Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy (85 page)

Another fascinating story was offered by former Dallas cabdriver Raymond Cummings. During the Garrison investigation, Cummings saw a
news story with a photograph of David Ferrie and Ferrie's claim that he
had never been in Dallas. Cummings contacted Garrison's office to tell
how he had driven David Ferrie and Lee Harvey Oswald to Ruby's
Carousel Club in the early part-of 1963.

Even more convincing are the accounts of Ruby and Oswald together
offered by employees of the Carousel Club. William D. Crowe, Jr., a
magician and entertainer who was using the stage name Bill DeMar and
performing in Ruby's Carousel Club at the time of the assassination, called
a news media friend right after Oswald's arrest. He said Oswald had
participated in his act just about a week prior to the assassination.

On November 25, Crowe told the Associated Press he was "positive"
Oswald had patronized Ruby's club. He said:

I have a memory act in which I have 20 customers call out various
objects in rapid order. Then I tell them at random what they called out. I
am positive Oswald was one of the men that called out an object about
nine days ago.

Crowe later told the Dallas Morning News that after the Associated
Press story appeared, he was contacted by FBI agents who told him to
check out of his Dallas hotel and go into hiding.

The Warren Commission Report went to great lengths to downplay
Crowe's story, including quoting Crowe as saying: ". . . I never stated
definitely, positively [that I saw Oswald], and they said I did, and all in
all, what they had in the paper was hardly even close to what I told them."

Crowe was not asked why he told the same story of seeing Oswald to
Dallas Morning News reporter Kent Biffle several days later.

The Warren Commission likewise brushed off the testimony of Dallas
electronics salesman Robert K. Patterson, who said that Jack Ruby along
with a man who looked like Oswald bought some equipment from him on
November 1, 1963. Commissioners said Ruby's companion most likely
was a Carousel Club employee named Larry Crafard who "bears a strong
resemblance to Oswald."

The Commission noted that at least four other persons had told them of
seeing Oswald in the Carousel Club, but these stories also were dismissed.

The Commission made no mention of Rose Cheramie or Beverly Oliver,
the Dealey Plaza assassination witness who told researchers she was
introduced to "Lee Oswald of the CIA" by Ruby a few weeks before the
assassination.

Oliver, now a Christian evangelist using another name, told British
television:

I purposely waited this long [to publicly tell the story] because I felt
threatened . . . I didn't want to become another statistic. About two
weeks prior to the assassination, between shows [She was a singer at the
nearby Colony Club and would frequently visit Ruby's Carousel Club],
I trotted over. There was this girl who danced there by the name of Jada.
And she was sitting at a table with Jack Ruby and another man. I went
and sat down with them to have a drink. As I sat down, Ruby introduced me to this man. He said, "Beverly, this is my friend Lee." And
after Jack Ruby went into the police station and killed Lee Harvey
Oswald, it was then I realized it was the man I had met in the club two
weeks before the assassination . . . Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald
were linked together but I don't know how . . . But I know in my heart
that Lee Harvey Oswald, or the man shot in the police station, was the
man I met in the club two weeks before the assassination.

She also told researcher Gary Shaw of meeting David Ferrie in the
Carousel Club. She said Ferrie was there so often that she initially took
him to be assistant manager of the club.

This story is buttressed by other Carousel employees who recalled
seeing Ruby and Oswald together.

Karen Bennett Carlin, who danced in Ruby's club using the name "Little Lynn," was the woman to whom Ruby mailed a twenty-five-dollar
money order minutes before shooting Oswald. Interviewed by the FBI on
November, 24, 1963, Carlin "seemed on the verge of hysteria." FBI
agent Roger C. Warner reported:

Mrs. Carlin was highly agitated and was reluctant to make any statement to me. She stated to me that she was under the impression that Lee
Oswald, Jack Ruby, and other individuals unknown to her, were involved in a plot to assassinate President Kennedy and that she would be
killed if she gave any information to the authorities.

Another Ruby dancer, Janet Adams Conforto, known as "Jada," told
Dallas newsmen shortly after the assassination that she had seen Oswald in
the Carousel Club. Likewise, Bill Willis, a musician at the club, reportedly recalled Oswald sitting "right in the corner of the [Club's] stage and
runway. "

Ruby stripper Kathy Kay told the Dallas Times Herald in 1975 that she
recalled seeing Oswald in the club and even danced with him on one
occasion.

This account is supported by Bobbie Louise Meserole, who danced at
the Carousel club under the name Shari Angel. Meserole, now an ordained
minister in Dallas who remembers Jack Ruby fondly, told this author she
recalled conversations with Kathy Kay and others in which they laughingly
told how Ruby had ordered Kay to dance a bump and grind to embarrass
Oswald.

But the most ominous story of this kind came from Shari Angel's
husband, Walter "Wally" Weston, who was the Carousel Club's master
of ceremonies until five days before the assassination. In a 1976 interview
with the New York Daily News, Weston said he had seen Oswald with
Ruby in the Carousel Club at least twice prior to the assassination. Weston
recalled:

I was working in the club one night approximately three weeks before
the assassination. I was on stage, doing my bit, and this guy was
standing near the back wall. The club was pretty crowded. The guy
walked up in the middle of the club, right in front of the stage, and for
no reason he said, "I think you're a Communist." I said, "Sir, I'm an
American. Why don't you sit down." He said, "Well, I still think
you're a Communist," so I jumped off the stage and hit him. Jack was
right behind him when I hit him. He landed in Jack's arms and Jack
grabbed him and said, "You [son of a bitch], I told you never to come
in here." And he wrestled him to the door and threw him down the stairs.

After the assassination, Weston said he recognized Oswald as the man
in the club but did not say anything when questioned briefly by the FBI and a Dallas detective because he was afraid after discussing the matter
with other Carousel employees. He said:

[Carousel drummer] Billy Willis saw me hit [Oswald]. When I discussed it with him [and dancer Kathy Kay], he said, "Wally, the best
thing to do is to stay out of it. Just keep your mouth shut. Don't say
anything. That's what I'm going to do. I don't want any part of this."

Weston visited Ruby in jail several times. He recalled: "The one time I
mentioned it to him, I said, `Jack, wasn't that the guy I hit in the club?'
He just looked at me and didn't say yes or no."

Another reason Weston decided to talk in 1976 was that he claimed to
have "bumped into" a gangster in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who had been
at a meeting with Ruby in the Carousel Club five days before the assassination. In an published interview, Weston said: "(This guy] said to me, `I
know you, you were Jack Ruby's emcee.' I asked him when he had been
at the Carousel Club and he told me he was at the table the night the gun
went on the floor."

The shaken Weston vividly recalled that night:

There was a meeting held at Jack Ruby's club the night I left there,
which was five days before the assassination of President Kennedy.
There were approximately six to eight guys from Chicago who came
into the club-friends of Jack Ruby. I first really noticed them at about
1:30 in the morning, right before closing. Four of them were sitting at a
front table, the rest hung around the bar. I was on stage telling jokes and
while I was up there, the ones at the table were talking to each other. So
I walked to the front of the stage where they were sitting and said,
"Hey, you guys, cool it." One of them looked at the others and said,
"Who is this son of a bitch?" and he pulled a gun out of his waistband.
.. . It looked like a cannon pointed in my direction. At this precise
time, two uniformed policemen came in the front door. They just
happened to walk in-which was not unusual at Jack's club. I said to
the four guys at the table, "The police are here." The gun went to the
floor immediately and was kicked over to the side. Jack Ruby, in the
meantime, was explaining to the policemen that everything was all right
and that there was no problem. After the show, Jack introduced me to
the men . . . He didn't introduce them to me by name, he just said,
"These are friends of mine from Chicago."

Weston might not have thought too much about this incident except that
he returned to the club after closing to retrieve his jacket. One of the men
from Chicago opened the door but refused to allow him inside. When
he asked the man to go get Jack Ruby the man also refused, saying "You can't come in now." Understanding that something very secret was going
on in the club, Weston left.

After the assassination, Weston kept quiet, later explaining, "In the
nightclub business, you take your money and you keep your mouth shut."

But in 1976, after encountering one of the Chicago toughs who had been
at the meeting, Weston decided he should tell his story. Incredible as
Weston's story seems, there are at least two people who have corroborated
it. A convicted murderer and mobster named Myron Thomas Billet, also
known as Paul Buccilli, admitted in 1976 that he attended just such a
meeting in Ruby's club. Billet stated:

I was at the Whitemarsh Valley Country Club back in the late part of
1963 when I was contacted by the Mob for a meeting in Dallas at Jack
Ruby's Carousel Club. As I remember it, there was myself, Jack Ruby,
Lee Oswald, Sam Giancana, John Roselli, and an FBI man. The
meeting was to set up a "hit" on John F. Kennedy. I can't say what the
arrangement was because Sam and I left. Sam told me he wanted
nothing to do with it. Hell, he helped put Kennedy in office. But three
weeks later, JFK was hit and we all knew it wasn't done by one man.
Sam told me then that he figured this would get us all killed before it
was over.

Then there is the experience of Ester Ann Mash, which was made public
only recently. Mash, who still lives in the Dallas area, told this author she
served drinks at a meeting in the Carousel Club that included "gangsters"
from Chicago, Jack Ruby, and Lee Harvey Oswald.

She had been a waitress at a restaurant near Love Field when a Dallas
detective introduced her to Ruby early in 1963. Shortly after their introduction, Ruby enticed her into working at the Carousel Club, but only as a
waitress and champagne hostess. She explained: "He wanted me to strip,
but I just couldn't bring myself to do that." In addition to her club duties,
Mash became a lover to Ruby, who she said took her to gambling parties
around Dallas.

In the late spring of 1963, she said Ruby asked her to serve drinks at a
gathering in a meeting area of the Carousel Club. Mash said the meeting
was composed of Ruby, five "gangster types," and a young man who only
sipped beer. She described the meeting:

I had to follow Jack's orders to the letter for that meeting. He demanded
absolute privacy and no interruptions. I was the only person allowed to
enter the room and that was just to serve the drinks and then get out.
Five men dressed in suits, looking very businesslike, came in about ten
thirty that night. They were all dark, swarthy men who looked like
gangsters out of some movie. There was another man, dressed real
casual-he didn't look like he fit in with the rest of the group at all. There were seven all together [including Ruby]. They talked until about
one o'clock in the morning. Then the men in suits left. Jack went to his
apartment behind the club. And the other guy stayed until closing
watching the strippers. He couldn't take his eyes off them. That man
was Lee Harvey Oswald. I really remember him because he was so
unusual from the rest. He kept ordering beer. Everyone else drank
mixed drinks but this wimpy-looking little guy. I might not remember a
name, but I always remember a face. It was a serious meeting and
although I did not overhear what they were talking about at the time, I
am convinced that they were discussing killing Kennedy. I knew it had
something to do with the Mafia because everybody in town in those
days knew Ruby had something to do with the mob. Also, Jack asked
me to take care of these guys, so later I played up to them a little and
discovered they were Mafia guys from Chicago.

About two months after this meeting, Mash had a falling-out with Ruby.
She explained:

He accused me of bringing the vice squad to the club but I didn't. But
he wouldn't listen to me. He cussed me out. It upset me, so I left. Also,
it was real strange, but I had a very bad feeling, a premonition, that I
had better get away from Dallas. So I moved to Euless and got a job in
a restaurant, then later moved to Phoenix. I was not even in Dallas the
day of the assassination. I did not pay much attention to the news after
the assassination. But then on Sunday morning, my children were
watching TV when they were showing them moving Oswald. Ruby shot
him and I screamed, "Oh, my god!" I couldn't believe my eyes. I
thought, "That's the weird little man who was at that secret meeting
with Jack and those Mafia types. I saw that grin on Oswald's face on
TV the day Jack shot him. He was smiling because Jack was his friend.
I didn't want to be involved, so I kept quiet. But now I have a blood
clot on the right side of my brain as a result of a car accident. I've
already lived longer than I am supposed to. That's the reason I'm telling
you this now. Somebody needs to know this before I die.