Motiveless club boss shoots JFK’S assassin to trigger 1000 theories
The air hung with stale sweat, cigarette smoke and, above all, tension.
A crowd of reporters waited in the basement of the Dallas police station on November 24, 1963, where the man who shot President John F Kennedy only two days prior was being held.
TV cameras were there to capture Lee Harvey Oswald being moved to a secure jail.
The purported killer appeared from an elevator, flanked by officers and wearing handcuffs.
With desperate speed, a man emerged from the throng of policemen and journalists and thrust a
.38 calibre revolver into Oswald’s abdomen. The shot echoed through the stone basement and a television audience of millions watched as the man who shot President Kennedy was himself killed by an assassin’s bullet.
The gun had been fired by Jack Ruby, born Jacob Leon Rubenstein and, on March 14, 1964, he was convicted for the murder of Kennedy’s assassin.
However, on that November day in 1963, outside the police station a crowd who had gathered heard Oswald had been shot, and burst into applause.
Almost as soon as he was arrested and charged, questions about his motivations were posed and, regardless of his true intentions, when he pulled the trigger Ruby also truly ignited the Kennedy conspiracy industry.
Ruby was known as being quick-tempered. He reportedly had links to organised crime and was briefly an informant for the FBI but had never passed them details; meanwhile, a disc jockey claimed he was known for procuring prostitutes for talent who worked at the station.
His nightclub, The Carousel Club in Dallas, saw Ruby act as bouncer as well as owner.
He was known as a patriot with strong opinions on political matters and the rise of communism.
Prior to his trial, Ruby said he was linked to a gunrunner involved in the anti-castro movement which, it is suspected, was in part funded by the US Government. These links, and false claims he was spotted with Oswald before the Kennedy assassination, fuelled the conspiracies.
However, when asked what was his motivation for shooting Oswald, Ruby said it was to redeem the city’s reputation in America’s eyes.
He also claimed it was to spare the First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, the agony of sitting through Oswald’s potentially long and difficult trial.
Breaking down during a court appearance, Ruby told how he couldn’t understand how a “great man” like Kennedy could be lost.
On the basis of a confession while in police custody, Ruby was convicted and sentenced to death. However, he appealed the verdict and was given a new trial.
First his confession was ruled to have violated criminal statutes in the state of Texas. Secondly, his lawyers argued it was difficult for Ruby to have received a fair trial. After all, how do you summon a jury who hadn’t been personally affected by a shooting witnessed by millions live on national television?
It was while waiting for his retrial Ruby would die from lung cancer, at the age of 55. On his death bed he was asked if he wanted to make a final statement. He took the opportunity to make himself clear and attempt to stop the seemingly unstoppable conspiracy theories yet it was too late.
“There is nothing to hide,” Ruby said. “There was no one else.”