Background
Jack Ruby was born Jacob Rubenstein, in Chicago, Ill. , the son of Joseph Rubenstein, a Polish immigrant carpenter, and Fannie Turek Rutkowski. School reports and official records list Ruby's birth on various dates in the spring of 1911; Ruby most frequently used March 25, 1911. Ruby grew up in lower-class Jewish neighborhoods in Chicago. Yiddish was the primary language in his home, a scene of constant strife between his parents. His father was frequently arrested for disorderly conduct, assault, and battery. In the spring of 1921 Ruby's parents separated. Family discord had adversely affected Ruby's behavior. On June 6, 1922, he was referred to the Institute for Juvenile Research by the Jewish Social Service Bureau because of truancy and for being incorrigible at home. The institute's psychiatric report indicated that Ruby was quicktempered and disobedient. In the 1920's Ruby and several of his brothers and sisters lived in foster homes in Chicago.
Education
His school attendance was erratic, and his highest academic achievement probably was the completion of the eighth grade in 1927.
Career
Ruby engaged in commercial ventures on the Chicago streets. He scalped tickets to sporting events and sold novelty items and knickknacks. Although hot-tempered and quick to fight, Ruby had few difficulties with the police. According to his brother Hyman, his only arrest during this period resulted from an altercation with a policeman concerning ticket scalping. In 1933 Ruby and several friends went to Los Angeles and later to San Francisco. In California he sold handicappers' tip sheets for horse races and became a door-to-door salesman for subscriptions to San Francisco newspapers.
After returning to Chicago in 1937, Ruby worked in the Scrap Iron and Junk Handlers Union. He also helped organize the Spartan Novelty Company, which sold small items, including gambling devices known as punchboards. Before American involvement in World War II, Ruby and his friends frequently attempted to break up rallies of the German-American Bund. After efforts to gain deferment Ruby was inducted into the air force on May 21, 1943. He spent most of his service at air bases in the South and established an excellent record. He attained the rank of private first class and was honorably discharged on February 21, 1946.
He returned to Chicago and joined his three brothers in the Earl Products Company, a firm specializing in novelty items. In late 1947 Ruby's brothers Earl and Sam purchased his interest in the firm. Ruby moved to Dallas, Tex. , to help his sister, Eva Grant, run the Singapore Supper Club, in which he had an investment.
On December 30, 1947, he legally changed his name to Jack L. Ruby by securing a decree from the 68th Judicial District Court of Dallas. From 1947 until the shooting of Oswald on November 24, 1963, Ruby's main interest--and source of income--was the operation of nightclubs and dance halls in Dallas. In 1953 he managed the Ervay movie theater. Ruby also engaged in speculative economic schemes, including the sale of pizza crust; stainless steel razor blades; and the twistboard, an exercise device.
In 1959 he became interested in a venture to sell jeeps to Cuba. By 1963 Ruby owned interests in two Dallas nightclubs, the Vegas Club and the Carousel Club, both of which featured striptease acts. Ruby had a violent temper and frequently was physically abusive toward customers and employees. He was a fancy dresser and considered himself a ladies' man, although he never married.
As a club owner, Ruby had a number of disputes with the American Guild of Variety Artists, the union that represented his entertainers. Between 1949 and November 24, 1963, Ruby was arrested eight times on minor charges in Dallas. He was, however, very interested in police work and had acquaintances on the Dallas police force. By November 1963 Ruby also had serious difficulties with taxes owed to state and federal authorities.
On Sunday November 24, 1963, two days after the assassination of President Kennedy, Ruby entered the Dallas Police Department basement through an auto ramp and shot Oswald, who was being held for the murder of the president. A national television audience witnessed the event. Ruby maintained that he shot Oswald to spare Mrs. Kennedy the ordeal of returning to Dallas to testify in the trial of the president's alleged assassin.
Two days later, he was indicted for murder. After a sensational trial in Dallas, Ruby was convicted of murder on March 14, 1964, and was sentenced to death. During the trial Ruby's lawyers offered a defense of insanity, and a psychiatrist testified that Ruby was a "psychotic depressive. " Ruby asserted his sanity, a contention upheld in a Texas state court on June 13, 1966.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the conviction on October 5, 1966, claiming that trial judge Joe B. Brown had allowed illegal testimony. A second trial was scheduled to take place in Wichita Falls, Tex. While the trial was pending, Ruby became ill and was admitted to Parkland Memorial Hospital on December 9, 1966. Doctors diagnosed his illness as cancer; he died in Dallas of a blood clot in his lungs. Ruby was buried in Chicago.
After the murder of Oswald, various conspiracy theories attempted to link Ruby to a plot to kill President Kennedy. Some writers made much of Ruby's one or more visits to Cuba in 1959; others alleged that Ruby had been involved with organized crime through his dealings with the American Guild of Variety Artists. The Warren Commission report of 1964 found no evidence that Ruby was part of any conspiracy. In 1975 the Rockefeller Commission, set up to investigate Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) activities within the United States, concluded that neither Oswald nor Ruby had ties with the CIA, a charge made by several conspiracy theorists. Despite these investigations, theories and rumors continue to allege that Ruby was part of a conspiracy.
