86 Facts About Jack Ruby

On November 24,1963, two days after President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Ruby shot and mortally wounded Oswald in Dallas Police Headquarters and was immediately arrested.

Jack Ruby was convicted and sentenced to death; this was overturned on appeal, and he was granted a new trial, but Jack Ruby fell ill, was diagnosed with cancer, and died of a pulmonary embolism on January 3,1967.

In 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that Jack Ruby acted alone in killing Oswald, that Jack Ruby shot Oswald on impulse and in retaliation for the Kennedy assassination.

Jack Ruby was born Jacob Leon Rubenstein on or around March 25,1911, in the Maxwell Street area of Chicago, the son of Joseph Rubenstein and Fannie Turek Rutkowski, both Polish-born Orthodox Jews.

Jack Ruby was the fifth of his parents' 10 surviving children.

Jack Ruby was arrested at the age of 11 for truancy.

Jack Ruby eventually skipped school so often that he had to spend time at the Institute for Juvenile Research.

Jack Ruby sold horse-racing tip sheets and various novelties, then acted as a business agent for a local refuse collectors union that later became part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

From his early childhood, Jack Ruby was nicknamed "Sparky" by those who knew him.

Grant stated that Jack Ruby did not like the nickname and was quick to fight anyone who called him that.

Jack Ruby was drafted in 1943 and served in the US Army Air Forces during World War II, working as an aircraft mechanic at US bases until 1946.

Jack Ruby had an honorable record and was promoted to Private First Class.

In 1947, Jack Ruby moved to Dallas, purportedly because of the failure of merchandise deals in Chicago and to help operate his sister's nightclub.

Jack Ruby later went on to manage various nightclubs, strip clubs, and dance halls in Dallas.

Jack Ruby developed close ties to many Dallas police officers who frequented his nightclubs, where he provided them with free liquor, prostitutes, and other favors.

At the time of the assassination, Jack Ruby was living with George Senator, who referred to Jack Ruby as "my boyfriend" during the Warren Commission hearing, although he denied the two were homosexual lovers.

Some critics have said that Jack Ruby was involved in illegal activity such as gambling, narcotics, and prostitution.

Dallas disc jockey Kenneth Dowe testified that Jack Ruby was known around the station for "procuring women for different people who came to town".

From 1949, up until the murder of Oswald, Jack Ruby had nine criminal charges, ranging from assault to violating state liquor law.

Jack Ruby knew a great number of people in Dallas, but had only a few friends.

Jack Ruby had a volatile temper, and he often resorted to violence with employees who had upset him.

Jack Ruby acted as the bouncer of his own club and beat his customers on at least 25 occasions.

In one fight with a man, the man bit Jack Ruby's left index finger so badly that the doctors had it amputated.

Jack Ruby sometimes welcomed a guest to his club, but on other nights he would forbid the same guest from entering.

Jack Ruby then made phone calls to his assistant at the Carousel Club and to his sister.

Jack Ruby was seen in the halls of the Dallas Police Headquarters on several occasions after Oswald's arrest for the murder of Dallas policeman JD Tippit.

Jack Ruby was present at an arranged press conference with Oswald.

Newsreel footage from WFAA-TV and NBC shows that Jack Ruby impersonated a newspaper reporter during a press conference held by District Attorney Henry Wade at Dallas Police Headquarters that night.

Jack Ruby was one of several people there who spoke up to correct Wade, saying, "Henry, that's the Fair Play for Cuba Committee", a pro-Castro organization.

Jack Ruby passed by William Harrison who saw the gun and began to reach his hand out.

Jack Ruby shot Oswald at point blank range, mortally wounding him.

At Parkland, surgeons subsequently determined Jack Ruby's bullet had entered Oswald's left side in the front part of the abdomen and caused extensive damage to his spleen, stomach, aorta, vena cava, kidney, liver, diaphragm, and eleventh rib before coming to rest on his right side.

Several photographs were taken of the event, capturing the moments when Jack Ruby pulled the trigger.

In Dallas and elsewhere in the nation, Oswald was hated in death, and Jack Ruby was viewed as a hero by some citizens.

Jack Ruby said that he was an admirer of President Kennedy and the Kennedy family, that he cried when he heard that the President was shot, "in mourning" after, "cried a great deal" Saturday afternoon, and was depressed that night.

The grief over the assassination, Jack Ruby stated, finally "reached the point of insanity," suddenly compelling him to shoot when Oswald walked in front of him in the basement that Sunday morning.

At the time of the shooting, Jack Ruby said that he was taking phenmetrazine, a central nervous system stimulant.

Jack Ruby said that he entered the police basement by coming down the Main Street ramp.

Later, Jack Ruby expressed remorse to his brother Earl, saying he never wanted Oswald to die.

Jack Ruby responded that there would be a problem if a man by the name of "Davis" should come up.

On March 14,1964, Jack Ruby was convicted of murder with malice and was sentenced to death.

Jack Ruby's conviction was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on the grounds that "an oral confession of premeditation made while in police custody" should have been ruled inadmissible, because it violated a Texas criminal statute.

Jack Ruby asked Warren several times to take him to Washington DC, saying that "my life is in danger here" and that he wanted an opportunity to make additional statements.

Jack Ruby said that he wanted to convince President Lyndon Johnson that he was not part of any conspiracy to kill Kennedy.

Arrangements were underway for a new trial to be held in February 1967 in Wichita Falls, Texas, but Jack Ruby was admitted to Parkland Hospital on December 9,1966, suffering from pneumonia, where he was diagnosed with cancer in his liver, lungs, and brain.

Jack Ruby maintained that he entered the basement by coming down the ramp, had killed Oswald out of grief over the assassination, and denied knowing Oswald prior.

Jack Ruby died of a pulmonary embolism on January 3,1967, at Parkland Hospital.

Jack Ruby was buried beside his parents in the Westlawn Cemetery in Norridge, Illinois.

The Warren Commission found no evidence linking Jack Ruby's killing of Oswald with any broader conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy.

The Commission indicated that there was not a "significant link between Jack Ruby and organized crime" and said he acted independently in killing Oswald.

The Warren Commission noted testimony indicating Jack Ruby entered the basement of the headquarters just as Oswald was being transferred and that his shooting of Oswald was a spontaneous, unplanned act.

Jack Ruby drove into town with his pet dachshund Sheba to send an emergency money order at the Western Union on Main Street to one of his employees.

Jack Ruby then walked half a block to the Dallas police headquarters, where he made his way into the basement.

Warren Commission investigator David Belin said that postal inspector Harry Holmes arrived unannounced at the Dallas police station on the morning that Jack Ruby shot Oswald and, upon invitation by the investigators, had questioned Oswald, thus delaying his transfer by half an hour.

Belin noted that, had Jack Ruby been part of a conspiracy, he would have been downtown 30 minutes earlier, when Oswald had been scheduled to be transferred.

Author Norman Mailer and others have questioned why Jack Ruby would have left his beloved dog in his car if his killing of Oswald had been planned.

Jack Ruby was one of the most talkative guys you would ever meet.

Zoppi was dismissive of mob ties and described Jack Ruby as a "born loser".

Jack Ruby said that he had become acquainted with Ruby while he was a reporter for the Dallas Times Herald newspaper.

Remember: "I have been used for a purpose," the way Jack Ruby expressed it to Chief Justice Warren in their June 7,1964 session.

Jack Ruby's shooting of Oswald was not a spontaneous act, in that it involved at least some premeditation.

The HSCA suggested Jack Ruby might have entered the basement via a stairway accessible from an alleyway next to the Dallas Municipal Building.

However, Elnora Pitts, Jack Ruby's cleaning lady, phoned between 8:30 and 9:00 am to check it was alright for her to do her usual Sunday morning cleaning for Jack Ruby.

The man who answered claimed to be Jack Ruby but did not sound like him, did not recognise Pitts and had no knowledge of the Sunday cleaning arrangements she had with Jack Ruby.

Jack Ruby identified the man as Ruby as did Warren Richey who was on top of the truck with his camera.

Russell Moore, an acquaintance of Jack Ruby, testified to the Commission that Jack Ruby expressed no bitterness towards Oswald and called him "a good looking guy," comparing him to the actor Paul Newman.

Announcer Glen Duncan said Jack Ruby described Oswald as a "fairly nice looking kid" comparing him to Newman.

Scheim suggests that Jack Ruby made a "candid confession" when giving testimony to the Warren Commission.

Schiem noted some who knew Jack Ruby who stated that the patriotic statements which Jack Ruby professed were quite out of character.

Jack Ruby's lawyers, led by Sam Houston Clinton, appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals after his 1964 conviction, the highest criminal court in Texas.

Jack Ruby's lawyers argued that he could not have received a fair trial in Dallas because of the excessive publicity surrounding the case.

Kantor speculated in 1978 that the "Davis" that Jack Ruby mentioned to Tom Howard may have been Thomas Eli Davis III, a CIA-connected mercenary.

Not long before Jack Ruby died, according to an article in the London Sunday Times, he told psychiatrist Werner Teuter that the assassination was "an act of overthrowing the government" and that he knew "who had President Kennedy killed".

On March 11,1959, FBI agent Charles W Flynn of the Dallas Office approached Ruby to become a federal informant due to his job as a night club operator, since he "might have knowledge of the criminal element in Dallas".

Jack Ruby was willing to become an informant and was contacted by the FBI eight times between March 11,1959, and October 2,1959, but he provided no information to the Bureau; he was not paid, and contact ceased.

Bill Bonanno, son of New York Mafia boss Joseph Bonanno, stated in Bound By Honor that he realized that certain Mafia families were involved in the JFK assassination when Jack Ruby killed Oswald, since Bonanno was aware that Jack Ruby was an associate of Chicago mobster Sam Giancana.

Some conspiracy theorists have suggested Jack Ruby had links to organized crime.

Jack Ruby was said to have been acquainted with the Mafia.

The HSCA said that Jack Ruby had known Chicago mobster Sam Giancana and Joseph Campisi since 1947 and had been seen with them on many occasions.

Jack Ruby knew the Campisis and had been seen with them on many occasions.

Willens outlined the commission's investigative priorities and terminated an investigation of Jack Ruby's Cuban related activities.

In 1946, Tony Accardo allegedly asked Jack Ruby to go to Texas with Mafia associates Pat Manno and Romie Nappi to make sure that Dallas County Sheriff Steve Gutherie would acquiesce to the Mafia's expansion into Dallas.

Jack Ruby went to see a man named Lewis McWillie in Cuba four years before the assassination.

McWillie had previously run illegal gambling establishments in Texas, and Jack Ruby considered him one of his closest friends.

McWillie was supervising gambling activities at Havana's Tropicana Club when Jack Ruby visited him in August 1959.

James E Beaird, who claimed to be a poker-playing friend of Ruby, told The Dallas Morning News and the FBI that Ruby smuggled guns and ammunition from Galveston Bay, Texas to Fidel Castro's guerrillas in Cuba in the late 1950s.