How did bullet get to Lake Worth after being fired from Ruby’s gun?
The petite L a k e Wo r t h woman in the o l i v e g r e e n b l o u s e a n d b l u e c a p r i pants, the one who wants to be known only as Barbara, is intently staring at the framed plaque hanging inside the south side of the Lake Worth Public Library.
This isn’t just any plaque. It’s a commemorative Jack Ruby plaque featuring an engraved bullet fired from the same snubnosed .38-caliber Colt Cobra — “The Most Famous Gun in the World” — that Ruby, a nightclub operator, used to kill Lee Harvey Oswald, President John F. Kennedy’s assassin, on Nov. 24, 1963.
The prized collec tion also includes the picture of that afternoon in a Dallas police station basement, a certificate of authenticity and a photo of the gun with the evidence tag.
“I’ve taken a strong interest in the day Kennedy was killed,” Barbara says softly, her eyes transfixed on the plaque as if she’s being hypnotized by it. “I’ve been going through a spiritual awakening and seeing certain number sequences that strongly link to that day.”
Barbara’s reaction doesn’t surprise Vickie Joslin, head librarian for the past 17 years.
“Some people find it very disturbing because of the violence that occurred that day and that someone died because of this gun,” Joslin says. “There are questions about Kennedy’s death that can never be answered, and this is a reminder of that.”
Those people, Joslin adds, are in the minority.
“Most of the young people who look at it go, ‘OK, that’s interesting,’” Joslin says, laughing.
Peter Kelley, a librarian, says many people think the gold-colored bullet on display is the one that actually killed Oswald.
“I t ’s quit e a c onversation starter,” Kelley says.
The tale of how the plaque got to the library is a murky one.
Kelley said a local resident had the plaque for a number of years before donating it. He has no idea about that resident’s identity.
Joslin said she believes it’s been there since the early ’90s.
She does know that Anthony Pugliese III, a Delray Beach real estate developer, was the guy who owned the gun with the Kevin D. Thompson serial number 2744LW. Reportedly, Pugliese paid $220,000 for it with five other investors in 1991 at an auction in Manhattan under the fake name Fred Roman.
“I w o u l d have preferred t o r e m a i n anonymous,” Pugliese told The Las Vegas Sun in 2008.
That’s a little tough when you own the gun that launched countless conspiracy theories — as well as one overly long Oliver Stone film — and that helped shape American history.
When Pugliese bought Ruby’s gun, he fired it. A lot. Hundreds of times, in a swimming pool, reports say. There was a method to the madness. Pugliese collected the bullets, had them mounted inside plaques and sold them to collectors to benefit various charities, including the National Audubon Society and other environmental groups.
Pugliese has claimed he never made a dime from the bullets and that each one raised $1,000.
The Ruby memorabilia isn’t the library’s only historical item. There are paintings by Reginald Sherman Winston, an acclaimed painter and muralist who became a city resident in 1922; wood carv- ings from a local shoemaker; two Arabic scripts. There’s also another bullet, this one fired by a police officer in 1942 in the library’s men’s room. It was the period when Florida was under threat from German air or U-boat attack and coastal cities were given orders to turn off or black out all lights. The policeman was instructed by his commanding officer to shoot out the lights after the librarian forgot to switch them off. True story. But of all the historical collections, the Ruby plaque has to be the most popular, right?
“We don’t know,” Joslin says. “We don’t do any surveys. We just encourage people to come in, look around and enjoy our history.”
An engraved bullet, fired from the same legendary pistol used to kill the man who police say assassinated the president of the United States as his motorcade rode down a Dallas street, is a slice of history no one will — or should — ever forget.