Mr. Kantor. The letter was from Jack Ruby, from the county jail in Dallas. I wrote him approximately at the end of January from my office, on Scripps-Howard stationery, telling him that I had made a couple of attempts to see him in Dallas, both in the city jail and in the county jail, and had failed, and asked him if I could ask him some questions. A letter postmarked February 2, I believe it was, in San Francisco, was received by me then from Melvin Belli, who was Ruby’s attorney at the time, thanking me for writing to Jack and saying that he had told Jack to forward on any mail that came from reporters, and that Jack had done the right thing and that he was sure—he being Belli—that I would understand that Ruby could not comment before the trial.
Then I received a letter postmarked the next day which would have been February 3d, from Ruby, from his Dallas county jail cell, telling me he had forwarded on my letter to Belli and apologizing for having done so but he was told to do that. And in the letter he made an offhanded personal remark that he had liked to follow my stories in the Fort Worth Press, which is a Scripps-Howard paper, and was in hopes of seeing me again.
Mr. Griffin. Had you in your letter to Ruby made any reference to the fact that you had seen him at Parkland Hospital on the 22d?
Mr. Kantor. No; I did not.
Mr. Griffin. Did Belli in his letter to you make any reference to your newspaper article?
Mr. Kantor. No; he did not.
Mr. Griffin. I take it Ruby didn’t make any reference to it to you in his letter?
Mr. Kantor. No; he did not, and one of the factors prompting my letter to him was this interview with the two FBI agents here in Washington, because one of them had told me that the FBI talked to Ruby in his jail cell and he had denied being in the hospital on the afternoon of November 22d. This is really what I was angling for, although I didn’t want to write that question directly to Jack Ruby.
Mr. Hubert. Is it not a fact that in the story that you had seen Jack at the Parkland Hospital, had been made public before you wrote to Jack Ruby, I think you said on February——
Mr. Kantor. Late in January.