Ruby told his strippers once that the most he had netted at the Carousel in a year was $5,000.206 Though they were inclined to believe he was lowballing it, he may have been telling them the truth. Armstrong, who worked for Ruby for a year and a half, said that the financial condition of the Carousel Club was “not good” and the club was only “making enough [money] to pay the bills and…overhead.”207
Although Jack did buy a safe for his office just two weeks before President Kennedy’s assassination,208 for most of the time that he managed the club he kept his funds in his trouser pockets and the trunk of his car. One acquaintance remarked that Ruby “operated out of his hip pocket.”209 At the time of his shooting of Oswald, Ruby had $2,015.33 in cash on his person, consisting of nine $100 dollar bills, thirty $10 bills, forty $20 bills, two $5 bills, four $1 bills, and $1.33 in change. All the money, Ruby said, was for his club’s payroll and money to pay his excise tax.210 His pockets being his principal bank, at the time of the shooting the Carousel Club’s balance at Merchants State Bank on Rose Avenue in Dallas was only $199.78.211 Murphy Martin, a WFAA (Dallas) radio and TV reporter who knew Ruby, said that Jack was “the type of person that, I think, would have $5,000 in his pocket and not a dime in the bank.”212 And safe-deposit box records showed that Ruby had not used his boxes for more than a year prior to the events in November, and when later opened, they were empty.213
As could be expected from someone who was continually late paying his bills, Ruby was also late filing his taxes. His records were in chaos, and one accountant quit because Ruby’s habit of having his important papers and tax records and receipts at either one of his clubs, his apartment, or his mobile home (his car)* made doing his returns next to impossible.214
When Jack did get his taxes done, he was almost always late, and he frequently requested extensions, citing his inability to get his Carousel and Vegas club records together in time.215 The Warren Commission, examining Ruby’s financial records, found them to be “chaotic” and in “hopeless disarray.”216
The IRS, of course, breathed down Jack’s neck for years with phone calls, letters, and meetings because of tax delinquencies dating back to 1958.217 In 1960 the government filed two tax liens for the years 1956 to 1959 in the amount of $20,200.21.218 Jack was put on a monthly payment plan to pay off his income and excise tax obligations, and his frequent offers to pay a lesser amount were always rejected.219
The bottom line for Jack Ruby in all of his complicated and convoluted tax dealings with the federal government was that he was liable for close to $40,000 at the time he shot Oswald, mostly in excise taxes. In June of 1963, he had made an Offer in Compromise of $3,000, one-thirteenth of the amount owed, to settle the entire amount, saying he would borrow the money from a friend. On November 24, 1963, the day he killed Oswald, his offer was still pending.220 Jack’s involuntary change of residence on that day to the Dallas city jail rendered moot all of his previous seven years’ tax problems, although the IRS, later rejecting Jack’s offer, sent a Notice of Levy to Dallas chief of police Jesse Curry on December 9, 1963, advising him that the “taxpayer” in his custody, Jack Ruby (actually, Jack was now in the custody of the sheriff’s department), now owed them $44,413.86.221
As we have seen, from the time of Jack’s arrival in Dallas some sixteen years earlier, he was primarily a nightclub operator, moving into burlesque (or a “girlie club”) in his final and most famous venue, the Carousel Club. However, this hardly took all of his time. Those who worked with Jack knew him to show up at the club usually in the early afternoon, when the club was closed, although his comings and goings in the afternoon were “unpredictable,” and he’d stay for a few hours before leaving. The first show at the Carousel was at 9:00 p.m., and Jack would usually show up again between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. and stay until closing time.222 There was plenty of time for Jack to “make a buck” on other endeavors. And there weren’t too many others trying to make a buck who could keep up with Jack, at least as far as motley attempts were concerned.
What follows is only a partial list (some previously mentioned) of the “make a buck” schemes that Ruby tried, at one time or another, in his adult life. They are in no particular order by chronology, longevity, preference, or profitability. The only thing they have in common is that he tried them all and none were successful. He peddled punchboards,223 cookware,224 miniature cedar chests,225 small turtles with painted backs,226 sporting event tickets,227 subscriptions to newspapers,228 racetrack tip sheets,229 little footballs with school colors,230 a plaster of paris bust of President Roosevelt,231 “Remember Pearl Harbor” plaques,232 chocolates at burlesque houses,233 peanuts at sporting events,234 carnations in dance halls,235 “hot” music sheets,236 costume jewelry,237 an arthritis remedy,238 a liquefied “vitamin” of mineral water with enzymes,239 gadgets to be used as sewing machine attachments at the Texas State Fair,240 Wilkinson steel razor blades,241 pizza crust to Dallas restaurants,242 and “Twist Waist Exerciser” boards.243*
Jack also promoted the sale of prefabricated log cabins at Grapevine Lake between Dallas and Fort Worth244 and, as we’ve seen, managed the young, black piano-playing tap-dancer, “Little Daddy Nelson.”245 He promoted records for musicians,246 entertainment for a Dallas hotel,247 assisted producers of a “How Hollywood Makes Movies” show at the state fair,248 and investigated selling jeeps to Cuba,249 all losing propositions. It wouldn’t be fair to say that Jack Ruby never tried to be a success. He just never succeeded. As Tony Zoppi, the nightclub editor for the Dallas Morning News, said, “The man was a loser, let’s face it. I mean, he was a friend of mine, but he was a loser.”250
Although Ruby was a loser, that didn’t mean he didn’t have dreams and ambitions—they were just limited to the world of nightclubs. Former Dallas police lieutenant Elmo Cunningham, who worked off duty for Ruby for a short time at the Silver Spur, and knew him well, said that “Jack…was very ambitious. He told me on more than one occasion that he would rather run a New York nightclub such as the Copa than to be President of the United States.”251
Much has been mentioned of Ruby’s association and friendship with members of the Dallas Police Department. “Jack Ruby knew all the policemen in town,” said a close friend.252 Another friend, boxer Reagan Turman, told the FBI that “Ruby was acquainted with at least 75 per cent, and probably 90 per cent, of the police officers on the Dallas Police Department.”253 While these remarks are undoubtedly hyperbole, it can’t be considered exaggeration when a lieutenant for the police department, George C. Arnett, told the FBI that Ruby “was well known among the members of the Dallas Police Department and was rather friendly with them.”254 A higher officer on the force, Captain W. R. Westbrook, said, “I’d say that half the police force knew [Ruby] and called him a friend…A lot of policemen went to his clubs. It was an open home for them.”255 Dallas officer Joe Cody, a close friend of Ruby’s who would often go skating with him and, as previously indicated, actually had his name on the title to the pistol Ruby used to kill Oswald, said that “everybody that I knew kind of liked Jack, and that included policemen. There’d be ten or twelve of us up [at the Carousel] having a few beers every night.”256 And Dallas police detective Roy Standifer told the FBI that Ruby “frequently” came to downtown headquarters, was “widely known among police officers,” and liked to call officers by their first names as though they were close friends of his.257
Warren Commission counsel asked Dallas police officer A. M. Eberhardt, “At the time that Oswald was killed, who were the officers on the force outside of yourself that Ruby knew the best, would you say?” Eberhardt replied, “I don’t know who he knew the best.”
“From your own estimation, who did he?”
“I don’t know…He knew just about everybody.”258
A friend and former business associate of Ruby’s told the Warren Commission that “because of [Ruby’s] character” some people “would take him as a thug,” but actually, “he was in thicker with the police in Dallas than
anybody else I knew of because they were always in his place.”259
The evidence is overwhelming that Ruby felt very close to law enforcement, particularly the Dallas Police Department. He knew and was friendly with a considerable number of officers on the force, and was constantly trying to ingratiate himself with them. Ruby’s love for the police goes way back. Louis Capparelli, who served as police captain in the area of Chicago where Ruby was born, knew Ruby well back then. He recalls, “I guess you could call him a frustrated policeman because he liked to be seen with a policeman.”260
Ray Mathis, a former FBI agent who was a Dallas police officer in the early 1960s, told me that Ruby “loved the police” and “always had a pot of coffee for us when we stopped by.” He said that Ruby would show up at the scene of murders. He later found out how Ruby knew. He walked into the kitchen of the Carousel one night and there was Ruby listening to police calls.261
As author Jim Bishop says, “Ruby had ‘copitis.’ Many times he had bought the smiles of hardened police officers by bringing them bags of coleslaw, cold cuts, seeded rye bread, rolls and coffee.”262
According to two of Ruby’s Carousel Club employees, “he heroized the police because they represented the good and the decent. He had crashed through life with the bad guys, but he always respected the good guys, and to him the police were the best of the good guys.”263 Each Sunday evening Jack would have “Celebrity Night” at the club and in so doing would entertain as many as eight law enforcement officers with free pizza and drinks. When asked why he went to such expensive lengths when it was not necessary to cozy up to the police (since he was not engaging in any illegal activities), Ruby replied that he wanted to because he liked law enforcement officers and “these men did not make salaries which would enable them to have this kind of entertainment.”264 In the words of one ex-officer, Jack “loved policemen.”265 He thought it was great having police officers at his club, and therefore they always got free coffee and soft drinks, got their liquor at a cut rate, and never had to pay a cover charge.266
One of Ruby’s dancers reported that from time to time she would see police officers enter the Carousel Club, go to Ruby’s office, and then leave with bottles of whiskey under their arm,267 and a former Dallas police officer, who said “a great many” police officers “attended the club socially,” acknowledged that Jack would give numerous policemen whiskey at Christmas time.268 A Carousel employee recalled how there were always police officers in the club and they would congregate at the end of the bar.269 Jack gave some of the officers off-duty jobs as a bouncer or “door watcher.”270 One officer remembered that Jack “liked any kind of officer and always wanted to be in a position of helping them.” He recalled that on one occasion, three men jumped on two officers in Ruby’s club and Jack jumped into the fight and “gave a good account of himself.” He believed Ruby could have whipped all three.271
One business associate of Ruby’s recalls visiting the Carousel Club one evening and seeing approximately six uniformed officers of the Dallas Police Department there. He said he recalled thinking that Ruby must have friends in the police department because drinks were being served after midnight even though policemen were present.272*
For his part, Ruby told the Warren Commission, “I felt I have always abided by the law—a few little infractions, but not serious—and I felt we have one of the greatest police forces in the world here, and I have always been close to them, and I visited in the office.”273 It is interesting to note that Ruby’s fondness for police officers did not overcome his sense of decorum and his protectiveness—he would never let his girls at the Carousel Club go out with any of them,274 although one policeman did and ended up marrying the girl, a Carousel Club stripper.275
From all of the statements by policemen and others to the FBI regarding Ruby’s association with Dallas police officers, it seems very likely that the number of policemen whom Ruby knew was considerably more than what Dallas police chief Jesse Curry estimated to the Warren Commission: “I believe less than 50 [officers] knew him.”276 One musician acquaintance of Ruby’s who spent a lot of time at the Carousel over a four-to five-week period, and who sometimes worked with the band, estimated he saw between 150 and 200 police officers at the Carousel at one time or another.277
Although Ruby’s primary association with law enforcement was unquestionably the Dallas Police Department, he also had friends at the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, legendary Dallas deputy sheriff Eddy Raymond “Buddy” Walthers and his partner, Alvin Maddox, being two of them. In fact, both visited Ruby in jail after he killed Oswald. So did Deputy Sheriff Bill Courson.278
With Jack’s familiarity with the Dallas Police Department, one might reasonably wonder if he received preferential treatment or got away with breaking the law while his uniformed friends looked the other way. Perhaps the best example of this—though it would have been something the police would have done for others in Jack’s situation—is Jack’s admission that several Dallas police officers knew he had a gun, and one can presume they also knew he carried it on his person for protection when he had the club’s payroll in his pocket, even though he never had a concealed-gun permit. In fact, on a couple of occasions when he was picked up for some violation and released from jail, the police gave him his gun back.279 Although Jack maintained that he never asked for any special favors from the police in return for what he gave them, one time he did ask a policeman to whom he had given whiskey as a gift on three different occasions if he would fix a three-dollar parking ticket for him. When he was informed that the policeman could but that it would cost the policeman a dollar to do so, Jack said never mind and that he would pay the ticket.280
If the Dallas police occasionally looked the other way with Ruby, sometimes they didn’t, even when a reasonable person might think they should have. One must remember, of course, the moral climate of Dallas in the conservative 1950s, but one well-documented incident (before Ruby’s glory days at the Carousel) went more in the direction of harassment than anything else. On December 5, 1954, Ruby was arrested at his Silver Spur Club for violation of the state liquor law. Under “details which prompted arrest,” the “Arresting Officer’s Report” stated, “Arresting officers saw bottle party filled with Schlitz beer on the table occupied by Eugenia Mary O’Brien and Mary Jane Schultz.” The “Case Report” on the incident stated, “He [Ruby] permitted Eugenia Mary O’Brien and Mary Jane Schultz to consume a part of a bottle of Schlitz beer during forbidden hours on Sunday.” Ruby, it seems, was arrested at 1:30 a.m., fifteen minutes into the “forbidden hours.”281 The district attorney’s office recommended in a motion to the court that the arrest of Ruby be dismissed because of insufficient evidence since both officers stated that they did not actually observe the customers consuming the beer. The case was dismissed. The two officers who arrested Ruby for this egregious violation of Texas law were later interviewed by the FBI about the 1954 arrest in the wake of Ruby’s shooting of Oswald, and both admitted to having been to Ruby’s club, neither paid the cover charge, and one paid for his beer, the other didn’t.282
The Texas Liquor Control Board gave Ruby’s clubs numerous suspensions over the years for various infractions, including conducting lewd and obscene shows, consumption of liquor after hours, and passing a dishonored check. He received three-day suspensions in March of 1956 and October of 1961; five-day suspensions in 1949, 1953, and 1954; and a ten-day suspension in 1954.283
The Warren Commission’s accounting of Ruby’s arrest record is contradictory. For instance, although the Commission stated in its report that Ruby was arrested eight times by the Dallas Police Department between 1949 and November 24, 1963, the report in the volume that it cites lists nine arrests.284 And even this list is incomplete. For instance, it doesn’t include a February 1959 disturbance-of-the-peace violation or a February 1954 arrest for presenting a lewd and vulgar show.285
The relevant point is that Ruby was arrested a number of times by the Dallas Police Dep
artment, and of all the arrests duly documented, he paid two fines—the others resulted in “complaint dismissed,” “no charges filed” (including two arrests on charges of carrying a concealed weapon, for which Jack had no permit), and a “not guilty” verdict on a charge of simple assault.286
On any given night, even a misstep by one of Jack’s dancers or patrons could have been cause for his arrest or suspension as the operator of his clubs. So it might be said that given the nature of his chosen profession—operating a nightclub—and being subject to the strict state liquor laws of Texas, and therefore under the constant surveillance of both undercover and uniformed law enforcement for more than fifteen years, Jack was a relatively law-abiding citizen and, with only a few exceptions, ran a clean club. It was “not a troublesome one” for the Dallas Police Department, in the opinion of the assistant chief of police.287*
The same, however, cannot be said of Jack’s driving record—it was by no means clean. In fact, he was a terrible driver. His first of many tickets in Texas came in April 1950 as a result of speeding. From then on he accumulated violations at a pretty regular pace, with his most popular violation being to run red lights, totally consistent with his aggressive personality. Jack liked speeding and had a fondness for running stop signs as well. His worst year was 1956. At the end of January he ran a red light. Two weeks later he got caught doing it again. Thirteen days after that he was caught speeding. After the first three of his 1956 violations, his driving privileges were suspended for six months, accounting for the lack of violations on his record for the same period of time. No sooner was his suspension over before Jack was back at it. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas he ran two stop signs. However, not until August of 1959 was a petition filed against him for being a “habitual motor vehicle violator.” (At this point, he had had seventeen violations—for which he was caught—in less than nine years.) In December of 1959 he was convicted of this charge and put on twelve months’ probation, at the end of which he had to pass a driving test before his license would be reinstated. The records show that Jack apparently didn’t have to wait the entire twelve months of his probation before getting his license back. After passing a test in May of 1960, he showed his gratitude by slowing down his frequency of infractions and having only two automobile accidents and running just one red light that we know of in the next three years.288
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