Jack Ruby

[Anonymous]

Ok, not sure that this question belongs here, or indeed if it should be asked at all. Wouldn't be at all surprised to find that it's not here when I next look, but this seems to be the best place to find people who might know.

I'm currently reading James Ellroy's 'American Tabloid', a hard-boiled take on the Hoover/Hoffa/Kennedys/Cuba tangle, and I'm sure that Ellroy has been very thorough with his research. One trivial point has been niggling at me in a most puerile fashion and I'd like to know if anyone can confirm this: was Jack Ruby really investigated by the ASPCA in 1956 on suspicion of sexually molesting dogs?

See why I'm being so hesitant about this question?

 

[Anonymous]

Nope...

No, he isn't and wasn't. I think it would have been in the National Enquirer (the American version of the Sun) if he were.

Interestingly enough, Jack Ruby, before he died some fifteen or twenty years (or more) ago, attended the same synagogue in Dallas that my parents later would when my father and mother were just starting out in that city.

The dog-thing was never mentioned at kiddush (the little one-sip-of-wine-and a bunch of cookies, cakes, herring, et cetera luncheon that follows Saturday morning prayer services), even by the gossippy old ladies who hogged all the creamed herring. You'd think something like that would make great house-of-worship gossip, especially since Jack was apparently a great contributor to the shul , appeared respectable (except for the whole shooting-the-not-yet-convicted bit, which was chalked up to problems with his wife and business by some of the herring-hoggers. That's how old ladies think ), and was responsible for the gorgeous flowers on either side of the bimah (pulpit) on more than one occasion. There was a bit of talk about his being somehow connected with the Cubans, the Mob (Lebanese, Italian, Jewish, Irish, Good-Ol'-Boy, you name it), The CIA, the FBI (J. Edgar Hoover Division of Mythical Covert Ops), the homosexuals, and the yippies and/or proto-yippie beatniks, and also, naturally, with the Big Bad Russians. But the dog thing was never mentioned.

And before you even think it, yes, he was a Zionist, but everyone in my particular sect of Judaism is a Zionist, at least nominally. The extent of it was probably the extent of most American Jews' Zionism: He contributed money to the Jewish National Fund, which sounds very political and right-wing and extreme, but is really just a tree-planting and food-to-the-needy organization; and he probably, every once in a while, sighed wistfully and said, "You know, one of these days I've gotta go visit my cousins in Israel, work on a kibbutz for a little while, go to the Old City and put a prayer in the cracks of the Western Wall," and then went right on not doing just that....

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that. I did find mention of homosexual links on The Smoking Gun, but nothing more outre than that.
Zionism never crossed my mind, but then I wasn't hunting around for a stick to beat the chap with.

 

[naitaka]

Ruby was well known as a dog lover:

"Ruby was extremely fond of dogs. Numerous persons stated that he was constantly accompanied by several of the dogs he owned. Testimony at Ruby's trial in March 1964 indicated that he referred to his dogs as his "children." He also became extremely incensed when he witnessed the maltreatment of any of his dogs." (http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/ruby5.htm)

...but I can't find any reference suggesting that his affection for dogs was other than platonic.

Ruby reportedly left one of his dogs, Sheba, in his car while he nipped in to shoot Oswald.

 

[Anonymous]

That's as much as I found, but I'm going to quote Ellroy to show just why I wondered:

'The kickback rolled off the wire: Jacob Rubenstein/AKA Jack Ruby, DOB 3/25/11.
The man had three extortion arrests and no convictions: in '47, '49 and '53.
The man was a suspected pimp and Dallas PD informant.
The man was the subject of a 1956 ASPCA investigation. The man was strongly suspected of sexually molesting dogs.'

Now I know this doesn't explicitly state that the investigation was into the suspicions mentioned in the next sentence, but this is implied in later comments. I just thought that if this is true it must mean that Ruby's quite well thought of in general as I've never heard it before and it's not the kind of accusation which a man with enemies would ever shake off.

Got no quarrel with Ruby's memory myself.

 

[Anonymous]

Having been to a couple of James Ellroy book signings (always entertaining), and read all but his latest novel, it's no surprise that Ellroy mixes fact with fiction.
The great thing about Jack Ruby from Ellroy's perspective is, of course, that he's dead, and so won't be sueing anyone for libel, no matter how outrageous the claims. Ellroy also makes no bones about the fact that though his recent books are historical novels, he is not a historian - so perhaps it's best not to look at his books as factual historical sources.
Years ago he used to be good for malicious Hollywood gossip on his signing tours, this year he seemed less revealing - maybe the British lawyers had a quiet word in his ear…

 

[Anonymous]

I seem to recall that Elroy's father had quite a business career in Hollywood for a while and knew a thing or two. My favourite bit in AT is the creation of the Kennedy/Marilyn thing, just on a whim.

 

[Anonymous]

The Kennedy/Monroe thing made me laugh too. That's now something else I'll have to check the evidence for. The whole book makes me feel that I've been too trusting, just because of the number of references I now feel obliged to check.