Turkatenko Comment
Moscow TASS International Service in English 1019 GMT 26 November 1963--L
(Text) New York--Reports reaching here from Dallas, Texas,
where President Kennedy and his suspected assassin Lee Oswald were killed, claim
that Oswald's slayer, Jack Rubinstein, known as Ruby, got into the prison
"accidentally" and shot Oswald in a fit of righteous indignation against the
"communist plotter who killed our President," as stated by Ruby himself and his
lawyer, Howard. Ruby also claimed that he wanted to spare the president's family
the anguish they would have felt throughout the investigation and Oswald's
trial.
Dallas police and city authorities claim that Oswald's guilt
has been proven beyond doubt and that they had taken every precaution to insure
his safety. TASS commentator Nikolay Turkatenko writes in this connection:
While Ruby and the Dallas authorities are making these
statements, Oswald's body is lying in Rose Hill cemetery in his home town, not
far from Dallas.
The Dallas police hastened to "close the books" on Oswald's
case. Reporting this, AFP correspondent Francois Peloux writes from Dallas that
in his opinion the investigation of the Oswald case never really began. It was
conducted as if it was an ordinary murder, and no one has even tried to dig a
little deeper and establish what sort of man Oswald was and what the motives of
the crime might be. The police merely "established" that Oswald "did this
because he was a communist."
Now that Oswald is dead, the question arises: Did he act on
behalf of some political group and was he killed because of this? And if so,
another important question arises: What sort of a group is it? This question
naturally remains unanswered because of the methods of "investigation" employed
in Dallas.
Instead, the news agencies are now obligingly peddling the
version that Oswald was killed by "a real American patriot," Ruby, who took
revenge on the "Marxist killer" in a fit of righteous indignation. The agencies
have also carried a statement by Ruby's lawyer that Ruby "deserves a medal" for
what he did.
However, attempts to speculate again on the story about the
alleged communist plot and attempts to play on the "anger of a true American
patriot," who "accidentally found himself next to Oswald," are utterly false and
rotten.
Let us turn to facts. Early on the morning of 24
November--that is, the day when Ruby fired a bullet into Oswald's stomach before
the eyes of a crowd of policemen and detectives--someone called the Dallas FBI
office and warned: Oswald will be killed today. Since the investigation of
Oswald's case was conducted by the Dallas police and he was in their custody,
the FBI did not take any steps and only informed the Dallas police about this
telephone call. The police department said "O.K." and a few hours later Ruby's
bullet silenced Oswald once and for all.
Allegations that Ruby appeared next to Oswald accidentally
are rejected by the policemen themselves. REUTER's [sic] correspondent in
Dallas, Harris, quotes statements by several policemen who said that they knew
Ruby was in the basement of the city jail, where Oswald was brought to be
transferred to the county jail.
"Concern" of the Dallas police for the safety of Oswald is
borne out eloquently also by the fact that the morning papers of the city
frontpaged a report about the time when Oswald was to be moved. Police Chief
Curry stated that he personally informed the newspapers about the exact time
"for the convenience of newsmen."
In the atmosphere of hysteria which prevailed in Dallas, this
"concern" for the press was tantamount to an open call to use the chance to
"eliminate" Oswald. The "noble avenger" and "patriot," professional gangster
Ruby, wasted no time and availed himself of this invitation.
Those who knew Ruby before stress that he was a black sheep
all his life. His career began with wholesale speculation in theater and
football tickets. He later became a "trade union organizer," then a member of a
big crime syndicate in Chicago. Finally, he became owner of the lowest sort of
nightclub in Dallas.
Ruby a patriot? Impossible, the correspondents were told by
the gangster's "colleagues" and friends. A certain Jack Kelly, who had known
Ruby since 1944 told a UPI correspondent: This "patriot" walked around during
the war with a sham hearing aid to avoid being called up. I cannot imagine Ruby
killing a man out of patriotic feelings. He would have done this for money, of
course. This is where Ruby's friend apparently hit the nail on the head. The
only question is--who paid the money?
The conclusion suggests itself: The money was paid to Ruby by
those who wanted to put the blame for the murder of the U.S. President on Oswald
and then "eliminate" him to cover up the traces. These are the people who
vehemently accused President Kennedy of "Negrophilia" and "connivance with
communists," who feared that the results of the President's sober policy in many
questions, particularly in the sphere of U.S.-Soviet relations, might bring
about peace.
It only remains to hope that a "quick and careful
investigation" of the circumstances and motive of John Kennedy's and Oswald's
murders, ordered by new President Lyndon Johnson, will establish the true
culprits behind one of the vilest crimes in history.