My Pyschic Encounter with Jack Ruby

I swear to you that I’m not one of those Kennedy conspiracy nuts. I found Oliver Stone’s “JFK” heavy handed and highly suspect, and while I don’t necessarily accept the pronouncements of the Warren Commission as the Final Word on the subject, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about alternative theories as to who killed President Kennedy in November 1963. Still, I’ve always felt that there was more to the Jack Ruby story than met the eye. It just seemed way too convenient that Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald two days after the assassination—it smacked of getting the emotionally wrecked Oswald “out of the way.” But under whose orders? What the hell was Ruby doing in police headquarters as Oswald was being transferred to the county jail and why did he have a loaded handgun? When he was arrested at the scene of Oswald’s shooting, Jack Ruby said that he wanted to spare Jacqueline Kennedy the ordeal of appearing at Oswald’s trial. Hmmm.

Jack Ruby was clearly a shady character who probably had many underworld connections. Though initially sentenced to death for Oswald’s murder, he later met privately with Chief Justice Warren, Gerald Ford, and other members of the Warren Commission to plead his case. He said that his own safety was in jeopardy and that there was a lot more to the story than he had originally stated. If they would move him to a jail in Washington, he would feel safe enough to tell the truth. In 1966, he succeeded in getting the courts to overturn his death sentence and a new trial was arranged for February 1967. But Ruby suddenly became ill and was admitted to Parkland Hospital in Dallas, the very place where JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald were pronounced dead three years earlier. Turns out he had cancer. And a few weeks before his new trial was scheduled to begin, Jack Ruby died of a pulmonary embolism.

I could go on about my suspicions surrounding Jack Ruby, but since I’m not a conspiracy nut (honest!), I’m more interested right now in the possible connection my family may have to this guy. Here’s what happened this weekend to get me on this rant. I’ve been busy putting together an online photo archive of my family through this very cool site called SmugMug. I’ve been scanning tons of old family photographs and documents and placing them on this site for anyone in my family to access and download. My hope is that other family members will send me photos from their own collections to add to the archive so that we can create a much more comprehensive family history than any of us have individually. Among the photos I found in my possession was an image from a celebratory dinner in the mid-1950s. Here’s the photo:

There are my impossibly young parents third and fourth from the left on the side of the table closer to the camera. I don’t recognize anyone else in the photo except for my grandfather who is standing up and smiling at the camera with his arm around one of the dinner guests. Who is this guy? On the back of the photo are a few names written in my grandmother’s hand, all last names except for one: “Mr. Jack Ruby.” What? Could it be? I keep comparing the face of the man my grandfather is standing over with pictures of Jack Ruby from the time of the JFK assassination. It could be. I called my dad, as far as I know the only person in this photograph who is still alive. He remembers the event—a dinner in the mid-1950s following the grand re-opening of one of my grandfather’s Karoll’s Red Hanger Shops in Chicago. But why on earth would Jack Ruby be there? My father had no memory of meeting him, but since it was before he achieved his infamy as Oswald’s killer, why would he? I started doing some research on Ruby and realized how little I knew about him. I didn’t know he was born Jacob Rubinstein in Chicago. He changed his name to Ruby in 1947 and moved to Dallas, but his large family was still in the city. Did I mention that Ruby grew up right near my grandfather’s store at 63rd and Kedzie? Hmmm.

I logged onto the New York Times archives to look into Ruby’s background. There was no mention of Ruby in the paper prior to November 1963 but immediately after the shooting there were a bunch of articles telling of his Chicago background (he was always referred to as a Dallas strip club owner so I had forgotten the Chicago connection), his orthodox Jewish upbringing (hello?), and descriptions of his parents who came from a shtetl in Poland that was sometimes governed by the Soviet Union (just like where my family came from). He moved to Dallas in the late 40s to help his sister run a nightclub but had returned to Chicago six years before the assassination (about the time the photo of my parents was taken) to promote his new discovery, “a 12-year-old Negro boy who sang, danced, and played the piano.” I wonder who that kid was. Jack Ruby is described by his former colleagues and friends as someone with a hair trigger temper and delusions of grandeur. He is referred to as a street brawler from Chicago’s West Side Jewish “Ghetto.”

Although he was clearly no longer observant, how did I miss the fact that Ruby’s parents were orthodox Polish Jews? In the articles I found, Ruby’s siblings come to his defense. His brother Earl said that the speculation that there was some connection between Jack and Lee Harvey Oswald made him sick. “My brother is 100 percent American. No one in our family ever had any subversive ideas!” His sister echoed these sentiments. “He’s such a good Jew,” she said about Jack. “This [the shooting of Oswald] is something we don’t believe in. I don’t know what possessed him to do it.” People who worked with him painted a different picture. One described him as “neurotic and excitable at all times.” He said one of his strippers told him that Ruby had beaten her and that later Ruby had admitted he'd had the case quashed for $100. A reporter from the Dallas Morning News who knew him said Ruby was “a highly emotional man given to flashy dress and a desperate yearning for social acceptance.”

All circumstantial evidence pointed to the possibility that the man in the photo with my parents could easily be the Jack Ruby who shot Oswald. But I still hadn’t linked him to anyone directly associated with my family. I stopped reading the articles, but since I was already logged into the New York Times archives, I decided to do one more unrelated search. For some reason the person who popped into my head at that moment was the illustrious Rabbi Judah Leib Graubart from my family’s home town of Staszow, Poland. My great-grandfather, Itshe Meyer Korolnek, had brought him over soon after my family had emigrated to Toronto, and Rabbi Graubart had a brilliant career as a rabbi and scholar in Canada. Several of his children and grandchildren became famous rabbis in their own right. I’ve written about my family’s connections to the Graubarts several times and how intrigued I was that many of the ones who didn’t become rabbis went into show business including actress Judy Graubart and legendary Broadway producer Manny Azenberg who produced most of Neil Simon’s plays. As far as I knew, Rabbi Graubart had never lived in New York but maybe he was mentioned in some article about his rabbinical achievements. I put in the search and watched as one single article appeared. Here is the headline of that article:

What? Did I forgot to change my search term? Nope, the sole entry in the entirety of the New York Times archives that mentions a Rabbi Graubart was a 1967 piece about Jack Ruby’s funeral, officiated by the son of the great Toronto rabbi who was also a close friend of my family’s, Rabbi David Graubart, apparently the rabbi of Jack Ruby’s family.

What are the chances that my random search of someone I believed to be completely unrelated to Oswald’s killer would yield this article? I had no idea Ruby’s body had been flown back to Chicago to be buried in the cemetery where half my family is now interred. What kind of “coincidence” is that? Was there some memory of this connection in the deep recesses of my subconscious? Did I hear family members talking about it at the time of Ruby’s funeral when I was seven years old? To be honest, despite his dealings with the underworld, I think that Jack Ruby probably was just a small-time hustler who killed Oswald in the spur of the moment and not because he was ordered to. The mafiosos would have to be nuts to entrust someone like Ruby with the important task of silencing Oswald. But was there any connection between Oswald’s killer and my family? I’ll probably never know the answer to this meaningless mystery. Too bad I can’t recall the Warren Commission to look into it.

Comments

[Elisabeth]

Boy, this was really a fun read. I have always been highly intrigued by the Kennedy assassination, and I have my own thoughts (which I will not share here) about it. I had no clue about Ruby's background, and I'm glad you did all of this footwork. Oswald was a very intriguing guy as well, BTW.

[Ellen Bloom]

Wow! What an fascinating story...interesting connections too!!! Hmmm? I think I can envision a screenplay or novel here!

[OldOldLady Of The Hills]

I remember at the time of Jack Ruby's illness and subsequent death, that there was a great deal of suspcisn about the fact that he died when he did....! Like he was being shut up so that nothing he might know would come out. Who knows?
And I remember quite clearly watching tv as Oswald was being moved, and as Ruby him right before our eyes....It was incredible and horrific to actually see this on television....Also, the connections of The Mafia/The Mob/The Underworld are notorious when it comes to nightclubs...So he certainly had to have ties to this part of show business and those many many people who were involved in these groups.
It is fascinating to think that Ruby may have had ties to your familt, too!

[Uncle Paul]

I'd put my money on that the Mr. Ruby in question is the Ruby of Jaymar-Ruby Pants.

[bleeding espresso]

Very cool story and photo. I've always been fascinated by the players in the JFK mystery, and it certainly looks to me that your family had at least a brief connection with Jack Ruby. Seems like that would be a few coincidences too many if the man in the photo wasn't *the* Jack Ruby. Excellent detective work.

[Danny]

I always suspected that Jaymar-Ruby Pants was behind the Kennedy assassination...

[Kayla]

i am related to jack ruby not kidding!!!

[Steve Young]

My father was buried that day at Westlawn. I rember passing the gave site service for Ruby as we pulled in. I believe Mr. Ruby was buried some were near the front end, My father was buried near the back in a new section at the time. Just such an odd thing to have been passing a moment that was just a part of one of the largest events of my life. I also found myself sevral years later a block from the Embasador Hotel in LA the night Bobby was shot.

[RobertoTenore]

My French teacher in High School was named Gale (or maybe Gayle) Graubart. This was 1963-67. She said that her father was Rabbi Graubart, who presided over the ceremonies for Jack Ruby. I went to Ridgewood High School, which is in Norridge, Illinois, just outside the Chicago city limits. Westlawn Cemetary, where Ruby was interred, was just down the road (Montrose Ave) at most a mile west of the school. In fact, I remember watching Ruby's funeral procession going down Montrose Avenue, having heard on the news that this would occur that day.

[gary arbitter]

I was a witness to Jimmy Hoffas abduction and murder . I,am currently writting a book . The title will be" Hoffa,s secret witness ". It will be on the shelves around one year from december 2010 . I know who did it and have proof that law inforcement officials covered up the truth . I have a collaborating witness who can place me there at the Machus red Fox restaurant making a regularly scheduled delivery . Also this collaborating witness remembers me telling him the stoy at the time . 35 years ago . I walked away from a 200,000 thousand dollar reward at age 26 in 1975 . I was fearfull for my life . All the involved partys are dead today . I have called and written the FBI on hundreds of occassions and have even presented myself to the FBI office in my local community . Look for Hoffa,s secret witness in about a year .

[gary arbitter]

I believe Jack Ruby did not die of cancer and that someone other than Ruby is burried in his grave . Or possibly no one is there . He should be removed and tested on dental records and or DNA . It was a elaborate ruse to kill oswald and escape punishment . Ruby was probly a CIA spook . He may have lived his life out in Costa Rica or Mexico .Oswald was right , he was a patsy . Ruby worked for Richard Nixox,s law firm in the fortys and introduced Marilyn Monroe to brat pack member Peter Lawford who was related to the kennedys . The purpose was to gain control of John Kennedy via black mail . Monroe refused to partisipate and was murdered .