Mr. Ruby. Yes.
Mr. Herndon. Now, here’s a question I want to go over with you very carefully. “Did you ever hit anyone with any kind of weapon?”
Mr. Ruby. Yes.
Mr. Herndon. All right; I’ll give you an opportunity now to explain that to me. This is for my purposes of the examination.
Mr. Ruby. Well, in running a—in my business, when you get somebody with a—it’s a very exciting business. One particular night a man pulled a knife on me and I took a pistol and hit him on the head in that altercation, and sometimes you get fellows with real bad rough reputations. They’re real toughs. There’s no question about it, and being in my type of business for a livelihood, the only way you can—of course, I do call the law enforcement officers. At that particular moment, it’s my life or theirs, and some of these men are pretty powerful physically, and I fought in every way possible, with my fists and everything else—but to minimize the various troubles I had, where there would be an altercation or something come up, I’d tell them to leave, and of course, something would happen and they would go from here—whatever it is. It happened a few times where I would pummel a few of these men.
Mr. Herndon. I understand, Mr. Ruby, but all of these incidents that you recall are in connection with your operating this club?
Mr. Ruby. Yes; they are at the club. These boys are real bad boys and they all have records, and they’re pretty tough guys. Will you agree with something on that?
Mr. Alexander. That’s right.
Mr. Herndon. Then, on the actual test. I’m going to ask you this question: “Other than what you’ve told me, did you ever hit anyone with any kind of weapon?”
Mr. Ruby. I don’t follow—“Other than what you’ve told me?”