ruby j

[wayiseeitbarry]

Cursory internet searches seem to indicate that there's no public consensus on the syntax of Jack Ruby's sentiment that he shot Oswald to show that Jews had guts. I wonder if there's a more direct record of him saying this, it's a quote that fascinates me deeply.

Comments

[gimcrackery]

Some cursory googling leads me to conclude that he gave a bunch of different explanations soon after the shooting, while in custody, one of which was about redeeming the city of Dallas, one about sympathy for Jackie, and one was this thing about showing the Jews have guts--supposedly he said it to the arresting officers while going up the elevator for questioning. And that he really gave this explanation is corroborated by the prosecuting attorney's closing statements in his case, according to a judge who wrote a memoir of it:

http://books.google.com/books?id=B0L7gF-yfuoC&pg=PA129#v=onepage&q=&f=false

The guy seems to bring it up mostly just to remind the jury that Ruby's Jewish? To enhance his point about good/bad citizens. But, at least according to this account, Ruby's own lawyer didn't object? So they seem to agree that he said it.

I'd never heard that he said that; I didn't even know Ruby was Jewish. Really, really

[wayiseeitbarry]

Interesting stuff, for sure. I had a hard time tracking it at first because I remembered it as "I didn't want anyone to think Jews weren't tough". Very different feel to it than "guts". But thanks for the pointer.

[wayiseeitbarry]

And it's also, I should add, just the idea of the conclusion:
1. People think Jews don't have guts.
2. Someone kills JFK.
3. You are a Jew.
4. You kill the person who killed JFK to disprove statement #1.
Huh?