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Alternative Ruby Timeline


Greg Parker

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Greg

Excellent timeline.

I have thoughts on Ruby....not well developed....but thoughts.

1). In my opinion Oswald knew more than most want to believe he knew.

2). He had to die! Ruby did the deed....

What do you make of Ruby's testimony in front of Warren? His repeated fear of Edwin Walker in particular? The unfullfilled promise to move him, etc.?

Jim Root

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Very useful information. As a historian I value timelines (I believe detectives do as well for the same reason).

I see you have not added the interview that took place between Ruby and Dorothy Kilgallen (1) (2) . Are you unconvinced by the evidence provided by Lee Israel and Penn Jones?

Do you believe Joe Tonahill when he says Kilgallen was the only journalist to interview Ruby? (3)

Notes

(1) Lee Israel, Kilgallen (1979) page 354-6

(2) William Penn Jones, The Midlothian Mirror (November 25, 1965)

(3) Lee Israel, Kilgallen (1979) page 354

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Greg

Excellent timeline.

I have thoughts on Ruby....not well developed....but thoughts.

1).  In my opinion Oswald knew more than most want to believe he knew.

2).  He had to die!  Ruby did the deed....

What do you make of Ruby's testimony in front of Warren?  His repeated fear of Edwin Walker in particular?  The unfullfilled promise to move him, etc.?

Jim Root

Hi Jim,

A former aide to Walker (and one time suspect in the alleged attempt on Walker's life), William Duff, claimed that Ruby was a frequent visitor to Walker's. Acquaintences of Ruby claimed he was an admirer of both Walker and Hunt. Ruby was friendly was maybe hundreds of cops... many of whom were Birchers or worse.

Ruby's MC (Bill DeMar) arrived in Dallas on, or about the same day as Weissman and Burley of CUSA. I am wary of making accusations, so I'll just relate some facts. The WC asked what his act consisted of. He hedged. Apart from being a ventriloquist, he would only add that he did "memory tricks", even though it was widely rumored after the 24th that he was a hypnotist. On arriving at the Carousel on the 24th, he told the media that he had seen Oswald in the club. He had been a stage performer all his life. and military service did not do much to hinder that. He continued with his act in the service, some of which was served in Germany. The army (as did the CIA) used stage hypnotists in their quest for mind control/behavior modification techniques. He did in fact know hypnotism, and had - up to a certain point in time - used it in his act (this information was obtained from the man himself by a friend who contacted him for advice on becoming a stage hypnotist). A number of people contacted the DPD accusing Ruby of being a communist. That, together with DeMar's "lead" did fit with the agenda of some. Ruby had also hung out with another hypnotist (Dr Dante) on a trip to New York. Dr Dante (real name, Ronald Pellar) had an interesting life. He played mainly Vegas... before he went on to become Lana Turner's 7th (and last) husband. She threw him out for stealing from her. He also did a two year stretch for hiring a hit man. After that, he made a bundle out of so-called "diploma mills".

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Very useful information. As a historian I value timelines (I believe detectives do as well for the same reason).

I see you have not added the interview that took place between Ruby and Dorothy Kilgallen (1) (2) . Are you unconvinced by the evidence provided by Lee Israel and Penn Jones?

Do you believe Joe Tonahill when he says Kilgallen was the only journalist to interview Ruby? (3)

Notes

(1) Lee Israel, Kilgallen (1979) page 354-6

(2) William Penn Jones, The Midlothian Mirror (November 25, 1965)

(3) Lee Israel, Kilgallen (1979) page 354

John, the timeline was written before I knew too much about the Kilgallen interview. What I know now of it is mainly thanks to you. I did add a couple of things just before posting... wanted to add more, but not that well organised, and couldn't find the info quickly. Kilgallen wasn't on my mind to add, I admit, but now that you mention it, it's worth considering.

The reason for the timeline was simply to show there was more to Ruby than just mob connections...

One thing that always struck me long before I began any research was the similarity between the Oswald killing and RFK. Both done at close range. Both done in front of multiple witnesses. Both claimed lack of memory of what they'd just done. Both had backgrounds tracing back to countries rooted in religious and political turmoil. Both had defence lawyers arranged for them who seemed to actually help in the cover-ups.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Greg

I was rereading your timeline and realize that you left out Ruby's actions on the night of the 22nd.

What are your thoughts about these portions of the Warren Report. I'm trying to identify the two reporters Oswald was with. I heard a great deal of the newsreel tape was distroyed but I have never seen two men with "badges" on such as are discribed by John Rutledge.

"At 9:00 p.m. he telphoned Ralph Paul but was unable to persuade Paul to join him at synagogue services." (WC Report, Pg 338)

"From his apartment, Ruby drove to Temple Shearith Israel, arriving near the end of a 2-hour service which had begun at 8 p.m." (WC Report, Pg 339)

"Ruby is known to have made his way, by about 11:30 p.m., to the third floor of the Dallas Police Department..." (WC Report, Pg 339)

'I saw Jack and two out-of-state reporters, whom I did not know, leave the elevator door and proceed toward those television cameras, to go around the corner where Captain Fritz's office was. Jack walked between them. these two out-of-state reporters had big press cards pinned on their coats, great big red ones, I think they said "President Kennedy's Visit to Dallas-Press", or something like that. And Jack didn't have one, but the man on either side of him did. and they walked pretty rapidly from the elevator area past the policeman, and Jack was bent over like this-writting on a piece of paper, and talking to one of the reporters, and pointing to something on teh peice of paper, he was kind of hynched over." Newsman John Rutledge (WC Report Pg 340)

"Detective Augustus M. Eberhardt, who also recalled that he first saw Ruby earlier in the evening, said Ruby carried a note pad and professed to be a translator for the Israeli press." (WC Report Pg. 342)

He accompanied the newsmen to the basement to observe Oswald. His presence at the midnight news conference is established by television tapes and by at least 12 witnesses." (WC Report Pg. 342)

When questioned during his lie detector test we find this information:

(Testimony of Bell P. Herndon)

Mr. Specter.

Will movement or speaking cause a variation in the tracings ordinarily, Mr. Herndon?

Mr. Herndon.

Yes. Body movements or speaking any phrase or sentence would certainly cause changes in the physiological patterns as displayed on the polygraph. I made notation of that, however, and that explains the changes On question No. 2, Mr. Ruby did show a significant drop in the relative blood pressure. This question pertained to: "Did you go to the Dallas police station at any time on Friday November 22, 1963, before you went to the synagogue? I asked him about this question later when he responded "No," and I noticed a physiological change. He advised that there was some man by the name of John Rutledge, and he made an association with proceedings at the trial which I have reason to believe this gentleman, John Rutledge, differed with what Ruby stated as to when he went to the synagogue.Due to the nature of this change, however, it is possible that it was caused by a body motion that I failed to detect during the actual response.

I notice that the cardio pen dropped all the way down and hit what we call the limit screws. This frequently is caused by a sudden rapid shift in his body position, and this change could have been caused by a body movement.

With regard to the other relevant questions in this series, question 4, question 6, and question 8, there was no significant deviation from his normal physiological patterns. (Warren Commission Hearings: Vol. XIV - Page 594)

It seems Jack Ruby may have been nervous about answering questions that delt with Rutledge's, who identified him with the "two out of state" newsmen, testimony. This particular question created a "a physiological change" or was it just body motion that Herndon, " failed to detect during the actual response"?

Jim Root

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  • 1 year later...

Does anyone know anything about this story? Jada Conforto was one of Jack Ruby’s strippers. According to Daniel Hopsticker, on the morning of JFK’s assassination, Jada had been in “such a panic to leave Dallas that she ran over a pedestrian with her white Cadillac convertible”. The traffic cop was told to contact Ruby who would “fix things”. Jada told the cop she needed to urgently get to New Orleans.

Jada Conforto was never interviewed by the Warren Commission. However, the HSCA wanted to talk to her. That never happened. She was killed in a motorcycle accident during the investigation. The sister of Lena Wamstad, who was involved in the Barry Seal scandal, was Jada’s aunt. She told Hopsticker that Jada was “murdered because she knew too much.”

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  • 2 weeks later...
Does anyone know anything about this story? Jada Conforto was one of Jack Ruby’s strippers. According to Daniel Hopsticker, on the morning of JFK’s assassination, Jada had been in “such a panic to leave Dallas that she ran over a pedestrian with her white Cadillac convertible”. The traffic cop was told to contact Ruby who would “fix things”. Jada told the cop she needed to urgently get to New Orleans.

Jada Conforto was never interviewed by the Warren Commission. However, the HSCA wanted to talk to her. That never happened. She was killed in a motorcycle accident during the investigation. The sister of Lena Wamstad, who was involved in the Barry Seal scandal, was Jada’s aunt. She told Hopsticker that Jada was “murdered because she knew too much.”

John;

You can find the details of the accident in the Dallas police files.

The specifics of the accident are not recalled, however, it seems that it was a two car accident.

Due to the "Louisiana" plates which were on the Cadillac, the Dallas Police "ran the plates".

There is no reference to anything related to contacting Jack Ruby.

Tom

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  • 1 month later...

Does anyone know anything about this story? Jada Conforto was one of Jack Ruby’s strippers. According to Daniel Hopsticker, on the morning of JFK’s assassination, Jada had been in “such a panic to leave Dallas that she ran over a pedestrian with her white Cadillac convertible”. The traffic cop was told to contact Ruby who would “fix things”. Jada told the cop she needed to urgently get to New Orleans.

Jada Conforto was never interviewed by the Warren Commission. However, the HSCA wanted to talk to her. That never happened. She was killed in a motorcycle accident during the investigation. The sister of Lena Wamstad, who was involved in the Barry Seal scandal, was Jada’s aunt. She told Hopsticker that Jada was “murdered because she knew too much.”

John;

You can find the details of the accident in the Dallas police files.

The specifics of the accident are not recalled, however, it seems that it was a two car accident.

Due to the "Louisiana" plates which were on the Cadillac, the Dallas Police "ran the plates".

There is no reference to anything related to contacting Jack Ruby.

Tom

Does anyone attach any signifigance to the timing of Jack Ruby's legally changing his name from Rubenstein to Ruby?

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  • 1 month later...

Hi Guys, sorry I'm late in tagging on to this important topic, but I thought this article might have a bearing on the Ruby chronology.

THURSDAY NITE AT THE CABANA LOUNGE – A Harmonic Convergence –

By William Kelly

It had all the appearances of a normal Thursday night in Dallas in 1963. A big convention was in town, the hotels were booked solid, restaurants were busy, the nightclubs were jumping and the President was due to visit the next day.

The President’s impending visit however, was almost an afterthought, and was not even mentioned in most conversations that night. Instead, it was a typical social evening, except the next day, those who socialized at the Cabana lounge that Thursday night would play peculiar roles in the unfolding drama that included the murder of the President.

When Jim Braden and Morgan Brown checked into the Cabana that Thursday morning, they told the desk clerk they would be staying until Sunday, November 24, and were assigned room #301. They would go to their rooms for a while before having a few drinks downstairs at the Bon Vivant lounge.

Ed Meyers and his companion Jean Aase moved from the Love Field Ramada to the Cabana because, Meyers later said, of the noise at the airport.

Meyers would later recall that he had previously stayed at the Cabana on other occasions he was in Dallas, including the grand opening gala, which was said to be quite an affair since Doris Day was one of the owners and the Cabana would become known for its high powered Hollywood entertainment.

Lawrence Meyers’ brother Ed was staying at the classically refined Adolphis Hotel, across the street from the seedy Carousel Club, but Ed and his wife Thelma came over to the Cabana for a special party. Ed and Thelma owned a number of Pepsi Cola franchises in Brooklyn, New York, and had just returned from Mexico City where they met with Larry’s son Ralph, who was also said to be registered at the Cabana that night. Ralph had served in the Army Security Agency, was trained in Russian and the Monterey Language Institute and served at a top-secret base in Turkey before working as a Chicago bus driver. Ralph was described as being a journalist living in Mexico City.

Larry Meyers and his girlfriend Jean, Ed Meyers and Ed’s wife and maybe Ralph, would later be joined at the Meyers’ table by Jack Ruby. They would all eat dinner, have a few drinks and share a toast and a few laughs on a typical Thursday night in Dallas. None of them were aware of the catastrophic events that would overtake them the next day. Or were they?

The circumstances of that evening would never be adequately explained, the official chronology of events, whether by contrivance or mistake, can be shown to be wrong, and significant lines of inquiry would be left dangling as loose ends that would never be completely resolved.

In reconstructing the events around the assassination of President Kennedy, the official government investigators put together a chronology of Jack Ruby’s activities, beginning with the morning of the assassination, Friday, November 22, 1963. According to the Warren Report: “Scrutiny of Ruby’s activities during the several days preceding the President’s arrival in Dallas has revealed no indication of any unusual activity.”

“The Commission has attempted to reconstruct as precisely as possible the movements of Jack Ruby during the period November 21 – November 24, 1963. It has done so on the premise that, if Jack Ruby were involved in a conspiracy, his activities and associations during this period would, in some way, have reflected the conspiratorial relationship…Ruby’s activities during this 3-day period have been scrutinized for the insights they provide into whether the shooting of Oswald was grounded in any form of conspiracy.”

The official chronology reads: “The evening of the President’s visit. – On Thursday, November 21, 1963, Jack Ruby was attending to his usual duties as the proprietor of two Dallas nightspots – the Carousel Club, a downtown nightclub featuring striptease dancers, and the Vegas Club, a rock & roll establishment in the Oaklawn section of Dallas…Ruby arrived at the Carousel Club at about 3 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, as was his custom, and remained long enough to chat with a friend and receive messages from Larry Crafard, a handyman and helper who lived at the Carousel….”

“Ruby’s evening activities on Thursday, November 21, were a combination of business and pleasure. At approximately 7:30 p.m., he drove Larry Crafard to the Vegas Club which Crafard was overseeing…Ruby returned to the Carousel Club and conversed for about an hour with Lawrence Meyers, a Chicago businessman. Between 9:45 and 10:45 p.m., Ruby had dinner with Ralph Paul, his close friend and financial backer. While dining Ruby spoke briefly with a Dallas Morning News employee Don Campbell, who suggested that they go to the Castaway Club, but Ruby declined.”

“Thereafter, Ruby returned to the Carousel Club where he acted as master of ceremonies for his show and peacefully ejected an unruly patron. At about midnight Ruby joined Meyers at the Bon Vivant Room of the Dallas Cabana where they met Meyers’ brother and sister-in-law. Neither Ralph Paul nor Lawrence Meyers recalled that Ruby mentioned the President’s trip to Dallas. Leaving Meyers at the Cabana after a brief visit, Ruby returned to close the Carousel Club and obtained the night’s receipts. He then went to the Vegas Club which he helped Larry Crafard close for the night; and, as late as 2:30 a.m., Ruby was seen eating at a restaurant near the Vegas Club.” (WR.p.334)

In 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) compiled a more comprehensive account of Ruby’s activities, but it too would be defective. In a chronological listing of events for November 21, 1963, the HSCA reports:

“At about 11 a.m., Max Rubberg,…saw and talked to Ruby at the AAA Bonding Service…Between noon and 2:30 p.m., John Newman received a call from Ruby at the Dallas Morning News about ads for Ruby’s clubs. Mrs. Norman E. Lewis…saw Ruby sometime during the day in a car at the expressway and Main St. and a few minutes later at Munger and Live Oak streets….Ruby was seen at the Carousel Club by Joyce Lee McDonald,…Sam Campisi,…saw Ruby with Ralph Paul at the Egyptian Lounge..for 45 minutes, beginning about 9:45 or 10 p.m. Ruby had a steak during the evening at the Egyptian restaurant and was seen by Joe Campisi. From 10 to 11 p.m., Jean Aase, Chicago, and Lawrence Meyers saw Ruby at the Carousel Clbu and later, about midnight, saw Ruby at the Cabana Motor Hotel, Dallas. At the Cabana, Ruby was seen by Edward Meyers, Brooklyn, N.Y…”

The HSCA report then begins a more detailed narrative chronology of Ruby’s activities for the next day, when he awoke about 9:30 a.m. on that fateful Friday, November 22, 1963, but it is the events of that Thursday evening, November 21, that are more significant in developing evidence of conspiracy.

The basic official version of vents was maintained by both the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee in 1978. Ruby’s presence at the Cabana Motel that night later became significant when it was revealed that mob courier Jim Braden and his oil man associate Morgan Brown were also registered there that night, even though there is no evidence they met with Ruby or Meyers.

As far as I can determine, the official story remained unchanged and unchallenged until Beverly Oliver wrote an article in the Third-Fourth Decade Magazine, defending herself against attacks concerning her credibility. Some researchers had questioned whether she really is the “Babushka Lady” who filmed the assassination in Dealey Plaza. Seen in photos and films of the assassination, and branded the “Babushka Lady” because of her attire, she remained a mystery women until she came forward in 1970 after meeting Gary Shaw.

She subsequently told researchers and wrote in her book, that while visiting the Carousel Club one night in early October, 1963, Jack Ruby introduced her and Jada to Lee Harvey Oswald, who Ruby said, “was from the CIA.”

While there is still some doubt about the “Babushka Lady,” no one else has yet to come forward to make a similar claim, and her film, which she says was confiscated by FBI agent Regis Kennedy, may yet turn up. Whatever the final verdict is on these points, Beverly Oliver remains a credible witness on other aspects of the case, especially as to what happened on that Thursday night. It has been ascertained without a doubt, that in November, 1963, Beverly Oliver was a 17 year old, blonde entertainer (singer) at Abe Weinstein’s Colony Club, knew Jack Ruby and despite her age, was a frequent visitor to his Carousel Club. And apparently had a date with Ruby on the night before the assassination, the details of which come into play.

In defending herself in the “Third-Fourth Decade” article Oliver almost off handly mentions that she was at the Cabana lounge on the night before the assassination, dancing with a man she knew as Donny Allen Lance, who she later identified as Jack Lawrence. She knew “Lance-Lawrence” from the Carousel Club, which he frequented with Ruby’s roommate George Senator.

While Jack Lawrence has denied visiting the Carousel Club, or dancing with Beverly Oliver at the Cabana lounge on the night before the assassination, stirring more controversy over Oliver’s credibility, her response is: “He’s not the first married man to deny visiting the Carousel Club, there must be ten thousand men who have denied being there. I don’t know why he has to lie, because I’m not accusing him of anything.”

Indeed, why does it matter if Jack Lawrence went to the Carousel Club or danced with a seventeen year old blonde at the Cabana lounge?

Lawrence was an automobile salesman for the local Lincoln-Mercury dealership, who lived at the Dallas YMCA, and was separated from his wife, who lived in West Virginia. [see: JACK LAWRENCE].

I too want to know why such an apparently innocuous item on the chronology would be a subject of contention.

According to Beverly Oliver, Jack Ruby invited her to a party at the Cabana Motel, where they met Mr. Meyers. Ruby and Meyers talked while she danced with a man she knew as “Donny Allen Lance,” a Carousel patron and friend of Ruby’s roommate George Senator. After dancing she rejoined Ruby and Meyers at their table, then accompanied them to the Egyptian Lounge for dinner. They returned to the Cabana shortly before midnight.

Seems pure and simple, cut and dried, no problems there. Except for the official record. At first reflection the difference in the sequence of events does not appear to be that important, or significant, especially if the accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald himself had not yet decided to kill the President. If there was no conspiracy, no-one was supposed to be cognizant of the historical events that would overtake them within the next 12 hours.

But if there was a conspiracy, there should be general circumstantial and some specific probative evidence of conspiracy even if those responsible for the crime attempted to conceal the particulars. Applying Professor Peter Dale Scott’s “negative template” methodology, which considers what is omitted from the official reports as most worthy of further inquiry, what actually occurred that night must be of supreme significance.

Even if Beverly Oliver is not the “Babushka Lady,” and did not meet Lee Harvey Oswald “from the CIA” at the Carousel Club, and even if Jack Lawrence is not the Donny Allen Lance she claims to have danced with, there is evidence to support her contention that Ruby had dinner with Lawrence Meyers at the Egyptian Lounge that night. And if true, this exhibits clear, hard, probative evidence of conspiracy that can be introduced into a court of law.

It is significant that Ruby ate dinner with Lawrence Meyers, rather than Ralph Paul, as the official record reflects, because Meyers was accompanied to Dallas by one Jean Aase (aka Ann West), who received a telephone call from the New Orleans law office of G. Ray Gill, on September 24, 1963. Gill was the attorney for New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello, and Sept. 24 is the day Oswald departed New Orleans for Mexico City.

In addition, while at the Egyptian that night, Ruby and Meyers made some phone calls from the private office, where the restaurant’s owners are known to have made phone calls to Marcello [see: Dallas policeman Joe Cody ].

The Egyptian Lounge is where Ruby met Dallas Morning News advertising salesman Don Campbell, who provided Ruby with an alibi for the not only his whereabouts at the time of the assassination, but for when Ruby was at Parkland Hospital, a fact that Ruby tried to conceal.

Finally, the official record states that Ruby only stayed at the Cabana for a few minutes, around midnight, when it appears that he was there more than once that evening, staying much later than the official record reflects and for reasons that had an effect on the outcome of the weekend’s activities.

In recapping the events of that night, the FBI report [Dec. 20, 1963] places Lawrence Meyers and his companion Jean Aase with Ruby at the Carousel Club early that evening.

“[Meyers]….stated he pursued his normal business affairs [selling sporting goods equipment to department stores] ….and in the evening following dinner he went to Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club. Mr. Meyers stated that on this trip to Dallas he was accompanied by Miss Jean West who he had known casually in Chicago. He described Miss West as a ‘rather dumb, but accommodating broad.’ He further pointed out that his association with Miss West is not known to members of his family or to his business associates. When he and Miss West arrived at the Carousel Club he introduced her to….Jack Ruby, and Ruby joined them at their table…” [WCE2267].

Mary Ferrell’s chronology reads: “Between 9:45 and 10:30 Jack went tot eh Carousel Club. Between 10 and 11 Jack met with Lawrence Meyers and Jean Aase at the Carousel Club. Stripper Betty MacDonald, (aka) Joy Dale also saw Meyers and Jean Aase at the Carousel Club.

Betty MacDonald knew Meyers from the previous month – in October, when she was working at a failing Dallas State Fair show called “How Hollywood Makes Movies.” [Note: Can anyone get a make on this film, there must be a record of who produced it and what it’s all about – BK]

At Ruby’s urging, Meyers gave MacDonald a $300 check for undisclosed services, which Ruby cashed (keeping a %), and when the show folded, Ruby took in MacDonald as a dancer and roustabout Larry Crafard as an all around gofer and assistant. MacDonald, who knew Jean Aase as “Ann West,” went shopping with Meyers’ companion while he was otherwise occupied – with Ruby or playing golf.

When Lawrence Meyers and Jean Aase arrived at the Carousel Club that evening they found Ruby serving as the Master of Ceremonies between strip shows. Since the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA) rules prohibited stripper shows from being continuous, there were twenty minute breaks during which time Ruby spun a roulette type “big wheel” and gave away prizes. According to Mary Ferrell’s chrono, “Dallas Morning News employees Charles Miller and George Landers saw Ruby give away the prizes and watched him ask a drunk person to leave the club… Beckey Jones, the Carousel cigarette girl, saw Jack there, as did Billy Don Williams.”

The FBI report notes: “Meyers advised that he and West remained at the Carousel Club for approximately one hour, returning to the motel at about 11:00 PM. Mr. Meyers stated that while at the Cabana he had invited Ruby to join him at the Cabana Motel for a drink with him and his brother, Edward Meyers, and Edward’s wife, who were attending a [bottler’s] convention in Dallas. He said that shortly thereafter, Jack Ruby came to the motel where he was introduced to his brother and his wife. Ruby remained at the motel for only a few minutes before he left, saying he had to return to his club.”

At about 9 o’clock that evening, still at the Carousel Club, Meyers said he told Ruby to “meet me at the Cabana Motel at 11 o’clock that evening.”

Warren Commission Counsel Bert Griffin had the foresight to ask Meyers where he had been in the time between he left the Carousel Club and when he met Ruby again at the Cabana around midnight. Meyers responded: “I haven’t got the vaguest recollection of where I had dinner that night.” (WC Vol. 15. 626).

When Beverly Oliver was asked to repeat her recollections of that night a number of times, she added a few more details each time. “There’s a lot of misconceptions about that night,” Oliver said, “but all I know is that there was a big party. I’ve since learned it was a Pepsi Cola bottling party, but I didn’t know what it was when I went except that Jack was going to this party and wanted me to go with him to meet with a friend of his. We went to the Cabana…and went upstairs to the Mezzanine, where there was a party going on. Jack spoke with a couple of people but did not introduce me. He met this Mr. Meyers on the Mezzanine, they shook hands. We went back downstairs to the Bon Vivant Room, a supper club with a big dance floor, which had top name big band orchestras.

Oliver: “We sat in the Bon Vivant Room, had a drink, Donny Allen Lance and I danced a few dances, I came back to the table and Jack said he wanted to go have a steak. I asked why we didn’t just eat right there, but Jack said he wanted to treat Mr. Meyers to a real steak. So we went to Campisi’s Egyptian Lounge around 10 or 10:30. I didn’t know Mr. Meyers very well. I don’t know much about him. I was just around him for a short while. He was very neat looking, well dressed, and demanded respect. Even Jack called him ‘Mister Meyers.’ I do remember he had a brother there, but I never met the brother, and I was under the impression that he had a female companion with him, and that’s why we didn’t stay too long at Campisi’s. They went and made a phone call back in Joe’s office,…and as soon as they made that call we left and went back to the Cabana. When we got there, before midnight, they went their way and I went mine.”

“All I know is what happened,” Oliver asserts, “I can’t explain the official reports because I haven’t read them. I need to be shown some stuff before I get worried about what went on that night. I know that if anything fishy happened that night it happened after we went back to the Cabana and I left.”

Although Oliver said she doesn’t know who Ruby and Meyers called from Campisi’s office that night, it has been established that Joe and Sam Campisi were close associates of Carlos Marcello of New Orleans. Since Joe Campisi first met Carlos Marcello on a golf course, Campisi testified that he sent Marcello 240 pounds of sausage every Christmas, and phone records reportedly indicate that Campisi called Marcello as many as six times a day.

In addition, Dallas Policeman Joe Cody told Nightline (Nov., 1994) that, “Jack (Ruby) knew the Campisis. I’ve seen them together on numerous occasions. Jack ate there at he Egyptian Lounge. He’d come in and they’d shake his hand and sit down. Sometime Joe Campisi would sit with him. If I came in, I’d sit with Joe Campisi and Jack Ruby. We knew each other well….The Campisis did know Carlos Marcello because one day I was in Joe Campisi’s office and he called Marcello on the phone, and I talked with Carlos on the phone.”

In his 1978 testimony Joe Campisi confirmed that the only time Jack Ruby visited his home was to have a barbequed steak, supporting Ruby’s contention that Campisi enjoyed a reputation for fine steaks. Although Joe Campisi said he was off that Thursday night, his brother Sam told the FBI that Ruby did have dinner there, but said that Ruby’s companion was Ralph Paul, instead of Lawrence Meyers.

Meyers told the House Committee in 1978 that he recalled having dinner with Ruby sometime that weekend, but thought it was Saturday night, after the assassination, but when Ruby’s whereabouts have been established elsewhere. In addition, Meyers too, as with Carlos Marcello, said that he came to know Joe Campisi from playing golf with him and they became friendly when Meyers relocated to Dallas.

While Jack Lawrence denied visiting the Carousel Club, he did admit (to Sheldon Inkol in the Third-Fourth Decade) that he did go out drinking that Thursday night with co-workers from the Lincoln-Ford dealership, “at a piano bar on Mockingbird Lane,” a few blocks from Campisi’s Egyptian Lounge.

Dallas Morning New ad man Don Campbell was also at the Egyptian Lounge that night, and asked Ruby to accompany him to another bar. According to Mary Ferrell’s records, “Campbell asked Jack to go to the Castaway Club after supper, but Jack refuses because the manager of the Castaway Club had hired Joe Johnson’s band away from Jack at the Vegas Club.”

After leaving the Egyptian, “We then went back to the Cabana,” recalls Oliver. “We were back at the Cabana by midnight, when my ride picked me up and took me to Fort Worth. They went their way and I went mind. I have absolutely no recall of any suspect conversation or anything fishy that night. At least if it did it was not under my earshot, or happened after I left.”

The official chronology is succulently summarized by Gerald Posner (“Case Closed,” Random House, 1993, p. 368): “After dinner, (Ruby) returned to the Carouse….Shortly before midnight he drove to the Bon Vivant room at the Cabana Motel, where he joined his Chicago friend Meyers, Meyers’ brother Eddie, and sister-in-law Thelma. When Ruby found out that Eddie Meyers worked for Pepsi Cola, he spent the conversation trying to interest him in his twistboard product…Ruby left the Cabana Hotel by 12:30 A.M. and returned to the Carousel to get the night’s receipts.”

The Warren Report (p. 334) also refers to Ruby’s time at the Cabana as “a brief visit” while Seith Kantor (in the “Ruby Cover-Up,” Zebra Books, 1978, p. 81), reports, “Ruby spent only a short time in the Bon Vivant Room with Meyers,…his movements for the next two hors are unknown. But at 2:30 (A.M.), Ruby telephoned an employee at his own club (Crafard)…and said he was STILL at the Cabana.” (CD5226).

Kantor wrote: “Ralph Paul, a back-room business associate of Ruby’s, told the Warren Commission that Ruby could be very secretive about his comings and goings. Ruby didn’t want his employees to know when he slipped out of town, in order to keep them from stealing his profits, Paul said.” Ruby did slip in and out of Cuba on at least three occasions, keeping two of them secret even from his friends, and he was secretly in Las Vegas fro two days the week before…Ruby kept his appearances at Parkland Hospital and at the Dallas Police station on Friday and Saturday secret. He concealed the relationships he had with a wide range of people – such as Tom Davis the gunrunner, and such as a mystery telephone voice he delt with in the days leading up to the shooting. Ruby was getting a series of phone calls at the Carousel from an unidentified man who would never leave a message when Ruby was out. Larry Crafard, the young handyman at the club, asked Ruby about these strange telephone calls but Ruby told him to mind his own business.” (“Ruby Cover-Up,” p. 104)

Mary Ferrell’s chronology notes that during the two hours of missing time, when Ruby was known to have been at the Cabana, “Jack got angry with the Cabana motel employees for not telling him about a telephone call. He searched the records of the Bon Vivant Room booth B26 for the name. They think it was Martin, Martins or Martel. The Secret Service checked Jack Martin and Layton Martins to see if they were the man.”

It is not recorded what Ruby did after he left the Meyers’ table at the Cabana at 12:20 A.M., and began to look for “Mr. Martin,” but at 2:30 A.M. he joined Larry Crafard at the Lucas B & B Restaurant, next door to the Vegas Club, which Crafard had managed and closed that night. Between 3:30 and 4 in the morning Ruby dropped off Crafard at the Carousel Club and returned to his apartment, where George Senator was already asleep.

Meanwhile, driving east in an Oldsmobile station wagon with Arizona plates and a Goldwater bumper sticker, Chauncey Holt and the three other passengers – Joe Canty, Leo “the Lips” Moceri and Charles Nicoletti were supposed to meet Cuban Homer Echavarria at the Cabana Motel that night, but had car trouble that delayed them until early the next morning.

Holt said that he helped manufacture false identifications, including some Secret Service credentials, under orders from George Twombly, a CIA affiliated California bank president and Vice President of a major bottling company, who was probably at the bottler’s convention in Dallas that weekend. Twombly, Holt said, was an associate of Donald Kendell, the attorney for Pepsi who was definitely at the convention with Richard Nixon.

Holt also said that Jim Braden’s friend Morgan Brown, who checked into the Cabana that night, had a brother, Melvin Grant Brown, an accountant for Twombly. [Note: Braden’s Washington D.C. attorney is also named Twombly].

There have also been reports that Jack Ruby’s boyhood friend from Chicago, Dave Yaras, was also registered at the Cabana that night. Yaras was, at the time, a prominent figure in the Chicago Syndicate anti-Castro Cuban nexus and a Florida Teamster officials. According to Holt, whose brother was also a Teamster official, it wasn’t a coincidence that the connected mobsters stayed at the Cabana, which was owned by actress Doris Day and her attorney, Jerry Rosenthal, whose partner, Duane Clark shared office space with Jim Braden at 8500 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, California.

Ed Reid (in “The Grim Reapers,” Bantam, 1970, p. 230) wrote, (Jay) “Sarno, who owns fourteen hundred shares in the Desert Palace (casino)…has a real talent for knowing where the money is. He and his partner, Stanley Mallin,…put together a chain of plush motels called Cabana, stating in Atlanta, Georgia, and spreading out to Dallas, Texas, and Palo Alto, California. An interesting story behind the Cabana concerns the business merger of two fairly well-known names: Doris Day, America’s Number One screen virgin, and James Riddle Hoffa, America’s Number One purveyor of labor’s pension funds. Doris, with Cabana partners Sarno and Mallin, has benefited greatly from loaned Teamster pension greenbacks, $5 million worth.

Jim Braden, Morgan Brown, Ed and Thelma Meyers, Ralph Meyers, Lawrence Meyers, Jean Aase, Jack Lawrence, Jack Ruby, Beverly Oliver, Dave Yaras, Homer Echevaria, Mr. Martin, Phil Twombly, Don Kendell, Richard Nixon and a belated Chauncey Holt, Joe Canti, Leo Moseri and Charles Nicoletti. What a crew to have at a party.

The next morning Jack Ruby stopped by the offices of H.L. Hunt while Morgan Brown was visiting there, and then spent more than two hours at the Dallas Morning News preparing his club ads with Don Cambell, who he was with the night before at the Egyptian Lounge.

Beverly Oliver says she filmed the assassination as the “Babushka Lady,” while Jim Braden was taken into custody as a suspicious person at the scene. Jack Lawrence passed through Dealey Plaza on the way to work and promptly vomited when he got there. He later called the authorities that Lee Harvey Oswald had taken a car for a spin from the dealership a few weeks earlier and was fired for doing so.

Ed Meyers went to the Pepsi convention with Kendell and possibly Twombly, while Nixon left town earlier that morning.

Jean Aase stayed in her Cabana room while Lawrence Meyers played a round of golf at an Air Force golf club north of Dallas.

Although they had registered at the Cabana until Sunday, Morgan Brown abruptly checked out of the Cabana Motel at 2:01 P.M., as Lee Harvey Oswald was being interrogated for the first time and Chauncey Holt and two other “tramps” were being escorted from the rail yard behind the Texas School Book Depository to the Dallas Sheriff’s office where Braden was also taken. After being released, Holt claimed that he caught a ride to Redbird Airport from Braden, who went on to Houston by commercial flight to catch up with his fleeting pal Morgan Brown.

Braden and Brown then went to New Orleans where they shared office space with oil geologist Vernon Main, Jr., on the 17th floor of the Pierre Marquette office building, where Carlos Marcello’s attorney G. Ray Gill has his offices and from where someone called Jean Aase’s Chicago apartment on Sept. 24th, 1963, the day Lee Harvey Oswald left New Orleans for Mexico City.

Jack Ruby meanwhile, stalked, shot and killed Oswald, while Larry Crafard took five dollars out of the Carousel cash register and hitch-hiked out of town.

Lawrence Meyers and Jean Aase left Dallas without notifying authorities of their contacts with Ruby. He was never asked, during his testimony, whether he had dinner with Ruby at the Egyptian Lounge on the night before the assassination.

Lawrence Meyer’s brother Ed and his wife went back to Brooklyn to run their Pepsi Cola company, while Ralph Meyers went on to study the early Indians of Mexico.

Ralph Paul, in his answers to questions put to him by investigators, never mentions having dinner with Ruby the night before the assassination, bolstering Oliver’s contention that it was Mr. Meyers who accompanied her and Ruby to the Egyptian, rather than Paul.

Joe Campisi visited Jack Ruby in jail, where Ruby died of cancer before he could be retried.

Betty McDonald provided an alibi for the assailant of a Tippit murder witness who subsequently changed his story, but not before she was arrested and found dead, hanging in her cell.

Nicoletti is said to have been in another city at the time, but he was murdered before he could testify before the HSCA. Moceri disappeared, Canty died in a plane crash, but both Braden and Morgan Brown testified before the HSCA, testimony that was classified and locked away until the JFK Act of 1992.

Jean Aase, Jack Lawrence and Larry Crafard have all been located by researchers, but none have testified on the record about what happened that night.

Beverly Oliver is now married to a minister, and doesn’t understand why her story of what happened that Thursday night is so strange or controversial. It was just a typical Thursday night in Dallas.

When the Beatles came to Dallas they ducked down in their limo when they passed through Dealey Plaza and they stayed at the Cabana Motel, which is now a prison.

[Note: Many thanks to Earl Golz who provided Cabana recipts for Braden and Brown; and Peter Whitmey for locating Jean Aase and Larry Crafard. I look forward to their testimony when we get to Congress and court.]

xxxyyyzzz

Edited by William Kelly
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rather than strating a new topic, this seems relevant here

In the Berkley Barb, Oct 14 1966.

reporter Hal Verb

Summary

Victoria Adams ran outside after shots and saw someone she identified as Ruby

Jean Hill :"the person I saw looked a lot like Ruby"

Couch: "Wes Wise saw Ruby coming around the corner of the TSBD."

Couch suggested to the WC that his film frames should be investigated.

When Willis showed his photo #8 to an FBI agent, the agent pointed at a figure and said "Say..what's Jack Ruby doing there?"

Willis pointed it out to the WC but was not questioned about it, and it was not followed up. There is however a portion of

'off the record' in Willis' testimony.

?????????????????????????

a photo taken at 11:30 shows Ruby (identified by commisssion) in DPD corridor.

here is a frame of the couch film with whatcould be the persaon Willis had in mind, plus insets of DPD and Willis8

the Willis one is exactly same size proportions and folds of coat etc as the WC id in corridore..

Reading this in the Barb today is the first I've come across this. Who knows more, please?

Edited by John Dolva
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Does anyone know anything about this story? Jada Conforto was one of Jack Ruby’s strippers. According to Daniel Hopsticker, on the morning of JFK’s assassination, Jada had been in “such a panic to leave Dallas that she ran over a pedestrian with her white Cadillac convertible”. The traffic cop was told to contact Ruby who would “fix things”. Jada told the cop she needed to urgently get to New Orleans.

Jada Conforto was never interviewed by the Warren Commission. However, the HSCA wanted to talk to her. That never happened. She was killed in a motorcycle accident during the investigation. The sister of Lena Wamstad, who was involved in the Barry Seal scandal, was Jada’s aunt. She told Hopsticker that Jada was “murdered because she knew too much.”

John;

You can find the details of the accident in the Dallas police files.

The specifics of the accident are not recalled, however, it seems that it was a two car accident.

Due to the "Louisiana" plates which were on the Cadillac, the Dallas Police "ran the plates".

There is no reference to anything related to contacting Jack Ruby.

Tom

John and Tom,

A Dallas Police memo dated Nov 28 was made of the incident.

On Wednesday, November 27th, Mr Bill Walsh, Personnel Director of Texas Instruments called and gave the following information:

On Friday, November 22nd at about 10:45 am one of their employees, Charles Burns ran across Atwell St to the entrance of Texas Instruments and was struck by a white Cadillac, Louisiana licence number 941985. Mr Burns was not injured sufficientlyto call the police but the driver of the Cadillac, a woman who gave the name of Conforto or Comforto came to the office to use the telephone to call an unknown man who arrived in a few minutes to take Mr Burns to a doctor for examination. The woman driver of the car gave the impression of being in show business and stated to the man who came to get her, "Let's hurry up and get this over with, I have to get to New Orleans".

It is unknown whether this incident has any significance in the Oswald case.

Chas Batchelor

Assistant Chief of Police

Jada was not interviewed by the FBI until April 12th, 1964. That report (CE 1561) runs for six and half pages and does not mention this incident. All it does is create more question marks. It states, for instance: that as at late October, she had her three and a half year old son with her in Dallas. What happened to him, as there is no mention of a toddler with her at the accident scene? Who was the man she called from the Texas Intruments office to come and collect her and Burns?

It also has this in regard to going to New Orleans:

Conforto, on November 25, 1963 was driving to New Orleans, Louisiana, and was about 100 miles outside of Dallas, Texas when she heard over the radio that Ruby had killed Lee Harvey Oswald. She became so upset that she returned to Dallas and then decided to come to New York.

If this is true, she obviously did not resume her trip on the morning of the 22nd. But would it have been humanly possible not to hear about the Oswald shooting until the day after it happened? I guess so, but how likely? Also, returning to Dallas after hearing that news, if true, tends to negate any notion she was fleeing on the 22nd through fear of what she knew was about to happen - unless that fear was only in regard to Ruby.

Just thinking out loud here... if going to NO from Dallas, would you need to go down Atwood? I have no idea what the answer is, but if that is not the way you'd go, why was she taking that detour? Burns was not seriously injured, which makes me think she was not exactly speeding. Pulling out from the curb, perhaps, after seeing someone in Texas Instruments?

Edited by Greg Parker
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  • 1 month later...

Hi Guys,

Here's an Jack Ruby - Cuba Timeline, that I just found on my old hard drive but don't know where it comes from. Any ideas? Seth Kantor - Larry Hancock?

Where does this go? Does anybody know?

Thanks BK

1959

January 1st Fidel Castro assumes power in Cuba

8th Jack Ruby is believed to have made his first contact on this date with Robert Ray [Dick] McKeown, a Bashore, Texas, gun-runner who had been supplying Castro with arms.

February 1st Ruby tells McKeown he represents source in Las Vegas who wants to get three Castro prisoners out of jail in Cuba [at a time when Castro had several underworld figures jailed there]. Ruby meets McKeown in Kemah, Texas and offers $25,000 for personal introduction to Castro.

March 11th Ruby meets with Dallas FBI Agent Charles W. Flynn and agrees to become an FBI contact.

15th Throughout this time period, Ruby telephones and meets with Tom Davis, the gunrunner with CIA ties in Beaumont.

April 2nd The Dallas police department's Criminal Intelligence Division lists Ruby and Lewis J. McWillie among those connected with professional gambling activities in the community.

27th Fidel Castro travels to Houston on the last leg of the stop which has taken him to Washington D.C., New York, and Boston.

The same day [27th], Jack Ruby rents a safety deposit box, # 448 at Merchant's State Bank in Dallas, Texas.

28th Castro meets with McKeown and offers him a position in the Castro government, but McKeown is serving a five year probated federal sentence as a gunrunner and would be arrested as a fugitive if he takes off in Castro's private plane, as he is invited to do. McKeown turns down the offer at the airport.

28th Ruby meets with Flynn for first time in his role as undercover contact

May 7th Ruby uses his safety deposit box.

15th Elaine Myneir [at the time McWillie's girlfriend] takes message from Jack Ruby in Dallas to Lewis McWillie in Cuba: "tell McWillie that Sparky from Chicago is coming." He mentions about 5 letters and numbers which are a coded message. McWillie responds to the message, "He is nuts" She said the message had word arriving in it. She also claims to have seen Ruby and McWillie frequently at the Dallas airport. She delivered the message in Havana; although hers was strictly a pleasure trip.

22nd Ruby uses safety deposit box.

June 2nd again, Ruby uses the [deposit] box.

5th Ruby meets with agent Flynn

18th Ruby again meets with agent Flynn

22nd Ruby uses safety deposit box. [Note: In both May and June, Ruby uses the box twice a month].

July 1st Ruby uses safety deposit box.

3rd Norman [Roughouse] Rothman, US Mafia figure and Cuban racketeer, arrested in connection with an $ 8.5 million Canadian bank heist of convertible bonds. Federal

authorities link the Canadian job with a large theft of arms from a Ohio national guard armory and with Rothman's $6,000 rental agreement on an airplane, as part of a massive Cuban gun-running project.

7th Ruby meets with agent Flynn.

8th The Castro cabinet decides that Florida number's racket boss Santos Trafficante Jr., a key figure in the Lansky gambling empire in Havana, is to be expelled from Cuba

along with two others. Trafficante meanwhile, is held in a Havana area jail.

9th Ruby uses safety deposit box.

20th And uses box again

21st Ruby meets with agent Flynn

August 1st [approximately] The dinner Ruby shares in an airport restaurant with one of the Fox brothers and the two criminally associated Dallas attorney's, McCord and McLane

appears to have occurred in July or August.

6th Ruby meets with agent Flynn

31st Meets again with Flynn in the week of his departure for Cuba, [in June, July and August, the FBI followed a pattern of meeting every two weeks with Ruby].

September 4th Ruby uses his safety deposit box then departs for Cuba

5th According to estimates of Ruby and others, he spends next several days, including the long Labor Day weekend, with McWillie the armed syndicate gambler. Ruby also visits gangster "Louis Santos" in jail more than once, according to a British witness.

12th INS says Ruby leaves Miami for Cuba on Sept. 12, 1959. It is worth noting that it is in Miami where Rothman has an interest in the Biltmore Terrace Hotel. Ruby flies back to Miami for one day.

13th Ruby then flies from Havana to New Orleans

21st Ruby uses his safety deposit box again.

October 2nd Ruby meets with Flynn for the last time.

28th Ruby opens his safety deposit box for the last time in the year 1959, [seth Kantor relates that "he uses it only 4 times in the next 17 months, and when authorities crack Box 448 open late in 1963, it is empty."]

November

December

Addendum to 1959 Chronology

Regarding Jack Ruby's use of Box 448 at Merchant's State Bank, Seth Kantor had this to say. "Ruby rented box 448 at his bank in Dallas, the Merchants State, where he maintained a small business checking account and no savings account. He' had no known bank safety deposit box in 11 previous years as a Dallas resident --- and he rented the box the day before the first of his regular meetings as an undercover FBI contact with FBI agent Charles W. Flynn. Then he used the box 12 times in 1959 in exactly the same seven month stretch in which he was meeting nine times with Flynn. In the footnote to this paragraph Kantor writes Ruby never used the box regularly after that. He used it three times in 1960, once in 1961, and never used it again. Who Was Jack Ruby page 247 footnote [2] page 429

August 1st entry: Kantor states rather specifically that on this date, Jack Ruby met with two Dallas attorney's named McCord and McLane. The name McLane should strike a chord to those familiar with the visit of the Warren Commission's hierarchy to Jack Ruby's cell in June 1964. When Ruby spoke to the Warren Commission, he stated "There is a very prominent attorney here in Dallas, McCord. McCord represents the Fox brothers here. They called me because the Fox brothers wanted to see me, and I came down to the hotel. And Mrs McWillie -- Mr McWillie was married to her at the time, and if I recall I didn't see show them off at the airport have. This in when they were still living in Havana, the Fox brothers. We had dinner at --- how do you pronounce that restaurant at Love Field? Luau? That serves this Chinese food, David McCord, I was in his presence, and I was invited out to dinner --- and there was an attorney by the name of Leon. Is he associated with McCord? and there was McLane." After Jack Ruby mentioned McLane, Earl Warren cryptically responded "Alfred was killed in a taxi in New York."

With regards to this matter the HSCA years later had this to say "During his Warren Commission testimony, Ruby identified the Fox Brothers as the owners of the Tropicana, he indicated the Fox brothers came to Dallas "to collect a debt that [some] man owed the Cotton Gin Co., here," and that he had dinner with one of the Fox brothers here at the Laua Restaurant at Love Field. HSCA Hearings Vol 9 page 185.

"The Committee spoke with David McCord on September 28, 1978. When asked about the dinner with Ruby and one of the Fox brothers, McCord stated the meeting did occur at the Luau restaurant at Love Field, but involved Ruby, McCord and the Guadano brothers Robert and Bernie." Regarding McLane's presence at the same meeting, the Committee stated

"The other attorney who was allegedly present at this dinner Alfred W. McLane was killed in a taxi on March 16th 1963."

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