D. RUBY'S TELEPHONE RECORDS FROM 1963* ANALYSIS BY THE WARREN COMMISSION (794) During the Warren Commission's investigation, counsels Burr W. Griffin and Leon D. Hubert had recommended in a memorandum that steps be taken to obtain and preserve a large number of telephone records involving Jack Ruby and numerous associates.(820) Specifically, they asked that the FBI be instructed to secure the records and that Commission Chairman Earl Warren address a letter to the various telephone companies to assure that the records not be destroyed. (821) While the Warren Commission and the FBI did obtain some of the records, an extensive effort to collect them was not carried out. Griffin stated that Commission general counsel J. Lee Rankin vetoed their full request because the effort would have been too burdensome and was too far-reaching. (795) The Commission and the FBI failed to analyze systematically and to develop the data in those records which were obtained.(822) ------------------ *Prepared by Howard Shapiro, research attorney, and Michael Ewing, staff researcher. 189 In a subsequent memorandum, Griffin and Hubert advised that they were in need of further assistance in evaluating the records, saying that they would need the services of additional personnel to undertake a competent analysis. (823) It was suggested by Rankin at one point that Chief Justice Warren's security guard might be able to devote some time to the project. (824) In the end, the actual analysis contemplated by Griffin and Hubert was never fully conducted because of limited time and resources. REVIEW BY THE COMMITTEE (796) The committee obtained the records acquired by the Warren Commission, as well as others from various sources, including the FBI, former New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, and the telephone company (A. T. & T.). These records encompassed a broad range of persons both known and unknown to Jack Ruby (but speculatively associated with him), as well as individuals associated with Lee Harvey Oswald, and others. Among the records acquired and reviewed by the committee were those of: Ruby and his brothers and sisters; Associates of Ruby, such as Lawrence Meyers, Alexander Gruber, and Lewis J. McWillie; Individuals called by Ruby in 1963, such as Barney Baker and Frank Goldstein; The companies which in 1963 employed Baker (Chicago Loop Auto Refinishing Co.) and Myers (Ero Manufacturing Co.); J.D. Tippit, the Dallas policeman slain by Lee Harvey Oswald after the President's assassination; Bruce and Karen Carlin (Mrs. Carlin worked for Jack Ruby under the stage name of Little Lynn); Carlos Marcello, an important organized crime figure; David Ferrie, an individual linked with both Marcello and Lee Harvey Oswald; Robert Maheu, Sam Giancana and John Roselli, individuals involved in CIA plots to assassinate Fidel Castro in the early 1960's; and "Dutz" Murret, the uncle of Lee Harvey Oswald. (797) This list is only partial, and in many instances the records obtained included phone calls for only a portion of the 1963 period. In some instances, the committee's requests for telephone records could not be accommodated. The committee also had access to and used fragmented telephone numbers and numbers whose subscribers were unknown. Methodology (798) With the aid of the Legislative and Committee Systems Division of the House Information Systems, the committee developed a computer project that facilitated the organization of the telephone records and contacts so as to allow detailed analysis and comparison. An Amdahl 470 V-5 computer, with backup provided by two IBM 370-158 central processing units operating under the OS/MVS system, were used. After an appropriate format was chosen for the output, various programs were run. The most important 190 provided master alphabetical and master chronological listings of all calls in the data base. Extracts from these programs which focused on smaller groups of individuals were also requested and provided. Committee staff members then reviewed these outputs in an attempt to find patterns and frequencies of calls and matching telephone numbers. (799) While investigative breakthroughs did not occur, certain telephone contacts caused the committee to conduct further field and file investigations. The major area of interest in the project was the 1963 telephone calls of Jack Ruby and his alleged contacts and associations with organized crime figures. (800) A chronological consolidation of the telephone calls made by Ruby from the five separate business and home telephones he used uncovered a significant increase in the number of calls made in October and November 1963. The average number lept from around 25 to 35 in the months of May through September to approximately 75 in October and approximately 96 during the first 3 1/2 weeks of November. (825) In an effort to determine possible reasons for this significant increase in calls during the months immediately preceding the assassination, the committee closely evaluated Ruby's activities during that period. It looked at whom Ruby was calling and who was calling him, why he was in contact with those people, whether he had had previous contact with them, and what the significance of such contacts was. Nature of the calls (801) The majority of Jack Ruby's 1963 calls can be categorized and described as follows: (802) A large number were made to Ralph P.aul, Ruby's closest friend (826) and a part owner of Ruby's nightclub, the Carousel. (827) These were placed either to Paul's home or to his place of business, the Bull-Pen Restaurant in Fort Worth, Tex. Their frequency increased in the months and weeks preceding the assassination to the point where five or more calls between Ruby and Paul on a particular day were not unusual. The majority of the calls were of short duration. According to Paul: Well, every day he would find something else he would like to do--he would think of doing, or the union didn't do right by him, the AGVA, or the girls didn't do right--that's why he called me almost every day.(828) Social calls to other friends by Ruby appeared to be few. (803) Calls were also made on a regular basis to members of Ruby's family. particularly Earl Ruby, a brother living in Detroit, and relatives living in Chicago: Hymen Rubinstein (brother), Mrs. Marion Carroll (sister), and Mrs. Eileen Kaminsky (sister). (804) Numerous calls were made to inquire about and secure acts and performers for Ruby's nightclub. These were to theatrical agencies and other nightclubs and lounges around the country, as well as to specific individuals, including Harold Tannenbaum, a New Orleans club operator who negotiated with Ruby concerning the services of Janet Conforto, a stripper who used the stage name of Jada. Ruby called other strippers and performers directly, including Juanita 191 Phillips (Candy Barr), Karen Bennett Carlin (Little Lynn), Nancy Powell, Gloria Merrifield (Smokey Turner),(829) Bill Demar, and Buddy Heard. The number of calls in this category increased as the year progressed, due in part to the end of Jada's engagement at the Carousel, which left a void and necessitated the hiring of new acts. (805) An increasing number of calls were made in an attempt to resolve Ruby's dispute with the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA).(830) The monthly upsurge in these union-related calls corresponds to a significant degree with the upsurge in all of Ruby's 1963 calls. (831) Ruby's calls may be diagramed as follows: Jack Ruby - Toll Calls - 1963 192 Summary of Telephone Calls (806) Calls to Richard Walker concerning abortion information. (832) (807) Several calls to Plastelite Engineering, in Fort Worth, to discuss Ruby's marketing scheme involving exercise twistboards, and to Mar-Din, a company based in Chicago. (833) Analysis of the calls (808) It was not possible to explain adequately all of Ruby's telephone contacts. Although explanations have been given, questions and speculation about his associates and contacts remain. For example, there was a 3-minute call to Clarence Rector of Sulphur Springs, Tex., on April 10, 1963. Rector told the FBI he had known Ruby since 1950, and that in 1960 Ruby had mentioned that he had been to Cuba in an attempt to obtain some gambling concessions with some associates.(834) Rector had also made a visit to Cuba in late 1959.(835) The FBI did not question Rector about the April telephone call, and the committee was unable to locate him. (809) Another unexplained call was to Elizabeth Anne Matthews of Shreveport, La., on October 3, 1963, at 11:03 p.m. It lasted 13 minutes. 193 Matthews was the former wife of Russell D. Matthews, an acquaintance of Jack Ruby(836) and an individual known to be connected with gambling and other criminal enterprises in Dallas. (837) In his deposition to the committee, R.D. Matthews said he had no knowledge of this call (838) or of any connection between Ruby and Matthews' ex-wife. Elizabeth Anne Matthews was not located by the committee, but she had told the FBI on December 1, 1962, that she had no recollection of any calls from Dallas on or about October 3, 1965. (839) (810) Other ostensibly explained but still suspicious calls included number of possibilities. A brief account of these calls and individuals, in chronological order, follows. (811) LEWIS J. McWillie.--Between June and August 1963, Ruby placed seven long distance calls to McWillie, one of his closest friends. He spoke at length of this friendship during his Warren Commission testimony, stating at one point that he idolized McWillie.(840) In 1959, Ruby had visited him in Havana, Cuba,(841) where McWillie was working in a syndicate-controlled casino. FBI records established that McWillie at least knew Santos Trafficante, (842) the powerful Florida Mafia leader who played a role in the assassination conspiracies against Fidel Castro.(843) McWillie denied anything more than passing acquaintance with him. (844). (812) Ruby's phone calls to McWillie occurred on June 27, September 2 (two calls), September 4, September 19, September 20, and September 22. The first two were placed to McWillie's home number, the remainder to McWillie's place of business, the Thunderbird Casino in Las Vegas. McWillie stated that the purpose of these calls was Ruby's desire for assistance in solving his labor dispute with AGVA. (845) (813) Irwin S. Weiner.--On October 26, 1963, Jack Ruby place long distance call to Weiner in Chicago; he spoke with him for 12 minutes. Though the Warren Commission had been aware of this telephone call, it had never sought to have Weiner questioned, nor did it explore his background and associations. (814) Weiner was a prominent underworld bondsman(846) who was closely associated with such men as James R. Hoffa, (847) Sam Giancana(848) and Paul and Allen Dorfman.(849) According to Federal and State law enforcement files, Weiner had served as a key functionary in the relationship between the Chicago Mafia and various corrupt union officials,(850) particularly while Hoffa was president of the Teamsters Union. As recently as April 1978, Weiner had been described in a Jack Anderson column as "the underworld's major financial figure in the Midwest." (815) In the days following the assassination of President Kennedy, the FBI sought to question Weiner about the call he had received Ruby. A November 28, 1963, teletype states that Weiner refused to respond to questioning by FBI agents in Chicago and declined to assist the investigation in any way.(851) (816) In executive session testimony before the committee, Weiner stated that. Ruby's call to him involved possible assistance in his labor dispute.(852) Weiner further testified that he had lied to a reporter when he stated in a taped interview earlier in 1978 that Ruby's call had had nothing to do with Ruby's labor problems. (853) Weiner also testified that he had refused to submit to FBI questioning about Ruby in the weeks following the assassination because he believed Bureau agents had harassed his daughter by implying that he might have had some connection with the assassination. (854) 194 (817) Nofio Pecora.--Telephone records indicated that at 9:13 p.m. on October 30, 1963, Jack Ruby placed all-minute call to the Tropical Court Tourist Park, a trailer park in New Orleans, La. The number called by Ruby, CH2-5431, was listed as the business office of the Tropical Court. In a partial compilation of various long distance telephone numbers called by Ruby which had been transmitted to the Warren Commission by the FBI in early 1964, a notation indicated that the Ruby call to the Tropical Court went to N.J. Pecora. (855) The Commission, however, did not interview or investigate Pecora and made no reference to him in its report. (818) Nofio J. Pecora, alias Joseph O. Pecoraro, was the owner of the Tropical Court Tourist Park. He ran the business from a oneman office located on the premises. (856) It had been this office that Ruby called on October 30. Pecora, a former heroin smuggler,(857) was an associate of Carlos Marcello,(858) the New Orleans Mafia leader. The FBI, Justice Department, and Metropolitan Crime Commission of New Orleans identified Pecora as one of Carlos Marcello's associates,(859) with various members of the Pecora family being in contact with Marcello's family.(860) The committee's computer telephone project noted, for example, that Marcello placed a call to Nofio Pecora on June 24, 1963, at the same trailer office number that Ruby had called 4 months later. (819) Earlier in 1978, when the committee investigators questioned Pecora about the October 30, 1963, telephone can, he declined to respond. In September 1978, however, he finally agreed to answer questions by the committee. He stated that he did not recall receiving any telephone call from Jack Ruby and did not in fact know Ruby or have any knowledge of him.(861) Pecora believed that he was probably the only person who had access to his Tropical Court telephone in 1963, but that he might well have taken a telephone message for someone else who lived at the trailer park.(862) He suggested his interview that Ruby might have called his office on October 30 in an attempt to locate some other party,(863) but stated he did not believe he ever took a message from Ruby. (820) The evidence indicates that Ruby did in fact have an associate who lived at the Tropical Court Tourist Park at that time-Harold Tannenbaum, a New Orleans nightclub manager. He had run several Bourbon Street clubs affiliated with Marcclio interests. In his committee interview, Pecora admitted that he was acquainted with Tannenbaum and that they were neighbors in the trailer court. (864) He was not aware that Tannenbaum was a friend of Ruby.(865) (821) Harold Tannenbaum had met Ruby in the summer of 1963 and had discussed going into business with him. The computer telephone project established that Ruby and Tannenbaum were in regular contact by telephone from June until October 1963. The committee also found that 1 hour after the l-minute call from Ruby's office to Pecora's office, Tannenbaum himself placed a call to Ruby. This sequence could thus be interpreted as consistent with what Pecora suggested- that Ruby called his trailer court office simply to relay a message to another party. Nevertheless, Pecora did not recall relaying any long-distance telephone message from Ruby to Tannenbaum or anyone else in the trailer park. (866) (822) Barney Baker.--On November 7, 1963, Jack Ruby received a collect call from Robert G. (Barney) Baker of Chicago which lasted 17 minutes. Baker was an associate of James R. Hoffa. (867) A former 195 boxer and ex-convict, (868) he was one of Hoffa's best known assistants during the McClellan committee investigation in the late 1950's. (869) This investigation, coordinated by chief counsel Robert F. Kennedy, had detailed Baker's role as Hoffa's personal liaison to various Mafia figures, as well as to a number of well-known syndicate executioners.(870) In 1960, Robert Kennedy wrote that "sometimes the mere threat of his [Baker's] presence in a room was enough to silence the men who would otherwise have opposed Hoffa's reign."(871) (823) Baker was questioned by the FBI in Chicago on January 3, 1964. He stated that Ruby was a complete stranger to him until the very day he spoke with him, November 7, 1963. (872) Ruy had called him earlier that day, and, in his absence, Baker's wife had taken a message instructing him to call Ruby's nightclub in Dallas. (873) This call did not appear in the telephone records gathered by the committee.) Baker told the FBI that Ruby had not used his real name, but had instead instructed him to call back and ask for "Lou," which he did.(874) This was the reason Baker gave for placing a collect call to Ruby''s number. Baker told the FBI that the purpose of Ruby's call was to seek assistance in the labor dispute Ruby was having with his nightclub competitors in Dallas. (875) (824) Dusty Miller.--On November 8, 1963, the day after Ruby had received a call from Baker, he placed a call to Murray W. (Dusty) Miller at the Eden Roc Hotel in Miami, Fla., a call lasting 4 minutes. Dusty Miller was another assistant of Hoffa and head of the southern conference of the union. As such, he was regarded as a possible successor to Hoffa.(876) Miller was also said to be associated with numerous underworld figures. (877) (825) In a 1978 interview with the committee, Miller stated that he had had no contact with Jack Ruby before the November 8, 1963, telephone call, during which Ruby had asked for assistance in his labor problems.(878) Ruby had stated something to the effect that "Barney Baker gave me your number and told me that maybe you could help me out." Miller, upon hearing the reference to Baker, quickly ended the conversation, as Miller viewed Barney Baker as a man with questionable associations, and he did not wish to be involved in any dealing that Baker himself might be involved in. (879) (826) Miller told the committee that he had assumed from the substance of his conversation with Ruby that Ruby and Baker were friends.(880) He was surprised that Baker had given his telephone number to Ruby, though he never discussed the incident with Baker. (881) Miller stated that he had no further knowledge of Jack Ruby, nor had he ever been contacted again by Ruby. (882) (827) Barney Baker.--Telephone records indicate that on November 8, 1963, at 5:22 p.m., Jack Ruby placed another call to Barney Baker in Chicago. This occurred 31 minutes after the Ruby-Miller call and lasted for 14 minutes. (828) Baker said that he terminated the November 7 call by "firmly declining to offer any assistance" in Ruby's labor difficulties.(883) In his 1964 FBI interview and 1978 committee deposition, Baker made no mention of the fact that Ruby had called him back on November 8 and indicated that he had had no further contact with Ruby. (884) (829) Lenny Patrick.--In her Warren Commission testimony, Eva Grant, Jack Ruby's sister, stated that Ruby had called Lenny Patrick in Chicago sometime during the summer of 1963. (885) Grant said that 196 Ruby had had some difficulty in locating Patrick's number, but, finally found it and called him. (886) (830) The committee was not able to locate a call to Patrick in the telephone records that it possessed, although the possibility of Ruby's using a telephone not included in these records cannot be discounted. Furmet, Patrick stated during a 1978 deposition that he did not believe that Ruby had called him in 1963, although he did admit he was acquainted with Ruby when they were both much younger and living in Chicago (887) Lenny Patrick was one of the Chicago Mafia's leading assassins and was responsible, according to Federal and State law enforcement files, for the murders of over a dozen victims of the mob. (888) In later years, Patrick was to become a lieutenant of Chicago leader Sam Giancana. (889)