The Day Innocence Died – Oswald Is Shot

Every murder story has its mystery’s and in the case of the JFK assassination the plot continued to thicken. A major development in the case occurred two days after the assassination when the man arrested and charged with the crime was murdered himself on live television – Case Closed.

The man who killed Oswald was Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby known to his gangster friends as "Sparky" had been seen in the hallways of the Dallas Police Headquarters on several occasions after the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963. 

Ruby was actually captured on newsreel footage impersonating a newspaper reporter during a press conference at Dallas Police Headquarters on the night of the assassination. He even spoke that night correcting Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade. Some have speculated that Ruby may have hoped to kill Oswald that night at the press conference.

On this Sunday morning, two days after the assassination, at 11:21 am CST, while authorities were escorting Oswald through the police basement to a private car that was to take him to the nearby county jail Ruby stepped out from a crowd of reporters and fired his .38 revolver into Oswald's abdomen, fatally wounding him. The shooting was broadcast live nationally, and millions of television viewers witnessed it. 

When Ruby was arrested immediately after the shooting, he told several witnesses that he helped the city of Dallas "redeem" itself in the eyes of the public, and that Oswald's death would spare "…Mrs. Kennedy the discomfiture of coming back to trial." Ruby's explanation for killing Oswald would be "exposed … as a fabricated legal ploy", according to the House Select Committee on Assassinations.

Another motive was put forth by Frank Sheeran, allegedly a hitman for the Mafia, in a conversation he had with the then-former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. During the conversation, Hoffa claimed that Ruby was assigned the task of coordinating police officers who were loyal to Ruby to murder Oswald while he was in their custody. As Ruby evidently mismanaged the operation, he was given a choice to either finish the job himself or forfeit his life.

However, as a matter of record told by the Warren Commission they found no evidence linking Ruby's killing of Oswald to be part of a broader conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy. Journalist Seth Kantor published a book Who Was Jack Ruby? In it he wrote: The mob was Ruby's "friend." And Ruby could well have been paying off an IOU the day he was used to kill Lee Harvey Oswald.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this series is that of the presenters and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author. It is information that is in the public domain provided for the reader to form an opinion. Whereas, it is the author’s position that the most profound sin is a tragedy unremembered and the absence of truth. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

 

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