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]