The LuLac Edition #4,661, Janury 4th, 2022

 

MAYBE I’M AMAZED

Our “Maybe I’m Amazed” logo.

Jack Ruby edition.

MAYBE I AMAZED…..that it has been 54 years yesterday since Jack Ruby died of cancer in a Texas jail cell.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED….that the alleged killer of President’s Kennedy’s assassin Lee Harvey Oswald said he had little recollection of his actions.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that Ruby’s act spurred conspiracy theories that had him meeting, knowing and collaborating with Oswald.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…….that Ruby”s trial Lawyer Melvin Belli appeared on an episode of “Star Trek”.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED….that during the Ruby trial, there was a prison break on the second floor of the Dallas Courthouse  where the trial was taking place. One of the escapees fashioned a fake gun made out of a bar of soap and then darkened by an oily substance.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that Ruby was nicknamed "Sparky" by those who knew him. His sister, Eva Grant, said that he acquired the nickname because he resembled a slow-moving horse named "Spark Plug" or "Sparky" in the contemporary comic strip Barney Google. ("Spark Plug" debuted as a character in the strip in 1922, when Ruby was 11. Other accounts say that the name was given because of his quick temper. Either or, Ruby did not like the nickname Sparky, and was quick to fight anyone who called him that.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…according to a dispatcher for the Dallas Police Department, an anonymous phone call WAS RECEIVED at 3 a.m. on November 24 from a man who knew his name. The caller told the dispatcher  that he knew of the plan to move Oswald from the basement and that unless the plans for Oswald's transfer were changed, the caller warned "we are going to kill him". After Oswald was shot, the dispatcher who knew Ruby, and found the voice familiar at the time of the call, identified Ruby as the caller. That convinced him it was  "a planned event".

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that the Fedora hat Ruby wore when he shot Oswald was bought at auction for  $53,775. The gun that killed Oswald drew $220,000.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……that the argument can be made that Ruby died an innocent man even though millions of people saw him (including your blog editor) do it live on TV on a Sunday morning. Ruby's conviction was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on the grounds that "an oral confession of premeditation made while in police custody" should have been ruled inadmissible, because it violated a Texas criminal statute. The court also ruled that the venue should have been changed to a Texas county other than the one in which the high-profile crime had been committed. Ruby died technically unconvicted, because his original conviction was overturned and his retrial was pending at the time of his death.

(Wikipedia, Library of Congress, LuLac archives, AP)