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

I have already got the first 3 pages of Ruby's manuscript because they were published in legible form, but I don't think they are complete. In other words, I don't think Page 1 is really the first page. Because: how could he start with him leaving the synagogue? This has all the earmarks of a narrative in progress, like there was something that came before. How could he start his manuscript about his activities on the weekend of November 22, 23, and 24 with leaving the synagogue? And doesn't it seem like anyone doing this would start by spelling out what he was doing? "This is a narrative of everything that happened to me the weekend of November 22, 23, and 24, 1963." Or something to that effect? 

So, if Ruby really did start his manuscript that way, with "When I left the synagogue" it shows how disordered and erratic his thinking was, that he was not of right mind. He was not mentally sound.

But, let's continue with the content. So, he left the synagogue, which was probably about 10 PM Friday night, and he went to Phil's deli, which was open, and he ordered sandwiches for the detectives, and he told the attendant to make "real healthy sandwiches" because they were for people working on the case. Then, from the pay phone outside Phil's, he called the police station and asked for Homicide and Detective Sims. Sims answered the phone, and Ruby explained about the sandwiches, and Sims told him that they were wrapping everything up, but he really appreciated Jack's kindness, all the help he provides, and he would be sure to tell the others. (But, I don't think the detectives ever got the sandwiches. RC) Then, Ruby tried to call the radio station KLIF, but they didn't answer. And then he sought to call a Russ Knight. He may have made some other calls, and the cashier at Phil's remarked that he could use their business phone, but Ruby said he was more comfortable using the pay phone. The third page ends with him saying that he tried to call a Gordon McClendon. And that's it; there is no more. 

Alright, so what can we gather from this? First, there is the looming question that I raised at the beginning, whether it is complete. And, if it is complete, if Ruby really wrote nothing about his morning and afternoon on November 22, then it shows how flighty and random and scattered he was mentally. 

But next, I want you to consider how devoid of JFK it is. JFK was assassinated the very day he's talking about, but you'd never know it. His only reference to JFK was to refer to "the case." I thought Jack Ruby was supposed to be all torn up inside about JFK. Devastated. Beside himself with grief. He doesn't seem that way to me. He's making calls pertaining to his business. He sought to get sandwiches for the homicide detectives, but that had nothing to do with Kennedy; he just wanted to score points with them. Then, there is that claim of the gun expert who was brought in and who encountered Ruby at the elevator on Friday night, in which Ruby made a joke: "Have they arrested you yet, Harris?" How could he make a joke like that if he was all torn up about Kennedy? It goes to show that the whole thing about Ruby shooting Oswald to save Jackie a trip to Dallas was just lawyer talk. It was nothing that Jack Ruby ever said or thought. And of course he didn't think it since he never had a thought to shoot Oswald and didn't shoot him. 

But, also consider how unfocused the writing is. He is supposed to be relating the events that led up to what happened on 11/24. So, why would he provide such details? Was it even necessary to state the names of the individuals he tried to call if they had nothing to do with anything? Jack Ruby truly was a scatterbrain. He had verbal diarrhea. All his thoughts went directly to his lips, or in this case, to his pen in hand. And he was the same way in his testimony to the Warren Commissioners, providing details about things and persons that couldn't possibly interest them and which had no relevance to the case.  

These three pages are harmless. They don't contain anything explosive, and nothing we didn't already know. But, considering how long this manuscript has been around, and how many times it has changed hands already, I have to wonder why the entire content hasn't been transcribed and published. What did Jack Ruby say about what happened to him in the garage on November 24? What description did he give of the history-changing event? Why has it remained buried for 54 years, and why is it still buried? Who just bought that manuscript, and why wasn't it announced?