Jack Ruby

Jacob Leon Rubenstein, who in December 1947 changed his name and was known as Jack Leon Ruby (March 25?, 1911 - January 3, 1967), a Dallas nightclub owner, shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald was arrested for the assassination of President Kennedy.

Family and Early Life

Jack Ruby was born Jacob Rubenstein to Joseph Rubenstein (1871 - 1958) and Fannie Turek Rutkowski or Rokowsky in Chicago, Illinois in 1911. His parents were Polish immigrants and their religious beliefs were Orthodox Jewish.

Related Topics:
Jacob - 1871 - 1958 - Chicago, Illinois - 1911 - Polish - Orthodox Jewish

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Joseph Rubenstein was born in the town of Sokolov, located near Warsaw, Poland, then part of Imperial Russia. He was a carpenter as was his father. He joined the Russian army in 1893, serving in the artillery. He married early during his service. Later Joseph was reportedly assigned to forces positioned in China, Korea and Siberia. He grew to detest army life and reportedly "walked away" from it in 1898. The Rubensteins left the Russian Empire about four years later. They briefly lived in the United Kingdom and then Canada. They entered the United States in 1903, and the following year they settled in the 24th Ward on Chicago's West Side.

Related Topics:
Warsaw - Poland - Imperial Russia - Carpenter - 1893 - Artillery - China - Korea - Siberia - 1898 - United Kingdom - Canada - United States - 1903

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Various conflicting birth dates for Jacob Rubenstein, from March to June of 1911, are quoted in various sources and were given by Ruby at various times. The fifth of his parents' eight living children, he had a troubled childhood and adolescence, marked by juvenile delinquency and time spent in foster homes. Young Ruby worked selling horse-racing tip sheets and various other novelties, then acted a business agent for a local refuse collector's union which later became part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Ruby briefly came to public attention in December 1939 when he was implicated in the fatal shooting of the union's president, attorney Leon Cooke, but was soon cleared of any wrongdoing. In memory of Cooke, Ruby later adopted "Leon" as his middle name.

Related Topics:
1911 - Childhood - Adolescence - Juvenile delinquency - Horse-racing - 1939

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