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.

Prosecution and Conviction

Prominent San Francisco defense attorney Melvin Belli agreed to represent Ruby free of charge. Some observers thought that the case could have been disposed of as a "murder without malice" charge (roughly equivalent to manslaughter) with a maximum prison sentence of five years. Ruby himself initially appeared not to be very concerned about the proceedings (which have led some researchers to believe that Ruby thought his mafia associates would secretly help him in an acquittal or in gaining a reduced sentence.) Instead, Belli attempted to prove that Ruby was legally insane and had a history of mental illness in his family (the latter being true, as his mother had been committed to a mental hospital years before). On March 14, 1964, Ruby was convicted of "murder with malice" and later received a death sentence.

Related Topics:
San Francisco - Melvin Belli - Manslaughter - Mafia - March 14 - 1964

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Ruby repeatedly asked, verbally and in writing, over the six months following the Kennedy assassination to speak to the members of the Warren Commission. Only after Ruby's sister Eileen wrote letters to the Warren Commission (and after her writing the letters to the commission became publicly reported) did the commission agree to talk to Ruby. In June 1964 Chief Justice Earl Warren, then-Representative Gerald R. Ford of Michigan and others finally came to Dallas. While there, they met with Ruby. Ruby begged Warren several times to take him to Washington D.C. because he feared for his life, and that of his family members and cryptically claiming among other things that "a whole new form of government is going to take over this country, and I know won't live to see you another time." Warren refused. Interestingly, the record of Ruby's testimony shows Warren claiming that the Commission would have no way of providing protection to him, at one point exclaiming the Commission had no police powers. Researchers have wondered why Warren would not have ordered that Ruby be taken into federal custody and sequestered in Washington, D.C. (away from Ruby's perceived dangers).

Related Topics:
Kennedy assassination - Warren Commission - 1964 - Earl Warren - Gerald R. Ford

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After Ruby's March 1964 conviction for "murder with malice", in an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court, Ruby's lawyers argued that he could not have received a fair trial in the city of Dallas due to the excessive publicity surrounding the case. A year after his conviction, in March 1965, Ruby conducted a brief televised news conference in which he stated that, "Everything pertaining to what's happening has never come to the surface. The world will never know the true facts, of what occurred, my motives. The people who had so much to gain and had such an ulterior motive for putting me in the position I'm in, will never let the true facts come aboveboard to the world." Eventually, the appellate court agreed with Ruby's lawyers for a new trial and in November 1966 ruled that his motion for a change of venue before the original trial court should have been granted, and so Ruby's conviction and death sentence were overturned. The arrangements for a new trial in February, in Wichita Falls, were under way, when, on December 9, 1966, Ruby was admitted to Parkland Hospital in Dallas, apparently suffering from pneumonia. Ruby died of a pulmonary embolism in Parkland Hospital on January 3, 1967. Ruby died, legally, an innocent man while he was awaiting his new trial which some believe that if he had survived to appear, would probably have had his sentence commuted to "time served" which would have left him a free man. He is buried in the Westlawn Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.

Related Topics:
Fair trial - 1965 - 1966 - Change of venue - Death sentence - Parkland Hospital - Pulmonary embolism - January 3 - 1967 - Westlawn Cemetery - Chicago, Illinois

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