Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy (88 page)

This idea of a conspiracy to silence Oswald is based on several known
facts. One of the most tantalizing of these is the story told by respected
reporter Seth Kantor, author of Who Was Jack Ruby? According to Kantor,
George Senator, Ruby's roommate, was at the Eatwell Cafe near the police
station the morning Ruby shot Oswald. Reportedly Senator went to a pay
phone and called Dallas attorney Jim Martin and asked Martin to represent
his friend Ruby for murdering the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.

Minutes later news came over the radio that Oswald had been shot. Yet,
Ruby's roommate was arranging legal representation before the event.

Other facts pointing to a conspiracy to kill Oswald include the fact that
Ruby was in and out of the police station the entire weekend, apparently
stalking Oswald; Ruby (or someone) tried to warn the authorities of
Oswald's death even relating specific police precautions; and both the mob
and the federal government had enough leverage on Ruby to force him to
such an act.

Only a minute or so before the Oswald shooting, Ruby's initial lawyer,
Tom Howard-the one who cooked up his concern over Mrs. Kennedy as
a motive-entered the police station and peered through the basement jail
office window just as Oswald was being taken off the elevator. Dallas
detective H. L. McGee later that day reported:

.. . At this time, Oswald was brought off the jail elevator and Tom
Howard turned away from the window and went back toward the
Harwood Street door. He waved at me as he went by and said, "That's
all I wanted to see." Shortly after that I heard a shot.

Detective Jim Leavelle, one of the men handcuffed to Oswald, told this
author he never understood the reason for the nearly one-hour delay in
transferring Oswald, but that Capt. Will Fritz gave him the order to move
just after conferring with FBI and Secret Service officials.

In 1963-64, the federal government in the form of the Warren Commission offered a simple explanation for Oswald's death. It stated that Ruby
strolled down the police department's Main Street ramp to the basement
minutes after mailing the money order and, by sheer happenstance, arrived
within shooting distance of Oswald.

The House Select Committee on Assassinations was not so confident of
this theory. It reported:

... Ruby probably did not come down the ramp, and that his most
likely route was an alleyway located next to the Dallas Municipal
Building and a stairway leading to the basement garage of police
headquarters.

The Committee also turned history around by concluding:

.. . Ruby's shooting of Oswald was not a spontaneous act in that it
involved at least some premeditation. Similarly, the committee believed
it was less likely that Ruby entered the police basement without assistance, even though the assistance may have been provided with no
knowledge of Ruby's intentions.... The Committee was troubled by
the apparently unlocked doors along the stairway route and the removal
of security guards from the area of the garage nearest the stairway
shortly before the shooting.... There is also evidence that the Dallas
Police Department withheld relevant information from the Warren Commission concerning Ruby's entry to the scene of the Oswald transfer.

Ruby himself appeared to support the idea of police aid in reaching
Oswald when he told the Warren Commission:

... who else could have timed it so perfectly by seconds. If it were
timed that way, then someone in the police department is guilty of
giving the information as to when Lee Harvey Oswald was coming
down.

Then there are the words of mob boss Johnny Roselli. According to
columnist Jack Anderson, Roselli once told him:

When Oswald was picked up, the underworld conspirators feared he
would crack and disclose information that might lead to them. This
almost certainly would have brought a massive U.S. crackdown on the
Mafia. So Jack Ruby was ordered to eliminate Oswald . . .

But how could Ruby have known the transfer plans in such detail as to
be at the right place at the right time? Researchers have several explanations. The most obvious is that someone within the Dallas police tipped
Ruby to the plans. However, it is equally possible that the tip came from
federal authorities, who were being kept completely up to date on police
actions.

Studying the films of the Oswald shooting has given researchers valuable insight into what happened-particularly a film still held by WBAP-TV
in Fort Worth. WBAP-TV was (and still is) the NBC affiliate in the
Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and on November 24, 1963 had a remote
truck and cameras at the Dallas Police Station.

One camera was set up across the Main Street ramp driveway and was
running more than thirty minutes prior to Oswald's arrival in the basement
(The transfer, originally set for about 10:30 A.M., was delayed by further
questioning of Oswald in Fritz's office. Oswald finally arrived in the
basement about 11:20 A.M. He was shot moments later.) The camera
continued filming long after the shooting.

This documentary of the incident is intriguing seen in its entirety:

About a quarter of an hour prior to Oswald's arrival, a car moves out of
the basement garage area and up the Main Street ramp. Its horn is
sounded loudly as a warning to people on the sidewalk above. Newsmen
and police, both uniformed and plainclothes, mill about in expectation.
Then more than a minute or so before Oswald arrives, another horn blows
but the sound is more muted, indicating that the car may be farther back
in the garage area. Moments later, the jail elevator doors open and Oswald
is brought out. "Here he comes," shout the newsmen, crowding up
toward the jail office door. Police push them back forming a corridor
through the crowd.

One reporter jams a microphone near Oswald's face and shouts: "Do
you have anything to say in your defense?" Just at that moment, Jack
Ruby moves in from behind the camera and shoves his .38-caliber
snub-nosed revolver into Oswald's stomach. The bang is quite audible
and Oswald cries out in pain.

Police immediately swarm over Ruby, knocking him to the floor. One
of them calls out: "Jack, you son of a bitch!"

Both Oswald and Ruby are hustled back into the jail office while
stunned newsmen are reporting: "Oswald has been shot! Oswald has
been shot!" Soon these reporters are interviewing the officers who,
moments before, had been standing unnoticed beside them. Their ques tions tumble out: "What happened? Did you know that man? Where did
he come from?"

Their responses are intriguing. More than a couple indicated that they
indeed recognized Jack Ruby but they declined to give his name or say
more.

More than one officer says he thought Oswald's assailant came from
the vicinity of a green car parked in the police garage.

Taken in total, this film of the shooting indicates that Ruby came
through the parked cars in the basement and may have paused near a green
car, perhaps the very car that sounded its horn moments before Oswald
was brought down. Some researchers believe this horn honk may have
been a signal to move Oswald because Ruby was in position.

The film also indicates that many of the officers in the police basement
recognized Ruby right away.

Detective Leavelle told this author he both recognized Ruby and saw the
gun in his hand as he stepped from the crowd of reporters, but that he was
powerless to do anything in the split second it took to shoot Oswald.
Leavelle recalled the shooting:

Captain Fritz had been talking to some men with the FBI and Secret
Service when he turned and said, "All clear, take him down." . . . We
went down the elevator to the basement. An unmarked car was supposed to be right there for us but it wasn't. It was a few feet from where
it was supposed to be. There was a pack of newsmen right close to us.
We were heading for the car, L.C. [Graves] and I, with Oswald
between us. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ruby step out from the
crowd. He was crouched and he had a pistol. He took a couple of steps
and pulled that trigger. Ruby was aiming dead center at Oswald. I had a
grip on the top of Oswald's trousers. When I saw Ruby, I tried to jerk
Oswald aside to get him out of the way. I succeeded in turning him. The
bullet hit him in the side rather than straight into the stomach.

Oswald was pushed to the floor by Leavelle while Graves grabbed
Ruby. Graves told researcher Edward Oxford:

By the time Ruby got that shot off, why I had him down. His hand was
still flexing. I was saying to him, "Turn it loose! Turn it loose!" I pried
his finger off the trigger. He was still trying to work it. Empty the gun
into Oswald, I expect, if he could. Officers were jumping on Ruby to
get him to the floor. Oswald said, "Owww!" and fell back. That was
the last thing he ever said.

Police Chief Curry, who had to face so much criticism after the death of
his prisoner, wasn't at the scene of the transfer. He later wrote:

As I was walking down the corridor [toward the jail office] I was called
to take a phone call from Dallas Mayor Cabell in my office. He was
interested in the progress of the investigation. Since other officers were
in charge of moving Oswald and everything was in order, I stayed in my
office to give the report to Mayor Cabell.

Researchers over the years have been struck by an odd fact. Part of the
plan for security in the transfer involved focusing attention on an armored
car that newsmen were told would carry Oswald to the county jail. The
armored car was a decoy. Oswald was to have been transported in an
unmarked police car. This car was only feet from where he was shot.

Yet rather than load Oswald into the police car standing by and rush him
to a hospital, the mortally wounded prisoner was taken back into the jail
office where police gave him artificial respiration while waiting for an
ambulance to arrive.

Ruby's one shot had been remarkably efficient. It tranversed Oswald's
lower abdomen, rupturing two main arteries carrying blood to the heart,
and tore through the spleen, pancreas, liver, and the right kidney.

Obviously, pumping Oswald's chest was the worst possible reaction to
the internal bleeding caused by the abdominal wound.

Chief Curry, having finally arrived in the basement, noted that when the
ambulance arrived: "Oswald was already white as a sheet and looked dead
as he was loaded on a stretcher."

Oswald was taken to Parkland Hospital where he was pronounced dead
at 1:07 P.M.

Meanwhile, Jack Ruby had been hustled out of the police basement and
taken, ironically enough, to the jail cell that had been vacated by Oswald
earlier that morning.

Ruby asked his captors: "What happened?"

From that point on Ruby displayed an odd inability to recall the Oswald
shooting with any clarity.

One of the Auto Theft detectives in charge of placing Ruby in jail was
struck by the oddness of his behavior immediately after the shooting: Don
Ray Archer told British television in 1988:

His behavior to begin with was very hyper. He was sweating profusely.
I could see his heart beating. We had stripped him down for security
purposes. He asked me for one of my cigarettes. I gave him a cigarette.
Finally after about two hours had elapsed . . . the head of the Secret
Service came up and I conferred with him and he told me that Oswald
... had died. This should have shocked [Ruby] because it would
mean the death penalty. I returned and said, "Jack, it looks like it's
going to be the electric chair for you." Instead of being shocked, he
became calm, he quit sweating, his heart slowed down. I asked him if he wanted a cigarette and he advised me he didn't smoke. I was just
astonished at this complete difference of behavior from what I had
expected. I would say his life had depended on him getting Oswald.

On November 27, 1963, a Dallas grand jury indicted Jack Ruby for the
murder of Oswald.

There was never any doubt that he did it. After all, only a handful of
Americans failed to see what undoubtedly has been the most widely
viewed homicide in history. The networks ran replays of the shooting over
and over. Because of this publicity, a change-of-venue hearing was conducted on February 10, 1964, but changing the location of Ruby's trial
was denied. Jury selection began on February 17 and ended on March 3.
Ruby's trial began the next day.

Ten days later, on March 14, 1964, the jury-eight men and four
women-returned a verdict of guilty, with the judge handing down a death
sentence. The verdict was appealed.

Many people considered Ruby a hero for eliminating Kennedy's presumed assassin. Cards and letters-even money-came from all over.
Ruby's attorney, Tom Howard, echoed their sentiment when he stated: "I
think Ruby deserves a congressional medal."

But despite the favorable pretrial publicity, Ruby never had much of a
chance in the Dallas of those days. As right-wing assistant district attorney
Bill Alexander explained to newsman Seth Kantor: "Jack Ruby was about
as handicapped as you can get in Dallas. First he was a Yankee. Second,
he was a Jew. Third, he was in the nightclub business."