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No. His act seemed completely impulsive and unplanned. Only four minutes before Oswald was taken out of a basement exit of the Dallas police headquarters. Ruby was in a nearby Western Union office, sending a money order to one of his nightclub strippers. If the customers ahead of him in line had been slower, he would have missed Oswald's exit. An off-duty police inspector had dropped by to ask Oswald a few extra questions; otherwise Oswald would have been moved before Ruby walked down the police ramp and drew his pistol. Ruby had not even been stalking his victim.
But wasn't Ruby a crony of both Dallas cops and the Chicago underworld?
Ruby was a police buff who often entertained officers at his nightclub. He was the type they, in turn, would question about gambling, prostitution and hoodlums. In Chicago, where he lived before moving to Dallas, he knew a few criminals. But he was the insignificant type of hanger-on, according to one Mob expert, whom "the gangsters used to scratch matches on."
Why was Oswald able to get a hardship discharge from the Marine Corps in just three days?
He didn't. He applied for a discharge on Aug. 17, 1959; he was released from active duty on Sept. 11, only three months before his enlistment was to have expired. He claimed he had to support his ailing mother.
Wasn't Oswald photographed on the street-level steps of the Texas Schoolbook Depository building about the time of the shootings?
No. Another employee in the building, Billy Lovelady, testified that he was the man in the picture. Other employees in the photo confirm that they were standing beside Lovelady, not Oswald, at the time.
Why was Oswald carrying the license-plate number of the car of Dallas FBI Agent James Hosty?
Marina testified that Oswald had asked her to jot it down. Hosty had interviewed her at least twice about her husband. This angered Oswald—and triggered his hostile note to Dallas FBI headquarters.
Why is so much of the Kennedy autopsy material missing?
Not much is. Only some tissue, taken for microscopic slides, and the brain itself are not at the National Archives, where the rest of the material is held. They were given to Robert Kennedy, apparently at his request, after the brain was X-rayed and photographed. According to a family spokesman, he did not tell other family members what he did with these parts of his brother's body. They assume that, for reasons of privacy, he destroyed or buried them.
Two official re-examinations of the evidence have reinforced, rather than weakened, the Warren Commission's findings. Unwisely, the commission at first withheld autopsy materials—X rays and color photos of Kennedy's body, a recovered bullet, metal fragments and his clothing. Though apparently motivated by a desire to protect the Kennedy family against public discussion of grisly detail, this decision fanned many arguments about the precise nature and location of Kennedy's wounds.