Jack Ruby and the Dallas Police

[Gil Jesus]

Mark Lane's 1966 interviews with former Ruby employees Nancy Hamilton and Joseph Johnson who claim Jack Ruby knew and was known by the Dallas Police and DA Henry Wade, who patronized his strip clubs.

 

 

[Joe Bauer]

Hamilton and Johnson's claims about Jack Ruby and the Dallas PD and even Henry Wade have been backed up with another hundred similar claims.

What they share is a given now. Beyond debate.

It's always cringing fun to watch Dallas DA Henry Wade meekly "pretend" that he didn't know Jack Ruby well in his late night news conference the evening of 11,24,1963.

"I believe the man's name ( referring to Jack Ruby ) is a Jack Rubenstein I believe?" Owner of a local strip club?

Come on Wade...you knew Jack Ruby as well as anybody. You had been in his club. Nancy Hamilton saw you there.

Wade knew everybody in Dallas. Including Joe Civello and Joe Campisi.

Campisi visited Jack Ruby in his jail cell.

Law enforcement officers quickly became aware of Joseph Civello. He was convicted of Prohibition violations in 1926 and served forty days in jail. On July 12, 1928, Civello was again arrested on liquor charges. His arrest was part of a series of raids that nabbed a total of twenty-two suspected bootleggers around the city. Civello was arrested on St. Paul Street with two other men, Ernest Calchano and Joe DeCarlo. DeCarlo was an important bootlegger in the Dallas area and had recently begun refusing to send tribute payments to Carlo Piranio. Civello was selected to administer Mafia discipline.

Just two days after their arrest together, Civello and DeCarlo met inside the St. Paul Drugstore at the intersection of St. Paul and Bryan Streets. Civello happened to be carrying a loaded shotgun at the time. As the men stood close to each other, the shotgun went off. DeCarlo was shot in the stomach. Rather than flee, Civello remained with the mortally wounded DeCarlo, protesting that his weapon had fired by accident. DeCarlo, with his dying breath, confirmed Civello's story.

Civello was arrested and charged with murder. He continued to insist that the killing was accidental. A Dallas grand jury gave considerable weight to DeCarlo's dying statement. Within two days, Civello was released on his own recognizance. The grand jury continued its investigation into DeCarlo's death and decided on July 27 not to indict Civello.

Apalachin Meeting[edit]

Joseph Civello assumed control in 1956, when Joseph Piranio died at age 78. Civello attended the infamous Apalachin Meeting of Mafia leaders in 1957, a time when he controlled narcotics, gambling, prostitution and night clubs in most of Texas. After the Apalachin Meeting, the FBI began keeping closer tabs on Civello. On January 13, 1960, Civello was indicted for conspiracy and perjury offenses. Judge Irving R. Kaufman sentenced him and nineteen other mob leaders that were at Apalachin to five years in prison. Ten months later, a U.S. Appeals Court overturned the convictions of the twenty men. Prosecutors had proven conspiracy, the court decided, but had not proven that the conspiracy was designed to accomplish some unlawful act.

Joseph Ianni[edit]

After Civello's death in 1970, the FBI listed the Dallas Family as inactive. It is more likely, however, that longtime Dallas capo Joseph Ianni assumed leadership after Civello's death.^[3]

Joseph Campisi[edit]

After Ianni's death in 1973, Campisi took over and ruled as boss until his death in 1990. Campisi owned a restaurant named Campisi's Egyptian restaurant but it was renamed to just Campisi's restaurant which is still in business to this day.

Historical leadership

 

 

 

 

Edited January 13, 2023 by Joe Bauer