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

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.