Jack Ruby kills Lee Harvey Oswald - Nov 24, 1963 - HISTORY.com Jack Ruby kills Lee Harvey Oswald Share this: Jack Ruby kills Lee Harvey Oswald Author Jack Ruby kills Lee Harvey Oswald URL Publisher A+E Networks At 12:20 p.m., in the basement of the Dallas police station, Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, is shot to death by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner. On November 22, President Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in an open-car motorcade through the streets of downtown Dallas. Less than an hour after the shooting, Lee Harvey Oswald killed a policeman who questioned him on the street. Thirty minutes after that, he was arrested in a movie theater by police. Oswald was formally arraigned on November 23 for the murders of President Kennedy and Officer J.D. Tippit. On November 24, Oswald was brought to the basement of the Dallas police headquarters on his way to a more secure county jail. A crowd of police and press with live television cameras rolling gathered to witness his departure. As Oswald came into the room, Jack Ruby emerged from the crowd and fatally wounded him with a single shot from a concealed .38 revolver.

Ruby, who was immediately detained, claimed that rage at Kennedy’s murder was the motive for his action. Some called him a hero, but he was nonetheless charged with first-degree murder. Jack Ruby, originally known as Jacob Rubenstein, operated strip joints and dance halls in Dallas and had minor connections to organized crime. He also had a relationship with a number of Dallas policemen, which amounted to various favors in exchange for leniency in their monitoring of his establishments. He features prominently in Kennedy-assassination theories, and many believe he killed Oswald to keep him from revealing a larger conspiracy. In his trial, Ruby denied the allegation and pleaded innocent on the grounds that his great grief over Kennedy’s murder had caused him to suffer “psychomotor epilepsy” and shoot Oswald unconsciously. The jury found him guilty of the “murder with malice” of Oswald and sentenced him to die. In October 1966, the Texas Court of Appeals reversed the decision on the grounds of improper admission of testimony and the fact that Ruby could not have received a fair trial in Dallas at the time. In January 1967, while awaiting a new trial, to be held in Wichita Falls, Ruby died of lung cancer in a Dallas hospital.

The official Warren Commission report of 1964 concluded that neither Oswald nor Ruby were part of a larger conspiracy, either domestic or international, to assassinate President Kennedy. Despite its seemingly firm conclusions, the report failed to silence conspiracy theories surrounding the event, and in 1978 the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in a preliminary report that Kennedy was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy” that may have involved multiple shooters and organized crime. The committee’s findings, as with those of the Warren Commission, continue to be widely disputed. Related Videos Dallas theater - Oswald and the JFK assassination - Pictures - CBS News Oswald and the JFK assassination Next Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald is led down a corridor of the Dallas police station for another round of questioning in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Nov. 23, 1963. Oswald, who denied any involvement in the shooting, was formally charged with murder. Credit: AP Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, is placed on a stretcher after being shot in the stomach in Dallas, Nov. 24, 1963.

Nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald as the prisoner was being transferred through the underground garage of Dallas police headquarters. Credit: David F. Smith/AP Warren Commission report One of the exhibits contained in the Warren Commission report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Sept. 26, 1964. The commission said the handbills in the image were samples of ones on which Lee Harvey Oswald had stamped his name and the name "A.J. Hidell". The image below was identified as showing Oswald distributing the handbills in New Orleans on Aug. 16, 1963. Credit: Warren Commission/AP Jack Ruby Jack Ruby talks to a reporter while being returned to jail after a psychiatric examination in Dallas, Jan. 28, 1964. As Lee Harvey Oswald was being transferred from police headquarters to the county jail on Nov. 24, 1963, Ruby shot him in the chest from close range. Ruby was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He appealed and was granted a new trial, but died of lung cancer before a trial date was set.

Credit: Fred Kaufman/AP Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald, poses for the camera while stationed in Atsuge, Japan as a U.S. Marine, ca. May 1958. In early phases of his service at U.S. bases he got good performance evaluations and qualified as a sharpshooter after marksmanship training. But Oswald was court-martialed twice while stationed in Japan, first after wounding himself with an unauthorized pistol and later after a bar fight. Credit: AP Dallas theater The movie theater where Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested after U.S. President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Nov. 22, 1963. The Warren Commission said Oswald left the book depository moments after shots were fired from the sixth floor, returned by bus and cab to his rooming house, then ventured out again - soon encountering a Dallas police officer who stopped him based on descriptions of the assassination suspect. According to the commission, Oswald fatally shot Patrolman J.D. Tippit with a handgun, then fled into the nearby movie theater. Credit: AP Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald at the Bronx Zoo in New York, ca. 1947.

By the time he turned 17 and joined the Marines, Oswald had lived at more than 20 different addresses and attended a dozen schools. He was born in New Orleans on Oct. 18, 1939, two months after his father died of a heart attack. Credit: AP How Did Lee Harvey Oswald REALLY Kill JFK? How Did Lee Harvey Oswald REALLY Kill JFK? 11/18/2013 It has been 50 years now since the first gigantic news event of the television age, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Over a generation later, well over half of the American people still believe that JFK was killed by a conspiracy which was covered up by the government. While at one time I was wholeheartedly in agreement with the majority, I long ago came to the strong conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald essentially acted alone. The Warren Commission got it right, but mostly by accident. They got the right man (only because they desperately wanted/needed Oswald to be guilty), but when it came to HOW it happened I believe they were significantly off base.

Here is a short outline of what the Warren Commission thought happened on November 22, 1963 and also what I, after extensive thought/research and a dramatic evolution of belief (I used to believe strongly that Oswald was indeed, as he called himself, a "patsy"), think really transpired on that fateful Dallas day. Warren Commission findings: -- Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy by himself (essentially true). -- Oswald fired three shots from the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building where three shell casings matching Oswald's rifle where found (true). -- Oswald's (probably) first shot missed the limousine completely, hits pavement, shatters, and grazes a witness across the road quite a distance away (didn't happen). -- Second shot hits Kennedy in the back, goes through his throat/neck, hits John Connelly in the back, ribs, wrist, and lodges in his leg, later to be found in "pristine" condition and be called the "magic" bullet (didn't happen). -- Third shot hits Kennedy in the head, blows out his skull, and kills the President (true).

Here is what I believe the evidence indicates REALLY happened: Oswald acted alone, possibly inadvertently inspired by wannabe revolutionaries David Ferrie and Guy Bannister (the major characters in Oliver Stone's otherwise totally wrong "JFK" movie). The Warren Commission concluded that one of Oswald's shots (probably the first) missed badly and hit off the curb of the street (that is quite a dramatic miss!) with a fragment of a bullet which was never found causing a nick on the cheek of a bystander named James Teague. I believe that there is remarkably little evidence to support a conclusion that has had a dramatic impact on all the other analysis of this event. If it was the first shot, I defy anyone to say when in the Zapruter film this shot could have possibly been fired. If it was the second shot, there there is absolutely no way to account for the definitive testimony of both John and Nellie Connelly.

Based on Kennedy's reaction to getting hit the first time (just before the limo is hidden by the road sign) that missed first shot would have had to been fired WAY before there is ANY reaction from anyone at all in the Zapruder film and at a position from which there were way too many people on that sidewalk for it not to be universally accepted that it happened that way. I also question how Oswald, both mentally and physically, could have missed SO badly on his first shot and then instantly gathered himself and fire two nearly perfect shots in the next 5-6 seconds. As for Teague, I find it amazing that a nick on the cheek (after the most traumatic event he could ever witness) with no bullet fragments found is enough to dictate everything else about what transpired. Because the rest of the evidence so strongly contradicts this missed first shot theory, I believe it never happened that way.

I think the first shot was fired slightly earlier than the Warren Commission concluded (the entire shooting took closer to 7 seconds rather 6 seconds; a little girl chasing the limo just feet from the President in the Zapruder film suddenly stops on a dime and looks up to towards the 6th floor of the depository building just BEFORE the Commission claimed the first shot that "hit" took place) and was described by the secret service agents and others as sounding like a "backfire." The shot, essentially a "misfire," lodged only a couple of inches into JFK's back and elicited a slightly delayed reaction from the President. This shot would not have killed JFK and the misconstruing of his reaction to it is the key to many experts coming to false conclusions about the exact nature of the shooting. Contrary to popular belief, JFK NEVER even comes CLOSE to grabbing his throat (because a bullet never passed through there), but rather clinches his fists with his elbows out, which is consistent with a nearly involuntary neuromuscular reaction caused by the bullet lodged in his back so close to his spine.

This first bullet would later fall out of JFK's back at the hospital (a conductor of the autopsy reported sticking his finger in the back wound and feeling the end of the woundt, but finding no bullet) later to be found on his stretcher and be misidentified as the pristine "magic bullet" which had supposedly fallen out of Connelly. This confusion occurred because, in the chaos at the hospital, no one kept track of which stretcher was JFK's and which was Connelly's and there is literally a 50/50 chance that they identified the stretchers incorrectly. A key fact that supports this theory is that both John Connelly and his wife went to their deaths absolutely POSITIVE that they saw JFK reacting to being hit by the first shot (saying nothing about his throat wound or him grabbing his throat) before Connelly was hit. The Warren Commission chose to ignore this vital bit of information because Arlen Specter (then working as a Warren Commission lawyer before becoming a U.S. Senator) could not make the timing of three shots work to insure that Oswald was the only shooter (which was clearly everyone's goal from the start of the investigation) unless both Kennedy and Connelly where hit by the same bullet.

I believe the second shot missed JFK completely and created all of the many wounds in Connelly while likely getting largely "lost" through Connelly's damaged bones and body with the remnants never being found (which is not unusual in normal crime scenes). The third shot hit JFK in the head and blew out the contents of his skull forcing his head to go in what appears to be an odd direction when being hit by a shot from the angle from which Oswald would have been shooting. However, there is other evidence to support the theory that the shot came from Oswald's direction. There is a very clear photo from in front of the limo which shows both Kennedy and Connelly reacting to being hit by the first two shots. In that photo there is NO crack in the front windshield of the limo. AFTER the assassination there IS a clear crack in the windshield on the DRIVER'S side of the limo (keeping a direct line from Oswald's sniper nest) and there were two bullet fragments found in the front of the Limo. As for those who are convinced by the "back and to the left" motion of JFK's head after impact, you have been deceived.

His head actually does move forward after impact for one frame of the film and then is pushed in that "odd" direction by the force of JFK's internal matter exploding from his skull. The lack of a bullet-caused throat wound is the key to the entire theory I have outlined here and why it is that there has been so much confusion leading to false conclusions. A series of coincidences contributed to this phenomenon. First, JFK APPEARS to grab his throat but does not. Secondly, JKF did have a VERY small hole in his throat when he got to the hospital. The hole was much too small to be an exit wound from a gunshot from behind and did not line up with the initial reports of the hole in JFK's back. Thirdly, because of the convenient placement of the small hole the doctors at Parkland opened it up to use as a tracheotomy in an effort to save JFK's life, thus destroying much of its evidentiary value. It is important to note here that JFK did have VERY small holes in his shirt and tie right at the throat. However, there were NO traces of metal found in any of those holes. So where did the holes come from?

Quite possibly, as outlined in the famous book "Six Seconds in Dallas," they came from a bone fragment that was splintered from either the first or the third shots which struck JFK. This theory is consistent with the photo taken from in front of the limo before the third shot. Of course, if true, all this theory of the case proves is that SOMEONE acted alone in firing three shots to kill JFK and that, theoretically, it could have been someone other than Oswald. However, Oswald was the only bookstore employee who did not show up for role call after the shooting and he was seen coming into work that day with a package consistent with his dismantled rifle which he had clearly purchased and that was found on the 6th floor with shell casings matching the rifle. Oswald was seen after the shooting on a different floor than where the shooting took place, but he had PLENTY of time to get there before anyone realized what had happened. Also, Oswald's behavior the day of the shooting (before and after when he clearly killed police officer J.D. Tippit) is perfectly consistent with him being the shooter and there is not one shred of evidence identifying anyone else.

I defy anyone to come up with a remotely rational alternative explanation for what really happened without Oswald being a shooter (for instance, there is just no way to explain Oswald as a "patsy" for a giant conspiracy when his neighbor, Ruth Paine, was the one who got him the job at the School Book Depository building BEFORE the parade route had been altered or announced). As for Jack Ruby's shooting of Oswald, the known evidence seems far more consistent with an impulsive act of attempted heroism, then of being part of some grand conspiracy. If he knew he was going to kill Oswald, why was he not there remotely on time and why did he leave his beloved dog in his locked car? I am still mystified as to why Oswald never took credit for the assassination. Obviously we will never know why that was the case. However, I believe that the theory as to HOW he did it outlined here is the only one proposed that does not conflict with any of the known evidence in the case. This theory has been run by the author of the preeminent work of Kennedy assassination research, Gerald Posner (his book 'Case Closed' changed my mind about the assassination), and he could find no apparent flaws in it.

Years after I came up with this theory, Mark Furhman, of O.J. Simpson infamy, wrote a book based largely on a remarkably similar theory. So why do so many people still believe that JFK was killed by a government conspiracy? I think this is because they WANT to believe that such dastardly act could not have been pulled off so easily by a lone loser like Oswald. Also, for fans of Kennedy his mystique is magnified by the "mystery" surrounding his death as well as the prospect that he was so dangerous to the establishment that he had to be snuffed out by the highest powers. Admittedly, this is an intoxicating premise for those prone to being taken in by it. However, as is so often the case, the reality and the mythology of the Kennedy assassination appear to have very little in common. Ironically, 50 hours after the assassination the vast majority of Americans accepted the basic truth of what happened on the day that changed this country forever. Fifty years later they do not. Fifty years from now I shudder to think just how off the public perception of that event will be, but if I am still around I will be trying to set people straight.

John Ziegler can be reached at talktozig@aol.com Nov. 17 2013 11:45 PM A Killer’s Last Steps A tour of Lee Harvey Oswald’s bizarre path after killing JFK. By James Reston Jr. Lee Harvey Oswald holds a rifle in this famous photo taken at 214 W. Neely St. in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas in 1963. Courtesy of the Warren Commission A couple months ago I began the tour for my book about President John F. Kennedy’s assassination with a lecture at Southern Methodist University in Dallas—a talk I was told would be attended by four members of the Oswald family. Also at the lecture were three men who knew a lot about Nov. 22, 1963: Darwin Payne, an amiable, retired reporter for the Dallas Times Herald who covered the tragedy 50 years ago; Sam Childers, a historian who had worked for five years at the Sixth Floor Museum in the old Texas School Book Depository on Dealey Plaza; and Michael Hazel, another historian who taught for many years at SMU and is a Dallas native.

At a dinner after the talk, they offered to take me on a tour of Lee Harvey Oswald sites in Dallas. I leapt at the chance. Our first stop was 1026 N. Beckley Ave. in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, where Oswald was living alone on Nov. 22, one of 17 boarders in the house. To his fellow roomers, the reclusive Oswald was dubbed the “butt twister” for the strange way he walked as he came into the living room to watch TV or talked on the communal telephone to someone in Russian. The current owner, the granddaughter of the 1963 owner, is trying to sell the place, a low-slung ramshackle of a house in what is still a fairly rough neighborhood. Darwin and Sam thought the place might fetch about $200,000, but the owner is asking $400,000. She suggests that the house should become a public museum where you could see the closet of a room where Oswald slept or the downstairs dining room where he ate his meals. So far, no one is biting.

Oswald had slipped out of the book depository unchallenged after the shooting, walked several blocks, caught a city bus, and then hailed a taxi that took him to his boarding house. There he picked up a pistol and a coat and began to walk aimlessly. Did he expect to be apprehended soon? Did he have an escape plan? Or was he in some sort of daze that prompted the aimless walk? If he was trying to escape, how would he do it with no money for a train or airline ticket? Or was he pondering what he would tell the police once they caught him? Darwin thought this question was relevant to the assassin’s interrogations at the police station after the arrest. His interrogators were amazed at how tough and unfazed Oswald had been during his grilling as if he had steeled himself mentally for the confrontation. Advertisement From Oswald’s rooming house, we proceeded to 214 W. Neely St., still in Oak Cliff. It was there that Oswald and his wife, Marina, had lived with their small child after they returned from Russia, and where in the garden Marina Oswald had taken the famous photograph of the assassin with his new mail-order rifle on his hip.

The current owners of the house might ask you for several dollars to see their upstairs apartment. (We saved our money.) Get Slate in your inbox. Oswald apparently was quite proud of that photograph, for he would later send a copy of it to his political confidante, an elegant dandy of Polish extraction named George de Mohrenschildt. On the back of the photograph, Oswald has inscribed it to his friend and added the line in Russian, “Hunter of Fascists. Ha. Ha. Ha.” When de Mohrenschildt discovered the photograph in his papers years later, he would call it Oswald’s gift from the grave. De Mohrenschildt committed suicide on the day before he was to be interviewed by an investigator from the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1977. From there we proceeded to the neighborhood of W.H. Adamson High School. (Oswald had dropped out of high school in the 10th grade to volunteer for the Marine Corps.) As the crow flies, the school is about a mile from 1026 N. Beckley Ave. Oswald had wandered there, for reasons no one can know. And no one can know why a Dallas policeman named J.D.

Tippit had come to this spot and parked his car, for he was out of his assigned district. Of course, the Dallas police were on their highest alert for the president’s assassin. Police radios crackled with the news and deployments. But we can know what happened on the corner of 10th Street and Patton Avenue. As the loner walked by the police car, Tippit hailed him down, angry words were exchanged, and as Tippit got out of his car, Oswald shot him dead. At least a dozen people witnessed Tippit’s murder. By the evening of Nov. 22, five of them had identified Oswald in police lineups. Advertisement As Darwin, Mike, Sam, and I stood by the historical plaque marking the spot of Tippit’s murder, we pondered yet another of these strange twists of history. Had Oswald had the presence of mind to be polite rather than cantankerous in his encounter with Tippit, he might have moved on, free of suspicion for some time. From the corner where Tippit was murdered, we drove a few blocks to the nearby commercial street of Jefferson Boulevard.

Oswald ran there, discarding his coat and ducking in and out of the recessed doorways of storefronts as police cars whizzed by with their sirens wailing. The neighborhood is largely Hispanic now, but its basic configuration remains the same. Johnny Calvin Brewer, the manager of a modest shoe store, had noticed Oswald’s suspicious behavior and began following him for several blocks. He saw Oswald duck into a vintage movie theater called the Texas Theatre, built in the 1930s and owned for a time by Howard Hughes. Oswald slipped by a distracted ticket taker who was listening to the radio and disappeared into the darkness. Brewer hailed a police officer, Nick McDonald, who entered the theater accompanied by another officer. The black-and-white movie War Is Hell, set in the Korean War and narrated by Audie Murphy, was playing. Soon enough the movie was stopped, and the lights came up. As McDonald came up the aisle, the manager of theater pointed out Oswald from the stage. When the officers approached him, Oswald stood up and shouted, “This is it!” and pulled out his revolver.

But McDonald leapt on him, getting his finger between the pistol’s hammer and the bullet, and the gun did not go off. A scuffle ensued. Oswald punched one of the officers, and the officer punched him back, giving Oswald a black eye and a cut. (Later in the Dallas police headquarters, Oswald would allege police brutality.) Outside the theater, word of Oswald’s arrest had spread through the neighborhood, and a crowd gathered. When Oswald was brought out, people shouted, “Kill him! Kill him!” Advertisement Darwin did not witness Oswald’s arrest. He was still downtown, working another angle. He had learned about a businessman from the building that adjoined the book depository, a dress manufacturer by the name of Abraham Zapruder who had apparently filmed the presidential motorcade coming down Elm Street with his home movie camera. Zapruder, it turned out, had a diligent secretary who berated him that morning for not bringing in his little Super 8 camera, a Bell & Howell Zoomatic Director Series. She made him go home to get it. “How many times does the president drive by your office?” she had asked.

Zapruder had taken his place at the pergola above the grassy knoll and climbed onto a cement pillar, about 3 feet high, to watch JFK drive by. But he swayed with vertigo, and his secretary stayed on the ground, holding his legs to stabilize him as he filmed. Darwin remembers going to Zapruder’s office in the hours after the murder to find out whether the story of the 8 mm film was true. He remembers his conversation with the modest businessman as his camera lay on the desk, its historic cargo still undeveloped. It would not be long, however, before the Secret Service turned up and seized the film. But Darwin had his story as the first reporter to track down the man who had what would become the central piece of evidence of the Kennedy assassination. Advertisement At Dealey Plaza we stood next to Zapruder’s cement pillar and only a few yards from the picket fence that shields the grassy knoll that is so central to the mythology of a possible second shooter. Only a few hawkers of conspiracy theories ambled along the sidewalk that morning, handing out their flashy pamphlets and touting their sensational fantasies. Usually, there are more, Darwin said.

At first glance the grassy knoll appeared more compact than I remembered it, especially as I looked down the slope of Elm Street from beneath Oswald’s sniper nest. The sidewalk alongside the street bears two opaque cement squares that mark the spots where the first shot hit both Kennedy and Gov. John Connally and the second shot killed the president. The Zapruder film does not capture the first shot of the so-called magic bullet because a billboard blocked the perspective of Zapruder’s lens. But that sign has since been removed. As we made our way back to the car, Sam, the former historian at the book depository, drew our attention to the plaque on the side of the building. With its black background and embossed metal lettering, it describes the events of Nov. 22, 1963. In its last few lines the citation states that Oswald “allegedly” shot the president. Over the years, Sam said, the employees of the Sixth Floor Museum were always having to repair the damage to that word, for it was continually defaced, scratched, or had its paint removed. There was a footnote to our tour.

We had tarried at the old Beaux-Arts police headquarters on Main Street, built in 1914, where Oswald was interrogated after his arrest and where Jack Ruby shot Oswald. Why did Ruby shoot Oswald? It was a question I was getting at every turn on my book tour . Sam eased the car into a parking space across the street from the old headquarters, which now houses municipal courtrooms. Advertisement According to Darwin, Ruby loved two things—his dog, Sheba, and the strippers at his Carousel Club, which was no more than a few blocks away. The club was a favorite of police officers, and Ruby often passed out cards inviting them to stop by after work. Popular and seedy, the club was considered the second-best strip club in Dallas, after the Colony Club, where the famous stripper Candy Barr was the main attraction. Spontaneity, randomness, and cruel fate are at the center of the entire assassination story. On the morning of Nov. 24, 1963, Ruby parked his car, with Sheba inside, and strolled to the Western Union office, where he proceeded to send money to one of his hard-pressed performers.

He then ambled down Main Street a very short distance, perhaps no more than 50 yards, to the police headquarters and proceeded, unchallenged, down a narrow automobile ramp into the basement. As he arrived at the bottom of the ramp, he found himself in a throng of reporters clamoring for a glimpse of the assassin, who was at that very moment to be transferred from the city to the county jail. Just as Ruby reached the edge of the crowd, Oswald emerged from a far door, escorted by police Chief Jesse Curry and other officers. Ruby pushed his way forward, pulled his pistol, and shot Oswald. Ruby would say at his trial that he had two reasons to shoot Oswald. This was four years before the Israeli victory during the Six-Day War, and the debate over the supposed complacency of Jews in the Holocaust still raged. Ruby’s first motive for his action, he testified, was to show that Jews could be bold and brave and aggressive. (His real name was Jacob Leon Rubenstein.) His second motive was meant to sound even nobler. He wanted to relieve Jackie Kennedy the suffering of witnessing the trial of her husband’s assassin and of possibly being called as a witness herself.

These explanations feel like transparent rationalizations, concocted by his lawyers afterward to impart sympathy from the public. I discounted them both entirely, as did my guides. Darwin had attended Ruby’s first press conference a month or so after the assassination and described Ruby as totally incoherent and hallucinatory. The assassin’s assassin lived out his life in a jail cell overlooking Dealey Plaza until his death 3½ years later in January 1967. Advertisement To hear the details of this story—the cherished dog left in the car, the money wired to the stripper, the short stroll to the police headquarters, the walk unhindered down the ramp, the arrival just as Oswald emerged—confirmed my long-held suspicion about the spontaneity of Ruby’s violent action. If Ruby had been part of a wider conspiracy, how could all of these random acts have been orchestrated to get him to the right place at the exact instant when Oswald emerged? Indeed, spontaneity, randomness, and cruel fate are at the center of the entire assassination story. What if Ruby’s stripper had not needed money on that day? What if Oswald had not encountered Tippit?

What if the motorcade route had been different, or, as Connally had argued, there should be no motorcade at all in Dallas? What if the FBI had followed up on their leads about Oswald, or Oswald hadn’t gotten the job at the book depository only a month before Nov. 22? And the cruelest of all, what if President Kennedy hadn’t been wearing a back brace that held him upright as the sole remaining target for Oswald’s second fatal shot? To order the e-book of James Reston Jr.’s Accidental Victim, go to the website for Zola Books . Jack Ruby shoots Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963 - NY Daily News Jack Ruby shoots Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963 Jack Ruby shoots Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963 NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Lee Harvey Oswald, suspected assassin of President John F. Kennedy, grimaces as he is shot to death at point-blank range by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. (BOB JACKSON/AP) NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, November 23, 2015, 12:00 PM (Originally published by the Daily News on Nov. 25, 1963.

This story was written by Henry Machirella and Paul Healy.) DALLAS, Nov. 24 - A vengeful self-appointed executioner shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald today, less than 48-hours after the pro-Castro Marxist assassinated President John F. Kennedy Friday. Television viewers across the country saw strip joint owner Jack Ruby, 52, break through a police guard and shoot Oswald during a jail transfer. Oswald, 24, died in a hospital less than two hours later, just as the first mourners began to file past the slain President’s body in the great Rotunda of the Capitol in Washington. Oswald’s life ran out in the same hospital where the President had died two days before. Surgeons said he was unconscious and had no chance to make a death-bed confession. Homicide chief Capt. Will Fritz announced that the case of the President’s assassination was now closed. Ruby, a bachelor who was reported to have been brooding since the assassination, was charged with murder. Tonight, Ruby told his sister, Mrs. Eva L.

Grant: “I couldn’t help it…” Then, as she sobbed helplessly, he added, “Don’t worry about me.” Their 10-minute visit took place in Ruby’s fourth-floor cell. Palm Print on Gun District Attorney Henry Wade said the mass of evidence against Oswald, who once defected to Russia, was clinched when the assassin’s palm print was found on the death rifle. Another of Oswald’s palm prints was found on a book box by the window from which the shots were fired that killed President Kennedy. Millions of network TV viewers across the nation had been watching as Oswald was about to be transferred from Dallas County jail. Strict security precautions had been clamped around the building. But somehow Ruby managed to enter the police basement garage. He dashed forward, leveling the nickel-plated pistol he always carried, and pumped a bullet into Oswald before detectives could seize him. An investigation, participated in by the FBI, was under way tonight to find out how he had gained entry to the building. In his car parked outside, detectives found his wallet containing identification papers and $800, abandoned as if he knew he would not return.

One officer said that Ruby, who came here from Chicago 15 years ago, was well known around police headquarters and possibly had been passed through the security lines because of it. At his arraignment, Ruby was reported “calm with no complaint.” Three Dallas lawyers agreed to defend him. He was held without bail. New York Daily News Jack Ruby article (New York Daily News) Ruby, who was in shirt sleeves at the arraignment, made no reply. If convicted, he could go to the electric chair. Police headquarters had received a number of threats against Oswald during the night. One told police to be careful for their own safety. Ruby was known to have a cordial feeling for the police. Chief Expected No Trouble By 11 A.M. about 200 persons had gathered outside the Municipal Building, which houses police headquarters, to see Oswald transferred to the maximum security of the Dallas County Jail. Police Chief Jesse E. Curry was asked if he expected any trouble. He replied with confidence, “We don’t anticipate any trouble.” On the surface, precautions appeared to be adequate. The route for Oswald’s, walk to an armored car had been searched more than once. Only authorized persons who showed identification were allowed in the area.

Bullet-Proof Truck At 11:07 A.M. a whitish bullet-proof truck, similar to those used by Brink’s, backed to the top of the steeply sloping driveway that leads up from the police headquarters basement to the street. On one side of the driveway and facing the basement office door through which Oswald would come were two TV cameras. Around the cameras and lining one side of the driveway were more than 75 newsmen and scores of detectives and uniformed officers. Oswald was Handcuffed At 11:20 A.M. the door into the basement office opened and Capt. Fritz appeared at the head of a group of plainclothes detectives. In their midst was Oswald, his wrists handcuffed together and attached to a detective at his side. He was wearing a charcoal-gray wool sweater. At the doorway Fritz looked back to see whether his men were following him. Then the group walked steadily toward the driveway and the TV cameras. Oswald wore a slight smile. Suddenly there was a commotion among the waiting newsmen and a squat man charged from among them to confront Oswald. In his hand was a gun.

New York Daily News Jack Ruby article (New York Daily News) New York Daily News Jack Ruby article Went Unnoticed Even when Ruby had broken clear of the crowd, neither Oswald nor the surrounding detectives spotted him. Then Ruby fired. As the crash of the shot echoed through the basement, Oswald’s face showed sudden shock and he clutched his stomach with his cuffed hands. The bullet struck Oswald below his left rib cage and he crumpled, holding his stomach. The handcuffs linking him to the detective prevented him from falling to the ground. Detectives leaped at the assailant and after a brief, violent struggle dragged him toward the door of the basement office. Oswald Lies on Floor Oswald was pulled, pale and silent but with his eyes open, to the office, where he lay on the floor. Ruby stood about five feet away. The scene was utter confusion. Detectives drew their guns and spectators milled around shouting. At 11:25 an ambulance backed up to the door of the basement office and Oswald, his eyes still open, was carried into it. The armored car blocking the driveway was moved and the ambulance raced with siren screaming to Parkland Hospital.

Shouts went up among the crowd outside the Municipal Building: “They got Oswald. They shot him!” The ambulance reached Parkland Hospital at 11:30 A.M. It backed up to the emergency receiving dock and attendants wheeled Oswald out. He was lying on his left side with his right leg drawn up over his midsection. His face was ashen and he appeared to be unconscious. Same Emergency Room Oswald was wheeled swiftly down the corridor past the nurses’ reception room and into the same emergency suite where President Kennedy and Gov. John Connally were taken after Friday’s shooting. Ten minutes later, at 11:40 A.M., he was moved into an operating room. Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, is placed on a stretcher after being shot in the stomach in Dallas. (David F. Smith/AP) The assistant administrator, Steven Landragan, said blood was being given to Oswald and a tube had been inserted in his throat to aid breathing. The emergency facilities at the hospital were on the alert before today’s shooting. “We anticipated the slight possibility that this might happen and had alerted the emergency room,” Landragan said.

“We had received word that there was a considerable crowd downtown. I don’t mean we had anticipated the shooting, but we alerted emergency because we felt there might be some type of disorder.” At 1 P.M. the surgeons working on Oswald reported that he had suffered a massive injury to his abdomen. Bleeding had been controlled but he had suffered a “cardiac arrest.” Surgeons Massage His Heart Surgeons were massaging his heart, keeping him alive by manual action. Oswald was then placed on a pacemaker - an electronic instrument which sends impulses to the heart in the normal rhythm of the beat. This appeared to offer hope for Oswald’s recovery. But he died at 1:07 P.M. - two days and seven minutes after President Kennedy died in the same hospital. Dr. Tom Shires, one of the surgeons who attended President Kennedy on Friday, walked into the press room still wearing his operating gown and said: “Oswald died at 1:07 in the operating room of the gunshot wound which he had received. We could feel the bullet underneath the skin on his right side.

“The course of the bullet through the abdomen had injured all the major vessels, including the spleen, pancreas, right kidney and right lobe of the liver. “After the death we removed the bullet, which looked like a .38 caliber.” Strict Security at Hospital Oswald’s brother, Robert, was in the hospital when Oswald died. Oswald’s Russian wife, Marina, with their month old baby and daughter, nearly 4, went to the hospital. Oswald’s 56-year-old mother also arrived. Neither cried. Questioned about his decision to transfer Oswald in such a manner, Police Chief Jesse Curry told newsmen: “If I hadn’t promised you people I would not take Oswald until this morning, we would have taken him during the night.

I told you I wouldn’t back down on my pledge.” Tags: Amid JFK focus, spotlight also on Oswald's grave FacebookEmail Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest Amid JFK focus, spotlight also on Oswald's grave Lee Harvey Oswald's grave is a big attraction for tourists from around the globe on the eve of the JFK anniversary Post to Facebook Amid JFK focus, spotlight also on Oswald's grave Lee Harvey Oswald's grave is a big attraction for tourists from around the globe on the eve of the JFK anniversary Check out this story on USATODAY.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. 32 To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs Amid JFK focus, spotlight also on Oswald's grave Rick Jervis, USA TODAY Published 6:52 p.m. ET Nov. 21, 2013 | Updated 8:22 a.m. ET Nov. 22, 2013 CLOSE x Share With no mourners around to serve as pallbearers for Lee Harvey Oswald, it was a task that fell to now-retired AP writer Mike Cochran and a few other reporters. Note: graphic language.

(Nov. 21) AP Lee Harvey Oswald's grave is a big attraction for tourists from around the globe on the eve of the JFK anniversary A headstone marking the grave of Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated President John F. Kennedy in 1963. (Photo: Rex C. Curry, AP) Story Highlights Reporters had to act as pallbearers at Oswald funeral Most visitors think Oswald acted alone Some had conspiracy theories ranging from CIA involvement to Cuban agents 285 CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN 32 COMMENTEMAILMORE FORT WORTH – The grave marker is small and plain, stamped with a single surname, "OSWALD." It's hard to find amid the rows of more elaborate headstones and mausoleums at the Shannon Rose Hill Funeral Chapel and Cemetery, but it is a surprisingly popular American attraction this week. Throughout Thursday, visitors nonetheless streamed to the marker and snapped photos or just stared at the final resting place of Lee Harvey Oswald, one of the most famed assassins in history. They came from California, Canada, Belgium and New York to see with their own eyes the grave of the man accused of killing President John F. Kennedy 50 years ago Friday.

Despite a steady drizzle, they posed by the grave for a photo or swapped theories — that Oswald was a paid CIA operative or the Cubans did it or Oswald acted alone. Most simply came for a quick, strong dose of history. "Without Oswald, the whole story is not complete for us," said Kay Moreland, 64, of Orange County, Calif., who visited the grave Thursday with her brother, Gary Schulenburg. The pair had planned the trip for more than a year. "It's closure." Dallas officials on Friday will memorialize the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination with bagpipes and drums, speeches, hymns, prayers and a moment of silence at 12:30 p.m., the moment a rifle bullet killed Kennedy as he rode in an open-air motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. Police later arrested Oswald, accusing him of firing the fatal shot from a sixth-story window of the nearby Texas School Book Depository. Two days later, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald as police transferred him to another jail. (Photo: Jack Beers, AP) On Nov.

25, 1963, the same day that more than 1 million people lined the streets of Washington, D.C., for a glimpse of Kennedy's elaborate funeral, Oswald was buried in front of his widow, Marina; mother, Marguerite; and brother, Robert. No other mourners showed up. News reporters at the scene filled in as pallbearers. Friday's ceremony in Dallas is invitation-only, though hundreds are expected to line the nearby streets for the event at Dealey Plaza. Twenty-five miles west, the cemetery holding Oswald has been steadily drawing its own curious onlookers for the past several months. At the head of the marker, someone laid a wreath of plastic white-and-pink dendrobium orchids and bluebonnet flowers. Next to that: a single fresh red rose. <!--iframe--> Most of those who showed up said they believed Oswald had shot Kennedy and didn't sympathize with him. Joe Hunt, 55, visiting from Virginia, said he was there to witness a slice of history. "Something this guy did changed the entire world," he said, nodding toward Oswald's grave.

"He took America's innocence." Ward Dossche, 63, traveled from Mortsel, Belgium, with his daughter, Nele, 22, to see the grave. He said he remembered hearing about the assassination as a 13-year-old boy while at home at night, how traffic stopped on the street outside and school was canceled the following Monday in observance of Kennedy's funeral. He had been to Kennedy's grave in Arlington, Va., several times. Now it was Oswald's turn. "It's something defining for me and a lot of people," Dossche said of the assassination. "Whether he's guilty or not, (Oswald) is part of history." The public's fascination with Oswald stems from the fact that he was a troubled youth from a dysfunctional family who had trouble fitting in, whether with the U.S. Marines or in Minsk, Russia, or in Fort Worth, where he last lived, said Peter Savodnik, author of The Interloper: Lee Harvey Oswald Inside the Soviet Union. "He's the quintessential American figure: the alienated American constantly seeking someplace to fit in," Savodnik said.

"This is a character that millions of Americans can relate to." (Photo: AFP/Getty Images) Others are drawn to the mystery surrounding the killing that persists today, despite scores of books and movies and several federal commissions on the subject. Glen Watson, 61, visiting the grave site from Edmonton, Alberta, in Canada, with his son, Trevor, 31, and daughter, Tara, 27, said he believes Oswald was just one of several gunmen in Dealey Plaza that day hired by the Central Intelligence Agency to kill Kennedy. Watson said he had been planning for more than 25 years to be in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for the 50th anniversary. "When you go and actual see the headstone and see his name, it becomes more of a reality," Watson said. "It really becomes the truth." Peter Demetriou, from Santa Monica, Calif., had a more succinct reason. "Closure," he said. "Where it starts is Dealey Plaza. Where it ends is here."

Question: Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F Kennedy, but who shot him?
Answer: Jack Ruby