Chapter VI: Investigation of Possible Conspiracy (6)

From Jackson and Field Streets, Ruby drove to the Dallas Times-Herald, where he talked for about 15 minutes with composing room employee Roy Pryor, who had just finished a shift at 4 a.m. Ruby mentioned that he had seen Oswald earlier in the night, that he had corrected Henry Wade in connection with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, and that he had set up a telephone interview with Wade. Pryor testified that Ruby explicitly stated to him that he believed he was in good favor with the district attorney.[C6-960] Recalling that Ruby described Oswald as a “little weasel of a guy” and was emotionally concerned about the President’s wife and children, Pryor also was impressed by Ruby’s sorrowful mood and remembered that, as he talked, Ruby shook a newspaper to emphasize his concern over the assassination.[C6-961]

When Pryor left the composing room, Ruby remained and continued speaking with other employees, including Arthur Watherwax and the foreman, Clyde Gadash. Ruby, who often visited the Times-Herald at that early morning hour in connection with his ads, sought Watherwax’s views on his decision to close his clubs and indicated he was going to attempt to persuade other club owners to do likewise. Watherwax described Ruby as “pretty shaken up” about the assassination and at the same time “excited” that he had attended Oswald’s Friday night press conference.[C6-962]

While at the Times-Herald, Ruby displayed to the composing room employees a “twistboard” he had previously promised to Gadash.[C6-963] The twistboard was an exercising device consisting of two pieces of hardened materials joined together by a lazy susan bearing so that one piece could remain stationary on the floor while a person stood atop it and swiveled to and fro.[C6-964] Ruby had been trying to promote sales of the board in the weeks before President Kennedy was killed.[C6-965] Considerable merriment developed when one of the women employees at the Times-Herald demonstrated the board, and Ruby himself, put on a demonstration for those assembled.[C6-966] He later testified: “* * * not that I wanted to get in with the hilarity of frolicking, but he [Gadash] asked me to show him, and the other men gathered around.”[C6-967] Gadash agreed that Ruby’s general mood was one of sorrow.[C6-968]

At about 4:30 a.m., Ruby drove from the Dallas Times-Herald to his apartment where he awakened his roommate George Senator.[C6-969] During his visit in the composing room Ruby had expressed the view that the Weissman advertisement was an effort to discredit the Jews.[C6-970] Senator testified that when Ruby returned to the apartment, he began to discuss the Weissman advertisement and also a signboard he had seen in Dallas urging that Chief Justice Earl Warren be impeached.[C6-971] Shortly thereafter, Ruby telephoned Larry Crafard at the Carousel Club.[C6-972] He told Crafard to meet him and Senator at the Nichols Garage adjacent to the Carousel Club and to bring a Polaroid camera kept in the club.[C6-973] After Crafard joined Ruby and Senator, the three men drove to the “Impeach Earl Warren” sign near Hall Avenue and Central Expressway in Dallas. There Ruby instructed Crafard to take three photographs of the billboard. Believing that the sign and the Weissman newspaper ad might somehow be connected, Ruby noted on the back of an envelope a name and post office box number that appeared on the sign.[C6-974] According to George Senator:

* * * when he was looking at the sign and taking pictures of
it, and the newspaper ad, * * * this is where he really wanted
to know the whys or why these things had to be out. He is
trying to combine these two together, which I did hear him say,
“This is the work of the John Birch Society or the Communist
Party or maybe a combination of both.”[C6-975]

Pursuing a possible connection between the billboard and the newspaper advertisement, Ruby drove to the post office and asked a postal employee for the name of the man who had rented the box indicated on the billboard, but the employee said that he could not provide such information. Ruby inspected the box, however, and was upset to find it stuffed with mail.[C6-976] The three men then drove to a coffeeshop where Ruby continued to discuss the two advertisements. After about 30 minutes, they left the coffeeshop. Crafard was taken to the Carousel Club; Ruby and Senator returned to their apartment,[C6-977] and Ruby retired at about 6 a.m.[C6-978]

_The morning and afternoon of November 23._--At 8 or 8:30 a.m. Crafard, who had been asked to feed Ruby’s dogs, telephoned Ruby at his apartment to inquire about food for the animals.[C6-979] Ruby forgot that he had told Crafard he did not plan to go to bed and reprimanded Crafard for waking him.[C6-980] A few hours thereafter Crafard assembled his few belongings, took from the Carousel cash register $5 of money due him from Ruby, left a receipt and thank-you note, and began hitchhiking to Michigan. Later that day, Andrew Armstrong found the note and telephoned Ruby.[C6-981]

Ruby apparently did not return to bed following Crafard’s call. During the morning hours, he watched a rabbi deliver on television a moving eulogy of President Kennedy.[C6-982] According to Ruby, the rabbi:

went ahead and eulogized that here is a man that fought in
every battle, went to every country, and had to come back to
his own country to be shot in the back [starts crying] * * *.
That created a tremendous emotional feeling for me, the
way he said that. Prior to all the other times, I was carried
away.[C6-983]

An employee from the Carousel Club who telephoned Ruby during the morning remembered that his “voice was shaking” when he spoke of the assassination.[C6-984]

Ruby has stated that, upon leaving his apartment some time between noon and 1:30 p.m., he drove to Dealey Plaza where a police officer, who noted Ruby’s solemnity, pointed out to him the window from which the rifleshots had been fired the day before.[C6-985] Ruby related that he inspected the wreaths that had been placed in memory of the President and became filled with emotion while speaking with the police officer.[C6-986] Ruby introduced himself to a reporter for radio station KRLD who was working inside a mobile news unit at the plaza; the newsman mentioned to Ruby that he had heard of Ruby’s help to KLIF in obtaining an interview with Henry Wade, and Ruby pointed out to the reporter that Capt. J. Will Fritz and Chief Curry were then in the vicinity. Thereafter, the newsman interviewed and photographed the officers.[C6-987] Ruby said that he next drove home and returned downtown to Sol’s Turf Bar on Commerce Street.[C6-988]

The evidence indicated, however, that sometime after leaving Dealey Plaza, Ruby went to the Nichols Parking Garage adjacent to the Carousel Club, where he was seen by Garnett C. Hallmark, general manager of the garage, and Tom Brown, an attendant. Brown believed that at about 1:30 p.m. he heard Ruby mention Chief Curry’s name in a telephone conversation from the garage. Brown also recalled that, before finally departing, Ruby asked him to inform acquaintances whom he expected to stop by the garage that the Carousel would be closed.[C6-989] Hallmark testified that Ruby drove into the garage at about 3 p.m., walked to the telephone, inquired whether or not a competing burlesque club would be closed that night, and told Hallmark that he (Ruby) was “acting like a reporter.”[C6-990] Hallmark then heard Ruby address someone at the other end of the telephone as “Ken” and caught portions of a conversation concerning the transfer of Oswald.[C6-991] Hallmark said Ruby never called Oswald by name but used the pronoun “he” and remarked to the recipient of the call, “you know I’ll be there.”[C6-992]

Ken Dowe, a KLIF announcer, to whom Ruby made at least two telephone calls within a short span of time Saturday afternoon, confirmed that he was probably the person to whom Hallmark and Brown overheard Ruby speaking. In one call to Dowe, Ruby asked whether the station knew when Oswald would be moved; and, in another, he stated he was going to attempt to locate Henry Wade.[C6-993] After Ruby finished his calls, he walked onto Commerce Street, passed the Carousel Club, and returned a few minutes later to get his car.[C6-994]

Ruby’s comment that he was “acting like a reporter” and that he would be at the Oswald transfer suggests that Ruby may have spent part of Saturday afternoon shuttling back and forth from the Police and Courts Building to Dealey Plaza. Such activity would explain the fact that Tom Brown at the Nichols Garage believed he saw Ruby at 1:30 p.m. while Garnett Hallmark placed Ruby at the garage at 3 p.m. It would also explain Ken Dowe’s receiving two phone calls from Ruby. The testimony of five news reporters supports the possibility that Ruby was at the Police and Courts Building Saturday afternoon.[C6-995] One stated that Ruby provided sandwiches for newsmen on duty there Saturday afternoon, although no news representative has mentioned personally receiving such sandwiches.[C6-996] Another testified that he received a card to the Carousel Club from Ruby about 4 p.m. that day at the police station.[C6-997] A third believed he saw Ruby enter an office in which Henry Wade was working, but no one else reported a similar event.[C6-998] The remaining two witnesses mentioned no specific activities.[C6-999] None of the persons who believed they saw Ruby at the police department on Saturday had known him previously, and no police officer has reported Ruby’s presence on that day. Ruby has not mentioned such a visit. The Commission, therefore, reached no firm conclusion as to whether or not Ruby visited the Dallas Police Department on Saturday.

Shortly after 3 p.m. Ruby went to Sol’s Turf Bar on Commerce Street where he remained for about 45 minutes. Ruby, a nondrinker, stated that he visited Sol’s for the purpose of talking with his accountant, who customarily prepared the bar’s payroll on Saturday afternoon. The accountant testified, however, that he saw Ruby only briefly and mentioned no business conversation with Ruby.[C6-1000] Ruby was first noticed at the Turf Bar by jeweler Frank Bellochio, who, after seeing Ruby, began to berate the people of Dallas for the assassination.[C6-1001] Ruby disagreed and, when Bellochio said he might close his jewelry business and leave Dallas, Ruby attempted to calm him, saying that there were many good citizens in Dallas.[C6-1002] In response, Bellochio pointed to a copy of the Bernard Weissman advertisement.[C6-1003] To Bellochio’s bewilderment, Ruby then said he believed that the advertisement was the work of a group attempting to create anti-Semitic feelings in Dallas and that he had learned from the Dallas Morning News that the ad had been paid for partly in cash.[C6-1004] Ruby thereupon produced one of the photographs he had taken Saturday morning of the “Impeach Earl Warren” sign and excitedly began to rail against the sign as if he agreed with Bellochio’s original criticism of Dallas.[C6-1005] He “seemed to be taking two sides--he wasn’t coherent,” Bellochio testified.[C6-1006] When Bellochio saw Ruby’s photographs, which Bellochio thought supported his argument against Dallas, he walked to the front of the bar and showed them to Tom Apple, with whom he had been previously arguing. In Apple’s presence, Bellochio asked Ruby for one of the pictures but Ruby refused, mentioning that he regarded the pictures as a scoop.[C6-1007] Bellochio testified: “I spoke to Tom and said a few more words to Tom, and Ruby was gone--never said ‘Goodbye’ or ‘I’ll be seeing you.’”[C6-1008]

Ruby may have left in order to telephone Stanley Kaufman, a friend and attorney who had represented him in civil matters.[C6-1009] Kaufman testified that, at approximately 4 p.m., Ruby called him about the Bernard Weissman advertisement. According to Kaufman, “Jack was particularly impressed with the [black] border as being a tipoff of some sort--that this man knew the President was going to be assassinated * * *.”[C6-1010] Ruby told Kaufman that he had tried to locate Weissman by going to the post office and said that he was attempting to be helpful to law enforcement authorities.[C6-1011]

Considerable confusion exists as to the place from which Ruby placed the call to Kaufman and as to his activities after leaving Sol’s Turf Bar. Eva Grant stated that the call was made from her apartment about 4 p.m.[C6-1012] Ruby, however, believed it was made from the Turf Bar. He stated that from the Turf Bar he went to the Carousel and then home and has not provided additional details on his activities during the hours from about 4 to 9:30 p.m.[C6-1013] Robert Larkin saw him downtown at about 6 p.m.[C6-1014] and Andrew Armstrong testified that Ruby visited the Carousel Club between 6 and 7 p.m. and remained about an hour.[C6-1015]

_At Eva Grant’s apartment Saturday evening._--Eva Grant believed that, for most of the period from 4 until 8 p.m., Ruby was at her apartment. Mrs. Grant testified that her brother was still disturbed about the Weissman advertisement when he arrived, showed her the photograph of the Warren sign, and recounted his argument with Bellochio about the city of Dallas. Still curious as to whether or not Weissman was Jewish, Mrs. Grant asked her brother whether he had been able to find the name Bernard Weissman in the Dallas city directory, and Ruby said he had not. Their doubts about Weissman’s existence having been confirmed, both began to speculate that the Weissman ad and the Warren sign were the work of either “Commies or the Birchers,” and were designed to discredit the Jews.[C6-1016] Apparently in the midst of that conversation Ruby telephoned Russ Knight at KLIF and, according to Knight, asked who Earl Warren was.[C6-1017]

Mrs. Grant has testified that Ruby eventually retired to her bedroom where he made telephone calls and slept.[C6-1018] About 8:30 p.m., Ruby telephoned to Thomas J. O’Grady, a friend and former Dallas police officer who had once worked for Ruby as a bouncer. To O’Grady, Ruby mentioned closing the Carousel Club, criticized his competitors for remaining open, and complained about the “Impeach Earl Warren” sign.[C6-1019]

_Saturday evening at Ruby’s apartment._--By 9:30 p.m., Ruby had apparently returned to his apartment where he received a telephone call from one of his striptease dancers, Karen Bennett Carlin, who, together with her husband, had been driven from Fort Worth to Dallas that evening by another dancer, Nancy Powell.[C6-1020] All three had stopped at the Colony Club, a burlesque nightclub which competed with the Carousel.[C6-1021] Mrs. Carlin testified that, in need of money, she telephoned Ruby, asked whether the Carousel would be open that night, and requested part of her salary.[C6-1022] According to Mrs. Carlin, Ruby became angry at the suggestion that the Carousel Club might be open for business but told her he would come to the Carousel in about an hour.[C6-1023]

Thereafter, in a depressed mood, Ruby telephoned his sister Eva Grant, who suggested he visit a friend.[C6-1024] Possibly in response to that suggestion, Ruby called Lawrence Meyers, a friend from Chicago with whom he had visited two nights previously.[C6-1025] Meyers testified that, during their telephone conversation, Ruby asked him what he thought of this “terrible thing,” Ruby then began to criticize his competitors, Abe and Barney Weinstein, for failing to close their clubs on Saturday night. In the course of his conversation about the Weinsteins and the assassination, Ruby said “I’ve got to do something about this.”[C6-1026] Meyers initially understood that remark to refer to the Weinsteins. Upon reflection after Oswald was shot, Meyers was uncertain whether Ruby was referring to his competitors, or to the assassination of President Kennedy; for Ruby had also spoken at length about Mrs. Kennedy and had repeated “those poor people, those poor people.”[C6-1027] At the conclusion of their conversation, Meyers declined Ruby’s invitation to join him for a cup of coffee but invited Ruby to join him at the motel. When Ruby also declined, the two agreed to meet for dinner the following evening.[C6-1028]

Meanwhile, Karen Carlin and her husband grew anxious over Ruby’s failure to appear with the money they had requested.[C6-1029] After a substantial wait, they returned together to the Nichols Garage where Mr. Carlin telephoned to Ruby.[C6-1030] Carlin testified that he told Ruby they needed money in order to return to Fort Worth[C6-1031] although Nancy Powell testified that she drove the Carlins home that evening.[C6-1032] Agreeing to advance a small sum, Ruby asked to speak to Mrs. Carlin, who claimed that Ruby told her that if she needed more money she should call him on Sunday.[C6-1033] Thereafter, at Ruby’s request, garage attendant Huey Reeves gave Mrs. Carlin $5, and she signed with her stage name “Little Lynn” a receipt which Reeves time-stamped 10:33 p.m., November 23.[C6-1034] (See Commission Exhibit No. 1476, p. 351.)

Inconsistent testimony was developed regarding Ruby’s activities during the next 45 minutes. Eva Grant testified that she did not see her brother on Saturday night after 8 p.m. and has denied calling Ralph Paul herself that night.[C6-1035] Nonetheless, telephone company records revealed that at 10:44 p.m. a call was made to Ralph Paul’s Bull Pen Drive-In in Arlington, Tex., from Mrs. Grant’s apartment.[C6-1036] It was the only call to Paul from her apartment on Friday or Saturday;[C6-1037] she recalled her brother making such a call that weekend;[C6-1038] and Ralph Paul has testified that Ruby telephoned him Saturday night from Eva Grant’s apartment and said he and his sister were there crying.[C6-1039]

Nineteen-year-old Wanda Helmick, a former waitress at the Bull Pen Drive-In, first reported in June, 1964 that some time during the evening she saw the cashier answer the Bull Pan’s pay telephone and heard her call out to Paul, “It is for you. It is Jack.”[C6-1040] Mrs. Helmick claimed she overheard Paul, speaking on the telephone, mention something about a gun which, she understood from Paul’s conversation, the caller had in his possession. She said she also heard Paul exclaim “Are you crazy?”[C6-1041] She provided no other details of the conversation. Mrs. Helmick claimed that on Sunday, November 24, after Oswald had been shot, she heard Paul repeat the substance of the call to other employees as she had related it and that Paul said Ruby was the caller.[C6-1042] Ralph Paul denied the allegations of Mrs. Helmick.[C6-1043] Both Paul and Mrs. Helmick agreed that Paul went home soon after the call, apparently about 11 p.m.[C6-1044]

Shortly after 11 p.m., Ruby arrived at the Nichols Garage where he repaid Huey Reeves and obtained the receipt Mrs. Carlin had signed.[C6-1045] Outside the Carousel, Ruby exchanged greetings with Police Officer Harry Olsen and Kay Coleman, whom he had seen late the previous night.[C6-1046] Going upstairs to the club, Ruby made a series of five brief long-distance phone calls, the first being to the Bull Pen Drive-In at 11:18 p.m. and lasting only 1 minute.[C6-1047] Apparently unable to reach Paul there, Ruby telephoned Paul’s home in Arlington, Tex., for 3 minutes.[C6-1048] A third call was placed at 11:36 p.m. for 2 minutes, again to Paul’s home.[C6-1049] At 11:44 p.m. Ruby telephoned Breck Wall, a friend and entertainer who had gone to Galveston, Tex., when his show in Dallas suspended its performance out of respect to President Kennedy. The call lasted 2 minutes.[C6-1050] Thereafter, Ruby immediately placed a 1-minute phone call to Paul’s home.[C6-1051]

Although Ruby has mentioned those calls, he has not provided details to the Commission; however, he has denied ever indicating to Paul or Wall that he was going to shoot Oswald and has said he did not consider such action until Sunday morning.[C6-1052] Ralph Paul did not mention the late evening calls in his interview with FBI agents on November 24, 1963.[C6-1053] Later Paul testified that Ruby called him from downtown to say that nobody was doing any business.[C6-1054] Breck Wall testified that Ruby called him to determine whether or not the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA), which represented striptease dancers in Dallas, had met concerning a dispute Ruby was having with the union.[C6-1055] Ruby’s major difference with AGVA during the preceding 2 weeks had involved what Ruby considered to be AGVA’s failure to enforce against his 2 competitors, Abe and Barney Weinstein, AGVA’s ban on “striptease contests” and performances by “amateurs.”[C6-1056] As recently as Wednesday, November 20, Ruby had telephoned an AGVA representative in Chicago about that complaint and earlier in November he had unsuccessfully sought to obtain assistance from a San Francisco gambler and a Chicagoan reputed for his heavyhanded union activities.[C6-1057] Wall testified that Ruby “was very upset the President was assassinated and he called Abe Weinstein or Bernie Weinstein * * * some names for staying open * * *.” Wall added, “he was very upset * * * that they did not have the decency to close on such a day and he thought out of respect they should close.”[C6-1058]

_Ruby’s activities after midnight._--After completing the series of calls to Paul and Wall at 11:48 p.m., Ruby went to the Pago Club, about a 10-minute drive from the Carousel Club.[C6-1059] He took a table near the middle of the club and, after ordering a Coke, asked the waitress in a disapproving tone, “Why are you open?”[C6-1060] When Robert Norton, the club’s manager, joined Ruby a few minutes later he expressed to Ruby his concern as to whether or not it was proper to operate the Pago Club that evening. Ruby indicated that the Carousel was closed but did not criticize Norton for remaining open.[C6-1061] Norton raised the topic of President Kennedy’s death and said, “[W]e couldn’t do enough to the person that [did] this sort of thing.” Norton added, however, that “Nobody has the right to take the life of another one.”[C6-1062] Ruby expressed no strong opinion, and closed the conversation by saying he was going home because he was tired.[C6-1063] Later, Ruby told the Commission: “he knew something was wrong with me in the certain mood I was in.”[C6-1064]

COPY OF RECEIPT GIVEN BY LITTLE LYNN TO HUEY REEVES AT 10:33 P.M., NOVEMBER 23, 1963

(DOYLE LANE DEPOSITION 5118)

COPY OF TELEGRAM ORDER FOR MONEY SENT TO LITTLE LYNN ON NOVEMBER 24, 1963, STAMPED 11:17 A.M.

(DOYLE LANE DEPOSITION 5119)

COPY OF WESTERN UNION OFFICE COPY OF RECEIPT GIVEN TO JACK RUBY ON NOVEMBER 24, 1963, STAMPED 11:17 A.M.

(COMMISSION EXHIBIT 2420)

COPY OF FACE OF WESTERN UNION RECEIPT GIVEN TO JACK RUBY ON NOVEMBER 24, 1963

(COMMISSION EXHIBIT 2421)

COPY OF BACK OF WESTERN UNION RECEIPT GIVEN TO JACK RUBY ON NOVEMBER 24, 1963, STAMPED 11:16 A.M.]

Ruby testified that he went home after speaking with Norton and went to bed about 1:30 a.m.[C6-1065] By that time, George Senator claimed, he had retired for the night and did not remember Ruby’s return.[C6-1066] Eva Grant testified that her brother telephoned her at about 12:45 a.m. to learn how she was feeling.[C6-1067]

_Sunday morning._--Ruby’s activities on Sunday morning are the subject of conflicting testimony. George Senator believed that Ruby did not rise until 9 or 9:30 a.m.;[C6-1068] both Ruby and Senator maintained that Ruby did not leave their apartment until shortly before 11:00 a.m., and two other witnesses have provided testimony which supports that account of Ruby’s whereabouts.[C6-1069] On the other hand, three WBAP-TV television technicians--Warren Richey, John Smith, and Ira Walker--believed they saw Ruby near the Police and Courts Building at various times between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m.[C6-1070] But there are substantial reasons to doubt the accuracy of their identifications. None had ever seen Ruby on a prior occasion. None looked for an extended period at the man believed to be Ruby,[C6-1071] and all were occupied with their duties and had no reason to remember the man’s appearance until they saw Ruby’s picture on television.[C6-1072]

Smith, for one, was not entirely positive about his identification of Ruby as the man he saw;[C6-1073] and Richey was looking down from atop a TV mobile unit when he observed on the sidewalk the man he believed was Ruby.[C6-1074] In addition, Richey and Smith provided descriptions of Ruby which differ substantially from information about Ruby gathered from other sources. Smith described the man he saw as being an “unkempt person that possibly could have slept with his clothes on * * *.”[C6-1075] Ruby was characteristically clean and well groomed.[C6-1076] In fact, Senator testified that Ruby shaved and dressed before leaving their apartment that morning, and at the time Ruby shot Oswald he was dressed in a hat and business suit.[C6-1077] Richey described Ruby as wearing a grayish overcoat,[C6-1078] while investigation indicated that Ruby did not own an overcoat and was not wearing one at the time of the shooting.[C6-1079] (See Pappas Deposition Exhibit No. 1, p. 356.) Although Walker’s identification of Ruby is the most positive, his certainty must be contrasted with the indefinite identification made by Smith, who had seen the man on one additional occasion.[C6-1080] Both Smith and Walker saw a man resembling Ruby when the man, on two occasions, looked through the window of their mobile news unit and once asked whether Oswald had been transferred. Both saw only the man’s head, and Smith was closer to the window; yet Smith would not state positively that the man was Ruby.[C6-1081] Finally, video tapes of scenes on Sunday morning near the NBC van show a man close to the Commerce Street entrance who might have been mistaken for Ruby.[C6-1082]

George Senator said that when he arose, before 9 a.m., he began to do his laundry in the basement of the apartment building while Ruby slept.[C6-1083] During Senator’s absence, Ruby received a telephone call from his cleaning lady, Mrs. Elnora Pitts, who testified that she called sometime between 8:30 and 9 a.m. to learn whether Ruby wanted her to clean his apartment that day.[C6-1084] Mrs. Pitts remembered that Ruby “sounded terrible strange to me.” She said that “there was something wrong with him the way he was talking to me.”[C6-1085] Mrs. Pitts explained that, although she had regularly been cleaning Ruby’s apartment on Sundays, Ruby seemed not to comprehend who she was or the reason for her call and required her to repeat herself several times.[C6-1086] As Senator returned to the apartment after the call, he was apparently mistaken for Ruby by a neighbor, Sidney Evans, Jr. Evans had never seen Ruby before but recalled observing a man resembling Ruby, clad in trousers and T-shirt, walk upstairs from the “washateria” in the basement of their building and enter Ruby’s suite with a load of laundry. Later in the morning, Malcolm Slaughter who shared an apartment with Evans, saw an individual, similarly clad, on the same floor as Ruby’s apartment.[C6-1087] Senator stated that it was not Ruby’s custom to do his own washing and that Ruby did not do so that morning.[C6-1088]

While Senator was in the apartment, Ruby watched television, made himself coffee and scrambled eggs, and received, at 10:19 a.m., a telephone call from his entertainer, Karen Carlin.[C6-1089] Mrs. Carlin testified that in her telephone conversation she asked Ruby for $25 inasmuch as her rent was delinquent and she needed groceries.[C6-1090] She said that Ruby, who seemed upset, mentioned that he was going downtown anyway and that he would send the money from the Western Union office.[C6-1091] According to George Senator, Ruby then probably took a half hour or more to bathe and dress.[C6-1092]

Supporting the accounts given by Mrs. Carlin and Mrs. Pitts of Ruby’s emotional state, Senator testified that during the morning Ruby:

* * * was even mumbling, which I didn’t understand. And right
after breakfast he got dressed. Then after he got dressed he
was pacing the floor from the living room to the bedroom,
from the bedroom to the living room, and his lips were
going. What he was jabbering I don’t know. But he was really
pacing.[C6-1093]

Ruby has described to the Commission his own emotions of Sunday morning as follows:

* * * Sunday morning * * * [I] saw a letter to Caroline, two
columns about a 16-inch area. Someone had written a letter to
Caroline. The most heartbreaking letter. I don’t remember the
contents. * * * alongside that letter on the same sheet of
paper was a small comment in the newspaper that, I don’t know
how it was stated, that Mrs. Kennedy may have to come back for
the trial of Lee Harvey Oswald. * * *

I don’t know what bug got ahold of me. I don’t know what it is,
but I am going to tell the truth word for word.

I am taking a pill called Preludin. It is a harmless pill, and
it is very easy to get in the drugstore. It isn’t a highly
prescribed pill. I use it for dieting.

I don’t partake of that much food. I think that was a stimulus
to give me an emotional feeling that suddenly I felt, which was
so stupid, that I wanted to show my love for our faith, being
of the Jewish faith, and I never used the term and I don’t want
to go into that--suddenly the feeling, the emotional feeling
came within me that someone owed this debt to our beloved
President to save her the ordeal of coming back. I don’t know
why that came through my mind.[C6-1094]

(See Commission Exhibit No. 2426, p. 355.)

_Sunday morning trip to police department._--Leaving his apartment a few minutes before 11 a.m., Ruby went to his automobile taking with him his dachshund, Sheba, and a portable radio.[C6-1095] He placed in his pocket a revolver which he routinely carried in a bank moneybag in the trunk of his car.[C6-1096] Listening to the radio, he drove downtown, according to his own testimony, by a route that took him past Dealey Plaza where he observed the scattered wreaths. Ruby related that he noted the crowd that had gathered outside the county jail and assumed that Oswald had already been transferred. However, when he passed the Main Street side of the Police and Courts Building, which is situated on the same block as the Western Union office, he also noted the crowd that was gathered outside that building.[C6-1097] Normal driving time for the trip from his apartment would have been about 15 minutes, but Ruby’s possible haste and the slow movement of traffic through Dealey Plaza make a reliable estimate difficult.[C6-1098]

Ruby parked his car in a lot directly across the street from the Western Union office. He apparently placed his keys and billfold in the trunk of the car, then locked the trunk, which contained approximately $1,000 in cash, and placed the trunk key in the glove compartment of the car. He did not lock the car doors.[C6-1099]

With his revolver, more than $2,000 in cash, and no personal identification, Ruby walked from the parking lot across the street to the Western Union office where he filled out forms for sending $25 by telegraph to Karen Carlin.[C6-1100] After waiting in line while one other Western Union customer completed her business,[C6-1101] Ruby paid for the telegram and retained as a receipt one of three time-stamped documents which show that the transaction was completed at almost exactly 11:17 a.m., c.s.t.[C6-1102] (See Commission Exhibits Nos. 1476, 2420, 2421; D. Lane Deposition Exhibits Nos. 5118, 5119, p. 351.) The Western Union clerk who accepted Ruby’s order recalls that Ruby promptly turned, walked out of the door onto Main Street, and proceeded in the direction of the police department one block away.[C6-1103] The evidence set forth in chapter V indicates that Ruby entered the police basement through the auto ramp from Main Street and stood behind the front rank of newsmen and police officers who were crowded together at the base of the ramp awaiting the transfer of Oswald to the county jail.[C6-1104] As Oswald emerged from a basement office at approximately 11:21 a.m., Ruby moved quickly forward and, without speaking,[C6-1105] fired one fatal shot into Oswald’s abdomen before being subdued by a rush of police officers.[C6-1106]

(COMMISSION EXHIBIT 2426)

ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON NOVEMBER 24, 1963, A COPY OF THAT MORNING’S DALLAS TIMES HERALD WAS FOUND AT THE FOOT OF JACK RUBY’S BED (B). AS REVEALED IN THE BLOW-UP (A), THE PAPER WAS OPEN TO PAGE A-3 (A AND D). THE FACING PAGE, 2-A, BORE A LETTER TO CAROLINE KENNEDY (C) WHICH JACK RUBY TESTIFIED THAT HE READ THAT MORNING BEFORE SHOOTING LEE HARVEY OSWALD.]

PAPPAS DEPOSITION EXHIBIT 1

PAPPAS DEPOSITION EXHIBIT 2]

_Evaluation of activities._--Examination of Ruby’s activities immediately preceding and following the death of President Kennedy revealed no sign of any conduct which suggests that he was involved in the assassination. Prior to the tragedy, Ruby’s activities were routine. Though persons who saw him between November 22 and 24 disagree as to whether or not he appeared more upset than others around him, his response to the assassination appears to have been one of genuine shock and grief. His indications of concern over the possible effects of the assassination upon his businesses seem consistent with other evidence of his character.[C6-1107] During the course of the weekend, Ruby seems to have become obsessed with the possibility that the Impeach Earl Warren sign and the Bernard Weissman ad were somehow connected and related to the assassination. However, Ruby’s interest in these public notices was openly expressed and, as discussed below, the evidence reveals no connection between him and any political organization.

Examination of Larry Crafard’s sudden departure from Dallas shortly before noon on November 23 does not suggest that Ruby was involved in a conspiracy. To be sure, Crafard started hitchhiking to Michigan, where members of his family lived, with only $7 in his pocket.[C6-1108] He made no attempt to communicate with law enforcement officials after Oswald’s death;[C6-1109] and a relative in Michigan recalled that Crafard spoke very little of his association with Ruby.[C6-1110] When finally located by the FBI 6 days later, he stated that he left Ruby’s employ because he did not wish to be subjected to further verbal abuse by Ruby and that he went north to see his sister, from whom he had not heard in some time.[C6-1111]

An investigation of Crafard’s unusual behavior confirms that his departure from Dallas was innocent. After Oswald was shot, FBI agents obtained from the Carousel Club an unmailed letter drafted by Crafard to a relative in Michigan at least a week before the assassination.[C6-1112] The letter revealed that he was considering leaving Dallas at that time.[C6-1113] On November 17, Crafard, who had been receiving only room, board, and incidental expenses, told Ruby he wanted to stop working for him; however, Crafard agreed to remain when Ruby promised a salary.[C6-1114] Then on the morning of November 23, Ruby and Crafard had a minor altercation over the telephone.[C6-1115] Although Crafard did not voluntarily make known to the authorities his associations with Ruby, he spoke freely and with verifiable accuracy when questioned. The automobile driver who provided Crafard his first ride from Dallas has been located; his statement generally conforms with Crafard’s story; and he did not recall any unusual or troubled behavior by Crafard during that ride.[C6-1116]

Although Crafard’s peremptory decision to leave Dallas might be unusual for most persons, such behavior does not appear to have been uncommon for him. His family residence had shifted frequently among California, Michigan, and Oregon.[C6-1117] During his 22 years, he had earned his livelihood picking crops, working in carnivals, and taking other odd jobs throughout the country.[C6-1118] According to his testimony, he had previously hitchhiked across the country with his then wife and two infant children.[C6-1119] Against such a background, it is most probable that the factors motivating Crafard’s departure from Dallas on November 23 were dissatisfaction with his existence in Ruby’s employ, which he had never considered more than temporary, Ruby’s decision to close his clubs for 3 days, the argument on Saturday morning, and his own desire to see his relatives in Michigan. There is no evidence to suggest any connection between Crafard’s departure and the assassination of the President or the shooting of Oswald.

The allegations of Wanda Helmick raised speculation that Ruby’s Saturday night phone calls to Ralph Paul and Breck Wall might have concerned the shooting of Oswald, but investigation has found nothing to indicate that the calls had conspiratorial implications. Paul was a close friend, business associate, and adviser to Jack Ruby. Ruby normally kept in close telephone contact with Paul, who had a substantial sum of money committed to the Carousel Club.[C6-1120] Paul explained that Ruby called him Saturday evening once to point out his ads, another time to say that nobody seemed to be doing any business in downtown Dallas, and a third time to relate that both he and his sister were crying over the assassination.[C6-1121] Between two of those phone calls to Paul, Ruby telephoned to Galveston, Tex., to speak with Wall, a friend and former business associate who was an official of the American Guild of Variety Artists. Wall related that during that call Ruby criticized the Weinsteins for failing to close their clubs.

Having earlier made the same complaint to Lawrence Meyers to whom he mentioned a need “to do something about this” it would have been characteristic for Ruby to want to direct Breck Wall’s attention, as an AGVA official, to what he regarded as the Weinsteins’ improper conduct. The view that the calls to Wall and Paul could have had conspiratorial implications also is belied in large measure by the conduct of both men before and after the events of November 22-24. A check of long-distance telephone records reveals no suspicious activity by either man.[C6-1122] Paul, in fact, is not known to have visited Dallas during the weekend of the assassination except to appear openly in an effort to arrange counsel for Ruby within a few hours of the attack on Oswald. Neither the FBI nor the CIA has been able to provide any information that Ralph Paul or Breck Wall ever engaged in any form of subversive activity.[C6-1123]

Moreover, Mrs. Helmick’s reliability is undermined by her failure to report her information to any investigative official until June 9, 1964.[C6-1124] Although a sister-in-law confirms that Mrs. Helmick wrote her “something about a gun” shortly after the shooting,[C6-1125] the only mention of any statement by Paul which was included in a letter written by Mrs. Helmick after the Ruby trial was that Paul believed Ruby was “not in his right mind.”[C6-1126] No corroborating witness named by Mrs. Helmick has been found who remembers the conversations she mentioned.[C6-1127] Both Ruby and Paul have denied that anything was said, as Mrs. Helmick suggests, about a gun or an intent to shoot Oswald, and Wall has stated that Ruby did not discuss such matters with him.[C6-1128] Even if Mrs. Helmick is accurate the statements ascribed to Paul indicate only that he may have heard of a possible reference by Ruby to shooting Oswald. According to her, Paul’s response was to exclaim “Are you crazy?” But under no circumstances does the report of Mrs. Helmick or any other fact support a belief that Paul or Wall was involved in the shooting of Oswald.

The Commission has conducted an investigation of the telephone call Ruby received from Karen Carlin at 10:19 Sunday morning to determine whether that call was prearranged for the purpose of conveying information about the transfer of Oswald or to provide Ruby an excuse for being near the police department. The Commission has examined the records of long-distance telephone calls on Sunday morning for Jack Ruby,[C6-1129] the Carlins,[C6-1130] the Dallas police,[C6-1131] and several other persons[C6-1132] and has found no sign of any indirect communication to Ruby through Mr. or Mrs. Carlin. No other evidence showing any link between the Carlins and the shooting of Oswald has been developed.

Ruby and Oswald Were Not Acquainted

The possibility of a prior acquaintanceship between Ruby and Oswald has been suggested by some persons who viewed the shooting on television and believed that a look of recognition appeared on Oswald’s face as Ruby moved toward him in the jail basement. The Commission has examined the television tapes and movie films which were made as Oswald moved through the basement and has observed no facial expressions which can be interpreted as signifying recognition of Ruby by Oswald. It is doubtful even that Oswald could have seen Ruby sufficiently clearly to discern his identity since Oswald was walking from a dark corridor into “the flash from the many cameras” and the lights of TV cameramen which were “blinding.”[C6-1133] In addition to such generalized suspicion, there have been numerous specific allegations that Oswald was seen in the company of Ruby prior to November 22, often at Ruby’s Carousel Club. All such allegations have been investigated, but the Commission has found none which merits credence. In all but a few instances where the Commission was able to trace the claim to its source, the person responsible for the report either denied making it or admitted that he had no basis for the original allegations.[C6-1134] Frequently those responsible for the allegations have proved to be persons of erratic memory or dubious mental stability.[C6-1135] In a few instances, the source of the story has remained unidentified, and no person has come forward to substantiate the rumor.[C6-1136]

The testimony of a few witnesses who claim to have seen Ruby with a person who they feel may have been Oswald warrants further comment. One such witness, Robert K. Patterson, a Dallas electronics salesman, has stated that on a date established from sales records as November 1, 1963, Ruby, accompanied by a man who resembled Oswald, purchased some equipment at his business establishment.[C6-1137] However, Patterson did not claim positively that the man he saw was Oswald,[C6-1138] and two of his associates who were also present at the time could not state that the man was Oswald.[C6-1139] Other evidence indicates that Ruby’s companion was Larry Crafard. Crafard, who lived at the Carousel Club while working for Ruby from mid-October until November 23, 1963, stated that sometime in late October or early November he accompanied Ruby to an electronics store in connection with the purchase of electronics equipment.[C6-1140] Ruth Paine testified that Crafard’s photograph bears a strong resemblance to Oswald; and employment records of the Texas School Book Depository show that Oswald worked a full day on November 1, 1963.[C6-1141]

William D. Crowe, Jr., a young nightclub master of ceremonies who had worked for Ruby on three occasions and had begun a 4- or 5-week engagement at the Carousel Club on November 11, 1963, was the first person who reported a possible association between Ruby and Oswald.[C6-1142] While attempting to enter the Carousel Club on November 24, shortly after Oswald was shot, Crowe encountered two news media representatives who were gathering information on Jack Ruby.[C6-1143] At that time, Crowe, who included a memory act in his repertoire,[C6-1144] mentioned the “possibility” that he had seen Oswald at the Carousel Club.[C6-1145] As a result he was asked to appear on television. In Crowe’s own words, the story “started snowballing.” He testified:

They built up the memory thing and they built up the bit of
having seen Oswald there, and I never stated definitely,
positively, and they said that I did, and all in all, what
they had in the paper was hardly even close to what I told
them.[C6-1146]

Crowe added that his memory act involved a limited system which did not, in fact, improve his memory and that his memory might not even be as good as that of the average person. When asked how certain he was that the man he saw was Oswald, Crowe testified: “* * * the face seemed familiar as some faces do, and I had associated him with a patron that I had seen in the club a week before. That was about it.”[C6-1147]

A possible explanation for Crowe’s belief that Oswald’s face seemed familiar was supplied by a freelance photographer, Eddie Rocco, who had taken pictures at the Carousel Club for Ruby at about the time Crowe was employed there. Rocco produced one of those photographs which depicted a man who might have been mistaken for Oswald by persons having no reason to remember the man at the time they saw him.[C6-1148] When shown the Rocco photograph, Crowe said that there was as strong a possibility that the man he recalled seeing was the man in the photograph as there was that he was Oswald.[C6-1149] Crowe’s uncertainty was further underscored by his failure initially to provide his information about Oswald to David Hoy, a news-media friend whom Crowe telephoned in Evansville, Ind., less than 20 minutes after Oswald was shot.[C6-1150] By then the possible recognition had occurred to Crowe,[C6-1151] and Hoy said he was quite surprised that Crowe had given the information first to other news representatives instead of telling him in that early conversation.[C6-1152]

After Crowe’s identification had been publicized, four other persons also reported seeing Oswald at the Carousel Club. One man said he saw Ruby and Oswald seated at a table together and recalled that the man resembling Oswald was addressed by a blond-haired waitress as “Bettit” or “Pettit.” The witness was unable to give any description of “Pettit” except that he was the man who had been shot by Ruby. He could not describe the inside of the Carousel and was unable to give a precise location for the club.[C6-1153] Another witness, a resident of Tennessee, related seeing a man resembling Oswald at the Carousel Club on November 10.[C6-1154] Ruth Paine has testified, however, that Oswald spent the entire holiday weekend of November 9, 10, and 11 at her home in Irving, Tex.[C6-1155] Two of Ruby’s former employees, Karen Carlin and Billy Joe Willis, also believed they had seen a person who resembled Oswald. Willis believed he saw the man at the Carousel Club but did not think the man was Oswald.[C6-1156] Mrs. Carlin likewise was not certain that the man was Oswald nor was she sure where she had seen him.[C6-1157] Neither reported any connection between the man and Ruby. No other employees recalled seeing Oswald or a person resembling him at the Carousel Club.[C6-1158]

Wilbryn Waldon (Robert) Litchfield II also claimed to have seen at the Carousel Club a man resembling Oswald. Litchfield stated that during a visit to the Carousel Club in late October or early November 1963, he saw such a man enter Ruby’s office, apparently to confer with Ruby.[C6-1159] Although there is substantial evidence that Litchfield did see Ruby at the Carousel Club about that time,[C6-1160] there is strong reason to believe that Litchfield did not see Lee Harvey Oswald. Litchfield described the man he saw as having pockmarks on the right side of his chin;[C6-1161] Oswald did not have such identifying marks.[C6-1162] Moreover, the Commission has substantial doubts concerning Litchfield’s credibility. Although present at an FBI interview of another witness on November 29, Litchfield made no mention of his observation to public officials until December 2, 1963.[C6-1163] Litchfield, who had twice been convicted for offenses involving forged checks,[C6-1164] testified that he first recalled that Oswald resembled the visitor he saw at the Carousel Club while watching a television showing on Sunday morning, November 24, of the shooting by Ruby.[C6-1165] At that time Litchfield was playing poker with three friends, and he testified that he promptly informed them of the resemblance he observed.[C6-1166] However, none of the three poker companions remembered Litchfield’s making such a remark; and two added that Litchfield’s statements were often untrustworthy.[C6-1167]

With regard to all of the persons who claimed to have seen Ruby and Oswald together, it is significant that none had particular reason to pay close attention to either man, that substantial periods of time elapsed before the events they assertedly witnessed became meaningful, and that, unlike the eyewitnesses who claimed to have seen Oswald on November 22, none reported their observations soon after Oswald was arrested. In the course of its investigation, the Commission has encountered numerous clear mistakes of identification. For example, at least four persons, other than Crafard, are known to have been mistaken for Oswald.[C6-1168] Other persons have been misidentified as Jack Ruby.[C6-1169] Under all the available evidence there is no substantial likelihood that the person the various witnesses claimed to have seen with Ruby was in fact Oswald.

In addition to probing the reported evidence that Ruby and Oswald had been seen together, the Commission has examined other circumstances for signs that the two men were acquainted. From the time Oswald returned from Mexico, both he and Jack Ruby lived in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, slightly more than a mile apart. Numerous neighbors of both Oswald and Ruby were interviewed, and none knew of any association between the two.[C6-1170] Oswald’s work began at 8 each weekday morning and terminated at 4:45 each afternoon.[C6-1171] Jack Ruby usually remained in his apartment until past 9 a.m. each day.[C6-1172] Although both men worked in downtown Dallas, they normally traveled to their places of employment by different routes. Ruby owned an automobile, and the shortest route downtown from his home was via a freeway adjacent to his apartment.[C6-1173] Oswald did not own a car and had, at best, a rudimentary ability to drive.[C6-1174] From his roominghouses on North Beckley Avenue and on Marsalis Street, he normally took public transportation which did not bring him within six blocks of either Ruby’s apartment or his downtown nightclub, nor did Oswald’s route from the bus stop to home or work bring him near Ruby’s home or business.[C6-1175] Persons at Oswald’s roominghouse testified that he regularly came home promptly after work and remained in his room.[C6-1176] While in Dallas, he is not known to have visited any nightclub.[C6-1177] Ruby was generally at the Carousel Club from 9 o’clock each evening until after 1 a.m.[C6-1178] In a few instances, Ruby and Oswald patronized the same stores, but no indication has been found that they ever met at such stores.[C6-1179] Ruby at one time frequented a restaurant where Oswald occasionally ate breakfast, but the times of their patronage were widely separated and restaurant employees knew of no acquaintance between Ruby and Oswald.[C6-1180] Likewise, Ruby has held various memberships in the Dallas YMCA and Oswald lived there for brief periods; however, there is no indication that they were there at the same time.[C6-1181]

Both Ruby and Oswald maintained post office boxes at the terminal annex of the U.S. post office in Dallas, but there is no indication that those facts were more than coincidental. On November 1, 1963, Oswald rented box No. 6225, his third since October 1962.[C6-1182] Oswald’s possible purpose has been discussed previously in this chapter. On November 7, 1963, Jack Ruby rented post office box No. 5475 because he hoped to receive mail responses to advertisements for the twistboard exercise device which he was then promoting.[C6-1183] Although it is conceivable that Oswald and Ruby coincidentally encountered one another while checking their boxes, the different daily schedules of the two men render even this possibility unlikely. Moreover, Oswald’s withdrawn personality makes it improbable that the two would have spoken if their paths had crossed.

The Commission has also examined the known friends and acquaintances of Ruby and Oswald for evidence that the two were acquainted, but it has found very few possible links. One conceivable association was through John Carter, a boarder at 1026 North Beckley Avenue while Oswald lived there. Carter was friendly with Wanda Joyce Killam, who had known Jack Ruby since shortly after he moved to Dallas in 1947 and worked for him from July 1963 to early November 1963. Mrs. Killam, who volunteered the information about Carter’s residence during an interview with an agent of the FBI, has stated that she did not believe Carter ever visited the Carousel Club and that she did not think Carter knew Ruby.[C6-1184] Carter stated that he had not heard of Ruby until Oswald was shot, had talked briefly with Oswald only once or twice, and had never heard Oswald mention Ruby or the Carousel Club.[C6-1185] The Commission has no reason to disbelieve either Mrs. Killam or Mr. Carter.

A second possible link between Oswald and Ruby was through Earlene Roberts, the housekeeper at 1026 North Beckley Avenue. Bertha Cheek, the sister of Mrs. Roberts, is known to have visited Jack Ruby at the Carousel Club during the afternoon of November 18, 1963. Mrs. Cheek testified that she had met with Ruby and a person whom Ruby represented to be an interior decorator for the purpose of discussing the possibility of financially backing Ruby in a new nightclub which he planned to open. Mrs. Cheek said she had met Ruby only once, a few years before, and that she had not heard of Oswald until he shot President Kennedy.[C6-1186] Mr. Frank Boerder, the decorator who was present at the November 18 meeting, confirmed the substance of the discussion reported by Mrs. Cheek,[C6-1187] and other witnesses establish that Ruby was, in fact, seeking an associate for a new nightclub venture.[C6-1188] There is no evidence that Jack Ruby ever associated with Earlene Roberts, nor is there any indication that Mrs. Cheek knew of Lee Harvey Oswald prior to November 22.[C6-1189]

Oswald’s trips to the home of Mrs. Ruth Paine at 2115 West Fifth Street in Irving, Tex., presented another possible link to Ruby. While Oswald’s family resided with Mrs. Paine, William F. Simmons, pianoplayer in the musical combo which worked at the Carousel Club from September 17, 1963, until November 21, 1963, lived at 2539 West Fifth Street, in Irving. Simmons has stated that his only relationship to Ruby was as an employee, that Ruby never visited him, that he did not know Oswald, and that he had never seen Oswald at the Carousel Club.[C6-1190] Other persons in the neighborhood knew of no connection between Ruby and Oswald.[C6-1191]