Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Analysis of Ruby-Oswald Sighting Claims

The Commission analyzed all claims that Ruby and Oswald were seen together, noting none of the witnesses had particular reason to pay close attention to the men, substantial time elapsed before the sightings became meaningful, and unlike eyewitnesses to the November 22 assassination, none reported their observations soon after Oswald was arrested. The Commission encountered numerous clear identification errors during its investigation, including at least four people other than Larry Crafard who were mistaken for Oswald, and others misidentified as Jack Ruby. Under all available evidence, there is no substantial likelihood that the man witnesses claimed to have seen with Ruby was actually Lee Harvey Oswald.

Review of Other Ruby-Oswald Association Evidence

The Commission examined other potential evidence of a Ruby-Oswald connection beyond witness sightings. Both men lived in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, just over a mile apart after Oswald returned from Mexico, but none of their numerous interviewed neighbors knew of any association between them. Their daily schedules and travel routes did not overlap: Oswald worked 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. weekdays, took public transportation that did not pass near Ruby’s home or Carousel Club, returned directly to his roominghouse after work, and was not known to visit nightclubs; Ruby stayed at his apartment until after 9 a.m. each day, drove to his club via a nearby freeway, and was at the Carousel Club from 9 p.m. to after 1 a.m. While they occasionally patronized the same stores, no evidence indicates they met there, and a restaurant Ruby frequented where Oswald occasionally ate breakfast had widely separated patronage times with no employee awareness of an acquaintance. They held post office boxes at the same Dallas terminal annex, but their divergent schedules made even a coincidental encounter unlikely, and Oswald’s withdrawn personality made a conversation improbable if they had crossed paths. Investigation of possible social links found no evidence of acquaintance: John Carter, a boarder at Oswald’s former roominghouse, was friendly with Wanda Joyce Killam (a former Ruby employee), but Killam stated Carter never visited the Carousel Club and likely did not know Ruby, and Carter confirmed he had never heard of Ruby until the shooting. Earlene Roberts’ sister Bertha Cheek visited Ruby at the Carousel Club on November 18, 1963, to discuss backing a new nightclub venture with Ruby and an interior decorator, but Cheek stated she had not heard of Oswald before November 22, and there is no evidence Ruby associated with Roberts. William F. Simmons, a pianist who worked at the Carousel Club and lived near Ruth Paine’s home (where Oswald’s family resided), stated he did not know Oswald and never saw him at the club. Rumors that both men were homosexual and thus acquainted were unsupported by evidence, with close acquaintances of both denying the claims, and Ruby’s clubs were not known to be frequented by homosexuals. Finally, Marguerite Oswald testified that before the assassination, FBI Agent Bardwell D. Odum showed her a photograph she believed was Jack Ruby, but investigation determined the photo Odum showed was not of Ruby: it was a CIA photo of a man potentially linked to Oswald, taken outside the U.S. between July 1 and November 22, 1963 (when Ruby was in the country), trimmed differently than the copy shown to Marguerite during Commission testimony.

Ruby’s Background and Associations

This section covers Jack Ruby’s background and associations, noting that study of his history (detailed further in appendix XVI) leads to the firm conclusion he had no ties to individuals or groups that would have eliminated the need for direct contact with Oswald near the time of the assassination. Ruby was a rigorously independent person who moved from his family home at age 16, relocated from Chicago to Dallas in 1947 with only sporadic contact with most of his family, and was almost continuously self-employed for most of his working life, preferring to operate independently even when he had temporary business partners.