody walk past him on the morning of the 24th and was told that he had not; it was not until November 29 that Daniels came forward with the statement that he had seen a man enter.[C5-152]
Although the sum of this evidence tends to support Ruby’s claim that he entered by the Main Street ramp, there is other evidence not fully consistent with Ruby’s story. Patrolman Vaughn stated that he checked the credentials of all unknown persons seeking to enter the basement, and his testimony was supported by several persons.[C5-153] Vaughn denied that the emergence of Lieutenant Pierce’s car from the building distracted him long enough to allow Ruby to enter the ramp unnoticed, and neither he nor any of the three officers in Lieutenant Pierce’s car saw Ruby enter.[C5-154]
Despite Vaughn’s denial the Commission has found no credible evidence to support any other entry route. Two Dallas detectives believed they observed three men pushing a WBAP-TV camera into the basement minutes before the shooting, while only two were with the camera after Oswald had been shot.[C5-155] However, films taken in the basement show the WBAP-TV camera being pushed past the detectives by only two men.[C5-156] The suspicion of the detectives is probably explained by testimony that a third WBAP-TV employee ran to help steady the incoming camera as it entered the basement, probably just before the camera became visible on the films.[C5-157] Moreover, since the camera entered the basement close to 4 minutes before the shooting,[C5-158] it is virtually impossible that Ruby could have been in the basement at that time.
The possibility that Ruby entered the basement by some other route has been investigated, but the Commission has found no evidence to support it. Ruby could have walked from the Western Union office to the Commerce Street ramp on the other side of the building in about 2½ minutes.[C5-159] However, during the minutes preceding the shooting video tapes show the armored truck in the entranceway to this ramp with only narrow clearance on either side. (See Commission Exhibit No. 2710, [p. 223].) Several policemen were standing near the truck and a large crowd of spectators was gathered across the street.[C5-160] It is improbable that Ruby could have squeezed past the truck without having been observed. If Ruby entered by any other means, he would have had to pass first through the Police and Courts Building or the attached Municipal Building, and then secondly through one of the five doors into the basement, all of which, according to the testimony of police officers, were secured. The testimony was not completely positive about one of the doors.[C5-161]
There is no evidence to support the speculations that Ruby used a press badge to gain entry to the basement or that he concealed himself in a police car. Police found no form of press card on Ruby’s person after his apprehension, nor any discarded badges within the basement.[C5-162] There is no evidence that any police officer admitted Ruby on the pretense that he was a member of the press or any other pretense.[C5-163]