Jack Leon Ruby (born Jacob Rubenstein; c. March 25, 1911 – January 3, 1967) was an American nightclub owner. He murdered Lee Harvey Oswald two days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He was born in Chicago, and operated nightclubs in Texas.
Oswald had been arrested for Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, Texas. On November 24, 1963, two days after the assassination, Ruby shot and fatally wounded Oswald in the basement of the Dallas Police Headquarters, and was immediately arrested. The shooting was captured on live television. In March 1964, he was convicted and sentenced to death for Oswald's murder. The conviction was overturned on appeal in 1966, and Ruby was granted a new trial, but he fell ill, was diagnosed with cancer, and died of a pulmonary embolism on January 3, 1967.
In 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that there was no evidence Jack Ruby was part of a conspiracy. Despite this, Ruby's killing of Oswald has stoked John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.
Early life, family, and education
Jacob Rubenstein was born on or around March 25, 1911, to Joseph Rubenstein, a carpenter, and Fannie Turek Rutkowski (or Rokowsky), both Polish-born Orthodox Jews residing in the Maxwell Street area of Chicago, Illinois. He was the fifth of his parents' 10 surviving children. During his childhood, the parents often behaved violently towards each other and frequently separated; Ruby's mother was eventually committed to a psychiatric hospital.
His troubled childhood and adolescence were marked by juvenile delinquency, with time being spent in foster care. He was arrested at the age of 11 for truancy. A childhood friend of Ruby's was the future boxer Barney Ross. He and Ross ran innocuous errands given to them by the gangster Al Capone. From his early childhood, Ruby was nicknamed "Sparky" by those who knew him. His sister, Eva Grant, said that he acquired the nickname because he resembled a slow-moving horse named "Spark Plug" or "Sparky" in the contemporary comic strip Barney Google. Other accounts say that the name was given because of his quick temper. Grant stated that Ruby did not like the nickname and was quick to fight anyone who called him that.
Ruby left school at 16. He made money through ticket scalping and selling horse race tip sheets. Around 1937, he became an organizer in Local 20467 of the Scrap Iron and Junk Handlers Union. In 1939, union president Leon Cooke was murdered. Cooke was a friend of Ruby, and he was investigated as a suspect, although he was cleared of any wrongdoing. He adopted the middle name "Leon" in tribute to his friend. When Paul Dorfman replaced Cooke as president, Ruby continued on in the union for another two months before leaving. According to Dorfman, Ruby was fired by the union on the orders of the American Federation of Labor regional office when it temporarily took over the union following Cooke's murder.
In 1941, Ruby and Harry Epstein organized the Spartan Novelty Co., a small firm that sold small cedar chests containing candy and punchboards. He designed plaques for sale commemorating the attack on Pearl Harbor, but his perfectionism led to production delays.
Ruby was drafted in 1943 and served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, working as an aircraft mechanic at US bases until 1946. He had an honorable record and was promoted to private first class. Upon discharge, in 1946, Ruby returned to Chicago.
In 1947, Ruby moved to Dallas, purportedly because of the failure of merchandise deals in Chicago and to help operate his sister's nightclub. Soon afterward he and his brothers shortened their surnames from Rubenstein to Ruby. The stated reason for the name change was that the name "Rubenstein" was too long and that he was "well known" as Jack Ruby. Ruby later managed nightclubs, strip clubs, and dance halls in Dallas. He developed close ties to many Dallas Police officers who frequented his nightclubs, where he provided them with free liquor, prostitutes, and other favors. Ruby's nightclubs were also frequented by Buck Owens, who discovered Lulu Roman—then working as bawdy comic relief at one of Ruby's clubs—and hired Roman to join the cast of Hee Haw. Ruby hired the singer Jewel Brown to perform at his clubs after they were introduced by James Henry Dolan. She stopped working for Ruby after about a year when they had a falling out.
Ruby developed financial problems during this period and often borrowed money from friends, family, and business associates. He was often in conflict with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and at one point owed 6 years of back taxes. In 1959, he became a member of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce due to the help of Judge Joe B. Brown. Brown later served as the judge for Ruby's trial for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Some critics have said that Ruby was involved in illegal activity such as gambling, narcotics, and prostitution. An FBI report in 1956 stated that informant Eileen Curry had moved to Dallas with her boyfriend, James Breen, after jumping bail on narcotics charges. Breen told her that he had made connections with a large narcotics setup operating between Texas, Mexico, and the East, and that "James got the okay to operate through Ruby of Dallas." Dallas County Sheriff Steve Guthrie told the FBI that he believed that Ruby "operated some prostitution activities and other vices out of his club" in Dallas. Dallas disc jockey Kenneth Dowe testified that Ruby was known around the station for "procuring women for different people who came to town".
From 1949 up until the murder of Oswald, Ruby had nine criminal charges, ranging from assault to violating state liquor law.
According to people interviewed by law enforcement and the Warren Commission, Ruby was desperate to attract attention to himself and his club. He knew a great number of people in Dallas but had only a few friends. Because his business ventures were unsuccessful, he was heavily in debt.
The Commission received reports of Ruby's penchant for violence. He had a volatile temper, and he often resorted to violence with employees who had upset him. He acted as the bouncer of his own club and beat his customers on at least 25 occasions. The fights would often end with Ruby throwing his victims down the club's stairs. In one fight with a man, the man bit Ruby's left index finger so badly that the doctors had it amputated.
Stories of Ruby's eccentric and unstable behavior describe him as sometimes taking his shirt or other clothes off in social gatherings and either hitting his chest like a gorilla or rolling around on the floor. During conversations, he could change the topic suddenly in mid-sentence. He sometimes welcomed a guest to his club, but on other nights he would forbid the same guest from entering. He was described by those who knew him as "a kook", "totally unpredictable", "a psycho", and "suffering from some form of disturbance".
Ruby never married and did not have any children. At the time of the assassination, Ruby was living with George Senator, who referred to Ruby as "my boyfriend" during the Warren Commission hearing, although he denied the two were lovers. Warren Commission lawyer Burt Griffin later told author Gerald Posner, "I'm not sure if Senator was honest with us about his relationship with Ruby. People did not advertise their homosexuality in 1963".
The Warren Commission attempted to reconstruct Ruby's movements from November 21, 1963, through November 24. The Commission reported that he was attending to his duties as the proprietor of the Carousel Club located at 1312 1/2 Commerce St. in downtown Dallas and the Vegas Club in the city's Oak Lawn district from the afternoon of November 21 to the early hours of November 22. A number of Dallas police officers were meeting in the office of Assistant District Attorney Ben Ellis when Ruby entered and passed out business cards advertising a performance by Jada, a stripper at the Carousel. Reportedly, Ruby introduced himself to Ellis and added: "You probably don't know me now, but you will."