Jack Ruby
Jack Ruby, born Jacob L. Rubenstein in 1911 to Polish Jewish immigrant parents in Chicago, was a figure marked by a troubled early life and a connection to organized crime. He moved to Dallas in 1947, where he changed his surname to Ruby and became involved in managing various nightclubs and strip clubs, including the Carousel. Ruby was known for his volatile temperament and had ties to local law enforcement, often providing them with free entertainment. His life took a dramatic turn after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Just two days later, Ruby fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin, in the Dallas police headquarters, leading to his arrest and subsequent trial.
Ruby was convicted of murder in 1964 but had his conviction overturned in 1966 due to legal appeals. He was suffering from lung cancer during this time and died in January 1967. The motivations behind Ruby's act have been the subject of widespread speculation, with various theories suggesting connections to organized crime, mental instability, or a misguided sense of justice. His actions and the ensuing conspiracy theories surrounding his motives have continued to fuel debates about the events surrounding Kennedy's assassination and the nature of justice in America. Ruby remains a controversial figure whose legacy is intertwined with one of the most significant events in U.S. history.
Jack Ruby
Criminal
- Born: March 25, 1911
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
- Died: January 3, 1967
- Place of death: Dallas, Texas
American businessman
Major offense: Murder of Lee Harvey Oswald
Active: November 24, 1963
Locale: Dallas, Texas
Sentence: Death, reversed on appeal
Early Life
Jack L. Rubenstein was born to Polish Jewish immigrant parents in Chicago in 1911. Growing up in a large, working-class family, Rubenstein was a rebellious, troubled youth who occasionally lived in foster homes because of his juvenile delinquency. As a teenager, Rubenstein was attracted to organized crime and began running errands for gamblers and gangsters. In 1939, he was implicated but later exonerated in the murder of a labor union official. Rubenstein was drafted into the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1943 and discharged in 1946.
Criminal Career
In 1947, Rubenstein and his brothers moved to Dallas, Texas, in order to operate a mail-order business and help their sister to manage a nightclub. Concerned that they might lose business because of anti-Semitism, the Rubenstein brothers soon changed their surname to Ruby. Ruby successively managed several dance halls, nightclubs, and strip clubs in the Dallas area. In 1959, he traveled to Cuba to visit Lewis McWillie, a Dallas gambler who was imprisoned by Fidel Castro. McWillie was later linked to nationally known gangsters, such as Santo Trafficante, Jr., and Carlos Marcello, who lost major investments in Cuba because of Castro’s revolution and resented the Kennedy administration’s crackdown on organized crime.
As the owner and manager of the Carousel strip club from 1960 to 1963, Ruby ingratiated himself with the Dallas police by providing them with free liquor and entertainment at the Carousel and delivering free sandwiches to Dallas police headquarters. He was well known to the police and his employees for his quick temper, eccentric behavior, and tendency toward violence, especially against unruly customers. Ruby often carried a concealed handgun, presumably for maintaining security at the Carousel and protecting large sums of money. Despite his publicity gimmicks and efforts to hire well-known strippers, Ruby was frustrated by his failure to make the Carousel a financial success with a sophisticated clientele. People close to Ruby later noted how angry and agitated he was by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963. After Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murders of Kennedy and a Dallas police officer, Ruby went to the Dallas police headquarters on November 24. As police led Oswald to a waiting car for transfer to a jail, Ruby confronted Oswald and fatally shot him.
Legal Action and Outcome
The Dallas police immediately arrested Ruby, who was charged with murder. Melvin Belli, a nationally prominent defense attorney, represented Ruby without charge. Belli tried but failed to get Ruby acquitted on the grounds of insanity. Ruby was convicted of murder on March 14, 1964, and sentenced to death. Ruby remained in jail while his lawyers appealed his conviction and sentence. In November, 1966, Ruby’s lawyers succeeded in having his conviction and death sentence reversed and in securing a change of venue to Wichita Falls, Texas, for a new trial to be held in February, 1967.
Suffering from lung cancer, Ruby was admitted to Parkland Hospital in Dallas for pneumonia on December 9, 1966, and died there on January 3, 1967, from a blood clot.
Impact
Following Jack Ruby’s arrest for shooting Oswald, many conflicting perceptions of Ruby’s motives for killing Oswald have arisen. Conspiracy theorists, especially those who believe that organized crime planned and implemented Kennedy’s assassination, often claim that Ruby was a Mafia hit man who was told to kill Oswald in order to silence him. They emphasize Ruby’s connections to organized crime, especially to powerful gangsters who felt angered by President Kennedy’s failure to overthrow Castro in 1961, and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s aggressive prosecution of gangsters and his 1959 trip to Cuba. Scholars of President Kennedy’s assassination who support the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone dismiss the idea that Ruby was a Mafia hit man. They claim that Ruby, like Oswald, was a mentally unstable person who acted impulsively when he committed this murder. For evidence, they cite Ruby’s comments immediately after his arrest. Ruby asserted that he wanted to prove that Jews were brave, retaliate on behalf of the reputation of Dallas, do the police a favor, and spare Jacqueline Kennedy the agony of testifying at Oswald’s trial. Ruby later claimed, however, that he killed Oswald impulsively without a motive.
After his March, 1964, conviction, Ruby repeatedly asked the Warren Commission to interview him. When Chief Justice Earl Warren and other commission members came to Dallas to interview Ruby in June, 1964, Ruby asked Warren to relocate his confinement to Washington, D.C., because he feared he would be killed in his Dallas jail cell, apparently as part of a conspiracy to take over the American government. In March, 1965, he stated in a televised interview that no one would ever know the “true facts” about his motives and that people with “an ulterior motive” would never allow these true facts to be revealed to the world. Ruby’s contradictory, changing statements about his motives for killing Oswald and whether there was a conspiracy to kill Kennedy intensified and prolonged the conspiracy controversy. A widely accepted and definitive explanation of Ruby’s motive for killing Oswald may never be determined.
Bibliography
Belli, Melvin M. Dallas Justice: The Real Story of Jack Ruby and His Trial. New York: McKay, 1964. Print.
Bugliosi, Vincent. Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. New York: Norton, 2007. Print.
Kantor, Seth. The Ruby Cover-Up. New York: Kensington, 1978. Print.
Posner, Gerald L. Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK. New York: Random House, 1993. Print.
Wills, Garry, and Ovid Demaris. Jack Ruby. New York: New Amer. Lib., 1967. Print.