Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy (90 page)

Long after the Warren Commission had issued its report in the fall of 1964, while waiting for the outcome of his conviction appeal, Ruby
apparently wrote a sixteen-page letter to a fellow prisoner who was leaving
the jail. Ruby asked the prisoner to memorize names and facts in the letter,
then destroy it. The prisoner, identified only as "John," decided instead to
sell the letter, and it ended up in the hands of long-time researcher Penn
Jones. Jones purchased the letter from New York autograph dealer Charles
Hamilton, who had the document appraised as authentic.

The letter is disjointed, rambling, and full of references to Nazis, the
death of Jews and, most intriguing, derogatory references to Lyndon
Johnson. Many researchers, as improbable as it seems, feel Ruby's letter,
though written in a state of questionable mental equilibrium, laid bare
some of his secret knowledge and fears. He wrote:

First, you must realize that the people here want everyone to think I am
crazy, so if what I know is actually [sic], and then no one will believe
me, because of my supposed insanity. Now, I know that my time is
running out . . . they plan on doing away with [me].... As soon as
you get out you must read Texan looks at Lyndon [A Texan Looks at
Lyndon: A Study in Illegitimate Power, by J. Evetts Haley; Palo Duro
Press, 1964] and it might open your eyes to a lot of things. This man
[Johnson] is a Nazi in the worst order. For over a year now they have
been doing away with my people. . . . don't believe the Warren report,
that was only put out to make me look innocent in that it would throw
the Americans and all the European country's [sic] off guard... .
There are so many things that have been played with success that it
would take all nite to write them out. . . . There wouldn't be any
purpose of my writing you all of this unless your were convinced of
how much I loved my country. . . . I am going to die a horrible death
anyway, so what would I have to gain by writing all this. So you must
believe me. . . . Johnson is going to try to have an all-out war with
Russia and when that happens, Johnson and his cohorts will be on the
side-lines where they won't get hurt, while the Americans may get
wiped out. The only way this can be avoided is that if Russia would be
informed as to [who] the real enemies are, and in that way they won't
be tricked into starting a war with the U.S. . . . One more thing, isn't it
strange that Oswald who hasn't worked a lick most of his life, should be
fortunate enough to get a job at the Book Bldg. two wks. before the
president himself didn't know as to when he was to visit Dallas, now
where would a jerk like Oswald get the information that the president
was coming to Dallas. Only one person could have had that information, and that man was Johnson who knew weeks in advance as to what
was going to happen because he is the one who was going to arrange the
trip for president, this had been planned long before president himself
knew about [it], so you figure that one out. The only one who gained by
the shooting of the president was Johnson, and he was in a car in the rear and safe when the shooting took place. What would the Russians,
Castro or anyone else have to gain by eliminating the president. If
Johnson was so heartbroken over Kennedy, why didn't he do something
for Robert Kennedy'? All he did was snub him.

In yet a second letter smuggled out of the Dallas County Jail, Ruby was
more blunt in his accusations. Researcher Gary Shaw quotes Ruby as
writing:

.. . they found some very clever means and ways to trick me and which
will be used later as evidence to show the American people that I was
part of the conspiracy in the assassination of [the] president, and I was
used to silence Oswald.. . . They alone planned the killing, by they I
mean Johnson and others.... read the book Texas Looks At Lyndon
[another reference to Haley's book] and you may learn quite a bit about
Johnson and how he has fooled everyone.... In all the history of the
U.S. never has a president been elected that has the background of
Johnson. Believe me, compared to him I am a Saint.

Not long before his death, Ruby was interviewed by psychiatrist Werner
Teuter. Perhaps realizing his end was near, Ruby told Teuter the assassination was "an act of overthrowing the government" and that he knew
"who had President Kennedy killed." He added: "I am doomed. I do not
want to die. But I am not insane. I was framed to kill Oswald."

These comments will always intrigue researchers. Was Ruby merely
speculating or were his messages born of secret knowledge? Did he know
that Johnson and the people behind him wanted war-only mistaking
Russia for Asia? And were his warnings of Nazis taking over rooted
somewhere in a knowledge of the mentality of the people he knew were
behind the assassination?

Or were his missives only the delusions of a man unhinged by his
captivity and the belief that forces were out to destroy him?

An answer may be found in a study of Ruby's mysterious death.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Ruby's conviction on
October 5, 1966 and ordered a new trial. On December 7, 1966, his new
trial was ordered moved from Dallas to Wichita Falls, a small Texas city
near the Oklahoma border. There was every likelihood that within another
month or two, Ruby would walk free after his time in jail was counted
against a probable short prison term for murder without malice. He certainly would have been allowed to post bond.

On December 9, 1966, two days after his new trial site had been
announced, Ruby was moved from the Dallas County Jail to Parkland
Hospital after complaining of persistent coughing and nausea.

Doctors initially diagnosed his problem as "pneumonia." The next day,
however, the diagnosis was changed to cancer and within just a few more days, it was announced that Ruby's lung cancer was too far advanced to be
treated by surgery or radiation.

On the evening of January 2, 1967, doctors suspected that blood clots
were forming and they administered oxygen and Ruby seemed to recover.
But about 9 A.M. the next day, he suffered a spasm and, despite emergency
procedures, he was pronounced dead at 10:30 A.M. January 3, 1967.

One of his attorneys told newsmen: "His death was a merciful release."

Shortly before his death, Ruby's brother Earl smuggled a tape recorder
into Parkland and later produced a short record that was sold to Capitol
Records. The proceeds from this record, in which Ruby simply reiterated
the official account of his actions-including his Cuban travels, which the
House Select Committee on Assassinations proved false-was used to pay
for his burial expenses. This record also once again put the public off
guard by repeating the same story reported in 1963-64.

An autopsy by Dallas County medical examiner Dr. Earl Rose showed
the heaviest concentration of cancer cells in Ruby's right lung. However,
Dr. Rose determined the immediate cause of death was pulmonary
embolism-a massive blood clot had formed in a leg, passed through the
heart, and lodged in Ruby's lung. There were traces of white cancerous
tumors coursing throughout Ruby's body. Ruby's doctors had said they
believed his cancer had originated in the pancreas, but Dr. Rose found
Ruby's pancreas perfectly normal.

With the announcement of his inoperable cancer, there was immediate
and widespread suspicion that Ruby had been maneuvered into killing
Oswald knowing he had only a short time to live. Dr. Rose was asked by
the House Committee if there was any chance that Ruby could have known
about his cancer in November 1963. He said no.

Yet questions remain-especially among those close to Ruby in his last
months.

Deputy Sheriff Al Maddox told researchers in 1982:

We had a phony doctor come in to [the Dallas County Jail] from
Chicago, just as phony and as queer as a three-dollar bill. And he
worked his way in through-I don't know, whoever supplied the county
at that time with doctors. . . . you could tell he was Ruby's doctor. He
spent half his time up there talking with Ruby. And one day I went in
and Ruby told me, he said, "Well, they injected me for a cold." He said
it was cancer cells. That's what he told me, Ruby did. I said you don't
believe that shit. He said, "I damn sure do!" I never said anything to
Decker or anybody. . . . [Then] one day when I started to leave, Ruby
shook hands with me and I could feel a piece of paper in his palm. . . .
[In this note] he said it was a conspiracy and he said . . . if you will
keep your eyes open and your mouth shut, you're gonna learn a lot.
And that was the last letter I ever got from him.

Maddox was not the only lawman to suspect that Ruby's death was not
entirely natural. Policeman Tom Tilson has told researchers:

It was the opinion of a number of other Dallas police officers that Ruby
had received injections of cancer while he was incarcerated in the Dallas
County Jail following the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald.

At least one former Dallas lawman offered a more mundane explanation
for Ruby's sudden and rampant cancer. He told this author: "Hell, it
wasn't any big deal. They just took Ruby in for X-rays and had him wait
in the X-ray room. While he sat there for fifteen or twenty minutes or
more, they just left the X-ray machine on him."

Bruce McCarty operated an electron microscope at Southwest Medical
School near Parkland. He told this author that he was called back to work
during the holidays in 1966 to make a study of Ruby's cancer cells.
McCarty explained that there are two types of cancer cells-cilia,
which indicate an origin in the respiratory system, and microvilli, indicating an origin in the digestive system. These cells are difficult to
differentiate with a regular microscope, hence the need for his electron
microscope.

McCarty confirmed that Ruby's cells were microvilli, indicating his
cancer originated in the digestive system. He was shocked when it was
announced that Ruby died from lung cancer.

Could Ruby have been injected with live cancer cells, which could
account for the presence of the microvilli? Traditional medical science
claims this is impossible.

While none of this information establishes beyond doubt that Jack Ruby
was somehow eliminated through cancer, it certainly shows there is cause
enough for researchers to be highly suspicious of his sudden and convenient death.

With the death of the two men who might have shed light on the lines of
communication within a plot to kill the President-Oswald and Rubyresearchers were left only with a vast amount of evidence, much of which
seems insubstantial when studied at close hand.

The background of Jack Ruby is laced with mob associates and contacts
that lasted right up to the eve of the Kennedy assassination.

Beginning as a runner for Al Capone in Chicago, Ruby maintained
connections with mobsters associated with top Mafia bosses-such as
Carlos Marcello, Sam Giancana, and Santos Trafficante. He also was in
touch with associates of Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa. All of these men are said to have issued death threats against President Kennedy and
his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

Add to this the abundance of information linking Ruby to gun-running
activities involving CIA agents, mercenaries, and anti-Castro Cuban exiles
and his possible position as an FBI informant in 1959.

Obviously Jack Ruby was much more than simply an overwrought
nightclub owner who shot Lee Harvey Oswald to save Mrs. Kennedy the
trauma of returning to Dallas to testify at Oswald's trial. In fact, his note
to lawyer Joe Tonahill proves this widely reported motive to be only a
cynical legal ploy.

Since Ruby lied repeatedly both about his motive and his connection to
Cuban gun running, it is reasonable to conclude that his statements claiming no prior contact with Oswald cannot be accepted without severe
question.

The abundance of evidence available today leads most researchers to the
belief that an ongoing relationship between Ruby and Oswald did in fact
exist prior to the assassination.

The fascinating story of Rose Cheramie-a woman with improbable
foreknowledge of the assassination-takes on some meaning in light of her
claim to have worked for Ruby.

Evidence also has grown-and been accepted by House Select Committee on Assassinations chief counsel Robert G. Blakey-that Ruby stalked
Oswald throughout the assassination weekend. This lends extra credence to
the widely held belief that Ruby's shooting of Oswald was not a spontaneous act-but rather a deliberate move to silence the accused assassin.

The act may well have been ordered by someone who had significant
power over Ruby.

It is also instructive to note the number of persons who had access to
Ruby or his environs who died suddenly-such as newswoman Dorothy
Kilgallen.

Ruby himself tried to warn Chief Justice Warren and others that a
conspiracy was taking place and that "a whole new form of government is
going to take over the country." He begged to be taken to Washington
eight times claiming ". . . my life is in danger here." Later, in messages
smuggled out of the Dallas County Jail, Ruby confessed, ". . . I was used
to silence Oswald. " He bluntly stated that "Lyndon Johnson and others
... were behind the assassination.

In the winter of 1967 just as a new trial had been ordered and it
seemed that Ruby might become accessible to the news media-he developed a case-of-sudden cancer and died in less than a month.

It seemed that Ruby's fear of death in Dallas-as expressed to the
Warren Commission-was justified.

We were told not to study those bullet marks by the FBI.

-Reenactment surveyor Chester Breneman

There was never a lack of evidence in the assassination of President
Kennedy. In addition to the several hundred witnesses in Dealey Plaza,
there was an abundance of film and still pictures as well as a great deal of
physical evidence.