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The Assassin's Assassin
Was Jack Ruby in any way involved with Lee Harvey Oswald in President Kennedy's assassination? And did he therefore kill Oswald to "shut him up"?
To find the answers, the Warren Commission threw harsh light on every aspect of Ruby's life. It accounted for almost every second of Ruby's activities from Nov. 21 to Nov. 24 "on the premise that if Jack Ruby were involved in a conspiracy, his activities and associations during this period would, in some way, have reflected the conspiratorial relationship." Concludes the Commission: "Examination of Ruby's activities immediately preceding and following the death of President Kennedy revealed no sign of any conduct which suggests that he was involved in the assassination."
The Smudgy Details. In its investigation, the Commission seemed to dig up every smudgy detail of Ruby's shabby life. On Nov. 21, the Commission says, Ruby "visited with a young lady who was job-hunting in Dallas, paid his rent for his Carousel nightclub premises, conferred about a peace bond he had been obliged to post as a result of a fight with one of his striptease dancers, consulted with an attorney about problems he was having with federal tax authorities [who said he owed the U.S. $40,000], distributed membership cards for the Carousel Club, talked with Dallas County Assistant District Attorney William F. Alexander about insufficient-fund checks which a friend had passed, and submitted advertising copy for his nightclubs to the Dallas Morning News." That night he took a turn as the Carousel's M.C., and "as late as 2:30 a.m." was seen having a snack near his other dive, the Vegas Club.
On Nov. 22, Ruby was again in the advertising department of the Morning News, bragging about how he handled tough guys in his clubs—and also complaining about how bad business was. After the assassination, Ruby recalled, "I left the building and I went down and I got in my car and I couldn't stop crying."
He went to the Carousel, made a flood of phone calls to family, friends and business cronies in which he babbled about the assassination, got sick after eating dinner at his sister's apartment, went to a synagogue service, stopped at a delicatessen about 10:30 and bought eight kosher sandwiches and ten soft drinks.
On the Twistboard. At about 11:30 p.m., Ruby was on the third floor of the Dallas Police Department, saying that he was a translator for the Israeli press. Amid the appallingly lax security, he was present at a frenzied midnight press conference with Oswald, finally left for radio station KLIF, where he parceled out his sandwiches and pop among staffers.
At about 2:30 a.m., he stopped at a garage to gab for an hour with one of his strippers and her boy friend, a Dallas cop, and about 4 he turned up in the composing room of the Dallas Times Herald, where he performed on a "twist-board," a swiveling exercise apparatus, which he was trying to promote.
Mumbling & Pacing. On Sunday, Nov. 24, Jack Ruby arose in a nervous state, mumbling to himself and pacing the floor. He later told the Commission that he had seen in the paper a "heartbreaking letter" to Caroline Kennedy and that "alongside that letter on the same