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].)