Police Associations
The evidence indicates that Ruby was keenly interested in the work of the Dallas Police Department, and that his police friendships were considerably more widespread than those of the average Dallas citizen, even though Chief Jesse Curry estimated that no more than 25 to 50 of Dallas’s roughly 1,200 officers were personally acquainted with him. There is no credible evidence that Ruby sought special favors or attempted to bribe officers, though he routinely extended them reduced rates, free cover charges, and complimentary coffee and soft drinks—hospitality characterized as unremarkable for a Dallas nightclub operator. Ruby’s personal attachment to the police is further evidenced by his attendance at the funeral of a policeman killed in action, his staging of a benefit performance for another officer’s widow, his treatment of several officers as personal friends, his employment of others, and the marriage of at least one officer to a Carousel stripper.
Underworld Ties
From his arrival in Dallas in 1947, Ruby associated with numerous underworld figures, including Paul Roland Jones (convicted of attempting to bribe the Dallas sheriff and of narcotics sales) and Joe Bonds, his partner in the Vegas Club, who had a criminal record. Ruby was friendly with several professional gamblers, enjoyed card playing and horse racing, and in 1959 accepted an invitation to visit Cuba at the expense of gambler Lewis McWillie; his gambling acquaintances also included Sidney Seidband and others whose names appeared on gamblers’ contact lists. Although two persons of questionable reliability claimed that Ruby’s consent was necessary before gambling or narcotics operations could be launched in Dallas, the Commission concluded that the evidence does not establish a significant link between Ruby and organized crime, a view corroborated by State and Federal officials and by numerous other persons interviewed.
Travels
Most of Ruby’s time after 1947 was spent in Dallas, but documented or reported trips included Havana (1959), Las Vegas (denied after 1937 but rumored in late 1962 and early November 1963), New York (August 1963, tied to American Guild of Variety Artists difficulties and talent scouting), Chicago (1952, 1958 for his father’s death, and August 1963 to meet family at O’Hare), New Orleans (June 1963, discussed in connection with “Little Daddy” Nelson), Wichita, Kansas (early 1963, related to stripper Gail Raven), and an Oklahoma motel registration on May 25, 1963; some evidence also suggests a possible Honolulu trip in summer 1961 to recruit dancing talent. The 1959 Havana trip, undertaken at McWillie’s expense, was corroborated in part by McWillie and by three Chicagoans who reported seeing Ruby there during the Labor Day weekend, as well as by Meyer Panitz, who met Ruby in Miami during the summer of 1959 upon Ruby’s return from Cuba; the Commission found no reliable evidence that Ruby traveled to Havana after September 1959 and discussed any conspiratorial implications of the trip in chapter VI.
CHARACTER AND INTERESTS
The Commission examined Ruby’s family, social, religious, recreational, and psychological profile to establish a baseline understanding of his personality. The subsections that follow address his relationships with siblings (especially his sister Eva Grant) and other family members, his dating history and the question of alleged homosexuality, his affection for dogs, his Jewish religious observance and sensitivity to anti-Jewish remarks, his physical regimen and recurring violent behavior as an unofficial bouncer at his clubs, and his pattern of generous financial and personal support to friends alongside a pronounced need for recognition and attention.
Family Relationships
Eva Grant, the only sibling living in Dallas when Ruby returned in late 1947, was the family member to whom he felt closest despite recurring arguments that sometimes became physical; a notable summer 1963 altercation occurred when Ruby, angered over Eva’s complaints that he had given a friend about $800 rather than pay Vegas Club bills, shoved her and caused her to fall roughly eight feet, injuring her arm and shoulder. In early November 1963 Eva consented to an operation Ruby had long urged; she was hospitalized for about a week, leaving around November 13, and Ruby visited her two or three times daily and remained in constant contact over the November 22 weekend. Sam Ruby moved from Chicago to Dallas in July 1955 at Eva’s suggestion to work as a builder; he and Jack were never particularly close, partly because of an unpaid $5,500 loan, but Sam did enter into a partnership with Jack’s friend Ralph Paul in an unsuccessful ice cream business. Jack had sporadic contacts with his brother Earl (who moved from Chicago to Detroit around 1960), the most successful of the brothers, who often supplied business advice and capital; Earl estimated that Jack owed him about $15,000 at the time of his arrest. Jack also borrowed at least $1,000, and probably more, from his sister Marion in Chicago.
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