Jack Ruby

“ It said, “Jack Ruby, your host,” on it. I said, “Are you Jack Ruby?” He said, “Yes; come on over to the club if you get a chance—you can have some drinks”—or something like that—“there are girls there.” And then he disappeared. Naturally I had other things on my mind at the time. I must have put the card in my pocket. And——
Mr. Griffin. Let me interrupt you. Can you describe his mood? Was it straightforward, was it somber, businesslike, was it exhilarated?
Mr. Pappas. Well, I would not call it exhilarated. I would say that he was in a very animated mood. He moved quickly, and he spoke quickly. ”

“ It’s just my own opinion by the way people talk and by him, Jack Ruby, himself.
Mr. Hubert. Well, what was that about Jack Ruby himself that would support a possible connection between him and Oswald?
Mrs. Carlin. Just the way he was—the things I’ve read in the newspapers and things about him I saw for myself; people he would talk to; always having people in his office ”

“ Hubert. Who came in?
Mr. Senator. Jack Ruby. Jack don’t like to have me drink. He doesn’t like to see me getting drunk. He thinks I’m always drunk all the while which I am not. And as he walked in through the door, this Don Taber was getting pretty well loaded. He had a few drinks in him, you know, and he has always had a grudge against Jack for some reason or other, I don’t know what it was, and Jack was always telling him “Don, I want you to stay away from me” and I have heard him warn him once before by the club, downstairs from the club. ”

“ People have pointed him out to you?
Mr. Johnston. The night at the Vegas Club, an officer said, “That’s Jack Ruby.” That’s all I can tell you there. Like I said, I’ve never met the man—I had never met the man until Friday night, November 22, or the early morning of November 23.
Mr. Hubert. But he was a character apparently that people would point out to a man of your standing, that is to say, as being a character in the Dallas area? ”

“ 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. ”

“ Knowing Jack, I feel that he was perhaps nurturing this acquaintanceship to strengthen any position that a person in his business might sooner or later need.
Mr. Griffin. Do you have any information that this police officer might have helped Jack Ruby get into the basement of the police department on Sunday?
Mr. Palmer. No. As a matter of fact, this is the first time that I have even thought of that. I would not know. I could give you no idea at all on that.
Mr. Griffin. Did Little Lynn have any occasion to talk to you about her relationship with Jack Ruby after Oswald was shot? ”

“ Nevertheless my personal view is that it might be well to go forward with it, and certainly if all appellate efforts are exhausted on behalf of Jack Ruby and his case is affirmed all the way up, which I feel that it won’t be; if his family and Jack Ruby should refuse to undergo a polygraph test, certainly the Board of Pardons and Parole may look with disfavor upon that fact and infer possible premeditation on his part in the shooting of Oswald or a possible conspiracy508 and might rule against him in granting clemency, in the event it ever reached that stage. ”

“ Saunders. Right.
Mr. Hubert. Were there any other manifestations which led up to what is really an intellectual conclusion of being “shook up”?
Mr. Saunders. Well, Jack is a very nervous individual and always has been. Having called on him in previous years and having known him from a business association over a period of approximately 6 years, you get to know an individual and their reactions to a certain degree. He was virtually speechless, which is quite unusual for Jack Ruby. He usually has a lot to say and will talk to you at very great lengths. ”

“ Specter. Do you know Jack Ruby?
Mr. Wall. Yes, sir.
Mr. Specter. When, to the best of your recollection, did you first meet Mr. Ruby?
Mr. Wall. I would say about 31⁄2 years ago.
Mr. Specter. What were the circumstances of your becoming acquainted with him?
Mr. Wall. We were having financial trouble at a club we owned called the Playbill.
Mr. Specter. When you say “we,” whom do you mean?
Mr. Wall. Joe Peterson, my partner. We needed a place to go to do a show. Jack Ruby offered a very lucrative offer to play his new club. It was then called the Sovereign Club which later became the Carousel. ”

“ Mr. Griffin. What did you hear Senator say in the few minutes that you did listen to him?
Mr. Kantor. I heard George Senator say that Jack Ruby had been upset, very much upset, and had gotten up, I believe, rather late Sunday morning and said that he was going to take one of his dogs down to the club. And I heard him say that he had—that Jack Ruby had placed a call to a brother in Detroit. And I remember Senator stressing quite heavily that Ruby had spent the weekend in an upset condition, had cried, had wept quite a bit. ”

“ He says, “You might know the man, but you may not know him close enough. He may have been a Communist all of his life.”
I says, “Well, he could have been, but just from what I know and when I knew him, I never would have suspected or even thought of it and I still don’t.”
Now, in the newspapers here locally, when I came back to Dallas, there was quite a bit of feeling of animosity about Jack Ruby, so I never made any comments to anybody about my knowing anything or knowing him personally. ”

“ Born in a home that disintegrated when he was 10 and boasting no substantial educational background, Jack Ruby early found himself785 on Chicago streets attempting to provide for himself and other members of his family. An avid sports fan, he, together with many of his friends, “scalped” tickets to various sporting events.A16-94 He also sold numerous novelty items and knickknacks, particularly those connected with professional and collegiate athletics. ”

“ Then I knew some other little girl must have given it to Jack. I didn’t know then that she would be big and grown-up like you.”
“Ruby! Ruby! I am afraid that you are a sad little tell-tale,” Mrs. Kirke says. It is rather a sore point with her that this pink-and-white girl should have slighted her only son so far as to refuse his hand and heart. Poor Jack, he had had more sorrows to bear than Walter’s death when he left the land of his birth at that sad time. In the fond mother’s eyes May is not half good enough for her darling son ”

“ Mr. Hubert. Well, this says that you said that you had not seen Jack Ruby prior to this time, prior to this occasion on November 23, and I take it that you want to correct that statement so that it would reflect that you had seen him on the one previous occasion we were speaking of?
Mr. Johnson. On the one previous occasion; yes, sir, but that was a long time before that.
Mr. Hubert. But in any case, this document which is Exhibit No. 1, is not correct when it says that you said you had not seen Jack Ruby prior to this time.
Mr. Johnson. Well, if we go back to infinity, really. ”

“ Everybody around here knows me. Ask anybody who Jack Ruby is. As soon as you get a chance, I want all of you boys to come over to my place, the one downtown here is more convenient, and have a drink on me. I’ll be seeing you.” That’s approximately it.
Mr. Hubert. About what time was that?
Mr. Waldo. Approximately 4 o’clock, I would say, again basing it on my memory. I did not have a clock, I did not look at a watch or have a clock in vision at that moment.
Mr. Hubert. It could have been as late as 5, you think?
Mr. Waldo. It could have been; yes. Time telescoped itself remarkably that day. ”

“ Mr. Griffin. Let me ask it this way. Knowing Jack Ruby, would you say that there are situations where Jack would haul off and hit a guy, not because he was emotionally concerned but because he felt this was the way to solve the problem at that particular point. ”

“ And the emcees relied on Jack Ruby for employment, and often were not too stringent in clocking the breaks. So this, with the affidavits of B-drinking could be considered as creating a little pressure on Jack.
Mr. Griffin. You mentioned before that some of the employees couldn’t take the pace that Jack set. What did you have in mind when you referred to pace?
Mr. Palmer. I meant strictly from a legal standpoint. The continuous show policy; the idea of being on the premises at all times; plus Jack’s personality was not constantly one way or the other. ”

“ Mr. Knight. Okay. Now, to me this is the most important part. Jack Ruby and I walked out of the station, actually not out but say out on the landing in front of the steps, still in the station but down the hall. I remember him saying like, “Russ, you are a pretty square guy. I want to give you something.” So we, now again, either he had them in his pocket or he walked out to his car, but he had his car parked right at the steps of the station where it would be no problem to get this, a speech called Heroism from H. L. Hunt’s Life Line. Now, may I read this to you?
Mr. Griffin. Yes, you may. ”

“ Mr. Herndon. These questions on Series 11 were primarily asked after a conversation between Mr. Ruby and Mr. Specter at which time Mr. Ruby indicated he wanted some additional questions asked of him.
It was finally agreed upon that we would ask the three following questions.
No. 1 just to establish identity “Are you Jack Ruby?” in which he replied “Yes.”
Question No. 2: “Do you consider yourself to be a 100-percent American patriot?” Mr. Ruby responded “Yes.”
And question No. 3 “Is all of the testimony given by you today the complete truth?” Mr. Ruby replied “Yes.” ”

“ The white moonlight is flooding the land when at length they retire to rest. Ruby’s dreams are all of her new-found friend whom she is so soon to lose, and when she is awakened by the sunlight of the newer morning streaming in [Pg 26] upon her face a rush of gladness and of sorrow strive hard for mastery in her heart—gladness because Jack is still here, sorrow because he is going away. ”

“ Jack Kirke asks. “It is too dark now for you to go by yourself.” He looks straight into the eyes of the girl he has known since she was a child, the girl who has refused his honest love because she had no love to give in return, and May’s eyes fall beneath his gaze.
“Very well,” she acquiesces meekly.
Ruby, looking out after the two as they go [Pg 95] down the dark avenue, pities them for having to go out on such a dismal night. The little girl does not know that for them it is soon to be illumined with a light than which there is none brighter save that of heaven, the truest land of love. ”

“ At the time he handed me a card, he was wearing a hat, and when I saw him in the corridor on Sunday the 24th after his arrest he was not wearing a hat, but the man looked to be the same, and as I have stated, when he handed me the card, he identified himself verbally as Jack Ruby.
Mr. Hubert. You don’t have the card today?
Mr. Waldo. No; unfortunately that seems to have been among several things that have disappeared. ”

“ Then, he asked me why and I says, “Well, he just happens to be that type of a person. He is impulsive and emotional and everything and he probably felt like he was doing something that—a favor or something.”
Mr. Griffin. What experiences had you had with Jack Ruby before then that led you to that conclusion?
240 Mr. Rossi. Well, now, before I answer that question, let me continue—it was not but a minute or so that they got down to the correction on the name and made mention of the fact that it wasn’t Lodi or whoever it was but a Jack Ruby, a nightclub operator in Dallas. Mr. ”

“ Mr. Griffin. I take it then your conclusion about Jack Ruby would be that he didn’t have any particular political feelings one way or another, and he wasn’t a great patriot and he wasn’t disloyal. As far as you knew he was just an ordinary American citizen.
Mr. Senator. He was a good, sound American citizen, and politics, he never messed around with that. He never messed around politically at all. The majority was connected with the music industry, the night life, you know, his club, his competitors, what they were doing.
Mr. Hubert. Coming back to the automobile and the radio——
Mr. Senator. ”

“ Mr. Hubert. This photograph has been identified in connection with the deposition160 of Andrew Armstrong, as Exhibit 5301 A through E, and there are five pictures here showing a man and two girls—Jack Ruby is the man, of course; is that right? ”

“ Ruby does not know that the “May” of the carefully cherished card is a little girl of whom Jack but rarely speaks, though she lives in his thoughts day and night. Far away in Scotland a blue-eyed maiden’s heart is going out in longing to the man who only by his absence had proved to the friend of his childhood how much she loved him. Her heart is in sunny Australia, and his in bonnie Scotland, all for love each of the other. ”

“ Now, I don’t remember if it was 10 after 10 or 10 after 1 but as I recall this minute, today, it was more likely 10 after 1. I don’t even know what time the President was shot. I have no statistics in my head. I can’t remember which was which now. It’s gotten entirely too involved.
Down in the last paragraph it says, “Information previously furnished by them was possibly misleading regarding the number of visits by Jack Ruby in438 the premises of the radio station. However, he is pretty positive that he has never seen Ruby at the station except on his introduction to him.” ”