Death of Jack Ruby; intimidation and deaths of friends, associates and mob bosses Sam Giancana and Johnny Roselli

Contents

Summary of Ruby's death

Two days after Lee Oswald shot president Kennedy, Jack Ruby walked into Dallas Police Headquarters and fatally shot Oswald while on a transport. Ruby's reason defense always involved a case of temporary insanity and his desire to spare Jackie Kennedy a lengthy trial of the man who shot her husband. There have been a few doubts about these motives.

Ruby was put in jail. In March 1964 he was sentenced to the electric chair, despite having a nationally renowed laywer pleading his case for free. It took Ruby two years, until early October 1966, to overturn this sentence and receive a new trial for February 1967. It never got that far. Around mid-October 1966 he started coughing and vomiting. In mid-November 1966 his situation worsened. Prison doctors, primarily Dr. John W. Callahan, who took over from a previous doctor in October, kept treating him for a "cold", despite the vomiting, increasing chest pains, lack of fever, and statements of family members that Ruby began to look like a corpse.

Ruby was finally taken to Parkland Hospital on December 9, after he himself demanded an x-ray, with family members and probably others around him noticing how bad the situation was. Curiously, earlier that day Dr. Callahan had checked up on him and claimed he thought Ruby was actually "improving". In any case, on December 10 Ruby learns he has end stage lung cancer. At some point it is also discovered that he has a massive and seemingly unrelated blood clot that moved to his lungs, which will kill him just the same.

His sister makes it very clear at this point that she doesn't trust the prison doctors or anyone at Parkland Hospital. Later on, she, together with Ruby himself apparently, will be among those who suspect that Ruby has been injected with cancer cells, something only possible with a severely compromised immune system and even then maybe not too practical. A cough medicine inhaler with 1/27 of a microgram (1/27 of a millionth of a gram) of plutonium would have caused lung cancer. Asbestos would sooner or later also have caused lung cancer. There's been plenty of indication that Sidney Gottlieb over at the CIA's Technical Services Staff (TSS) department was overseeing research into poisons and other substances that would cause cancer and blood clots. It's also possible that cancer cells were injected while viruses of Gottlieb severely weakened Ruby's immume system. The thing is, lung cancer can be a very fast killer. Three weeks from diagnosis to death is not unheard of. While Ruby didn't smoke, he would probably have inhaled plenty of cigarette smoke at his Carousel Club.

In the end, as usual, anything is possible. One problem is that black CIA research along these lines is still cloaked in secrecy. All we are left with are strong indications that Ruby's health was neglected by the prison doctors, that a retrial was coming up with potential more bombshells of Ruby (that LBJ was involved and forces bigger than him), and that there were influential persons, from mafia leaders to the CIA and the Dallas Police Department, who wanted him dead. Ruby had been Sam Giancana's representative in Dallas for paying off the police and had worked alongside Santos Trafficante, Army Intelligence and the CIA's Frank Sturgis in army Castro, an operation nobody wanted to be reminded of.

In his deathbed interview, Ruby once again reversed much of what he stated earlier. He claimed that he no memory of carrying out the attack. After he entered the police station, he more or less woke up from a trance when police officers were working him to the ground. On December 19 the Associated Press put out a report that Ruby explicitely asked the American people to believe him that it was him and him alone behind the murder of Oswald and that there is no larger plot. He had stated these things earlier. When finally given a polygraph test in July 1964, which he had been asking for since December 1963, Ruby stated there was no conspiracy, that he had not been pressured, that he indeed acted to spare Jackie Kennedy a lengthy trial of Oswald, and that he had never done any business with Castro. All of a sudden the anti-Jewish he saw everywhere had disappeared also. Even more incredible, FBI polygraph expert, Bell P. Herndon, who was administrating the test, claimed Ruby passed all relevant questions with flying colors. But on other instances to the Warren Commission, to his psychiatric evaluators, and even in a brief media conference, Ruby kept alluding to greater powers at work, including a hint to LBJ, and in private also admitted his guilt over the Castro operations. So, what's going on with Ruby?

Hard to say, but in 1979 the HSCA concluded that Herndon, as a good J. Edgar Hoover boy, had used every trick in the book to help Ruby pass the test. He had enormously turned down the sensitivity of the polygraph machine, wore Ruby's emotional responses to lying down by asking more than three times the absolute maximum number of relevant questions, asked wrong control questions that helped mask lies to relevant questions, and just basically lied and manipulated to reach many of his conclusions.

Most likely Ruby was fully aware that the FBI would work this way and that it would help him in his trial and later effort to get a retrial. As for the situation in his final weeks, one would imagine everyone from the mafia and the Dallas Police to LBJ and the CIA putting the squeeze on him - "talk too much and your family will die" - but, as usual, this cannot be proven. Also don't be surprised if, apart from the standard manipulation, Oswald and Ruby were early Sirhan Sirhan's.

Ruby died on January 3, 1967, age 56.

Jack Ruby's ties to mafia bosses Giancana, Roselli and Trafficante - and all their CIA ties, including to Frank Sturgis

• November 19, 2013, PBS, 'Who was with Lee Harvey Oswald: Twenty-Four Years': "Midnight: Oswald is paraded in front of the press. At the back of the room is one man who is not a policeman or a reporter, a man who carries a gun and has underworld connections. His name is Jacob Rubenstein, known as Jack Ruby. In less than 36 hours, he will murder Lee Harvey Oswald. Ruby is a police informer who owned a striptease club and made sure that policemen who came to his club were shown a good time. He was known to be an impulsive, quick tempered man who loved to fight. He also knew people who were in organized crime. In 1963, Sam and Joe Campisi were leading figures in the Dallas underworld. Jack knew the Campisis and had been seen with them on many occasions. The Campisis were lieutenants of Carlos Marcello, the Mafia boss who had reportedly talked of killing the President."
• September 7, 1976, Washington Post, 'Jack Anderson and Les Whitten: Behind John F. Kennedy's Murder': "The ruggedly handsome Roselli, a flamboyant mobster contacts in Havana, was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1950 to assassinate Castro. He had no authority, however, over the underworld elements in Havana. They were under the loose control of Florida mafia chieftan Santos Trafficante. His gambling enterprises in Havana had been closed by Castro after the 1959 revolution. In fact, Trafficante had been lodged for a period in a Cuban jail, an indignity that didn't endear Castro to him. After Trafficante made it back to his Florida haunts, he left part of his organization in Havana. Some henchmen even managed to develop contacts in Castro's inner circle. These were the people Roselli wanted to use to knock off Castro. But Roselli didn't have the stature inside the Mafia to make the necessary arrangements with Trafficante. So Roselli called in his patron, the Chicago godfather Sam "Momo" Giancana, to deal with Trafficante. As Roselli's associates tell it, he persuaded Giancana it would be to their advantage to win the good will of the C I A . Convinced, Giancana flew to Florida to make the preliminary arrangements. Once Giancana and Trafft- canle set it up, Roselli used the Havana underworld to plot Castro's demise. ... The CIA called off the Roselli operation [after various failed attempts] in March, 1963, but recruited a Castro associate named Rolando Cubela to murder Castro. ... According to Roselli, Castro enlisted the same underworld elements whom he had caught plotting against him. They supposedly were Cubans from the old Trafficante organization. Working with Cuban intelligence, they allegedly lined up an ex-Marine sharpshooter named Lee Harvey Oswald, who had been active in the pro-Castro movement. According to Roselli's version, Oswald may have shot Kennedy or may have acted as a decoy while others ambushed him from closer range. When Oswald was picked up, Roselli suggested, the underworld conspirators feared he would crack and disclose information that might lead to them. This almost certainly would have brought a massive U . S . crackdown on the Mafia. So Jack Ruby was ordered to eliminate Oswald, making it appear as an act of reprisal against the President's killer. At least this is how Roselli explained the tragedy in Dallas. There is no proof, of course. But there is some corroborative, circumstantial evidence. It has been established, for example, that Oswald visited the Cuban consulate in Mexico City two months before the dreadful day in Dallas. An informant named Sylva Duran first stated, then denied, that she had overheard the Cubans speak to Oswald about assassinating someone and had seen them slip him some money. Several key CIA officials believed Castro was behind the Kennedy assassination. Two days after the shooting, the CIAcabled from Mexico City that Ambassador Thomas Mann felt the Soviets were too sophisticated to participate in a direct assassination of the President but that the Cubans would have been stupid enough to recruit Oswald. It has also been established that Ruby indeed had been in Cuba and had connections in the Havana underworld. One CIA cable, dated Nov. 28, 1963, reported that "an American gangster-type named Ruby" had visited Santos Trafficanie in his Cuban prison. Roselli was questioned about the Kennedy assasination behind closed doors by the Senate Intelligence Committee. The transcript is stamped "Top Secret." We can report, however, that Roselli did not tell the senators the same story he had confided to associates. He said it was his opinion the plot against Castro had backfired and Castro had arranged for Kennedy's death. But Roselli stressed this was merely his own speculation. Sens. Richard Schweiker, R-Pa., and Howard Baker, R- Tenn., indicated they believed Roselli was holding back information. But the mobster insisted he could give them nothing but his opinion."
• January 29, 1978, Serasota Herald-Tribune, 'New Details of Crime Involvement; Jack Ruby Was Involved With Top Mobsters': "Washington-based freelance writer William Scott Malone, after 18 months of researching this article, reveals for the first time details of Ruby's involvement with some of America's most powerful mobsters, his entanglement with Cuban gunrunning and the CIA-Mafia attempts to kill Fidel Castro. ... He told a visitor. "They're going to find out about my trips to Cuba... and the guns and everything." That's what worried Jack Ruby most in the months before he died: that they would find out. ... Contrary to findings of the Warren Commission, jack Ruby was involved wih some of the most prominent mobsters in America, the same ones used by the CIA in several unsuccessful attempts to kill Cuban Premier Fidel Castro. .... The most pertinent FBI documents were not in the assassination file and were not provided to the Warren Commission. ... As a teenager he ran numbers for Al Capone. The Warren Commission knew this about Jack Ruby, but thought it little more than an adolescent flirtation. ... By 1939, he was back in Chicago as a secretary to the waste handlers' union. He once was arrested in connection with the murder of the secretary-treasurer of the local although he was released for lack of evidence. That murder enabled the mob, and eventually the teamsters, to take over that union. Luis Kutner, a Chicago lawyer who worked with the Kefauver Committee, says Ruby hobnobbed with Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana, and his crowd during this period. Then, after a brief stint in the Army, Ruby moved to Texas in 1947 as part of a Chicago mob move into the lucrative Dallas racket. He became known as "the pay-off man for the Dallas Police Department," and a man wh "had the fix with the county authorities," according to FBI documents quoting members of the Dallas underworld. By 1956, a Federal Bureau of Narcotics informant had named Ruby as the contact for a "large narcotics set-up operating between Mexico, Texas and the East." FBI reports contained in the Warren Commission fils also indicate that Ruby was heavily involved in various gambling operations in the area. By almost all accounts, whether it was narcotics, gambling prostitution or bribery, Jack Ruby was the man to see in Dallas. ... During the late 1950s, the Mafia followed a curious strategy in Cuba. The same American mobsters who would later join with the CIA in a conspiracy to kill castro were actually supplying his rebel army with guns. It wasn't that the American gangsters wanted Castro to overthrow Fulgencio Batista's government. (The corrupt Batista was a good friend of the mob.) They were merely buying themselves some insurance. If they helped castro, they reasoned, he would protect their considerable interests should he ever come to power. ... [Norman] Rothman, a strapping Havana-based mobster and one of Santos Trafficante's closest associates, coordinated the smuggling of arms to Castro [beginning in 1958]. (Simultaneously, Rothman was splitting his take from Cuba's slot machines with batista's brother-in-law) The available evidence indicates that Ruby helped in Rothman's gun smuggling. Ruby was connected even more directly to Rothman's operations by a Miami FBI informant named Blaney Mack Johnson. Johnson told the FBI that Ruby was "active in arranging illegal flights of weapons from Miami to Castro forces in Cuba," and that he reportedly was part-owner of two planes used to make the flights. Johnson named Eddie Browder as a gunrunning pilot involved with Ruby in the operation. Browder, a flamboyant Miami arms dealer, was Rothman's main operative in the gun smuggling, according to various federal court documents. Browder's FBI file, which has not been released by the Bureau, is more than a thousand pages thick. Yet the FBI turned over only three innocuous reports to the Warren Commission. One of the more interesting names that pops up in Browder's FBI file is that of Frank Sturgis, better known as one of the FBI Watergate burglers. Sturgis then was a swashbuckling soldier of fortune, a gunrunner for Castro and, according to several sources, a close associate of Normie Rothman. The gun smuggling began in mid-May, 1958, and continued full-throttle that summer, with Browder, Sturgis and others traveling up to Alexandria, Virginia, to buy rifles and machine guns from the International Armament Corporation (then a CIA proprietary) with crisp hundred dollar bills. They transported the arms in station wagons and small trucks to secret drop-off points in the Florida Keys. There, the guns were stored until they could be picked up and smuggled to Cuba. Sturgis' memory seems quickly to fade at the mention of Ruby and Rothan, and documents relating to Ruby's gun trafficking have mysteriously disappeared from federal government files. A 1958 letter from Jack Rubenstein ... to the State Department's Office of Munitions Controls, "requesting permission to negotiate the purchase of firearms and ammunition from an Italian firm," though discovered by the State Department in a 1963 file search, is inexplicably missing from the files today. And a 1959 Army Intelligence report on U.S. arms dealers listing a "Jack Rubenstein" also cannot be located, although it, too, Army Intelligence clerks found, was around 1963. ... [Castro unexpectedly kicked out American business and the mafia, and thus the assassination plots began] ... The Senate Intelligence Committee, which investigated the CIA-Mafia connections, reported that Johnny Roselli, the ambassador to Las Vegas for the Chicago mob, was chosen to actually organize the assassination of Catro -- with the CIA supplying the necessary money and weapons. As the plotting progressed, Roselli quickly realized he would need the assistance of Trafficante, who still had many of his underworld henchmen in Havana. Trafficante and his men would become the main operatives in the CIA-Mafia assassination attempts. It was around this time that Jack Ruby apparently became a frequent visitor to Cuba, developing connections to several of Trafficante's lieutenants, as well as to Trafficante himself. The Warren Report, though, merely reiterated Ruby's story that he made only one trip to Cuba -- a pleasure trip in 1959. But FBI reports indicate that Ruby may have traveled to Havana six or more times. It wasn't hard to visit Cuba secretly in those days. ... Ruby told the Warren Commission that this "one" trip to Cuba was purely a social visit at the invitation of his best friend, Lewis J. McWillie [ran gambling houses in Dallas until 1958, when he moved to Havana]. As Ruby testified, he "idolized" McWillie -- and McWillie, in turn, told the FBI that he treated Ruby as "one would a brother." ... McWillie's boss, Trafficante, was arrested in Havana in April, 1959. In late April or early May, saying it was a "life and death matter," Jack Ruby tracked down Robert McKeown, a convicted gun smuggler and an intimate of Fidel Castro. According to FBI interviews, Ruby told McKeown that he was attempting to get three people out of a Cuba prison. He said that McKeown could facilitate their release, he would be paid $5,000 per person, adding that smeone in Las Vegas would finance the operation. A short time later, Ruby visited McWillie in Cuba. And on July 8, 1959, Castro ordered the deportation of three prisoners, Loran Hall, Henry Saavedra and Santos Trafficante. His campaign to free Santos Trafficante placed Ruby in some fast company. Others who wanted Trafficante released included Johnny Roselli and his boss, Sam Giancana -- both of whom, says a House Assasinations Committee memorandum, visited Trafficante in jail in 1959. A close friend of both Roselli and Giancana, who testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, says Roselli told him, "Ruby was hooked up with Trafficante in the rackets in Havana." ... In 1962, the CIA renewed its Castro assassination plotting with its Mafia friends, particularly Trafficante. But like the earlier efforts, these attempts were thwarted by Castro's security officials. The last CIA-Mafia plot apparently came to an end in early March, 1963, when one of Roselli's hit squads, equipped with high powered rifles and walkie-talkies, was picked up on a Havana rooftop. In late 1963, there was an intriguing development for which there is still no explanation. Federal sources close to the Florida investigation of Johnny Roselli's murder say that two meetings between Roselli and Ruby occurred during the two months preceding the Kennedy assassination on Nov. 22, 1963. Columnist Jack Anderson says that Roselli admitted knowing Ruby. 'One of our boys" is how Roselli described him to Anderson. Yet, it is still not clear what relationship, if any exists between Ruby's involvement with the likes of Johnny Roselli and Santos Trafficante, and his murder of Lee Harvey Oswald on Nov. 24, 1963. Roselli's version of the Kennedy assassination, as told to Jack Anderson, is worth noting: "When Oswald was picked up, Roselli suggested, the underworld conspirators feared he would crack and disclose information that might lead to them. This almost certainly would have brought a massive U.S. crackdown on the Mafia. So Jack Ruby was ordered to eliminate Oswald..." Ruby's own version of events seems to coincide with Roselli's. While in jail in 1965, Ruby told psychiatrist, Dr. Warner Teuter, that he had been part of a conspiracy to kill Kennedy that involved "high government agencies." Although Ruby told others the same thing, Dr. Teuter doubted the truth of the story; Ruby often followed such admissions with fits of ranting and raving. ... The Washington Post recently reported a chilling conversation between Santos Trafficante and a young Cuban exile, that alegedly occurred in September, 1962. Aleman says it started as a business discussion, but when it turned to the subject of John Kennedy, Trafficante's relaxed mood quickly changed. "have you seen how his brother is hitting Hoffa, a man who is a worker, and who is not a millionaire, a friend of the blue collars?" Trafficante said. "He doesn't know this kind of encounter is very delicate. Mark my words, this man Kennedy is in trouble, and he will get what is coming to him. ... He is going to be hit." [Aleman about Trafficante: "He's not going to be re-elected. No, Jose,he's going to be hit."] Aleman says he told the FBI about Trafficante's little indiscretion before Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas. The FBI has yet to comment on the matter. But House Assassinations Committee investigators say Aleman is sticking to his story. And Santos Trafficante is not taking it very well. House investigators say that when they arrived to serve Trafficante with his subpoena last March, he actually was trembling. And with good reason. In June, 1975, Sam Giancana was killed by seven bullets in the face one week before he was slated to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Then, in April, 1976, Johnny Roselli testified secretly before the Senate Intelligence subcommittee investigating the Kennedy assassination. Two months later, his mutilated body was found floating in Miami's Dumfounding Bay, stuffed in an oil drum."
• 1979, HSCA Report, Part 1C, pp. 150-157: "Ruby and organized crime.--The committee, as did the Warren Commission, recognized that a primary reason to suspect organized crime of possible involvement in the assassination was Ruby's killing of Oswald. For this reason, the committee undertook an extensive investigation of Ruby and his relatives, friends and associates to determine if there was evidence that Ruby was involved in crime, organized or otherwise, such as gambling and vice, and if such involvement might have been related to the murder of Oswald. The evidence available to the committee indicated that Ruby was not a "member" of organized crime in Dallas or elsewhere, although it showed that he had a significant number of associations and direct and indirect contacts with underworld figures, a number of whom were connected to the most powerful La Cosa Nostra leaders. Additionally, Ruby had numerous associations with the Dallas criminal element. The committee examined the circumstances of a well-known episode in organized crime history in which representatives of the Chicago Mafia attempted in, 1947, a move into Dallas, facilitated by the bribery of members of the Dallas sheriff's office. (15) The Kefauver committee of the U.S. Senate, during, its extensive probe of organized crime in the early 1950's, termed this attempt by the Chicago syndicate to buy protection from the Dallas authorities an extraordinary event, one of the more brazen efforts made during that postwar period of criminal expansion. In the years since the assassination, there had been allegations that Ruby was involved in organized crime's 1947 attempt to move into Dallas, perhaps as a frontman for the Chicago racketeers. (16) During discussions of the bribe offer, Dallas Sheriff Steve Guthrie secretly taped conversations in which the Chicago mob representative outlined plans for its Dallas operation. (17) They spoke of establishing a nightclub as a front for illegal gambling. It happens that Ruby moved from Chicago to Dallas in 1947 and began operating a number of nightclubs. (18) While the FBI and the Warren Commission were aware in 1964 of the alleged links between Ruby and those involved in the bribery attempt, a thorough investigation of the charges was not undertaken. (19) The committee frankly realized that because this incident occurred years in the past, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to answer all the allegations fully and finally. Nevertheless, the committee was able to develop substantial evidence from tape recordings made by the sheriff's office, detailed law enforcement documents and the testimony of knowledgeable witnesses. As a result, the committee concluded that while Ruby and members of his family were acquainted with individuals who were involved in the incident, including Chicago gangsters who had moved to Dallas, and while Ruby may have wished to participate, there was no solid evidence that he was, in fact, part of the Chicago group. (20) There was also no evidence available that Ruby was to have been involved in the proposed gambling operation had the bribery attempt been successful, or that Ruby came to Dallas for that purpose. (21) The committee found it reasonable to assume that had Ruby been involved in any significant way, he would probably have been referred to in either the tape recordings or the documentation relating to the incident, but a review of that available evidence failed to disclose any reference to Ruby. (22) The committee, however, was not able to interview former Sheriff Guthrie, the subject of the bribery attempt and the one witness who maintained to the FBI in 1963-64 that Ruby was significantly involved in the Chicago syndicate plan.1 (23) The committee also examined allegations that, even before the 1947 move to Dallas, Ruby had been personally acquainted with two professional killers for the organized crime syndicate in Chicago, David Yaras [youth friend of Jack Ruby when both woked for the Chicago mafia in Chicago; important Chicago mafia hit man; explained that he hadn't been in contact with Ruby for 15 years; however, in contact with mafia hitman Robert Barney Baker the night before JFK was shot; Baker had been in contact with Ruby a few days earlier for 17 minutes] and Lenny Patrick. (25) The committee established that Ruby, Yaras and Patrick were in fact acquainted during Ruby's years in Chicago, particularly in the 1930's and 1940's.(26) Both Yaras and Patrick admitted, when questioned by the FBI in 1964, that they did know Ruby, but both said that they had not had any contact with him for 10 to 15 years. (27) Yaras and Patrick further maintained they had never been particularly close to Ruby, had never visited him in Dallas and had no knowledge of Ruby being connected to organized crime. (28) Indeed, the Warren Commission used Patrick's statement as a footnote citation in its report to support its conclusion that Ruby did not have significant syndicate associations. (29) On the other hand, the committee established that Yaras and Patrick were, in fact, notorious gunmen, having been identified by law enforcement authorities as executioners for the Chicago mob(30) and closely associated with Sam Giancana, the organized crime leader in Chicago who was murdered in 1975. Yaras and Patrick are believed to have been responsible for numerous syndicate executions, including the murder of James Ragan, a gambling wire service owner. (31) The evidence implicating Yaras and Patrick in syndicate activities is unusually reliable.(32) Yaras, for example, was overheard in a 1969, electronic surveillance discussing various underworld murder contracts he had carried out and one he had only recently been assigned. While the committee found no evidence that Ruby was associated with Yaras or Patrick during the 50's or 1960's, (33) it concluded that Ruby had probably talked by telephone to Patrick during the summer of 1963. (34) While Ruby apparently did not participate in the organized crime move to Dallas is 1947, he did establish himself as a Dallas nightclub operator around that time. His first club was the Silver Spur, which featured country and western entertainment. Then he operated the Sovereign, a private club that failed and was converted into the Carousel Club, a burlesque house with striptease acts. Ruby, an extroverted individual, acquired numerous friends and contacts in and around Dallas, some of whom had syndicate ties. Included among Ruby's closest friends was Lewis McWillie. McWillie moved from Dallas to Cuba in 1958 and worked in gambling casinos in Havana until 1960.(35) In 1978, McWillie was employed in Las Vegas, and law enforcement files indicate he had business and personal ties to major organized crime figures, including Meyer Lansky and Santos Trafficante. (36) Ruby traveled to Cuba on at least one occasion to visit McWillie. (37) McWillie testified to the committee that Ruby visited him only once in Cuba, and that it was a social visit.(38) The Warren Commission concluded this was the only trip Ruby took to Cuba,(39) despite documentation in the Commission's own files indicating Ruby made a second trip. Both Ruby and McWillie claimed that Ruby's visit to Cuba was at McWillie's invitation and lasted about a week in the late summer or early fall of 1959. (41) The committee, however, obtained tourist cards from the Cuban Government that show Ruby entered Cuba on August 8, 1959, left on September 11, reentered on September 12 and left again on September 13, 1959.(42) These documents supplement records the committee obtained from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) indicating that Ruby left Cuba on September 11, 1959, traveling to Miami, returned to Cuba on September 12, and traveled on to New Orleans on September 13, 1959.(43) The Cuban Government could not state with certainty that the commercial airline flights indicated by the INS records were the only ones Ruby took during the period.(44) Other records obtained by the committee indicate that Ruby was in Dallas at times during the August 8 to September 11, 1959, period. (45) He apparently visited his safe deposit box on August 21, met with FBI Agent Charles W. Flynn on August 31,2 and returned to the safe deposit box on September 4. (47) Consequently, if the tourist card documentation, INS, FBI and bank records are all correct, Ruby had to have made at least three trips to Cuba. While the records appeared to be accurate, they were incomplete. Based on the unusual nature of the l-day trip to Miami from Havana on September 11-12 and the possibility of at least one additional trip to Cuba, the committee concluded that vacationing was probably not the purpose for traveling to Havana, despite Ruby's insistence to the Warren Commission that his one trip to Cuba in 1959 was a social visit. (48) The committee reached the judgment that Ruby most likely was serving as a courier for gambling interests when he traveled to Miami from Havana for 1 day, then returned to Cuba for a day, before flying to New Orleans.(49) This judgement is supported by the following: McWillie had made previous trips to Miami on behalf of the owners of the Tropicana, the casino for which he worked, to deposit funds; (50) McWillie placed a call to Meyer Panitz, a gambling associate in Miami, to inform him that Ruby was coming from Cuba, resulting in two meetings between Panitz and Ruby; (51) There was a continuing need for Havana casino operators to send their assets out of Cuba to protect them from seizure by the Castro government; (52) and The 1-day trip from Havana to Miami was not explained by Ruby, and his testimony to the Warren Commission about his travels to Cuba was contradictory.(53) The committee also deemed it likely that Ruby at least met various organized crime figures in Cuba, possibly including some who had been detained by the Cuban government. (54) In fact, Ruby told the Warren Commission that he was later visited in Dallas by McWillie and a Havana casino owner and that they had discussed the gambling business in Cuba. 3 (55) As noted by the Warren Commission, an exporter named Robert McKeown alleged that Ruby offered in 1959 to purchase a letter of introduction to Fidel Castro in hopes of securing the release of three individuals being held in a Cuban prison. (57) McKeown also claimed Ruby contacted him about a sale of jeeps to Cuba. 4 (58) If McKeown's allegations were accurate, they would support a judgment that Ruby's travels to Cuba were not merely for a vacation. (The committee was unable to confirm or refute McKeown's allegations. In his appearance before the committee in executive session, however, McKeown's story did not seem to be credible, based on the committee's assessment of his demeanor.(61) It has been charged that Ruby met with Santos Trafficante in Cuba sometime in 1959.(62) Trafficante, regarded as one of the Nation's most powerful organized crime figures, was to become a key participant in Castro assassination attempts by the Mafia and the CIA from 1960 to 1963.(63) The committee developed circumstantial evidence that makes a meeting between Ruby and Trafficante a distinct possibility,(64) but the evidence was not sufficient to form a final conclusion as to whether or not such a meeting took place. While allegations of a Ruby link to Trafficante had previously been raised, mainly due to McWillie's alleged close connections to the Mafia leader, it was not until recent years that they received serious attention. Trafficante had long been recognized by law enforcement officials as a leading member of the La Cosa Nostra, but he did not become the object of significant public attention in connection with the assassination of the President until his participation in the assassination plots against Castro was disclosed in 1975. In 1976, in response to a freedom of information suit, the CIA declassified a State Department cablegram received from London on November 28, 1963. It read: "On 26 November 1963, a British Journalist named John Wilson, and also known as Wilson-Hudson, gave information to the American Embassy in London which indicated that an "American gangster-type named Ruby" visited Cuba around 1959. Wilson himself was working in Cuba at that time and was jailed by Castro before he was deported. In prison in Cuba, Wilson says he met an American gangster-gambler named Santos [Trafficante] who could not return to the U.S.A. ...Instead he preferred to live in relative luxury in a Cuban prison. While Santos was in prison, Wilson says, Santos was visited frequently by an American gangster type named Ruby." (65) Several days after the CIA had received the information, the Agency noted that there were reports that Wilson-Hudson was a "psychopath" and unreliable. The Agency did not conduct an investigation of the information, and the Warren Commission was apparently not informed of the cablegram. The former staff counsel who directed the Commission's somewhat limited investigation of organized crime told the committee that since the Commission was never told of the CIA's use of the Mafia to try to assassinate Castro from 1960 to 1963, he was not familiar with the name Santos Trafficante in 1964. (66) The committee was unable to locate John Wilson-Hudson (According to reports, he had died.) Nor was the committee able to obtain independent confirmation of the Wilson-Hudson allegation. The committee was able, however, to develop corroborative information to the effect that Wilson-Hudson was incarcerated at the same detention camp in Cuba as Trafficante. (67) On June 6, 1959, Trafficante and others who controlled extensive gambling interests in Cuba were detained as part of a Castro government policy that would subsequently lead to the confiscation of all underworld holding in Cuba.(68) They were held in Trescornia, a minimum security detention camp. (69) According to documentation supplied by the Cuban Government, Trafficante was released from Trescornia on August 18, 1959. (70) Tourist card documentation, also obtained by the committee, as well as various Warren Commission documents, indicate Ruby's first trip to Cuba began on August 1959.(71) Thus, Ruby was in Cuba during part of the final days of Trafficante's detention at Trescornia.(72) ... In his own public testimony before the committee, Trafficante testified that he did not remember Ruby ever having visited him at Trescornia. Trafficante stated, "There was no reason for this man to visit me. I have never seen this man before. I have never been to Dallas, I never had no contact with him. I don't see why he was going to come and visit me." (79) Trafficante did, however, testify that he could recall an individual fitting British journalist John Wilson-Hudson's description, and he stated that the man was among those who were held in his section at Trescornia. (80) The importance of a Ruby-Trafficante meeting in Trescornia should not be overemphasized. The most it would show would be a meeting, at that a brief one. No one has suggested that President Kennedy's assassination was planned at Trescornia in 1959. At the same time, a meeting or an association, even minor, between Ruby and Trafficante would not have been necessary for Ruby to have been used by Trafficante to murder Oswald. (81) Indeed, it is likely that such a direct contact would have been avoided by Trafficante if there had been a plan to execute either the President or the President's assassin, but, since no such plot could have been under consideration in 1959, there would not have been a particular necessity for Trafficante-to avoid contact with Ruby in Cuba. The committee investigated other aspects of Ruby's activities that might have shown an association with organized crime figures. An extensive computer analysis of his telephone toll records for the month prior to the President's assassination revealed that he either placed calls to or received calls from a number of individuals who may be fairly characterized as having been affiliated, directly or indirectly, with organized crime. (82) These included Irwin Weiner a Chicago bondsman well know as a frontman for organized crime and the Teamsters Union;(83) Robert "Barney" Baker, a lieutenant of James R. Hoffa and associate of several convicted organized crime executioners:(84) Nofio J. Pecora, a lieutenant of Carlos Marcello, the Mafia boss in Louisiana (85) Harold Tannenbaum, a New Orleans French Quarter nightclub manager who lived in a trailer park owned by Pecora;(86) McWillie, the Havana gambler;(87) and Murray "Dusty" Miller, a Teamster deputy of Hoffa and associate of various underworld figures.(88) Additionally, the committee concluded that Ruby was also probably in telephonic contact with Mafia executioner Lenny Patrick sometime during the summer of 1963. (89) Although no such call was indicated in the available Ruby telephone records, Ruby's sister, Eva Grant, told the Warren Commission that Ruby had spoken more than once of having contacted Patrick by telephone during that period. (90) The committee found that the evidence surrounding the calls was generally consistent--at least to the times of their occurrence--with the explanation that they were for the purpose of seeking assistance in a labor dispute. (91) Ruby, as the operator of two nightclubs, the Carousel and the Vegas, had to deal with the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA), an entertainers union.(92) Ruby did in fact have a history of labor problems involving his striptease performers, and there was an ongoing dispute in the early 1960's regarding amateur performers in Dallas area nightclubs.(93) Testimony to the committee supported the conclusion that Ruby's phone calls were, by and large, related to his labor troubles. (94) In light of the identity of some of the individuals, however, the possibility of other matters being discussed could not be dismissed.(95) In particular, the committee was not satisfied with the explanations of three individuals closely associated with organized crime who received telephone calls from Ruby in October or November 1963. (96) [Weiner, Baker and Pecora.] ... The committee was also dissatisfied with the explanation of a call Ruby made on October 30, 1963, to the New Orleans trailer park office of Nofio J. Pecora, the long-time Marcello lieutenant.(104) Pecora told the committee that only he would have answered his phone and that he never spoke with Ruby or took a message from him.(105) The committee considered the possibility that the call was actually for Harold Tannenbaum, a mutual friend of Ruby and Pecora... Additionally, the committee found it difficult to dismiss certain Ruby associations with the explanation that they were solely related to his labor problems. For example, James Henry Dolan, a Dallas AGVA representative, was reportedly an acquaintance of both Carlos Marcello and Santos Trafficante.(107) While Dolan worked with Ruby on labor matters, they were also allegedly associated in other dealings, including a strong-arm attempt to appropriate the proceeds of a one-night performance of a stage review at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas called "Bottoms Up." (108) The FBI, moreover, has identified Dolan as an associate of Nofio Pecora. (109) The committee noted further that reported links between AGVA and organized crime figures have been the subject of Federal and State investigations that have been underway for years.5 (110) The committee's difficulties in separating Ruby's AGVA contacts from his organized crime connections was, in large degree, based on the dual roles that many of his associates played. 6 In assessing the significance of these Ruby contacts, the committee noted, first of all, that they should have been more thoroughly explored in 1964 when memories were clearer and related records (including, but not limited to, additional telephone toll records) were available. Further, while there may be persuasive arguments against the likelihood that the attack on Oswald would have been planned in advance on the telephone with an individual like Ruby, the pattern of contacts did show that individuals who had the motive to kill the President also had knowledge of a man who could be used to get access to Oswald in the custody of the Dallas police. In Ruby, they also had knowledge of a man who had exhibited a violent nature and who was in serious financial trouble. The calls, in short, established knowledge and possible availability, if not actual planning." HSCA: "x. Lawrence V. Meyers ... The Warren Commission considered Meyers to be a personal friend of Jack Ruby... Meyers' next contact with Ruby occurred Saturday night, November 23, 1963, although the exact circumstances are muddled. When interviewed following the assassination, Meyers had spoken of a telephone call to his room at approximately 10 p.m. from Ruby. They talked for 15 to 20 minutes, were unable to arrange a meeting that night, and made tentative plans to have dinner the following evening. (1853) In 1978, Meyers adamantly stated that he also had dinner with Ruby on Saturday night at the Cabana. (1854) This has not been corroborated and seems very unlikely in light of the committee's knowledge of Ruby's activities during that weekend.(1855) Meyers told the FBI that on Sunday, November 24, 1963, Meyers went to McKinney, Tex., on business and then to Sherman, Tex., intending to play golf, but this was canceled after news of the shooting of Oswald arrived. (1856) Meyers told the committee that he received the news of the shooting while driving to his golf date and that he continued and played a round of golf (shooting his "worst round ever"). (1857) Meyers stated that the news left him in disbelief, and he decided against trying to contact either Ruby or the Dallas police department. (1858) On Monday, November 25, Meyers and West flew back to Chicago. Meyers never saw West again.(1859) Meyers characterized Ruby as an emotional, aggressive individual with strong views on most issues. Ruby often told Meyers about the labor problems he was having and of his admiration for President Kennedy. Meyers related that Ruby often dropped names (of entertainers, public officials, Dallas police officers, "racket poodle"), but the only friend or associate of Ruby's that he ever met was George Senator. The Warren Commission inquired as to whether Ruby ever told Meyers about any underworld association. Meyers responded affirmatively, saying that Ruby dropped names many times, but always in a general way rather than specifically.(1860) Meyers also disavowed any knowledge of a Ruby involvement in specific criminal activities such as narcotics or prostitution, (1861) although he mentioned that Ruby once said something about scalping sports tickets in Chicago and being a runner for a Chicago numbers racket. (1862) Meyers believed that Ruby's shooting of Oswald was a totally impulsive act. (1863) When discussing the November 23, 1963, telephone call from Ruby (or the dinner conversation), (1864) Meyers stated that Ruby seemed very disturbed about the assassination and the fact that other Dallas nightclubs were remaining open that weekend, with Ruby remarking that he had to do something about the situation. Meyers said that Ruby became quite incoherent during this conversation.(1865)"
• November 1973, Ramparts, 'From Dallas to Watergate: The Longest Cover-Up', p. 7: "The Warren Report discounted the even more numerous stories (one of them from a former Dallas County Sheriff) that Ruby was linked to organized crime. Commission Exhibit 1268 (22 H 372) is a typical example of the FBI's and Commission's reluctance to explore more deeply Ruby's underworld connections. In it a Dave Yaras (unidentified) claims 'Sparky' [i.e. Ruby] "knew Lenny Patrick 'like he knows him' but was 'positively on his own and not outfit connected.'" Yaras further described "Sparky" as a "'romeo' who was most successful in picking up girls." In the Report only the trivial part of this testimony remains: "one friend regarded him as a 'Romeo,' who was quite successful in attracting young women" (R 792)."

Jack Ruby's deep ties to the entire Dallas Police Department

• 1979, HSCA Report, Part 1C, pp. 150-156: "(2) Ruby and the Dallas Police Department. The committee also investigated the relationship between Ruby and the Dallas Police Department to determine whether members of the department might have helped Ruby get access to Oswald for the purpose of shooting him.(111) Ruby had a friendly and somewhat unusual relationship with the Dallas Police Department, both collectively and with individual officers, but the committee found little evidence of any significant influence by Ruby within the force that permitted him to engage in illicit activities.(112) Nevertheless, Ruby's close relationship with one or more members of the police force may have been a factor in his entry to the police basement on November 24, 1963. (113) Both the Warren Commission and a Dallas Police Department investigative unit concluded that Ruby entered the police basement on November 24, 1963, between 11:17 a.m., when he apparently sent a telegram, and 11:21, when he shot Oswald, via the building's Main Street ramp as a police vehicle was exiting, thereby fortuitously creating a momentary distraction.(114) The committee, however, found that Ruby probably did not come down the ramp,(115) and that his most likely route was an alleyway located next to the Dallas Municipal Building and a stairway leading to the basement garage of police headquarters. (116) ... Based on a review of the evidence, albeit circumstantial, the committee believed that Ruby's shooting of Oswald was not a spontaneous act, in that it involved at least some premeditation.(125) Similarly, the Committee believed that it was less likely that Ruby entered the police basement without assistance, even though the assistance may have been provided with no knowledge of Ruby's intentions. The assistance may have been in the form of information about plans for Oswald's transfer or aid in entering the building or both.7 (126) The committee found several circumstances significant in its evaluation of Ruby's conduct. It considered in particular the selectively recalled and self-serving statements in Ruby's narration of the events of the entire November 22-24 weekend in arriving at its conclusions. (127) It also considered certain conditions and events. The committee was troubled by the apparently unlocked doors along the stairway route and the removal of security guards from the area of the garage nearest the stairway shortly before the shooting;(128) by a Saturday night telephone call from Ruby to his closest friend, Ralph Paul, in which Paul responded to something Ruby said by asking him if he was crazy [also spoke about a gun reportedly, with Paul contacting Tom Howard immediately after the shooting, a failed attempt to see Ruby, and then briefly dropping from public view when the FBI was looking for him];(129) and by the actions and statements of several Dallas police officers, particularly those present when Ruby was initially interrogated about the shooting of Oswald. (130)"
• November 24, 1963, Dallas Morning News: "Sheriff Bill Decker said officers "did everything humanly possible" to protect both President Kennedy and the man accused of assassinating him. "I don't think it would make a bit of difference if Oswald had been transferred at night," Decker said. "If someone is determined to commit murder, it's almost impossible to stop him." Officers said Rubenstein apparently mingled with reporters and photographers and, in this way, got a chance to shoot Oswald. Wade recalled he saw Rubenstein with reporters Friday night when they interviewed Oswald briefly. Rubenstein, who introduced himself to Wade [who reportedly visited Ruby's club along with hundreds of police officers], may have been plotting the slaying at that time. ... In a telephone conversation with Homicide Capt. Will Fritz, Mrs. (Eva) Grant (Ruby's sister) said: "You know that no one else could have gotten in that building - but all the boys (policemen) knew Jack."
• November 19, 2013, PBS, 'Who was with Lee Harvey Oswald: Twenty-Four Years': "His name is Jacob Rubenstein, known as Jack Ruby. In less than 36 hours, he will murder Lee Harvey Oswald. Ruby is a police informer who owned a striptease club and made sure that policemen who came to his club were shown a good time."
• Napoleon J. Daniels, a black policeman at the police station where Ruby shot Oswald, to Mark Lane in 'Rush to Judgment': "I was [associated with the Dallas Police Department], for seven years, as a patrol man. ... There was one man [Jack Ruby, who walked into the basement], about a couple of minutes before Oswald got shot. ... He had his right hand in his right coat pocket and something seemed to be protruding from it. My first impression was that he had a gun in his pocket and then I didn't think that much about it, because officer Vaughn who was in charge and he just let him go in without showing his identity. I just assumed he did [know him], but he didn't try to stop him."
• Joe Johnson, Jr., a black piano player, to Mark Lane in 'Rush to Judgment': "I met Jack Ruby in 1952, on Ervey Street, a place called the. Silver Spur, and I went to work for Jack Ruby in 1956, and the club was the Vegas Club. I worked for him for about six years. Well, yes, he did [know many police officers]. I would say he knew probably half of the people on the force. ... They would come in there all the time. Off duty, on duty and so forth. They were treated royally."
• Nancy Hamilton, a former employee of Ruby, to Mark Lane in 'Rush to Judgment': "Oh yes. In fact, the Dallas police officers were special boys, shall we say. He even had a private stock for them. ... Very, very high priced drinks, on the house, of course. You'd never charge them. ... Or any official of the city of Dallas or county. ... Oh, your District Attorney, which would be Mr. [Henry] Wade. ... Yes, in fact, Jack [Ruby] told me, point blank. He said: 'Nancy, if you ever, intentionally or unintentionally, charge a Dallas police officer, you might as well go look for another job." He said: "Don't offend them, cater to them, talk with them. Even if you ignore the other customers, bend over backward to be nice to them." ... Favors? I don't know if you would call them favors. He provided girls, gambling and booze. ... At least half, and probably two-thirds [of Dallas police officers he knew personally]. Oh, easily [he would have known 600 of 1200 Dallas police officers]. ... He used to brag: "I can get this fixed for you, I can get that fixed for you." ... Serving drinks a little late [was allowed]. He did, and no one ever interfered. And, of course, it was common knowledge that he ran girls and gambling, and I've never seen any kind of pick up on it."
• March 13, 2013, JFKFacts.org, 'Ex-flame says Jack Ruby 'had no choice' but to kill Oswald': "Who says new JFK witnesses can't be found? After JFK Facts recounted Jack Ruby's pursuit of an exotic dancer named Gail Raven in January 1963, I received a message from a woman who identified herself as Raven’s daughter. She told me that her mother was still alive, and she confirmed that her mother and Jack Ruby were close. I asked her if her mother would share her memories of the man who killed accused assassin Lee H. Oswald. She said yes. In 1963 Gail Raven was the stage name of a precociously mature 20-year-old woman who danced on the national nightclub circuit that included Ruby’s Carousel Club in Dallas. Ruby (born Jack Rubenstein) was a Chicago tough guy who took a shine to her, and they became friends. Now close to 70 years old, Gail Raven is living in the southern United States. I have confirmed her real name but have agreed not to publish it here to protect her privacy. Ruby never mentioned President Kennedy, Raven said. “He was not in love with the Kennedys and he did NOT like Robert Kennedy by no means,” she says. This is not surprising, according to journalists and historians who have studied Ruby’s life. Phone records reviewed by JFK investigators showed that in 1962-63 Ruby made phone calls to no less than seven organized crime figures who had been prosecuted by Attorney General Bobby Kennedy’s Justice Department. The Warren Commission did not consider this evidence relevant to Ruby’s motivation for silencing Oswald. “He had no choice,” Raven said. When I asked her to explain why he “had no choice,” she replied only, “Jack had bosses, just like everyone else.” Raven says she believes “he was instructed on what he needed to do, therefore he did it. “That was absolutely made up [that he wanted to spare the Kennedies a trial],” Raven said. Ruby told that story to Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels 30 minutes after he executed Oswald. He was very close with Dallas authorities, including the police and sheriff’s department. He helped them out and was friends with many,” she says. Raven thinks those friends may have informed Ruby about the transfer of Oswald and let him be there to witness it, but she stresses these are her thoughts only. She doesn’t think that killing Oswald was Ruby’s original plan on November 24, 1963. “He would have never done it with Sheba (his weenie dog) left in his car, knowing they would arrest him and Sheba would be alone,” she said. “Sheba was a child to Jack.” After the shooting, Raven visited Ruby in the Dallas jail. She says Wally Weston, the house MC at the Carousel Club, took her to see him. During the visit Ruby kept repeating to her that she shouldn’t worry, and that everything would be OK after the first of the year. After Ruby ended a long relationship with a young woman, he continued to ask Raven to marry him. They were friends. He liked her because she didn’t drink or smoke. She told him she didn’t want to get married. He teased that they needed to get married for the “shock factor” and to surprise her friend Tammie True (stage name). But in Raven’s words they were “always just good friends.” “Jack was NOT crazy as he has been portrayed,” Raven says. “He did have a temper and when he saw something going wrong he would take care of things himself instead of depending on his bouncer like others.” “He was good to my grandmother when she visited,” she said. “He was good to everyone he was close to.”"

Jack Ruby's statements after his arrest (conspiracy, doctors, death)

• December 1975, Vol. 3, No. 12, Texas Monthly, 'Low Talk', p. 12: "Did you know that [CIA MKULTRA veteran] Dr. Louis West, one of the four experts appointed by the court to determine if Patty Hearst is mentally competent to stand trial, is the same Dr. West who traveled to Dallas in April 1964, to determine the sanity of accused killer Jack Ruby? West concluded in his April 26, 1964, psychiatric examination report that Ruby was "obviously psychotic ... completely preoccupied with his delusions of persecuton of Jews on his account" and recommended immediate psychiatric hospitalization, study, treatment, close observation, and suicidal precautions..."
• June 7, 1964, Jack Ruby to the Warren Commission: "I have been used for a purpose, and there will be a certain tragic occurrence happening if you don't take my testimony and somehow vindicate me so my people [the Jews] don't suffer because of what I have done. ... I won't be around for you to come and question me again. ... All I want is a lie detector test, and you refuse to give it to me. Because as it stands now---and the truth serum, and any other--Pentothal--how do you pronounce it, whatever it is. And they will not give it to me, because I want to tell the truth."
• 1964, Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (Warren Commission), Appendix 17: Polygraph Examination of Jack Ruby [on July 18, 1964]: "As early as December of 1963, Jack Ruby expressed his desire to be examined with a polygraph, truth serum, or any other scientific device which would test his veracity. ... During the course of a psychiatric examination on May 11, 1964, Ruby is quoted as saying: "I want to tell the truth. I want a polygraph ... "4 In addition, numerous letters were written to the President's Commission on behalf of Ruby requesting a polygraph examination.5 ... . MR. RUBY. I would like to be able to get a lie detector test or truth serum of what motivated me to do what I did at that particular time... MR. RUBY. All I want to do is to tell the truth, and the only way you can know it is by the polygraph, as that is the only way you can know it. CHIEF JUSTICE WARREN. That we will do for you. ... [Session:] Q. Did you know Oswald before November 22, 1963? A. No.33 Q. Did you assist Oswald in the assassination? A. No. 34 ... Q. Are you now a member of any group that advocates the violent overthrow of the United States Government? A. No.38 Q. Have you ever been a member of any group that advocates violent overthrow of the United States Government? A. No.39 ... Q. Aside from anything you said to George Senator on Sunday morning, did you ever tell anyone else that you intended to shoot Oswald? A. No.41 Q. Did you shoot Oswald in order to silence him? A. No. 42 ... Q. Did you walk past the guard at the time Lieutenant Pierce's car was parked on the ramp exit? A. Yes.48 Q. Did you talk with any Dallas police officers on Sunday, November 24, prior to the shooting of Oswald? A. No.49 ... Q. Is everything you told the Warren Commission the entire truth? A. Yes.62 ... Q. Is any member of your immediate family or any close friend a member of any group that advocates the violent overthrow of the Government? A. No.65 Q. Did any close friend or any member of your immediate family ever attend a meeting of the Communist Party? A. No.66 Q. Did any close friend or any member of your immediate family ever attend a meeting of any group that advocates the violent, overthrow of the Government? A. No.67 Q. Did you ever meet Oswald at your post office box? A. No.68 Q. Did you use your post office mailbox to do any business with Mexico or Cuba? A. No.69 Q. Did you do business with Castro-Cuba? A. No.70 Q. Was your trip to Cuba solely for pleasure? A. Yes.71 Q. Have you now told us the truth concerning why you carried $2,200 in cash on you? A. Yes. 72 Q. Did any foreign influence cause you to shoot Oswald? A. No.73 Q. Did you shoot Oswald because of any influence of the underworld? A. No.74 ... Q. Did any long-distance telephone calls which you made before the assassination of the President have anything to do with the assassination? A. No.76 Q. Did any of your long-distance telephone calls concern the shooting of Oswald? A. No.77 Q. Did you shoot Oswald in order to save Mrs. Kennedy the ordeal of a trial? A. Yes.78 Q. Did you know the Tippit that was killed? A. No.79 Q. Did you tell the truth about relaying the message to Ray Brantley to get McWillie a few guns? A. Yes.80 Q. Did you go to the assembly room on Friday night to get the telephone number of KLIF? A. Yes.81 Q. Did you ever meet with Oswald and Officer Tippit at your club? A. No 82 ... Q. Have members of your family been physically harmed because of what you did? A. No.85 Q. Do you think members of your family are now in danger because of what you did? (No response.) 86 ... Answers by Ruby to certain irrelevant control questions suggested an attempt to deceive on those questions. For example, Ruby answered "No" to the question "While in the service did you receive any disciplinary action?" 113 His reaction suggested deception in his answer.114 Similarly, Ruby's negative answer to the query "Did you ever overcharge a customer?" was suggestive of deception.115 Ruby further showed an emotional response to other control questions such as "Have you ever been known by another name"116 "Are you married?"117 "Have you ever served time in jails?" 118 "Are your parents alive?" 119 "Other than what you told me, did you ever hit anyone with any kind of a weapon?" 120 [Bell P.] Herndon concluded that the absence of any physiological response on the relevant questions indicated that there was no deception.121 ... Based on the assumption that Ruby was a "psychotic depressive," Herndon testified: 'There would be no validity to the polygraph examination, and no significance should be placed upon the polygraph charts.'127 Considering other phases of Dr. Beavers' testimony, Herndon stated: 'Well, based on the hypothesis that Ruby was mentally competent and sound, the charts could be interpreted, and if those conditions are fact, the charts could be interpreted to indicate that there was no area of deception present with regard to his response to the relevant questions during the polygraph examination.' 128 ..."
• 1979, House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) report, Volume III (Jack Ruby's July 18, 1964 poligraph test handling analysis): "A third factor the panel finds impaired the Ruby polygraph examination concerned the number of relevant test questions asked. The panel members believe it showed total disregard of basic polygraph principles. ... The crux of every polygraph examination is the number of test questions and how they are worded. When the Ruby examination was conducted, the primary textbook on the subject was "Lie Detection and Criminal Interrogation," by Fred E. Inbau and John E. Reid (3d ed., 1953). This book recommends three relevant questions, since the more a person is tested, the less he tends to react when lying. That is, sooner or later, liars become so "test-tired," they no longer produce significant physiological reactions when lying. ... One panel member, Arther, said that in his 27 years of experience he had never heard of polygraph examinations with more than 17 relevant questions. Yet, in the Ruby examination, Herndon asks some 55 relevant questions. As Herndon himself stated: 'In normal polygraph procedure it is usual to keep the relevant questions down to perhaps several specific critical relevant questions and work strictly on those.' ... The panel found the galvanic skin response (GSR) tracing to be of minimal help in analyzing Ruby's charts. The main problem with the GSR in the first session (before the break) is a lack of sensitivity due to Herndon's setting the sensitivity at one-fourth of maximum. He decreased it to one-fifth for the third series of questions. The panel noted that it should have been tried at a maximum sensitivity prior to the first test, where probably it should have remained for the entire examination. ... The panel could provide no explanation for why Herndon decreased the sensitivity for the third series. In fact, generally recognized principles in 1964 called for the sensitivity to be continually increased. ... The panel concluded that during this entire session, the GSR was completely defective. At best the polygraph appeared to be in extremely poor condition. In an examination of this importance, a backup polygraph should have been available and in the panel's view, should have been used. The examination should have been stopped until another polygraph could be obtained. ... (95) The panel concluded that the Ruby polygraph examination was probably invalid and unreliable. As discussed above, the panel found serious flaws in the examination procedures. The questions were especially poorly worded. The polygraph instrument itself was either incorrectly adjusted or defective in its operation. The panel could render no opinion regarding the examination results. (96) Of the 13 test groups, the first and second are perhaps the most valid in that they were conducted when Ruby was still "fresh" Because of the importance of the relevant questions in these two tests, the panel has briefly summarized its opinion about them. (97) The relevant questions on the first series and Ruby's answers were: 1. Did you know Oswald before November 22, 1963? Answer. No. 2. Did you assist Oswald in the assassination? Answer. No. (98) Herndon concluded from his analysis of the charts that Ruby was truthful in answering these two relevant questions. He arrived at this conclusion by comparing Ruby's response to the control question (Have you ever been arrested? Answer: Yes. (99) As previously noted, the panel believed this to be an extremely poor control question. (100) Herndon testified that Ruby's physiological response to this control question was recorded on the charts in terms of a "noticeable rise in his blood pressure." (127) The panel took issue with this conclusion because the rise in blood pressure occurred at least 7 seconds after Ruby answered. A response normally never occurs this long after the question. The typical reaction, would be in 1 or 2 seconds. Further, the panel noted that at the point of the rise in blood pressure, Herndon indicated on the chart (as "MF") that Ruby moved his feet. The panel believed that the rise in blood pressure most likely was caused by Ruby's movement and not his physiological reaction to the "control" question. This conclusion is corroborated by the fact that Ruby's breathing remained relaxed at the time of the rise in blood pressure, and the Galvanic skin response showed no reaction. (101) In fact, the reactions to the preceding question--(Did you assist Oswald in the assassination?)--showed the largest valid GSR reaction in test series No. 1. In addition, there is a constant suppression of breathing and a rise in blood pressure at the time of this crucial relevant question. [but apparently not in other crucial questions: if Ruby was forced, the official reason he gave, but he definitely lies about his Castro business] From this test, it appeared to the panel that Ruby was possibly lying when answering "no" to the question, "Did you assist Oswald in the assassination ?" This is contrary to Herndon's opinion that Ruby was truthful when answering that question. ... Herndon's definition of a "control" question goes far beyond the generally recognized definition, as discussed in the leading book of the day by Inbau and Reid. ... Herndon's control questions were not correctly worded. He defined a "control" question as one to which the person will have some emotional response. ... It is obvious that not one of the above questions is a control, as defined by Inbau and Reid. For example, to the question, "have you ever been arrested?", Ruby answered "yes." Therefore, it is not a lie, yet Herndon considered it to be a control question. Further, Herndon violated a basic rule that surprise questions should never be used as controls. For example, while asking a series, he says, during the test, "have you ever been known by another name? Don't answer that question. Skip it. Just sit and relax." Such talk by the expert should automatically prevent this question from being used in the chart analysis. yet Herndon uses it as a control. [goes on]..."
• March 1965, Jack Ruby to the media (Youtube) (Looks coherent, but struggling to find the right words): "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 above board to the world. Yes [these people are in high government positions] ... [Behind the scenes recording:] When I mentioned about Adlai Stevenson, if he was vice president there would never have been an assassination of our beloved President Kennedy. [Would you explain that again?] Well, the answer is the man in office now [LBJ]."
• Mid July 1965 in a psychiatric evaluation (seen below in full): "There is considerable guilt about the fact that he sent guns to Cuba; he feels he "helped the enemy" and incriminated himself. "They got what they wanted on me." Ruby insists he knows who had President Kennedy killed. They want him (Ruby) to be insane so no one will believe his story. ... He considers himself the victim of a conspiracy and was "framed" to kill Oswald, so that Osweld could never say who made him kill President Kennedy. This "framework," of course, is very complicated and must be guarded with the greatest secrecy." ... He avidly reads the newspaper every day and carries on a reasonable conversation as long as he or others avoid his sensitive areas where the mental illness is located: antisemitism, the murder of Oswald, and the conspiracy regarding the Presidential assassination. His judgment and decision making are greatly impaired, as is his critical thinking. He did not fail to warn me and instruct me that I would be followed the moment I would leave the jail and that my phone would be tapped henceforth. Other times, particularly during the third interview, he would at times only communicate in writing. He closed the series of interviews with the statement, "I am doomed. I do not want to die, but I am not insane. I was framed to kill Oswald.""
• September 9, 1965: Jack Ruby is videotaped complaining about a polygraph test not included in the Warren Report. Looks healthy and coherent.
• October 5, 1966: Ruby finally gets his retrial, overturning the death sentence for the time being. A new trial will be held in February or March 1967 in Wichita Falls, Texas.
• Mid-October, 1966: Ruby first showing signs of sickness. This same month he gets a new doctor, Dr. John W. Callahan.
• Mid-November, 1966: Ruby's "cold" worsens quickly. Family member think he starts to look like a corpse. Doctors continue to treat him for a "cold" or "pneumonia", despite chest pain, vomiting and having no fever.
• December 9, 1966: Ruby is finally admitted to Parkland Hospital, after three weeks of being deathly ill of "pneumonia". A day later end stage lung cancer is discovered. He also has a massive seemingly unrelated blood clot that has traveled to his lungs.
• December 10, 1966, The Morning Record, 'Ruby in hospital with pneumonia': "DALLAS, Tex. (AP) -- Jack Ruby ... was taken to Parkland Hospital late Friday with an illness described as a serious case of pneumonia. "That guy's dying," said Ruby's sister, Eva Grant. The jail doctor said Ruby had a "throat-tickling kind of cough" -- and no fever. ... Except for defense claims that he was mentally sick, it was Ruby's first reported illness since he shot down Oswald... Sheriff Bill Decker said he ordered Ruby transferred to the hospital on the advice of Dr. J.M. Pickard, county health officer, after routinely visiting Ruby's cell for the first time in 10 days. Dr. John W. Callahan, Pickard's assistant, said he had been seeing Ruby daily for two weeks because of a cold. "I examined him at 10 a.m. today," he said, "and his cold seemed to be subsiding. I thought he was improving. I was surprised to hear tonight that he had gone to the hospital." ... Mrs. Grant visited Ruby in his hospital room and then told a reporter: "I'm not leaving. I'll be here all night. I don't even trust the hospital. That guy's dying." She said she saw Ruby earlier Friday and he looked "terrible, like a corpse. For three weeks, he's been deathly sick." Decker said he decided to drop in on Ruby on Friday and "Jack said he had a bad cold and wasn't feeling up to par. I talked to Dr Pickard and he suggested Jack should be taken to the hospital where he could be X-rayed, examined and tests made." Callahan, who has been practicing medicine for 15 years, said he had been giving Ruby cough medicine and, for the past three days, antibiotics. ... The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new trial for Ruby recently, and last week Judge Louis Holland set the second trial for Wichita Falls, probably in February. ... Ruby was taken to a private room and hospital authorities said only visitors approved by Decker would be permitted to see him. ... Eva Grant, Ruby's sister, arrived at the hspital soon after her brother. She went to his upper-floor room after telling reporters he had been ill for three weeks and had not been properly treated. Decker said, "I understand he's had a cold for several weeks." But he said Ruby had not been exposed in jail and added "this all came about because of a routine examination" by Dr. Callahan. ... In Detraoit, Mich., Ruby's brother Earl said he had just received the information. "All I know is that they told me it's very serious," he said. "I just saw him Tuesday, " Earl Ruby continued, "and he looked terrible. "He said then that he was very ill physcially. He complained of pains in his chest while I was there in the cell." Asked if Jack had also complained to jail officials, Earl answered, "yes, they knew about it. They were treating him for a cold.""
• January 5, 1967, Reading Eagle (UPI report), 'Ruby case Discussed: Doctors, Sheriff Deny Prisoner Was Neglected': "Jack Ruby received less than the best possible medical treatment in Dallas County jail, one of his doctors admitted Wednesday. Two other doctors who treated the killer of President Kennedy's assassin maintained that his treatment was more than adequatehowever. At the same time, it was disclosed that physical examinations and x-rays taken in 1963 and 1964 had revealed no signs of cancer. Ruby died Tuesday of a blood clot in his lung, an apparent result of the cancer. Responding to the family's charge that Ruby was neglected, Dr. Eugene Frenkel said, "in a way, Ruby's situation in jail was like a man in the military--the medical care he would get might not be as thorough or sophisticated with a private doctor." Dr. Julian Mardock and Dr. John Callahan, the physicians who examined Ruby in jail, and sheriff Bill Decker flatly denied that the prisoner was neglected. "Nobody was given the attention he was," said Dr. Callahan. "I was there at least twice a week. He was not neglected," as he was suffering from something much more than pneumonia... He said the cancer apparently had progressed undetected by doctors who were treating Ruby in jail from time to time. "I don't think the cancer was suspected until he went to Parkland," Decker said. "He had what I thought was a deep chest cold or maybe pneumonia. He looked that way. He had a runny nose and all." "I didn't suspicion cancer," said Dr. J. M. Pickard, county medical officer. "I thought he might have a heart attack when I first saw him. This particular type of cancer does not show itself for some time, until it is well advanced. We do not have the diagnostic facilities that you have at Parkland Hospital. "The type of tumor he had--those things are rather rapid growing.""
• 1967, Dan Smoot Report (CIA/John Birch Society person), Volume 13, p. 11: "In May, 1964, Dr. Julian MarDock (then jail physician) ordered X ray and other medical tests to be given Ruby, solely as a precautionary measure to protect his health. The tests were negative, showing no sign of cancer or any other disease. Dr. MarDock (who resigned as jail physician in October, 1965) and Dr. John Callahan (who has been jail physician since then), visited Ruby at least twice every week, to inquire about his health and make symptomatic examinations. Dr. J. M. Pickard, Dallas County Health Director, made frequent calls on Ruby. These doctors heard no complaints, from Ruby or anyone else, about Ruby's health. They heard nothing about the vomiting spells which Ruby's relatives later alleged he had had in jail. On December 9, when Dr. Pickard heard that Ruby was ill, he visited Ruby in jail and immediately ordered him removed to Parkland Hospital."
• January 15-21, 1967, David Welsh for Ramparts magazine, 'Jack Ruby and his jail doctors: A strange diagnosis, a familiar hospital, another death':"The autopsy examiner said the cause of death was a massive blood clot in the lung, with cancer as a contributing cause. He added that the clot, which had been formed in Ruby's leg and moved up through the heart to lodge in the lung, probably would have killed him even if he had not been weakened by cancer. Ruby's sister Eva and Texas editor Penn Jones Jr. implied that his cancer might conceivably have been induced. Skeptical, the Sunday Ramparts consulted a number of specialists about this possibility. Some said it was possible to introduce cancerous cells into a person's body and have it "take"; other said it was extremely unlikely or impossible. One doctor said he knew of cases of long term prisoners volunteering to be Another physician confirmed that cancer serum had been adiministered to prison volunteers, but that none of the subjects, to his knowledge, had so far contracted the disease. One pathologist speculated that Ruby might possibly have had a pre-existing cancer condition , and that the medical records had been either misplaced or destroyed. Whatever else may be said, and although certain types of cancer do spread quickly, it is a wonder that it could have reached such an advanced stage without being detected earlier. Ruby's sister, Mrs. Eva Grant, visited Jack in the jail before he was transferred to Parkland Hospital. "He looked terrible," she said, "like a corpse." For three weeks he's been deathly sick in that jail." Ruby might ot have been taken alive to the hospital at all if he himself had not demanded a x-ray. Dr. Pickard, who has overall responsibility for the prisoners' health, told the Sunday Ramparts: "Yes, it was Jack that asked for that x-ray, and so we decided to send him to parkland to to get one. I don't think he's been x-rayed in quite a while. I hadn't seen him in quite some time, not since '64., my records show. I noticed a marked change. He looked sick to me. Dr. Callahan had been Ruby's jail doctor since October 1965. He said in an interview that his predecessor, Dr. Julian Murdock, who is now the substitute jail doctor, and Dr. Pickard "looked in on Jack occasionally, although mostly they'd go by what I said about him." To Callahan's knowledge, he, Murdock and Pickard were the only doctors to visit Ruby in jail sinceOctober 1965--which raises doubt, incidentally, about Pickard's statement that he had not seen Ruby since '64. Callahan also said during his time as jail doctor, no x-ray was administered to Ruby by anyone. Callahan said Ruby first began coughing and vomiting at about the time his murder conviction was revered last October. He said the patient had another coughing spell early in November and complained of chest pains. The diagnosis: "I thought perhaps he had strained a chest muscle." The treatment: I gave him antibiotics and kept him in bed for two days; his condition seemed to return to normal."Ruby was still being treated for a dry cough when he trundled off to the hospital, critically ill with cancer. Dr. Callahan was one of the few persons to pay frequent visits to Ruby at the county jail. And he emphatically disagreed with those of Ruby's lawyers who contended that their client was insane. "Jack always struck me as a sane, level-headed person," Callahan said [on other occasions Callahan described Ruby as severaly mentally ill in the same manner as other doctors], "although he tended to be suspicious, especially of officials and doctors. Unp until the sanity hearing last June, he was very suspicious of me: I think he thought that I was a psychiatrist trying to get something on him. ... He was always talking about the persecution of the Jews. He thought it was the end for the Jews: Armageddon was close. ... He just said that to get you stirred up, something to talk about, and he'd belittle whoever he was talking to, to get your attention. He's just as sane as you and me. The rest is just exhibitionism, because he wants to say something inflammatory. ... "[Ruby] kept trying to justify his shooting of Oswald: he did that to almost everybody. He didn't think much of Oswald, I gather; he thought Oswald was the scum of the earth. He kept talking about how he couldn't bear to see Jackie Kennedy suffer, if she had to come back to Oswald's trial..." ..."
• 1989, Jim Marrs (disinformation artist, but Al Maddox lived until 2013 and certainly was at Ruby's jail), 'Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy', pp. 431–432: "In the later summer [October] of 1966, jail doctor Julian Mardock found Ruby was in good health. But several weeks later he was told that he was no longer needed, as a doctor "down from Washington" would take over Ruby's case. Deputy sheriff Al Maddox [1930-2013; began his career as deputy sheriff under Sheriff Bill Decker, who oversaw Ruby's imprisonment; Maddox was the deputy who was present when his partner Buddy Walthers was shot and killed, seemingly not in a conspiracy; stated that Ruby allegedly also told him: "In order to understand the [JFK] assassination, you have to read the book 'A Texan Looks at Lyndon'"] also mentioned the new doctor who arrived to attend Ruby: "We had a phony doctor come in to [the Dallas County jail] from Chicago, just as phony and as queer as a three-dollar bill. And he worked his way in through -- I don't know, whoever supplied the county at that time with doctors. ... You could tell he was Ruby's doctor. He spent half his time up there talking with Ruby. And one day I went in and Ruby told me, he said, 'Well, they injected me for a cold.' He said it was cancer cells. That's what he told me, Ruby did. I said, 'You don't believe that bullshit.' He said, 'I damn sure do!' ... [Then] one day when I started to leave, Ruby shook hands with me and I could feel a piece of paper in his palm… [In this note] he said it was a conspiracy and he said … if you will keep your eyes open and your mouth shut, you're gonna learn a lot. And that was the last letter I ever got from him."Maddox was not the only law enforcement officer to suspect that Ruby's death was not entirely natural. Policeman Tom Wilson [spread disinformation: JFK hit from the front at first shot, etc.] told researchers, "It was the opinion of a number of other Dallas police officers that Ruby had received injections of cancer while he was incarcerated in the Dallas County Jail following the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald." The new physician had been identified as none other than Dr. Louis Joyon "Jolly" West [disinformation; not true; West had only written a 1964 report on Ruby, advising treatment for his "mental illness"], professor and director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute at the University of California--Los Angeles. He also was a government expert on torture and brainwashing who also turned up in the cases of Sirhan Sirhan and Patty Hearst. West's name has cropped up in many reports and documents pertaining to the government's MK-ULTRA mind-control experiments."
• December 19, 1966, New York Times (source: unnamed AP source), Ruby Asks World to Take his Word; Dying, He Claims Sole Guilt for the Murder of Oswald: "DALLAS, Dec. 19 (AP)-- Jack Ruby appealed to the world today to believe that he and he alone had been responsible for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. ... [Ruby:] "There is nothing to hide… There was no one else...""
• 1968, Elmer Gertz, 'Moment of Madness: The People vs. Jack Ruby' (Jack Ruby deathbed interview): "BACKGROUND NOISE—YIDDISH—Talk into the . . . here the device mechanical is in here, talk into the case. A. When I went into the Western Union to try to send the money, and naturally the clerk took my money, and uh, and uh, turned away after he took the money, I turned away and walked out. I walked down the street, just natural strides, and as I . . . Q. Main Street? A. No -- Yes, Main Street, going west to Main Street, the south side of Main Street, as I walked toward the ramp, I noticed the police squad car at the head of the ramp and an officer leaning over talking to him with his back to me. All I did was walk down there, down to the bottom of the ramp and that's when the incident happened, at the bottom of the ramp -- according to the Western Union records -- the time stamped on the Western Union records -- it's 11:17 the time the incident taking place 11:21, it was 11:21. Q. Did you walk slowly? A. I walked my natural pace. Q. You did not rush? A. No. Q. Did you recognize anybody when you reached the bottom of the ramp? A. No. I recognized the police officer in the car -- that was in the car -- it was Lt. Sam Pierce, and this other man was just talking to him, and why Sam Pierce had not seen me, I don't know. Q. Did you try to avoid him or anything? A. No, I didn't. Q. When did you finally realize that something had happened, Jack, when did you finally know? A. Well, it happened in such a blur -- well it happened in such a blur, that before I knew it, I was down on the ground -- the officers had me on the ground. Q. Had you realized you had done anything? A. Well, really it happened so fast, and anything else I cannot recall what happened from the time I came to the bottom of the ramp until the police officers had me on the ground. Q. Have no recollection? A. No. But, I knew they were holding my hand and grabbing for the gun. Q. Had you ever known Oswald, Jack? A. No. Q. Ever know Oswald before? A. Never had known him or seen him before. Q. You never met him? A. Never have, my clubs were all money that either I borrowed for the family or self-accumulated. I was not obligated to any other source, never had I attempted to ask anybody for anything, so I owe the government a little money at the time, but we were working out a deal on a compromise, those things over a period of years you pay off. Q. Had you ever planned anything like this? A. Had I ever what? Q. Did you ever plan this. Did you ever think you were going to do this? A. I don't know how to answer that. I was so emotionally upset for three days. At one time I had to have some money and I borrowed some money from Ralph Paul, and I gave him some stock in the Club to show good faith, that sort of collateral, for it. Q. You did not try to sneak in the place, did you? A. No, I didn't. Q. Was there anybody at Western Union ahead of you? A. Yes, one customer, one customer. Q. Did you try to hurry up the people at Western Union? A. No, I didn't. Q. Were there other people at Western Union while you were there, Jack? A. No, I didn't recall, I noticed only this one customer. Q. Did you think that Oswald was already taken over by the Sheriff by the time you went to Western Union? A. Uh, I don't know how to answer that, I don't know one way or the other. Q. Do you remember when you drove by Dealy [sic] Plaza and saw those wreaths what you thought at that time? A. What I saw? Q. Yeah, what you thought? A. The same thing I had gone through for the other two days, the letdown and remorse. Q. Were you planning after Kennedy was shot to leave Dallas for a few days, Jack? A. Yes, it came to my mind momentarily when I called my sister in Chicago, I said "Eileen, now I ought to come home for a few days," so the first thing she said was "who is going to look after Eve?", meaning my sister Eve just got out of the hospital, so she felt that she was convalescing somebody should be with her. Q. Otherwise you would have gone home? A. Well, there was a chance that I could of [sic] if Eileen would have talked me into it, you know. Q. Is there any truth at all to the stories that Oswald had been in your club? A. None whatsoever, it's just a fabrication -- in one particular incident that has never been enlightened to the public, I believe, is that a friend of mine, Mr. McWillie who invited me down to Havana, Cuba. I didn't come down, but he finally sent me plane tickets to come down as a good friendly gesture. So I accepted the invitation. I stayed with him for eight days, and then I left, and I had lived constantly with him the eight days, but then right after he called me from Havana, Cuba and said "Jack, I want you to call Ray Brantley at Ray's Hardware store in Singleton Avenue and tell him to send me four Cobras" -- a Cobra is a little revolver. So, I did call him and gave him the address. When I called him he answered and said, "Oh, I know Mr. McWillie very well" so that left it out of my hands. All I had to do was relay the message, but that is the only extent I ever had of any association with anything [sic] business dealings outside of the United States and that was only a message to relay. Q. Normally you carried a gun with you didn't you, Jack? A. Yes, I did. Q. This was nothing unusual you had with you that day? A. No. I always carried a gun because of various altercations I had in my Club then I carried pretty large sums of money at times. Q. You had your dog with you, Sheba? A. Yes, I did. Q. Will you tell about Sheba, Jack? A. Well, I was very fond of Sheba. She brought me a very large litter and I raised the litter myself in my apartment, and I distributed the dogs to certain friends, but I kept Sheba and another dog called Clipper. Sheba was wherever I were [sic] go, leave the house, she jumped the door ready to go with me. Q. She was with you that day? A. Yes, I left her in the car. The ironic part of this is had not I made an illegal turn behind the bus to the parking lot, had I gone the way I was supposed to go straight down Main Street, I would have never met this fate because the difference in meeting this fate was 30 seconds one way or the other. Q. When you were down there you didn't try to hide or conceal? A. No, I didn't because if you checked the walking distance from the Western Union to the bottom of the ramp, you know it would have to be synchronized so perfect to the second, and to plan something you had in your mind premeditatedly. In that sense I didn't even allow myself one second of interval time. I presume there was a public phone. I never accepted a call for somebody to let me know what is happening. Q. Did you know when Oswald was going to be moved, Jack? A. I'll be honest with you, no. Q. You had no idea? A. Later on I found out he was supposed to be moved at 10:00. Q. You were never told by anybody he was going to be moved? A. No. Q. Is there anything else you think I ought to know, Jack? Are you uncomfortable? A. My rectum, I am bedridden, you know. Q. You got sores, eh? A. No, it's not sores -- it's the pain. Q. Jack, when you left the Western Union office what made you walk toward the jail house? A. Because when I drove by I saw some people down at the ramp and the curiosity had aroused me because of the flash in my mind seeing the people there because before I went to Western Union as I drove by on Main Street. Q. Is there anything else you can think of, Jack, anything else when you were walking by or going down there? A. I don't know what to think -- happened. Q. Well, you are doing very well -- just think a minute. Do you remember anything when you reached the bottom of the ramp? A. Yeah, I did, like I said, a flash came to me from the point at the bottom of the ramp at the time that I was grappling with the police officers for the gun. Actually, what had happened I don't know at that time."