Written by Mike Sylwester 710-B Caroline Street Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401-5904 (703) 373-9807 Jack Ruby's Motive Hypnotism. I believe Jack Ruby was a Jewish Communist who had broken with the Soviet Union in the decade after World War Two because of Soviet persecution of Jews. However, he did remain a Communist and apparently came to believe that the Soviet Union was restraining the Arabs from destroying Israel. The conspirators knew about Ruby's beliefs and hypnotized him into believing that Oswald would provoke a war against the Soviets, who would then lose control over the Arabs, who would then destroy Israel. In the summer of 1963, Ruby had began to spend time with a mysterious hypnotist named Dr Dante. According to Warren Commission Exhibit 1765: [quote] On August 5, 1963, Ruby personally contacted [Joseph] Glaser, President of the Associated Booking Corporation] at his New York Office, along with one Dr DANTE, a hypnotist performer, and suggested that GLASER sign DANTE to an exclusive contract. [unquote] However, the Warren Commission never established the true identity of Dr Dante or even raised the question of who this was. On the day of Kennedy's assassination, Ruby became obsessed with the thought that the assassination would lead to a genocidal war against the Jews. On November 22, he became very angry when he saw several anti-Kennedy advertisements signed with Jewish names. During the next two days, he frantically tried to find out who had really paid for those ads. Immediately after Ruby shot Oswald, he explained to the policemen who arrested him that he had done it in order to show the world that "the Jews have guts." Ruby's Testimony. In June 1964, he testified to the Warren Commission, which had traveled to Dallas to question him. He futilely begged the Commission to take him to a more secure location in Washington DC, where he would explain his motive to President Johnson: [quote] Gentlemen, my life is in danger here. .... I may not live tomorrow to give any further testimony. .... The only thing I want to get out to the public -- and I can't say it here -- is with authenticity, with sincerity, the truth of everything -- why my act was committed. But it can't be said here. .... Gentlemen, if you want to hear any further testimony, you will have to get me to Washington soon, because it has something to do with you, Chief Warren. .... I want to tell the truth, and I can't tell it here. .... If you don't take me back to Washington tonight to give me a chance to prove to the President that I am not guilty, then you will see the most tragic thing that will ever happen. And if you don't have the power to take me back, I won't be around to be able to prove my innocence or guilt. .... I want to tell you this: I am used as a scapegoat. .... Now, maybe something can be saved, It may not be too late, whatever happens, if our President Lyndon Johnson knew the truth from me. But if I am eliminated, there won't be any way of knowing. [unquote] Despite these pleas, the Warren Commission refused to move Ruby to Washington for further testimony. [Marrs, Crossfire, pp 427-428] At his trial, his lawyers argued that the stress of his fear for the Jews caused a brain seizure, during which he unconsciously murdered Oswald. Ruby insisted until the end of his life that he was in a trance during the shooting and had no memory of it. Ruby's Letters. Shortly after Ruby was convicted for Oswald's murder, he fell mortally ill with cancer. As he lay dying in a prison hospital in December 1966, with less than a month to live, he wrote a secret letter. He asked one of his lawyers, William Kunstler, to smuggle the letter out to his brother, Earl Ruby. However, Kunstler shared the letter with his fellow defense lawyers, and they agreed that it was a sincere, but obviously insane statement of Ruby's ideas. Later, one of the lawyers published it in a book about the trial (Earl Gertz, Moment of Madness: The People vs Jack Ruby (Chicago: Follett1968), pp 472-474). I consider this letter to be the "best evidence" of his motivation. [quote] Earl: You must believe what I've been telling you for the past two and a half years. If you only would have believed me all along, you would have found some way to check out what I said. You would have saved Israel, but now they are doomed, because they think the U.S. are for them, but they are wrong because [President Lyndon] Johnson wants to see them slaughtered and tortured. Egypt is making believe they are an ally of Russia, that is only to fool Russia and the rest of the world. The Arabs are going to overrun Israel. They are going to get help both from Russia and the U.S. It's too late now to do anything, and we [Jews] are all doomed. They are torturing children here. If you only would believe what I'm telling you. Phil [Burleson, one of Ruby's lawyers,] was in on the conspiracy all along, and he was very instrumental in the frameup they planned, that I was in on the assassination of the President. Don't be fooled by his working on the briefs, now that [he] has done all the dirty work, he put himself in a position to make every effort that he is on our side. Please, you must believe all I've been telling you. Earl, they are going to torture you to death, and you will witness your own family being put to death. Forgive me for all this terrible tragedy I've caused. Love. I know you won't listen to me, Earl, but if you go to a public phone booth, they may be watching you. Pretend that you are going to a department store or a movie, and then give them the slip. Try the phone booth and call some people in N.Y. you know, and if you don't find them in, you will know something is wrong. Try your family again and if they are not at home, then try [our sisters] Eileen or Ann. If they don't answer, then you know something is wrong. Earl, I know what I am talking about, and I'm sure you think that I'm crazy. But don't forget, the jury found me sane, so I'm not crazy anymore! If you know your family is gone, then you know that all is lost, and you can't save anything. But you still may be able to save Israel by getting to Miami, either hitch-hike or some-way. You won't be able to fly, because they will be watching for you. From Miami, you must find a way to Cuba, by pretending to rent a boat to go fishing, and get to Cuba some way. From there, you must find a way to Russia. Castro would get you there if he knew you had information for Russia. Then you tell the Russians how Egypt has been using them all along, but they are much closer to Johnson, because of what is happening to the Jews in the U.S. Then they will understand what kind of person Johnson is, and then they may be able to save Israel. Russia will then be in a position to tell Johnson that their first move if any trouble starts is not to bomb the U.S., but to wipe out Germany. That one thing Johnson don't want to happen, because he is counting on them to be the master race, also all the other former Axis partners, South America, Egypt, Italy, and Japan. Earl, as God is my judge, you must believe all these things I've been telling you. When you go back to your hotel, they may have a bug in your room. Don't say anything to Elmer [Gertz, one of Ruby's lawyers,] just take off without your clothes. Good luck and hope you believe me this time. Love always. If you should follow what I said, and you are hitch-hiking, give a ficticious name, such as Fleming, etc. Try calling some local people, maybe they are missing already, Scheppo, Jacobson, Kaufman, and others through the phone book. Please, Earl, I know what I'm asking of you. You must get to either Miami or Mexico City and then to Cuba. You may have lost your family by now, but there is nothing you can do about it now, and you can save millions of people who are doomed to be slaughtered. This country has been overthrown. [unquote] Earl Ruby indeed had some contacts in Cuba. Telephone records document that on April 1, 1962, he had sent a telegram to Havana, Cuba. In later questioning, he was not able to satisfactorily explain that telegram. (HSCA, Vol 9, pp 186-187) Jack Ruby realized that high-ranking officials in the US Government had organized the assassination. He did not blame the Mafia for the assassination or for threats against his relatives. There were no allusions to the Mafia at all. His realization about the real culprits seemed to be based on his own inside knowledge and on the reading he did while in prison. This was clear in excerpts from two other secret letters he wrote while in prison (Mars, Crossfire, pg 431): [quote] They found some very clever means and ways to trick me and which will be used as evidence to show the American people that I was part of the conspiracy in the assassination of the President, and I was used to silence Oswald. .... They alone planned the killing. By "they" I mean [President] Johnson and others. Read the book Texas Looks at Lyndon [A Texan Looks at London: A Study in Illegitimate Power, by J. Evetts Haley], and you may learn quite a bit about Johnson and how he has fooled everyone. .... In all the history of the U.S. never has a president been elected that has the background of Johnson. Believe me, compared to him I am a saint. [unquote] In the another such letter, which he tried to smuggle out through a fellow prisoner, he further hinted that spying for Russia was justified by peaceful intentions (ibid, pp 430-431): [quote] As soon as you get out you must read [A} Texan Looks at Lyndon, and it may open your eyes to a lot of things. This man [President Johnson] is a Nazi in the worst order. For over a year now, they have been doing away with my people. .... Don't believe the Warren report. That was only put out to make me look innocent, in that it would throw the Americans and all the European countries off.guard .... There wouldn't be any purpose of my writing you all of this unless you're convinced of how much I loved my country. .... Johnson is going to try to have an all-out war with Russia, and when that happens, Johnson and his cohorts will be on the side-lines, where they won't get hurt, while the Americans may get wiped out. The only way this can be avoided is that if Russia would be informed as to [who] the real enemies are, and in that way they won't be tricked into starting a war with the U.S. ... One more thing, isn't it strange that Oswald, who hasn't worked a lick most of his life, should be fortunate enough to get a job at the Book Building two weeks before the President himself didn't know as to when he was to visit Dallas. Now where would a jerk like Oswald get the information that the President was coming to Dallas? Only one person could have had that information, and that man was Johnson, who knew weeks in advance as to what was going to happen, because he is the one who was going to arrange the trip for President. This had been planned long before President himself knew about [it], so figure that one out. The only one who gained by the shooting of the President was Johnson, and he was in a car in the rear and safe when the shooting took place. What would the Russians, Castro, or anyone else have to gain by eliminating the President? [unquote] Millions of people assumed that Ruby's motive was that he shot Oswald on orders of the Mafia. After all, he seemed to be a gangster. However, in statements to reporters after his trial, Ruby hinted that the truth was something that nobody realized: [quote] Everything pertaining to what's happened has never come to the surface. The world will never know the true facts of what occurred -- my motive, in other words. I am the only person in the background to know the truth pertaining to everything relating to my circumstances. [Marrs, Crossfire, pg 381]. [unquote] The Failure to Investigate Ruby' s Communist Connections Lost Evidence. From the beginning, evidence of Jack Ruby's Communist background was ignored, suppressed, or destroyed. For example, Seth Kantor writes in Who Was Jack Ruby? (New York, pg 207): [quote] In 1975, two men who had been deputy constables in Dallas at the time of the Kennedy and Oswald killings said they had seen papers in a cardboard box linking Ruby and Oswald together. The deputies said one of the items in the box had been a photocopy of what was supposed to be an old press card for the communist newspaper, The Daily Worker, with Jack Ruby's name on it as Chicago correspondent. The deputies, Billy J. Preston and Ben Cash, also reported they had seen a receipt from a motel near New Orleans, with Ruby's and Oswalds's names on it, dated several weeks before the assassination of President Kennedy. They said the receipt showed several phone calls had been placed to Mexico, to numbers identified as the Cuban and Russian embassies. Preston said he and the late Constable Robie Love personally had turned over the box of papers to Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade. Love died in 1973, never having mentioned any such transaction to his wife. Wade said he may well have been handed a cardboard box, "but I know whatever they had didn't amount to nothing." [unquote] John Wilson. One element of the conspiracy that was persistently ignored by both the Warren Commission and the HSCA was the role of the Old Roman Catholic Church. Several key conspirators were ordained in this obscure church, including Guy Banister, Jack Martin, and David Ferrie, who all worked at a New Orleans detective agency with Lee Harvey Oswald in the summer of 1963. One month before the Kennedy assassination, Jack Ruby posted bail for one of this church's priests, John Wilson, who had known Ruby since at least 1959. Wilson's background was described by Seth Kantor in Who Was Jack Ruby (pp 132-134): [unquote] The CIA file on him went back to 1951....Wilson, well educated at Oxford University, had been born in Liverpool, December 29, 1916, had reached Chile on January 28, 1939 [apparently a refugee of the Spanish Civil War], from Buenos Aires, and "was a contact of one Bert Sucharov, a suspected Soviet agent in Santiago, Chile." Wilson was outspoken as a pro-communist and foe of the United States. He posed occasionally as a British Royal Air Force captain in uniform and two attempts by the British embassy to have him expelled from Chile failed -- after Wilson apparently convinced authorities inside the embassy that he had "worked on a special mission for the British government in Germany, Egypt, and Turkey at the close of World War II." The CIA source in Chile pegged John Wilson as "very probably an intelligence agent." Wilson always seemed to have a lot of money without an apparent income. he held UN press pass no. 287, issued in Santiago, and another pass from the Chilean secret police which allowed him special access. At the end of June, 1959, Wilson and three Americans were arrested in a suburb of Havana as they planned to carry out a sneak bomb raid on Nicaragua, using three airplanes and a small volunteer attack force. Fidel Castro had nothing to do with the attack plans and ordered Wilson and the other ringleaders arrested; thus John Wilson was in jail at the time of the Ruby visit. In prison in Cuba, Wilson says he met an American gangster gambler named Santos [Trafficante] who could not return to the USA because there were several indictments outstanding against him. Instead, he preferred to live in relative luxury in a Cuban prison. While Santos was in prison, Wilson says, Santos was visited frequently by an American gangster type named Ruby. Inexplicably, one of Ruby's notebooks had this entry, which Dallas police located on the day Oswald was shot: "October 29, 1963 -- John Wilson -- bond." The FBI checked police and sheriff's records in Dallas to see if a John Wilson had made bond. The FBI also consulted two different private attorneys in Dallas whose names were John Wilson, but who had never had dealings with Ruby. The FBI said it found no reason for the notebook entry. [unquote] John Wilson was also a priest in the Old Roman Catholic Church, according to another priest (letter from the Reverend Thomas Fairbanks, 24 Feb 81, Assassinations Archive, Washington DC): [quote] John Wilson was a Gypsy, ordained a priest, who opened missions in various parts of Toronto, and had his wife dress as a nun, and call on people and pull what is called the Gypsy Switch on them, taking time out to engage in drug smuggling and gun running. He was in the penitentiary when the President was assassinated, and released in time to be the John Wilson who in England gave information about Jack Ruby. [unquote] Ruby's relationship to Wilson and the Old Catholic Church ties him to Guy Banister, Jack Martin, and David Ferrie. Burt Griffin's Testimony. In 1977-78, the House Select Committee on Assassinations interviewed Burt Griffin, who along with late Leon Hubert, had investigated the life of Jack Ruby for the Warren Commission. Griffin told the HSCA that he understood a primary purpose of the Warren Commission to be the prevention of any conclusions that cast blame on Communists or on Government agencies. (HSCA, Vol XI, pg 271-2; emphasis added): [quote] Congressman Dodd: What was your feeling, to the best of your recollection, as to what the purpose of the Warren Commission was? Burt Griffin: I felt then, and I still feel, **despite a lot of misgivings that I had, ** that the purpose was a genuine purpose, to find out the truth behind the assassination. I do think, however,that there were major political considerations that dictated how this work was conducted. The time frame that was set initially for the work was a political consideration. This investigation was carried on during a period when everyone was vividly aware of the results of the 1950s, when Senator McCarthy held a prominent position. **There was a great deal of concern that we not conduct an investigation that would have overtones of what people called McCarthyism. So that a lot of the decisions that were made in terms of how we proceeded I think were made against that kind of background. **.... We did not have an investigative staff. We had lawyers who were taking testimony and functioning as lawyers, but we did not have people on our own who were out conducting initial interviews with witnesses. .... It was my understanding that that was done because **there was also a concern that this investigation not be conducted in such a way as to destroy any of the investigative agencies that then existed in the Government. There was a genuine fear expressed that this could be done. ** .... I had worked with the FBI for two years when I was an assistant U.S. attorney. I didn't have a political view of them, but I frankly didn't think they were very competent. I felt then, and I still feel, that they have a great myth about their ability but that they are not capable by their investigative means of ever uncovering a serious and well-planned conspiracy. They would only stumble upon it. I think their investigative means themselves may be self-defeating. I never found them very creative, very imaginative. My attitude toward them was that I thought they were honest. I didn't think in a sticky situation that I would have great faith in them. [unquote] In other words, the most undesired conclusion was that the assassination involved a Communist conspiracy and that the FBI should have known about it. Chief Justice Earl Warren warned that this kind of conclusion might result in a thermonuclear war or in the revelation of secrets that were absolutely vital to our national security (ibid, pg 288): [quote] Burt Griffin: There are two statements from which one could make any kind of inference about what he [Warren] knew about national security problems. One was his statement to us that if we did not handle this in a responsible way -- and I think my characterization has to be against the background of the fear of McCarthyism -- that if we didn't handle what we found in a responsible way, we could trigger a thermonuclear war. I remember that phraseology, thermonuclear war, being used. ... The other thing was the statment ... that there might be materials that the Commission had which couldn't be revealed for some extended period of time. I don't remember whether it was 50 years or what the period of time was. Frankly, that statement also surprised me, even at the time, because there was nothing that I saw in my judgement that couldn't have been revealed the minute we concluded our report, with one exception, which I always understood had to do with the autopsy photographs. [unquote] The HSCA criticized the CIA for failing to help Hubert and Griffin investigate Ruby's possible Communist relationships. On February 24, 1964, Hubert and Griffin had sent a memorandum to the CIA, requesting any CIA information concerning Ruby and his associates, who were listed. In an accompanying statement, Hubert and Griffin pointed out "information from an unspecified source that Ruby was in Havana again in 1963 under a Czech passport." (ibid, pg 62) The CIA did not respond to this request despite repeated reminders. Meanwhile, Hubert and Griffin wrote another memorandum on May 14 listing questions that deserved further investigation. One of these was the "rumors about Communist associations of Ruby that had not been discredited adequately" (ibid, pg 293). Hubert quit before the investigation was completed. Griffin said one of the reasons was that: [quote] Hubert was disenchanted with some of the things that were going on, in that he didn't feel he was getting the kind of support that he wanted to get, and he expressed to me a certain amount of demoralization over what he felt was unresponsiveness that existed between himself and particularly General Counsel J. Lee] Rankin. (ibid, pg 268) [unquote] Finally, the CIA responded to the February 24 memorandum on September 15, 1964. This was nine days before the published Warren Commission Report was submitted to President Johnson. The response stated simply that the CIA had no information on any of these people. The response did not address the question of the Czech passport (ibid, pp 61-62, 285-286). The HSCA's chronology of Ruby's life did not begin until 1942, when he was 31 years old (HSCA Appendix IX, pg 1080), but his subsequent activities -- managing striptease clubs, smuggling drugs, collaborating with professional criminals -- were extrapolated backward to fill the large blank areas of his earlier years. Evidence that Ruby was a communist was ignored, because it seemed incongrous with the perceived pattern of a criminal life. In his remarks to the HSCA, one of the two main investigators of Ruby, Burt Griffin said (HSCA Vol 5, pg 479): [quote] After two months, the investigatory agents of the FBI were frankly impatient, since they were convinced they had done a thorough job and that a staff of Commission amateurs could do no better. Looking backward, under those circumstances, the only way to investigate successfully a possible conspiracy was .... to develop systematically a set of possible conspiracy theories and conspiracy suspects. The development of sound theories and reasonable suspects required a Commission staff that was knowledgeable about the primary suspect groups, pro- and anti-Castro groups in the United States and Mexico, Cuban counterintelligence and espionage, Soviet counterintelligence and espionage, the possible involvement of organized crime figures with such foreign groups, and the linkages of all these groups to the FBI, CIA, and the Dallas police force. The Commission itself employed only two persons with any substantial background in any of those areas, and that was only in the area of organized crime. .... With respect to any conspiracy related to Cuban or Soviet groups, the Commission had no staff members with past expertise and relied entirely on CIA and FBI for assistance. That lack of in-house expertise, in my view, precluded developing sensible working hypotheses about conspiracies which could be investigated in an economical manner. If such a staff could have developed workable hypotheses for conspiracies and for specific suspects, a special investigative approach would also have had to have been developed. The approach probably would have had to rely heavily upon clandestine surveillance and infiltration of suspected groups and individuals [and] could not have been tied to a political timetable and would have taken years, not months to complete. [unquote] I can add that these hypotheses should have also considered the possibility of communist groups that were non-Soviet and non-Cuban. There are, for example, Trotskyite, Maoist, Masonic and other kinds of communist groups that could have unified some members of the conspiracy. Fear of the John Birch Society In his testimony to the Warren Commission on June 7, 1964,, Jack Ruby referred to "certain powers" also known as "certain people" and "the people that have the power here." He was afraid these "certain powers" would "propagandize certain things" to the John Birch Society that he, Jack Ruby, was involved in the conspiracy to kill Kennedy. The John Birch Society was an organization that specialized in exposing secret Communists. Ruby was terrified that the John Birch Society would act on that information to murder him and his relatives. Jack wanted the John Birch Society to understand that he was involved only in the murder of Oswald and didn't know anything about the plot to murder Kennedy. He also wanted the John Birch Society to understand that the reason Ruby's relatives were helping him was not because they were involved in the plot to kill Kennedy. His first comment about the John Birch Society was as follows: [quote] Jack Ruby: There is a certain organization here, Chief Justice Warren, if it takes my life at this moment to say it, and [Dallas County Sheriff] Bill Decker said be a man and say it,. There is a John Birch Society right now in activity, and Edwin Walker is one of the top men of this organization. Take it for what it is worth, Chief Justice Warren. Don't register with you, does it? Earl Warren: No, I don't understand that. Jack Ruby: Would you rather I just delete what I said and just pretend that nothing is going on? ....I said: my life. I won't be living long now. I know that my family's lives will be gone. [vol 5, pg 198] [unquote] Ruby's Pleas. In order to prove this to the John Birch Society, Ruby insisted on taking a polygraph test. Ruby also pleaded to the Warren Commission that his attorney, the Dallas Sheriff, and the Secret Service representative be removed from the room during the testimony. He repeatedly pleaded that the Warren Commission move him from Dallas to Washington for additional testimony. The Warren Commission refused these pleas. (This is all recounted superbly in Scheim's Contract on America, chapter 14) In order to pressure the Commission, Ruby suddenly remembered aloud a visit he had received from Martin and Pedro Fox and a lawyer named Alfred McLane. He also began to mention some "Delta Airline ticket sellers" he met in 1959 while traveling to and from Cuba. Shortly after Ruby mentioned that, Earl Warren consented to give Ruby the polygraph he wanted. Warren reassured Ruby that the Commission would prevent the spread of any information that Ruby had been involved in the Kennedy assassination. It's apparent that when Warren interceded in this wierd interrogation, he and Ruby were conducting a covert conversation between the lines of the overt conversation. There were all kinds of strange allusions to unexplained people and implied promises. McLane and McCord. [quote] J. Lee Rankin: It would be quite helpful to the Commission if you could -- in the first place, I want to get to the trip to Cuba. Was that in 1959? Jack Ruby: Yes. Because I had to buy a $2 ticket, a pass to get through Florida. [???] J. Lee Rankin: Did you have any other trip to Cuba? Jack Ruby: Never. That is the only one that I made. .... One thing I forgot to tell you. You are bringing my mind back to a few things. The owners, the greatest that have been expelled from Cuba, are the Fox brothers. They own the Tropicana. J. Lee Rankin: Who are the Fox brothers? Jack Ruby: Martin Fox, and I can't think of the other name. .... The Fox brothers came to Dallas -- I don't know which one it was -- to collect a debt that some man owed the Cotton Gin Co. here. .... He gave some bad checks on a gambling debt, and they came to visit me. The lawyer, I think is McLane. That is the attorney that was killed in New York. .... He was an attorney in Dallas. .... There is a very prominent attorney in Dallas, McCord. McCord represents the Fox brothers here. They called me because the Fox brothers wanted to see me, and I came down to the hotel. .... This was when they were still living in Havana, the Fox brothers. .... Dave McCord, I was in his presence, and I was invited out to dinner, and there was an attorney by the name of Leon. Is he associated with McCord? And there was a McLane. Earl Warren: Alfred [McLane] was killed in a taxi in New York. Jack Ruby: He was at this dinner meeting I had with McCord ... and one of the Fox brothers, because they had just been awarded the case that this person owns, this Gin Co. that was compelled to pay off. J. Lee Rankin: [Changing the subject] I think, Mr Ruby, it would be quite helpful to the Commission if you could tell, as you recall it, just what you said to Mr Sorrels and the others after the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald. .... [The conversation remained on this new subject for a while.] Delta Agents in New Orleans. [quote continues] Gerald Ford: When you flew to Cuba, where did you go from Dallas en route? What was the step-by-step process by which you arrived at Havana? Jack Ruby: I think I told Mr Moore I stopped in New Orleans. Sometime I stopped in New Orleans, and I don't remember if I stopped in Florida or New Orleans, but I know I did stop in New Orleans, because I bought some Carioca rum coming back. I know I was to Miami in a stopover. It could have been on the way back. I only went to Cuba once, so naturally, when I bought the Carioca rum, **there was a couple of fellows that sell tickets for Delta Airlines. And they know me like I know you. And I am sure you gentlemen have spoken to them, and they were to tell me where to go in Havana and have a ball. And I told them why I was going there and who I was going to look up and everything else. ** Gerald Ford: They were Delta Airlines employees in New Orleans or Dallas? Jack Ruby: No, in New Orleans. Evidently, I went out to the Delta Airlines at Love Field [in Dallas] and caught the plane. I may have taken the flight. Here is what could have happened. I could have made a double stop from Havana onthe way back in, taking in Miami, and then taking another plane to New Orleans. I am not certain. But I only made one trip to Havana. Yet I know I was in Miami, Florida, and I was in New Orleans. **And the next time I went to New Orleans, when I tried to look up some showgirl by the name of Jada, I stopped into see the same fellows at Delta Airlines. ** [This trip was in June 1963] J. Lee Rankin: [Changing the subject] Do you remember going up the elevator after the shooting of Oswald? .... [The conversation continued briefly on that new subject and then petered out.] Jack Ruby: You can get more out of me. Let's not break up too soon. Customs Search in Cuba. [quote continues] Gerald Ford: When you got to Havana, who met you in Havana? Jack Ruby: Now here is what happened. One of the Fox brothers came to visit me in Dallas with his wife. They came to the Vegas Club ... and we had taken some pictures, 8 x 10s. Evidently, the Foxes were in exile at that time, because when I went to visit McWillie [Ruby's friend in Havana], when he sent me the plane tickets, they looked through my luggage and they saw a photograph of Mr Fox and his wife. They didn't interrogate, but they went through everything and held me up for hours. Gerald Ford: Castro employees? Jack Ruby: Yes. Because evidently in my ignorance, I didn't realize I was bringing a picture that they knew was a bitter enemy. At that time, they knew that the Fox brothers weren't going to jail, or something was going to happen. Whether it was they were in exile at that time, I don't know, but they came to my club, the Vegas Club, and we had taken the pictures. Mr McWillie was waiting for me, and he saw me go through the customs line for a couple of hours, and he said, "Jack, they never did this to anyone before." Evidently, they had me pretty well lined up as to where I come in the picture of Mr Rivera Fox. I can't think of his name. .... Family Fears. [quote continues] Earl Warren: No you said there were some other things. Would you mind telling us anything you have on your mind. Jack Ruby: No, because as I said earlier, you seem to have gotten the juicy part of the story up to now in the various spasmodic way of my telling it. How valuable am I to you to give you all this information? .... The only thing is this. If I cannot get these [truth-detection] tests you give, it is pretty haphazard to tell you the things I should tell you. .... J. Lee Rankin: It isn't entirely clear how you feel that your family and you yourself are threatened by your telling what you have to the Commission. How do you come to the conclusion that they might be killed? Will you tell us a little bit more about that, if you can? Jack Ruby: Well, assuming that, as I stated before, some persons are accusing me falsely of being part of the plot. Naturally, in all the time from over six months ago [i.e. since the assassination], my family has been so interested in helping me. J. Lee Rankin: By that, you mean a party to the plot of Oswald? Jack Ruby: That I was party to a plot to silence Oswald. All right now, when your famly believes you and knows your mannerisms and your thoughts and knows your sincerity, they have lived with you all your life and know your emotional feelings and your patriotism -- on the surface, they see me only as the guilty assailant of Oswald, and by helping me like they have, going all out. My brother, who has a successful business, I know he is going to be killed. And I haven't seen him in years. And suddenly, he feels that he wants to help me, because he believes that I couldn't be any further involved than the actual [pause] -- When I told him I did it because of Mrs Kennedy, that is all he had to hear, because I would never involve my family or involve him in a conspiracy. Everyone haven't let me down, because they read the newspapers away from Dallas that stated certain facts about me. But they [apparently, the Dallas newspapers] are untrue, because they wouldn't come out and put those things in the newspapers that they should be putting in. And people outside of Dallas read the Dallas newspapers and are all in sympathy with me, as far as the country itself. That they felt, well, Jack did it. They probably felt they would do the same thing. That sympathy isn't going to help me, because the people that have the power here, they have a different verdict. They already have me as the accused assassin of our beloved President. Now, if I sound screwy telling you this, then I must be screwy. Earl Warren: Mr Ruby, I think you are entitled to a statement to this effect, because you have been frank with us and have told us your story. I think I can say to you that there has been no witness before this Commission out of hundreds we have questioned who has claimed to have any personal knowledge that you were a party to any conspiracy to kill our President. Jack Ruby: Yes, but you don't know this area here. Earl Warren: No. I don't vouch for anything except that I think I am correct in that, am I not? J. Lee Rankin: That is correct. Earl Warren: I just wanted to tell you before our own Commission, and I might say to you also that we have explored the situation. Jack Ruby: I know, but I want to say this to you. If certain people have the means and want to gain something by propagandizing something to their own use, they will make ways to present certain things that I do look guilty. Earl Warren: Well, I will make this additonal statement to you, that if any witness should testify before the Commission that you were, to their knowledge, a party to any conspiracy to assassinate the President, I assure you that we will give you the opportunity to deny it and to take any tests that you may desire to disprove it. I don't anticipate that there will be any such testimony, but should there be, we will give you that opportunity. Does that seem fair? Jack Ruby: No. That isn't going to save my family. Earl Warren: Well, we can't do everything at once. Jack Ruby: I am in a tough spot, and I don't know what the solution can be to save me. And I know our wonderful President, Lyndon Johnson, as soon as he was the President of his country, he appointed you as head of this group. But through certain falsehoods that have been said about me to other people, the John Birch Society, I am as good as guilty as the accused assassin of President Kennedy. How can you remedy that, Mr Warren? Do any of you men have any ways of remedying that? [Sheriff] Mr Bill Decker said be a man and speak up. I am making a statement now that I may not live the next hour when I walk out of this room. Now, it is the most fantastic story you have ever heard in a lifetime. I did something out of the goodness of my heart. Unfortunately, Chief Earl Warren, had you been around five or six months ago. And I know your hands were tied, you couldn't do it. And immediately, the President would have gotten ahold of my true story or whatever would have been said about me. A Certain Organization. [quote continues] A certain organization wouldn't have so completely formed now, so powerfully, to use me because I am of the Jewish extraction, Jewish faith, to commit the most dastardly crime that has ever been committed. Can you understand now in visualizing what happened, what powers, what momentum has been carried on to create this feeling of mass feeling against my people, against certain people that were against them prior to their power? That goes over your head, doesn't it? Earl Warren: Well, I don't quite get the full significance of it, Mr Ruby. I know what you feel about the John Birch Society. Jack Ruby: Very powerful. [Ruby probably was not talking about the John Birch Society.] Earl Warren: I think it is powerful, yes I do. Of course, I don't have all the information that you feel you have on that subject. Jack Ruby: Unfortunately, you don't have, because it is too late. And I wish that our beloved President, Lyndon Johnson, would have delved deeper into the situation, hear me, not to accept just circumstantial facts about my guilt or innocence and would have questioned to find out the truth about me before he relinquished certain powers to these certain people. Earl Warren: Will, I am afraid I don't know what power you believe he relinquished to them. I think it is difficult to understand what you have to say. Jack Ruby: I want to say this to you. The Jewish people are being exterminated at this moment. Consequently, a whole new form of government is going to take over our country, and I know I won't live to see you another time. Do I sound sort of screwy in telling you these things? Earl Warren: No, I think that is what you believe, or you wouldn't tell it under your oath. More Pleas. [quote continues] Jack Ruby: But it is a very serious situation. I guess it is too late to stop it, isn't it? All right, I want to ask you this. All you men have been chosen by the President for this committee, is that correct? There is only one thing. If you don't take me back to Washington tonight to give me a chance to prove to the President that I am not guilty, then you will see the most tragic thing that will ever happen. And if you don't have the power to take me back, I won't be around to be able to prove my innocence or guilt. ....Maybe something can be saved, something can be done. .... Gerald Ford: Is there anything more you can tell us if you went back to Washington? Jack Ruby: Yes. Are you sincere in wanting to take me back? Gerald Ford: We are most interested in all the information you have. Jack Ruby: All I know is maybe something can be saved. Because right now, I want to tell you this. I am used as a scapegoat, and there is no greater weapon that you can use to create some falsehood about some of the Jewish faith, especially at the terrible heinous crime such as the killing of President Kennedy. Now, maybe something can be saved. It may not be too late, whatever happens, if our President Lyndon Johnson knew the truth from me. But if I am eliminated, there won't be any way of knowing. Right now, when I leave your presence now, I am the only one that can bring out the truth to our President, who believes in righteousness and justice. **But he has been told, I am certain, that I was part of a plot to assassinate the President.** I know your hands are tied. You are helpless. Earl Warren: Mr Ruby, I think I can say this to you, that if he has been told any such thing, there is no indication of any kind that he believes it. Jack Ruby: I am sorry, Chief Justice Warren. I thought I would be very effective in telling you what I have said here. But in all fairness to everyone, maybe all I want to do is beg that if they found out I was telling the truth, maybe they can succeed in what their motives are, but maybe my people won't be tortured and mutilated. Earl Warren: Well, you may be sure that the President and his whole Commission will do anythig that is necessary to see that your people are not tortured. Jack Ruby: No. Earl Warren: You may be sure of that. Jack Ruby: No. The only way you can do it is if he knows the truth, that I am telling the truth and why I was down in that basement Sunday morning. And maybe some sense of decency will come out, and **they can still fulfill their plan, as I stated before, without my people going through torture and mutilation. ** Earl Warren: The President will know everything that yu have said, everything that you have said. Jack Ruby: But I won't be around, Chief Justice. I won't be around to verify these things you are going to tell the President. Joe Tonahill: Who do you think is going to eliminate you, Jack? Jack Ruby: I have been used for a purpose, and there will be a certain tragic occurence happening if you don't take my testimony and somehow vindicate me so my people don't suffer because of what I have done. Earl Warren: But we have taken your testimony. We have it here. It will be in permanent form for the President of the United States and for the Congress of the United States and for the courts of the United States and for the people of the entire world. It is there. It will be recorded for all to see. That is the purpose of our coming here today. We feel that you are entitled to have your story told. .... Jack Ruby: All I want is a lie detector test, and you refuse to give it to me ... and the truth serum ... and they will not give it to me. I want to tell the truth, and then I want to leave the world. But I don't want my people to be blamed for something that is untrue, that the claim happened. Permission Granted. [quote continues] Earl Warren: Mr Ruby, I promise you that you will be able to take such a test. .... You will have to let me see when we can figure that out, but I assure you, it won't be delayed. .... Jack Ruby: All I want is to take a polygraph to tell the truth. That is all I want to do. .... Because my people are going to suffer about things that will be said about me. .... **You can clarify by questioning me when I conceived the idea and what my answer would naturally be that Sunday morning ** [November 24, 1963]. When you leave here, I am finished. My family is finished. .... now that I have divulged certain information because I want to be honest. All I want to take is a polygraph test and tell the truth about things and combat the lies that have been told about me. Now, maybe certain people don't want to know the truth that may come out of me. Is that plausible? Gerald Ford: The Chief Justice has agreed, and I on the Commission wholeheartedly concur, that you will be given a polygraph test as expeditiously as possible. And I am sure you can rely on what has ben stated here by the Chairman. Jack Ruby: How are we going to communicate and so on? Earl Warren: We will communicate directly with you. Jack Ruby: **You have a lost cause, Earl Warren. You don't stand a chance. They feel about you like they do about me, Chief Justice Warren. ** I shouldn't hurt your feelings in telling you that. Earl Warren: They won't hurt my feelings, because I have had some evidence that some people have concerning me. Jack Ruby: But you are the only one that can save me. I think you can. Earl Warren: Yes. Jack Ruby: But by delaying minutes, you lose the chance. And all I want to do is tell the truth, and that is all. There was no conspiracy. **But by you telling them what you are going to do and how you are going to do it is too late as of this moment. ** Earl Warren: You take my word for it and the word of Representative Ford that we will do this thing at the earliest possible moment and that it will be done in time. It will be done in time. Jack Ruby: Well, you won't ever see me again, I tell you that. And I have lost my family. .... No, no, you don't believe me, do you? Earl Warren: To be frank with you, I believe that you are not stating now what is the fact. I don't say you don't believe it, but I believe that I will be able to see you again and that we will be able to take this test that you are speaking of. .... Jack Ruby: All I want to do is tell the truth, and the only way you can know it is by the polygraph, as that is the only way you can know it. Earl Warren: That we will do for you. [Vol 5, pp 209-213] [unquote] Ruby's Polygraph FBI Resistance. David Scheim describes in Contract on America the next developments: [quote] On June 11, 1964, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover sent a letter to the Warren Commission denying its request to have the FBI administer a polygraph test to Ruby. Hoover claimed the test was unreliable (although the FBI had administered such a test to at least one other assassination witness) and that Ruby's appeals were in progress (they were still going on in late 1966). The Warren Commission then sent Hoover a letter repeating its request, and on July 13, Hoover refused again. ... But finally, on July 18, 1964, the test was adminstered to Ruby. [pg 197] [unquote] The test consisted of 101 questions, and the polygrapher concluded that Ruby had answered every single one of them truthfully. Polygraph Fraud. In 1977, the House Select Committee on Assassinations appointed a panel of polygraph experts to reexamine the results, and the panel found that Herndon had committed a multitude of errors that invalidated the results. In particular, Herndon adjusted the polygraph so that it was insensitive to false answers In fact, Ruby lied in response to the first four questions, two of which asked whether he was a Communist. The panel did not even bother to analyze Ruby's responses to the following 97 questions. Excerpts from the panel's findings follow (HSCA, Vol VIII, pg 213; text slightly rearranged to improve clarity; emphasis added): [quote] The panel concluded that the polygraph instrument was either improperly adjusted or defective, or both. It made three tracings, two of which are so totally inadequate that they appear to be defective. The breathing tracing is particularly poor, either because the sensitivity was maladjusted or possibly because the pneumograph tube was not properly placed on Ruby. The amplitude of the breathing tracing is not even minimally acceptable in any of the 13 tests. The panel found this to be a constant handicap in analyzing the extremely important tracing and interpreting the charts. Sufficient amplitude is critical, because the polygraphist looks for changes in the breathing pattern. Often such changes are minute and simply do not appear when the amplitide is small to begin with. The panel found the galvanic skin response (GSR) tracing to be of minimal help in analyzing Ruby's charts. The main problem with the GSR in the first session ... is a lack of sensitivity due to Herndon's **setting the senstitivity at one-fourth of maximum. He decreased it to one-fifth in the third series of questions. The panel noted that it should have been tried at a maximum sensitivity prior to the first test, where probably it should have remained for the entire examination. ** Had the sensitivity been higher, the polygraph probably would have produced an adequate tracing, that is, one that the panel could analyze. The panel could provide no explanation for why Herndon **decreased ** the sensitivity for the third series. In fact, generally recognized principles in 1964 called for the sensitivity to be continually **increased.** .... The panel concluded that during the entire session, the GSR was completely defective. At best, the polygraph appeared to be in extremely poor condition. In an examination of this importance, a backup polygraph should have been used. The examination should have been stopped until another polygraph could be obtained. .... Control Questions. [quote continues] Herndon's definition of a "control" question goes far beyond the generally recognized definition. ... The "control" question ... is one similar but unrelated to the crime being investigated, to which the expert knows the correct answer and to which the person will probably lie. If the person's reaction to a properly worded control is more pronounced than to the relevant questions, he is considered to be truthful. .... Herndon's control questions were not correctly worded. .... For example, to the question, "have you ever been arrested?" Ruby answered "yes." Therefore, it is not a lie, yet Herndon considered it to be a control question. Herndon testified that Ruby's physiological response to this control question was recorded on the charts in terms of a "noticeable rise in his blood pressure." The panel took issue with this conclusion, because the rise in blood pressure occurred at least seven seconds after Ruby answered. A response normally never occurs this long after the question. The typical reaction would be in one or two seconds. Further, the panel noted that at the point of the rise in blood ressure, Herndon indicated on the chart that Ruby moved his feet. The panel believed that the rise in blood pressure most likely was caused by Ruby's movement and not his physiological reaction to the "control" question. This conclusion is corroborated by the fact that Ruby's breathing remained relaxed at the time of the rise in blood pressure, and the Galvanic skin response showed no reaction. Ruby and Oswald. [quote continues] Of the 13 test groups [of questions], the first and second are perhaps the most valid in that they were conducted while Ruby was still "fresh." Because of the importance of the relevant questions in these two tests, the panel briefly summarized its opinion about them [but not about the other 11 groups]. The relevant questions on the first series and Ruby's answers were: 1. Did you know Oswald before November 22, 1963? Answer: No. 2. Did you assist Oswald in the assassination? Answer: No. Herndon concluded from his analysis of the charts that Ruby was truthful in answering these two relevant questions. He arrived at this conclusion by comparing Ruby's response to the control question (Have you ever been arrested? Answer: Yes.) As previously noted, the panel believed this to be an extremely poor control question. In fact, the reactions to the preceding question -- (Did you assist Oswald in the assassination?) -- showed the largest valid GSR reaction in test series No. 1. In addition, there is a constant suppression of breathing and a rise in blood pressure at the time of this crucial relevant question. From this test, it appeared to the panel that Ruby was possibly lying when answering "no" to the question, "Did you assist Oswald in the assassination?" This is contrary to Herndon's opinion that Ruby was truthful when answering that question. Ruby and Communism. The relevant questions on the second series and Ruby's answers were: **1. Are you now a member of the Communist Party? Answer: No. ** **2. Have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? Answer: No. ** Herndon concluded that Ruby was truthful when answering these two questions. He testified that the only significant psysiological change noted [in this second series] occurred in response to the [control] question, "Have you ever been known by another name?" The response identified by Herndon was a rise in blood pressure. However, Herndon stated that Ruby later said he was confused on how to answer the question, because he had changed his name from Jack Rubenstein years before. .... The panel noted that, according to the transcript, Ruby did not answer the question about his having another name. Herndon told him not to answer because they had not reviewed it during the pretesting phase. The panel concluded that Ruby's reaction was simply a false reaction to Herndon's unorthodox instructions after he asked the question. On the other hand, the panel noted **a large rise in blood pressure ** in response to the question, ** "Have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?", ** to which Ruby answered "no." This question evoked **by far the most dramatic breathing reaction. **.... In regard to the question, **"Are you a member of the Communist Party?", ** Herndon stated, "there was no significant physiological change," [but] apparently wrote on the chart on this question, **"slight suppression," ** which indicates a specific emotional change and one which is **an excellent indicator of lying. ** It is interesting to note that during the entire first testing session, this is the only place where Herndon wrote on the chart anything having to do with the breathing, except on series 4, when he wrote as a general comment, "breathing irregular." In summary, the panel strongly disagreed with Herndon's opinions, and specifically with series 1 and 2, as discussed above. The panel concluded that the "lie" reactions on these two tests occurred on questions different from those suggested by Herndon. Based on its analysis of the charts themselves, and not considering the negative factors affecting the veracity of the examination, the panel could not form an opinion that Ruby told the truth in answering "no" to the four relevant questions asked on series 1 and 2. On the contrary, **the panel found more indication that Ruby was lying in response to these four questions. **