Amidst all the lies about Ruby being a gangster, a hit man, and a violent person who threw people down the stairs, you should listen to Bill DeMar. He was an MC and entertainer for Ruby at the Carousel Club, and he was interviewed by Dan Rather on the day Oswald was killed.
Rather asked him if Ruby was violent, and DeMar recoiled. He was unable to ascribe a single violent act to Ruby. He said that Ruby "could act a little harshly sometimes." That's the worst he could come up with. When Rather asked him to elaborate, DeMar said that "when customers got a little out of hand, he was ready to put them out."
What does that mean? I assume it means he ordered them to leave. I don't assume it means he threw them down the stairs. If that's what DeMar meant, that's what he would have said. DeMar comes across as being very honest, level-headed, and candid. And I don't think he would have trivilized throwing someone down the stairs. The whole tone of his response was defensive towards Ruby. He said he thought of him more as a friend than an employer.
Rather asked him if he ever saw underworld types at the Carouself Club, and DeMar said, categorically, no. He sounded adamant about that.
Rather asked him if he ever saw Oswald there, and DeMar said yes, and he was decisive about it. He wasn't adamant, but he was confident. The right conclusion to draw from that is that "Lee" went there, meaning Lee from the John Armstrong lexicon, referring to the original LHO, who was born with that name in New Orleans, but not the Oswald of fame, who went to Russia, who was "Harvey." And it is very significant that Lee went there because it shows that, even beforehand, they sought to link Ruby and Oswald, that they were writing the narrative in advance.
DeMar said that Oswald volunteered to be in one of his stage acts. Would the Oswald of fame have done that? No way! You know how reclusive he was at the TSBD. Lee was trying to grab attention and stand out, to DeMar and perhaps others.
This interview of Bill DeMar may be the closest thing we have to an authentic portrait of Jack Ruby. It shows that he was garrulous and rambunctious, but not violent.
It's also significant that DeMar attributed mental flightiness to Ruby, with rapid speech and frequent subject changes. It sounds like mania. Ruby wasn't right in his head. There's no doubt about that. But, he was not violent, and he was not a Mafioso. I give a high degree of credibility and reliability to Bill DeMar.
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