Post by John Duncan on Apr 18, 2022 14:56:29 GMT -5
www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/images/jack-ruby-6.jpg
Ruby, Ruby, Ruby.... Ruby lies and more lies...
By Raymond Gallagher 1/12
Testimony Of Mr. Jack Ruby
The President's Commission met at 11:45 a.m., on June 7, 1964, in the interrogation room of the Dallas County Jail, Main and Houston Streets, Dallas, Tex. Present were Chief Justice Earl Warren, Chairman; and Representative Gerald R. Ford, member. Also present were J. Lee Rankin, general counsel; Joseph A. Ball, assistant counsel; Arlen Specter, assistant counsel; Leon Jaworski and Robert G. Storey, special counsel to the attorney general of Texas; Jim Bowie, assistant district attorney; Joe H. Tonahill, attorney for Jack Ruby; Elmer W. Moore, special agent, U.S. Secret Service; and J. E. Decker, sheriff of Dallas County.
Jack: ".......Well, I retired that night after closing the club. Then I knew I wanted to go back to the Morning News Building to get the brochure I left, and also this complete page of longhand writing describing the various talents of this Bill DeMar.
I picked up the brochure that Friday morning, and I also had business at the News Building on Friday because that is the start of the weekend, which is very lucrative, the weekend.
I have ways of making my ads of where they have a way of selling the product I am producing or putting on the show....So I went down there Friday morning to Tony Zoppi's office, and they ( ? ) said SAID HE WENT TO NEW ORLEANS for a couple of days.
I picked up the brochure. I believe I got downtown there at 10:30 or 11 o'clock that morning.
And I took the brochure and then went into the main room where we compose our ads. That is the sales room where we placed our ads. And I remained there for a while. I started to write the copy of my ad. Now I go back to the same fellow that wanted me to come over to the club when we were having our dinner on Mockingbird at the Egyptian Lounge.
I came to the desk and I wanted to apologize and explain why I didn't accept his invitation last night. I wanted to explain, and that took about 20 or 25 minutes. All this is pertaining to everything prior to the terrible tragedy that happened.
I started to explain to him why I didn't want to go there, because this fellow mentioned--Tony, I think---I can't think of his last name of me having his band so many years, and I felt at the moment I didn't want to go over to the club because I didn't care to meet this fellow.
And he started to apologize, "Jack, I am sorry, I did work for the fellow and we have been advertising him for that club, and I am putting out a night club book."
I remained with him for 20 or 25 minutes talking there. I don't know whether my ad was completed or not. It was an ad on the Vegas and the Carousel.
My ads were completed, I believe, and after finishing my conversation with him, he left. Suddenly the man that completes my ads for me, that helps me with it on occasion--but I usually make it up myself--but the person that takes the money for the ads--this is the reason it is so hard for me to meet a deadline when I get downtown to the News Building. And as a rule, I have to pay cash for my ads.
When you are in debt, it is necessary, and they will not put it in unless you pay cash.
And consequently, the weekend, I had been to town on that particular day. All this adds up later on, as I will state why I didn't go to the parade.
In the first place, I don't want to go where there is big crowds. I can't explain it to you. If I was interested, I would have seen it on television, our beloved President and all the parade that transpired.
But all that adds up why it is important for me to be in the News Building.
I owe the Government quite a bit of money, and it is doing business out of your pocket, supposedly, in the slang expression.
Well, John Newnam comes in, and evidently he took it for granted I finished my ad, and I don't recall if he paid for his ad, and suddenly there is some milling around. I think it was 12, or 15 minutes after
12, I don't recall what, but John Newnam said someone had been shot. And I am sorry, I got carried away. It is the first time I got carried away, because I had been under pressure.
And someone else came running over and he said a Secret Service man was shot, or something to that effect. And I am here in the middle with John Newnam, because Newnam isn't paying any attention to anyone else, and there is a lot of going back and forth. So someone must have made a statement that Governor Connally was shot. I don't recall what was said. And I was in a state of hysteria, I mean. You say, "Oh my God, it can't happen." You carry on crazy sayings.
There was a little television set in one office not far away from where I had been sitting at the desk. I ran over there and noticed a little boy and a little sister say, "I was standing right there when it happened." I mean, different things you hear on the television.
Then the phone started ringing off the desk and I heard John Newnam say people were complaining about the ad, why they accepted this ad. (A tray of water and glasses was brought in.)
Thank you. Has every witness been this hesitant in trying to explain their story?
Chief Justice Warren. You are doing very well. I can understand why you have to reflect upon a story of that length.
Mr. Ruby. The phones were ringing off the desk calling various ads, and they were having a turmoil in that News Building because of a person by the name of Bernard Weissman placing that particular ad, a full page ad. I am sure you are familiar with the ad.
Chief Justice Warren. Yes; I am.
Mr. Ruby. Criticizing a lot of things about our beloved President. Then John Newnam and I and another gentleman walked over to another part of the room, and I heard John Newnam say, "I told him not to take that ad." Something to that effect.
Then he said, "Well, you have seen him pay part cash and come back and pay the balance."
Now everything is very vague to me as to when this transpired; after
they heard the President had been shot, or prior to that. You know it's been a long time, and I am under a very bad mental strain here.
Chief Justice Warren. Yes.
Mr. Ruby. From the time that we were told that the President was shot, 35 minutes later they said he had passed away. In the meantime, I became very emotional. I called my sister at home. She was carried away terribly bad. And John Newnam happened to be there, and I know it is a funny reaction you have, you want other people to feel that you feel emotionally disturbed the same way as other people, so I let John listen to the phone that my sister was crying hysterically.
And I said to John, I said, "John, I will have to leave Dallas." I
don't know why I said that, but it is a funny reaction that you feel;
the city is terribly let down by the tragedy that happened. And I
said, "John, I am not opening up tonight."
And I don't know what else transpired there. I know people were just
heartbroken. I left the room. I may have left out a few things. Mr. Moore remembers probably more, but you come back and question me and maybe I can answer those questions.
I left the building and I went down and I got my car, and I couldn't
stop crying, because naturally when I pulled up to a stoplight and
other people would be adjacent to me, I wouldn't want them to see me crying, because it looked kind of artificial.
And I went to the club and I came up, and I may have made a couple of calls from there. I could have called my colored boy, Andy, down at
the club. I could have--I don't know who else I would have called, but I could have, because it is so long now since my mind is very much warped now. You think that literally?
I went up to the club, and I told Andy, I said, "Call everyone and tell them we are not opening.
karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/issues_and_evidence/jack_ruby/Ruby_WCR_testimony_1.html
JACK LIED :
Ruby told SA Hall that he drove downtown and stopped at the News at 10:50 am.( In his testimony before the Commission, Jack placed the time of his arrival at "10;30 to 11;00") He wanted to be there in time to make the 12:00 noon deadline for placing his weekend ads. 20H (Hall Ex.3)49.
He told Hall that he believes he stopped for a moment and talked to two girls employed there, Gladys Craddock and a girl named Connelly or Connell. He thinks he gave them a bottle of Larson's CRD, a food supplement for persons on a diet. He then went to the office of Tony Zoppi, but Tony was not there. Ruby looked over a brochure there about Bill Demar, a Master of Ceremonies at the Carousel Club. Another employee of the News, a Mr.Payne may have been in Zoppi's office while Ruby was in there. 20H(Hall EX.3)49
Jack's statement was not true; he did not have a conversation with Craddock, nor Connelly or Connell and there was no "Mr.Payne" listed as an employee at the News. There was a Darwin Payne employed at the Dallas Times Herald.
In Cradock's statement , she revealed that she had been with the DMN since Aug. 29, 1963 and supplemented her income by working as a hostess at the Carousel at night while, at the same time, dating Jack. 22H (CE1479) 900.
In July of 1964, the Commission asked the FBI to re interview Craddock to determine where she had seen Jack at the News and have her explain the conversation she had with him. In the second interview. It was determined that Craddock had terminated her employment with the paper on July 29, 1964 and was now married and living in Gloster, Miss.. She said that she had worked on the ground floor of the paper and had seen Ruby at about 11:00 am on 11-22- 63. Craddock, now Mrs.Ivey, stated that she had no conversation with Ruby. At the time she noticed Jack he also observed her and turned to her and raised his voice and said,"Hi, the President is going to be here today." She then lost sight of Ruby and did not know whether he went to the elevator or left the building.
Mrs. Claire Conlon, the woman Ruby later claimed to have talked with about diet pills, worked with Craddock but was at lunch when Ruby encountered Craddock, who was alone at the time and waiting for Mrs. Conlon to return from lunch at 11:00 so she (Craddock) could go to lunch herself. Conlon never testified.
Another witness, Richard Saunders , an ad salesman at the News testified that he watched the motorcade from a position about 100 yards west of the underpass. When asked if he walked back to the News office, he said, "No, I was in my automobile. My car was parked at the underpass and I was outside my car at a police motorcade barrier." He also said that he had seen the President's car go by on the way to Parkland Hospital. He got in his car and drove back to his office where he saw Ruby standing by his (Saunder's ) desk. He estimated it took him 10 minutes to arrive at his office and he arrived at 12:40. He was insistent that the trip could be made in 10 minutes, however, he agreed that, with the general confusion around the area, the traffic was somewhat stacked up and waiting for a couple of lights to get back to the office did cause a delay.
If he was correct and he arrived at 12:40 and saw Ruby at his desk, it would be difficult to prove that Jack was at the TSBD at the time if the shooting. There were no time clocks at the News so it was Saunder's word. But, there was other evidence available to establish that Saunders was wrong.
He told the Commission that while standing next to his car at the underpass, he heard a directive over the police radio on one of the traffic motorcycles.
SAUNDERS....at that moment a directive came over the police radio on one of the motorcycles that the shooting came from-and they directed the personnel-whoever they were talking to over the radio to the given window, which has now been purported that from which the shots of the assassin came... They said - I believe-it was the next to the top floor, an open window-at the far right hand side, and then there was evidently some communication there which I missed, and they clarified, "No, as you are standing facing the building it would be on the sixth floor."
This transmission was made over Channel 1 at 12:37 by Patrolman Hill.
If Saunders heard the message at 12:37, it would have been impossible for him to return to his office by 12:40 and see "Ruby wandering around the office... shook up and ashen white, virtually speechless, which is quite unusual for Jack Ruby."
Another employee of the News who testified before the Commission was Billy A, Rea, a nine year veteran advertising salesman at the paper. The Comm. used his testimony to support their contention that Jack was in the building at the time that the President was shot, but on close examination, Rea's testimony does not help the Commission's conclusions.
In Rea's testimony, he reported that he had gone to lunch with a friend of his and returned to his office at "about between 12:30 and 12:40." He added:
I don't recall seeing Jack Ruby at the time. He should have been there but I don't remember seeing him, whether he was in the office at that time or not. About that time-we hadn't been in the office over a couple of minutes until these boys, the men I work with, some of them were actually at the scene of the assassination-they ran up there and told us that President Kennedy had been shot. 15H 573-574.
Later, Rea said that it was Jim Williams who told him about the shooting and the time was a "quarter to one." Rea had not seen Ruby up until that time. He then went upstairs to the editorial room, and returned to the ad office at 1;00 pm to see Jack "sitting at Don Campbell's desk." 15H 574.
MR. HUBERT: Was Newman with him?
REA: No.
MR.HUBERT: He was alone?
REA: He was alone.
So much for another witness to the Commission's argument for Ruby's presence in the News at the time of the shooting.
"... there is a double streak in the human mind, a streak of cunning secretiveness and a streak, perhaps of later origin, that makes us all anxious to tell and astonish and impress each other. Many people make secrets in order to have secrets to tell.-" H.G. Wells. Outline of History.
I can do this with every witness that you can name. So can anyone else if they take the time to read the testimony. Ruby was in the News earlier and returned after the shooting ,ahead of everyone else, because he was closer than any of them.
At 12;30, Jack was in front of the TSBD and had his picture taken by Phil Willis. See Trask , page 177. The man with the balding head with his back to the camera is Jack Ruby. Compare this picture with CE Ex 2441, 2442, and 2423.
Read; Where Was Jack Ruby on the 21st an 22nd of November
www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=48697&relPageId=13
More : Jack lied about Zoppi being in New Orleans. He did see Zoppi in the News that morning, however it was earlier than the time that Jack said he was in the News.
10:30 AM ZOPPI, Tony, Entertainment Reporter, Dallas Morning News: (Hereinafter referred as DMN) Stated Ruby visited him on November 22 at DMN. Jack wanted to discuss an ESP expert he wanted Zoppi to plug. Zoppi believed Ruby "to be too calm that morning to have been involved in a conspiracy".
11:30 AM AYNESWORTH, Hugh: reported seeing Ruby having breakfast in Dallas Morning News cafeteria. "about an hour before the assassination". ("Reporters Remember:11/33/63 Reporting the Kennedy Assassination, Hlavach and Payne, editors; 1996) p.30.
12:30–12:35 PM COUCH, Malcolm, employee of WFAA-TV: "heard" Wes Wise had seen Ruby 'coming around the side of the building (TSBD) following the assassination'. (6 H 160) This was pointed out as being in error, event took place on 11/23, See REPORTING THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION, Payne, WES WISE, 114.
12:30 PM FBI DOCUMENT 4/6/77, 62-109060-7699: Informant related that Ruby contacted him and asked if he would 'like to watch the fireworks.' He was with Jack, standing at the corner of the Postal
Annex Building facing the TSBD at the time of the shooting. According to informant—immediately following the shooting – Jack took off toward the area of the Dallas Morning News. (Courtesy of John Armstrong's research)
karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/issues_and_evidence/jack_ruby/Timeline_of_Ruby.html
Just a Shot Away : REPORTING THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION
Journalists Who Were There Recall Their Experiences. Edited by Laura Hlavach and Darwin Payne (Three Forks Press: $10, paper, 174 pp.)
articles.latimes.com/1996-11-24/books/bk-2384_1_kennedy-assassination/2
Zoppi told HSCA that he WAS there and Jack talked about a new apartment he was planning on renting, etc. Zoppi went on to really put Jack down. He said it was stupid to believe the Mob would have entrusted Jack with anything. Basically – that Jack was nuts. I have a book “Reporting the Kennedy Assassination” edited by Payne, 1996.
In 1993 all the reporters involved were invited to SMU to speak of their role that weekend in Dallas. Zoppi was front and center. He NEVER said “boo” about talking to Jack at DMN on Friday. What he did say was he was having lunch with friends at the Adolphus and they went out and stood on the Marquee to watch the parade. Interesting tid-bit about Zoppi: In January 1964 he was head of PR for the Riviera Hotel in Vegas. Pays to have “friends” in high places when you say the right passwords.
Ruby lies and more lies. --- Martha Moyer and R.F.Gallagher
Ruby, Ruby, Ruby.... Ruby lies and more lies...
By Raymond Gallagher 1/12
Testimony Of Mr. Jack Ruby
The President's Commission met at 11:45 a.m., on June 7, 1964, in the interrogation room of the Dallas County Jail, Main and Houston Streets, Dallas, Tex. Present were Chief Justice Earl Warren, Chairman; and Representative Gerald R. Ford, member. Also present were J. Lee Rankin, general counsel; Joseph A. Ball, assistant counsel; Arlen Specter, assistant counsel; Leon Jaworski and Robert G. Storey, special counsel to the attorney general of Texas; Jim Bowie, assistant district attorney; Joe H. Tonahill, attorney for Jack Ruby; Elmer W. Moore, special agent, U.S. Secret Service; and J. E. Decker, sheriff of Dallas County.
Jack: ".......Well, I retired that night after closing the club. Then I knew I wanted to go back to the Morning News Building to get the brochure I left, and also this complete page of longhand writing describing the various talents of this Bill DeMar.
I picked up the brochure that Friday morning, and I also had business at the News Building on Friday because that is the start of the weekend, which is very lucrative, the weekend.
I have ways of making my ads of where they have a way of selling the product I am producing or putting on the show....So I went down there Friday morning to Tony Zoppi's office, and they ( ? ) said SAID HE WENT TO NEW ORLEANS for a couple of days.
I picked up the brochure. I believe I got downtown there at 10:30 or 11 o'clock that morning.
And I took the brochure and then went into the main room where we compose our ads. That is the sales room where we placed our ads. And I remained there for a while. I started to write the copy of my ad. Now I go back to the same fellow that wanted me to come over to the club when we were having our dinner on Mockingbird at the Egyptian Lounge.
I came to the desk and I wanted to apologize and explain why I didn't accept his invitation last night. I wanted to explain, and that took about 20 or 25 minutes. All this is pertaining to everything prior to the terrible tragedy that happened.
I started to explain to him why I didn't want to go there, because this fellow mentioned--Tony, I think---I can't think of his last name of me having his band so many years, and I felt at the moment I didn't want to go over to the club because I didn't care to meet this fellow.
And he started to apologize, "Jack, I am sorry, I did work for the fellow and we have been advertising him for that club, and I am putting out a night club book."
I remained with him for 20 or 25 minutes talking there. I don't know whether my ad was completed or not. It was an ad on the Vegas and the Carousel.
My ads were completed, I believe, and after finishing my conversation with him, he left. Suddenly the man that completes my ads for me, that helps me with it on occasion--but I usually make it up myself--but the person that takes the money for the ads--this is the reason it is so hard for me to meet a deadline when I get downtown to the News Building. And as a rule, I have to pay cash for my ads.
When you are in debt, it is necessary, and they will not put it in unless you pay cash.
And consequently, the weekend, I had been to town on that particular day. All this adds up later on, as I will state why I didn't go to the parade.
In the first place, I don't want to go where there is big crowds. I can't explain it to you. If I was interested, I would have seen it on television, our beloved President and all the parade that transpired.
But all that adds up why it is important for me to be in the News Building.
I owe the Government quite a bit of money, and it is doing business out of your pocket, supposedly, in the slang expression.
Well, John Newnam comes in, and evidently he took it for granted I finished my ad, and I don't recall if he paid for his ad, and suddenly there is some milling around. I think it was 12, or 15 minutes after
12, I don't recall what, but John Newnam said someone had been shot. And I am sorry, I got carried away. It is the first time I got carried away, because I had been under pressure.
And someone else came running over and he said a Secret Service man was shot, or something to that effect. And I am here in the middle with John Newnam, because Newnam isn't paying any attention to anyone else, and there is a lot of going back and forth. So someone must have made a statement that Governor Connally was shot. I don't recall what was said. And I was in a state of hysteria, I mean. You say, "Oh my God, it can't happen." You carry on crazy sayings.
There was a little television set in one office not far away from where I had been sitting at the desk. I ran over there and noticed a little boy and a little sister say, "I was standing right there when it happened." I mean, different things you hear on the television.
Then the phone started ringing off the desk and I heard John Newnam say people were complaining about the ad, why they accepted this ad. (A tray of water and glasses was brought in.)
Thank you. Has every witness been this hesitant in trying to explain their story?
Chief Justice Warren. You are doing very well. I can understand why you have to reflect upon a story of that length.
Mr. Ruby. The phones were ringing off the desk calling various ads, and they were having a turmoil in that News Building because of a person by the name of Bernard Weissman placing that particular ad, a full page ad. I am sure you are familiar with the ad.
Chief Justice Warren. Yes; I am.
Mr. Ruby. Criticizing a lot of things about our beloved President. Then John Newnam and I and another gentleman walked over to another part of the room, and I heard John Newnam say, "I told him not to take that ad." Something to that effect.
Then he said, "Well, you have seen him pay part cash and come back and pay the balance."
Now everything is very vague to me as to when this transpired; after
they heard the President had been shot, or prior to that. You know it's been a long time, and I am under a very bad mental strain here.
Chief Justice Warren. Yes.
Mr. Ruby. From the time that we were told that the President was shot, 35 minutes later they said he had passed away. In the meantime, I became very emotional. I called my sister at home. She was carried away terribly bad. And John Newnam happened to be there, and I know it is a funny reaction you have, you want other people to feel that you feel emotionally disturbed the same way as other people, so I let John listen to the phone that my sister was crying hysterically.
And I said to John, I said, "John, I will have to leave Dallas." I
don't know why I said that, but it is a funny reaction that you feel;
the city is terribly let down by the tragedy that happened. And I
said, "John, I am not opening up tonight."
And I don't know what else transpired there. I know people were just
heartbroken. I left the room. I may have left out a few things. Mr. Moore remembers probably more, but you come back and question me and maybe I can answer those questions.
I left the building and I went down and I got my car, and I couldn't
stop crying, because naturally when I pulled up to a stoplight and
other people would be adjacent to me, I wouldn't want them to see me crying, because it looked kind of artificial.
And I went to the club and I came up, and I may have made a couple of calls from there. I could have called my colored boy, Andy, down at
the club. I could have--I don't know who else I would have called, but I could have, because it is so long now since my mind is very much warped now. You think that literally?
I went up to the club, and I told Andy, I said, "Call everyone and tell them we are not opening.
karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/issues_and_evidence/jack_ruby/Ruby_WCR_testimony_1.html
JACK LIED :
Ruby told SA Hall that he drove downtown and stopped at the News at 10:50 am.( In his testimony before the Commission, Jack placed the time of his arrival at "10;30 to 11;00") He wanted to be there in time to make the 12:00 noon deadline for placing his weekend ads. 20H (Hall Ex.3)49.
He told Hall that he believes he stopped for a moment and talked to two girls employed there, Gladys Craddock and a girl named Connelly or Connell. He thinks he gave them a bottle of Larson's CRD, a food supplement for persons on a diet. He then went to the office of Tony Zoppi, but Tony was not there. Ruby looked over a brochure there about Bill Demar, a Master of Ceremonies at the Carousel Club. Another employee of the News, a Mr.Payne may have been in Zoppi's office while Ruby was in there. 20H(Hall EX.3)49
Jack's statement was not true; he did not have a conversation with Craddock, nor Connelly or Connell and there was no "Mr.Payne" listed as an employee at the News. There was a Darwin Payne employed at the Dallas Times Herald.
In Cradock's statement , she revealed that she had been with the DMN since Aug. 29, 1963 and supplemented her income by working as a hostess at the Carousel at night while, at the same time, dating Jack. 22H (CE1479) 900.
In July of 1964, the Commission asked the FBI to re interview Craddock to determine where she had seen Jack at the News and have her explain the conversation she had with him. In the second interview. It was determined that Craddock had terminated her employment with the paper on July 29, 1964 and was now married and living in Gloster, Miss.. She said that she had worked on the ground floor of the paper and had seen Ruby at about 11:00 am on 11-22- 63. Craddock, now Mrs.Ivey, stated that she had no conversation with Ruby. At the time she noticed Jack he also observed her and turned to her and raised his voice and said,"Hi, the President is going to be here today." She then lost sight of Ruby and did not know whether he went to the elevator or left the building.
Mrs. Claire Conlon, the woman Ruby later claimed to have talked with about diet pills, worked with Craddock but was at lunch when Ruby encountered Craddock, who was alone at the time and waiting for Mrs. Conlon to return from lunch at 11:00 so she (Craddock) could go to lunch herself. Conlon never testified.
Another witness, Richard Saunders , an ad salesman at the News testified that he watched the motorcade from a position about 100 yards west of the underpass. When asked if he walked back to the News office, he said, "No, I was in my automobile. My car was parked at the underpass and I was outside my car at a police motorcade barrier." He also said that he had seen the President's car go by on the way to Parkland Hospital. He got in his car and drove back to his office where he saw Ruby standing by his (Saunder's ) desk. He estimated it took him 10 minutes to arrive at his office and he arrived at 12:40. He was insistent that the trip could be made in 10 minutes, however, he agreed that, with the general confusion around the area, the traffic was somewhat stacked up and waiting for a couple of lights to get back to the office did cause a delay.
If he was correct and he arrived at 12:40 and saw Ruby at his desk, it would be difficult to prove that Jack was at the TSBD at the time if the shooting. There were no time clocks at the News so it was Saunder's word. But, there was other evidence available to establish that Saunders was wrong.
He told the Commission that while standing next to his car at the underpass, he heard a directive over the police radio on one of the traffic motorcycles.
SAUNDERS....at that moment a directive came over the police radio on one of the motorcycles that the shooting came from-and they directed the personnel-whoever they were talking to over the radio to the given window, which has now been purported that from which the shots of the assassin came... They said - I believe-it was the next to the top floor, an open window-at the far right hand side, and then there was evidently some communication there which I missed, and they clarified, "No, as you are standing facing the building it would be on the sixth floor."
This transmission was made over Channel 1 at 12:37 by Patrolman Hill.
If Saunders heard the message at 12:37, it would have been impossible for him to return to his office by 12:40 and see "Ruby wandering around the office... shook up and ashen white, virtually speechless, which is quite unusual for Jack Ruby."
Another employee of the News who testified before the Commission was Billy A, Rea, a nine year veteran advertising salesman at the paper. The Comm. used his testimony to support their contention that Jack was in the building at the time that the President was shot, but on close examination, Rea's testimony does not help the Commission's conclusions.
In Rea's testimony, he reported that he had gone to lunch with a friend of his and returned to his office at "about between 12:30 and 12:40." He added:
I don't recall seeing Jack Ruby at the time. He should have been there but I don't remember seeing him, whether he was in the office at that time or not. About that time-we hadn't been in the office over a couple of minutes until these boys, the men I work with, some of them were actually at the scene of the assassination-they ran up there and told us that President Kennedy had been shot. 15H 573-574.
Later, Rea said that it was Jim Williams who told him about the shooting and the time was a "quarter to one." Rea had not seen Ruby up until that time. He then went upstairs to the editorial room, and returned to the ad office at 1;00 pm to see Jack "sitting at Don Campbell's desk." 15H 574.
MR. HUBERT: Was Newman with him?
REA: No.
MR.HUBERT: He was alone?
REA: He was alone.
So much for another witness to the Commission's argument for Ruby's presence in the News at the time of the shooting.
"... there is a double streak in the human mind, a streak of cunning secretiveness and a streak, perhaps of later origin, that makes us all anxious to tell and astonish and impress each other. Many people make secrets in order to have secrets to tell.-" H.G. Wells. Outline of History.
I can do this with every witness that you can name. So can anyone else if they take the time to read the testimony. Ruby was in the News earlier and returned after the shooting ,ahead of everyone else, because he was closer than any of them.
At 12;30, Jack was in front of the TSBD and had his picture taken by Phil Willis. See Trask , page 177. The man with the balding head with his back to the camera is Jack Ruby. Compare this picture with CE Ex 2441, 2442, and 2423.
Read; Where Was Jack Ruby on the 21st an 22nd of November
www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=48697&relPageId=13
More : Jack lied about Zoppi being in New Orleans. He did see Zoppi in the News that morning, however it was earlier than the time that Jack said he was in the News.
10:30 AM ZOPPI, Tony, Entertainment Reporter, Dallas Morning News: (Hereinafter referred as DMN) Stated Ruby visited him on November 22 at DMN. Jack wanted to discuss an ESP expert he wanted Zoppi to plug. Zoppi believed Ruby "to be too calm that morning to have been involved in a conspiracy".
11:30 AM AYNESWORTH, Hugh: reported seeing Ruby having breakfast in Dallas Morning News cafeteria. "about an hour before the assassination". ("Reporters Remember:11/33/63 Reporting the Kennedy Assassination, Hlavach and Payne, editors; 1996) p.30.
12:30–12:35 PM COUCH, Malcolm, employee of WFAA-TV: "heard" Wes Wise had seen Ruby 'coming around the side of the building (TSBD) following the assassination'. (6 H 160) This was pointed out as being in error, event took place on 11/23, See REPORTING THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION, Payne, WES WISE, 114.
12:30 PM FBI DOCUMENT 4/6/77, 62-109060-7699: Informant related that Ruby contacted him and asked if he would 'like to watch the fireworks.' He was with Jack, standing at the corner of the Postal
Annex Building facing the TSBD at the time of the shooting. According to informant—immediately following the shooting – Jack took off toward the area of the Dallas Morning News. (Courtesy of John Armstrong's research)
karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/issues_and_evidence/jack_ruby/Timeline_of_Ruby.html
Just a Shot Away : REPORTING THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION
Journalists Who Were There Recall Their Experiences. Edited by Laura Hlavach and Darwin Payne (Three Forks Press: $10, paper, 174 pp.)
articles.latimes.com/1996-11-24/books/bk-2384_1_kennedy-assassination/2
Zoppi told HSCA that he WAS there and Jack talked about a new apartment he was planning on renting, etc. Zoppi went on to really put Jack down. He said it was stupid to believe the Mob would have entrusted Jack with anything. Basically – that Jack was nuts. I have a book “Reporting the Kennedy Assassination” edited by Payne, 1996.
In 1993 all the reporters involved were invited to SMU to speak of their role that weekend in Dallas. Zoppi was front and center. He NEVER said “boo” about talking to Jack at DMN on Friday. What he did say was he was having lunch with friends at the Adolphus and they went out and stood on the Marquee to watch the parade. Interesting tid-bit about Zoppi: In January 1964 he was head of PR for the Riviera Hotel in Vegas. Pays to have “friends” in high places when you say the right passwords.
Ruby lies and more lies. --- Martha Moyer and R.F.Gallagher