Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

Since Ruby brought his dog along with him on Sunday morning, I don't see how anybody can think that he planned to kill Oswald that morning. But, some people think the Mob put Ruby up to killing Oswald, and they usually mean the Chicago Mob, Sam Giancana, etc. But, that is ridiculous. 

First, Ruby wasn't even involved with the Chicago Mob. Ruby was involved with the Florida Mob. Think Meyer Lansky.  

But second, how could any Mob force him to kill Oswald? Kill Oswald or else what? They would kill him? But, killing Oswald was like an act of suicide for Ruby. What kind of life did he have afterwards? It was all shit; and then he died.

The problem is that people are too influenced by books and movies. In The Godfather, both the book and the movie, Michael Corleone shoots to death the corrupt police chief and also the capo who had ordered the hit on his father. Then he flees the country for sunny Sicily. But, they wanted to clear the way for his return, so they found this guy who was desperate for money to support his family, and they offered to give his family a gargantuan sum of money if he confessed to the murders. He did. And he was tried, convicted, sentenced to death, and put to death. But, his family did get the money. It was a straight-up deal. 

But, in this case, Ruby didn't have a family, and he had plenty of money. His clubs were successful. He certainly wasn't going to kill Oswald for money. 

And think about how Mafia hit men usually work. They commit their hits, but they do it in a way where they expect to escape and get away with it. But, in this case, there would be no getting away with it. It was guaranteed that he would be caught, and his life, as he knew it, would be over. 

So, what could the Mafia possibly threaten him with? "Kill Oswald for us or else we will . . ." What?

So, the next time someone glibly tells you that the Mafia ordered Ruby to kill Oswald, you can just dismiss it as gibberish. 

In fact, the idea of Ruby intending to kill Oswald on his own or on the behest of the Mafia or anyone else is gibberish. 

So, all that leaves is the "sudden impulse" idea. He just lost it on the spur the moment and killed. 

But, is that true? There is no reason to think that he wouldn't remember doing it, even if it was spur of the moment. He remembered reaching the bottom of the ramp and then police pouncing upon him, but that's it. Nothing in-between. Until they told him that he shot Oswald, he had no idea why they were pouncing on him, and he said so.  

Was Ruby involved in the assassination plot? There is disturbing evidence pointing to it, but none of it is ironclad. There is Julia Mercer who said she saw Ruby in a truck on Elm Street, and she said it looked like he was delivering men and guns. There is Vickie Adams who said that when she got outside the TSBD shortly after the shots, she saw Jack Ruby, "barking orders and acting like a cop." There is George Applin, one of the Texas Theater patrons who witnessed Oswald's arrest who said that Ruby was in the theater sitting several rows behind Oswald. The eerie thing is that George Applin died mysteriously. And then, there is the woman who told Dallas Police that her daughter and her friends reported seeing Oswald talking to Jack Ruby outside the TSBD after the shooting, presumably when Oswald left for home. And, these girls reported that Ruby handed Oswald a pistol. 

I don't consider any of these claims bankable, but they are all intriguing. 

Then, there are absolute facts to consider. Ruby was at the DPD when Oswald was brought there, and he was among the reporters in the Homicide Bureau. That, of course, is the place where Oswald supposedly passed Lovelady sitting at a desk. but which I deny vociferously as fake, fake, fake. And I'll point out that it wasn't discovered until 1976- 13 years later. 

And there is the fact that Ruby was there when reporters were questioning Chief Curry in the hall, and when Curry misnamed the Fair Play For Cuba Committee, Ruby corrected him. 

Then, there is the fact that Ruby attended the Midnight Press Conference. 

When you look at all that together, it is a hell of a lot. It convinces me that Jack Ruby was somehow connected to the plot. Then, there is the undeniable fact that Jack Ruby had been a gunrunner in support the anti-Castro Cubans. Didn't David Talbot tell us that that's where the JFK assassination plot was born?

Many people, including me, believe that Oswald was supposed to be killed in the Texas Theater. And when he wasn't, planning must have begun immediately to kill him elsewhere. Who knows how many ideas they considered. They were probably frantically considering ideas. Was Ruby in on that? Was the idea pitched to him that maybe he could kill Oswald? 

Ruby definitely did not kill Oswald. The images establish that it was James Bookhout. But, Ruby generally accepted the idea that he killed Oswald, even though he had no memory of doing it. Most people are so averse to killing, and have such a strong perception of themselves as being incapable of killing, that if told they killed someone, they would doggedly deny it- to their last breath. But, Ruby was not averse to the idea that he could have killed Oswald. So, was it something that he contemplated? Had it come up in discussions? 

Ruby was framed for killing Oswald, but when was the decision made to do that? I'm inclined to think that it was after the original plan, of killing Oswald in the theater, failed. 

But, the biggest thing I want to know is: how did they steer Ruby to the garage? I know about his dancer needing money for "rent and groceries," that that's what got him to the Western Union office, which was on the same block as the DPD. But, they couldn't just hope that Ruby would walk down the ramp just because he went to WU. Getting Ruby to go to the garage was an operation, and somebody had to be in charge of it. Somebody had to be steering it. But, who could that have been? Could it have been his roommate George Senator?