The real Jack Ruby

[Ted Shields]

Nobody ever said he was a particular competent hit man. Just that he had access.

So would've lots of people. Almost anyone could've got access to the police station with little effort that weekend.

Do people really believe that after all this effort - planting Oswald in New Orleans, in Dallas, faking photos, firing at Walker, altering forensics, altering photos or whatever way you think the conspiracy was set up - that they were going to leave the final and most important act of silencing Oswald to an incompetent hitman in some clumsy run and gun attempt?

48 hours after he was captured?

How did "they" know he hadn't sang already?

Why didn't they kill him "escaping" from the TSBD. Or better still, wait until he got to prison and kill him there with ease?

It makes no sense. On the one hand people believe we have this super competent team of co-conspirators who have had this laid out from as far back as '61, whos plan has gone flawlessly up to this point, yet they let a low level hood assassinate the assassin with a .38 shot to the guts?

The first and only hit of it kind. A 90% survival rate. Mobsters and black op crews don't shoot people in the stomach. Its a very silly theory.

[John Tonkovich]

You might take a look at the Olsen thread.

Ruby was at the DPD twice on Friday night. Armed.

First time about 6pm.

That's about 3, maybe 4 hours after the arrest.
Before - I think, correct me if I'm wrong - the press conference, arraignment, etc.

That's pretty fast for someone to decide they're going to kill someone, on a suicide mission, i.e. no chance of escape.

[John Iacoletti]

It makes no sense. On the one hand people believe we have this super competent team of co-conspirators who have had this laid out from as far back as '61, whos plan has gone flawlessly up to this point, yet they let a low level hood assassinate the assassin with a .38 shot to the guts?

I guess you’ll have to ask somebody who believes that we have this super competent team of co-conspirators who have had this laid out from as far back as '61, whose plan has gone flawlessly up to this point.

[Jack Trojan]

Because he was a delusional hothead. Remember, he shot Oswald in the stomach.

"They" take out the assassin with a bullet to the stomach, giving them a 90% chance of survival (up to 98% if you can get quickly to a hospital as is the case here) and guaranteeing Oswald would spill the beans after likely surviving the attempt on his life.

Heres a study of 300 patients with abdominal gunshot wounds.

"The overall survival rate for the series was 88.3%; however, if only the 226 patients without vascular injuries are considered, the survival rate was 97.3%."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1493651/

Ruby got either very lucky or very unlucky depending on how you see it. The chances of him killing Oswald with that shot were tiny. If Jim Leavelle hadn't have pulled Oswald sideways slightly the bullet wouldn't have hit those organs and he could have easily survived. It was a total fluke that he died.

Not a mob hit.

Do you recall that Johnson phoned the hospital and told the physicians attending Oswald to get a confession out of him? Oswald only had to remain alive long enough so 1 of the planted physicians could claim he confessed. Unfortunately, he died before they could kill him, after his fake confession. That's why Ruby shot him in the gut, as per instructions. We can only speculate why Ruby was willing to go along with it but it certainly wasn't because he was a hot head who avenged JFK. Give me a break.

Ruby might also have been Plan B after the DPD failed to kill Oswald at the theater. But I doubt this because I think the DPD's job was to apprehend Oswald so an outsider could shoot him in the gut so he could live long enough that they could claim he confessed. Outright killing him was Ruby's mistake. Anything Oswald actually said before he died could be written off as a dying man's delusions.

Plus Ruby spells it out for you in the video I posted up thread. He had no hope of exoneration by confessing his actions were part of a conspiracy, so why did he say that? Because he was the sacrificial lamb as the unorthodox hitman. If he was a mobster hitman then the DPD would have some splainin' to do why he had unprecedented access to Oswald. Otherwise, Ruby could fly under the radar and the DPD could extort him to finish the job they started.

As Paul Harvey would say, that's the rest of the story.

[Thomas Graves]

I guess you’ll have to ask somebody who believes that we have this super competent team of co-conspirators who have had this laid out from as far back as '61, whose plan has gone flawlessly up to this point.

Iacoletti,

I thought it went all the way back to 1959, when evil, evil, evil James Angleton sent false-defector Oswald to Moscow.

LOL

--  MWT   

[Ted Shields]

You might take a look at the Olsen thread.

Ruby was at the DPD twice on Friday night. Armed.

First time about 6pm.

That's about 3, maybe 4 hours after the arrest.
Before - I think, correct me if I'm wrong - the press conference, arraignment, etc.

He was. Why didn't he shoot him then? In the head?

Easy peasy.

[Mark A. Oblazney]

By Jeff Meek
January 14, 2020

Former Dallas police officer W.E. “Rusty” Robbins had a ringside seat for aspects of the Nov. 22, 1963 assassination of President Kennedy, which he shared with me during a Dec. 4 interview at his Texas home.

Robbins was born and raised in the Dallas area. In 1953, the U.S. was at war with Korea and Robbins was looking for a way around the draft, so he joined the Air National Guard/Air Police unit. During that time he got to know several Dallas Police Department officers.

“That’s when I decided I wanted to become a police officer,” Robbins said. So on Dec. 26, 1956, be began what became a distinguished 30 years with the department.

Interestingly, before his official training began, he was told the rookie class had already started, how about doing some undercover work? He did, with no badge, no training, no gun, no partner, nothing until he was able to borrow a badge from another officer so he would have something to show when making an arrest.

In rookie school he learned a lot about law, city ordinances, how to take down an offender and self-defense. He worked the north Dallas area with a training partner in the Royal Lane area with cotton fields all around. Eventually he officially became a patrolman in 1957.

“Every day was different than the day before. I think that holds true even today,” said Robbins.

Jumping ahead to November 1963, when he and other officers attended a briefing on President Kennedy’s trip, he was assigned to crowd control for the 1800 block of Main Street which was the street that led into Dealey Plaza where the assassination took place.

As the motorcade approached, Robbins kept his eye on the crowd, but admitted he did glance at the President as his limo passed by. “I saw everything. I was right there on the curb,” said Robbins.

After the motorcade passed, the crowd quickly dispersed and Robbins went back to headquarters. He was changing into his civilian clothes when someone said Kennedy had been shot. He thought it was a joke, but within another minute or 2 he knew it wasn’t.
He put his uniform back on and was told to go to the nearby Sheraton Hotel, to a particular room where the White House Communications team was set up, and assist them as needed. Obtaining a patrol car, Robbins went to the room and a man (to this day he does not know his name) said he needed to get to Love Field to board Air Force One. Minutes later the man came out with communications equipment and off they went with lights and siren. As they entered the airport grounds they could see that the President’s jet was taxiing for takeoff. They were too late. The man told Robbins to drop him at the airport’s front door and he’d catch a commercial flight. Back at headquarters Robbins again changed into his civilian clothes. His Nov. 22 duties were over.

Robbins backtracked a bit to say while at headquarters he also learned that Officer J.D. Tippit had been shot. He knew Tippit and said he was a really good guy.

Two days later, on Nov. 24, nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald in the Dallas P.D. basement. Robbins was at home getting ready to report in. He stopped to watch the transfer of Oswald and saw the shooting. “I told my wife, that’s Jack Ruby,” Robbins said. He knew Ruby from working the area of downtown Dallas where Ruby’s Carousel Club was located. “I had talked to Jack many, many times as well as other bar operators,” he told me. Asked if he ever saw other D.P.D. persons in the club, Robbins said, “never.”

On one occasion Robbins was in the club’s kitchen fixing a pizza and was offered non-alcoholic champagne by Ruby. “So we had a little drink back in the kitchen.”

Back to the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald: he reported in and was told to get a car and go to Parkland Hospital’s morgue. His assignment was to guard the door that led to the room where Oswald’s body was to be autopsied. “I was told not to let anybody through that door. I don’t care if it’s a doctor or the FBI, don’t let them through.”

In online photographs you can see Robbins and another P.D. officer with their shotguns, guarding the area. In one photo you can see a gurney. Under that white sheet lay Oswald’s body. A few photographers asked Robbins if he would let them in the autopsy room for a quick photo. Of course the answer was no.

About 2 hours later he was told to get a car and be ready to be part of an escort of Oswald’s body over to Fort Worth. He did so and explained that about halfway, Fort Worth P.D. took over the escort and D.P.D. came back to Dallas.

Later, Robbins told me he was asked if he wanted to see Oswald’s body, which he did briefly. “The sheet (covering Oswald) was pulled all the way down to his waist,” Robbins remembers. Thus ended a wild weekend for Robbins who said of the aftermath of the killings that police just went about their business.

At this point I asked him again about Jack Ruby. He then told me of a time when the 2 of them went bowling. “This is a very important point I’d like to make,” he said. After making a stop at Ruby’s apartment, they went to the bowling alley where Robbins worked part time as security for the parking lot. He described a frame in which Ruby bowled a strike. “He was so thrilled, he had finally done something,” Robbins explained. Further. he said Ruby went to the lanes to the right and left telling other bowlers what he’d done. “Nobody cared except Jack.

He was wanting recognition for bowling that strike. Later when he had the opportunity to shoot Oswald it was like bowling that strike. It was a chance to be somebody. I do not believe that there is any other reason why Jack Ruby shot him.” Robbins doesn’t believe the Mafia or anyone else told Ruby to kill Oswald. “This was just his chance to be somebody.“
What about Oswald? Was he a lone assassin? Robbins said he doesn’t know, but prefers to think Oswald did it alone.

Asked if he thought Ruby had mob connections, Robbins said Ruby worked in the area where the mob was present and invited them to his club. “But beyond that I really doubt it. He added, “Jack was a failure. Jack had several different (business) places that served beer and every one of them had gone under. There were 3 places like that downtown and his was the poorest of the 3, had the least number of customers. He was a failure.”

After 30 years with the Dallas police force Robbins worked a few other jobs including with the Department of Transportation as a parking enforcement officer and also with the Texas Lottery Commission.

Historic stuff here, Paul.  Thanks for sharing.  Ruby bowled a turkey with one ball that day in the DPD basement.  And yes, I'm sure he was thinking about getting a shot into him earlier, but shooting him in the gut was safer than trying to shoot him in the head.  That shot could have gone through and wounded someone else, too.  But the stars were aligned that day+

[John Tonkovich]

He was. Why didn't he shoot him then? In the head?

Easy peasy.

?

The hunter stalks his prey.

As to Ruby getting in the basement on Sunday, see Burt Griffin testimony, WC. ( Ruby had help.)