Mr. HUBERT. We will get to that, but are you willing to say now, as
far as you can remember, that that is the only time you ever saw him
interested in a matter of that nature?
Mr. SENATOR. You see, when he gets home at night, the first thing he
heads for is the bathroom, and the paper goes with him, and from there
on he sits there, I don’t know, 45 minutes reading the paper.
Mr. HUBERT. I appreciate your comment because it throws some light on
it, but I would like to have an answer if you can give it to me to that
question. I don’t know if I can rephrase it.
(The previous question was read by the reporter.)
Mr. HUBERT. Can you answer that question?
Mr. SENATOR. I didn’t get that.
Mr. HUBERT. Let’s see if I can rephrase it. You mentioned that you saw
him interested in a matter that concerned an ism. I had previously
asked you whether or not he had, to your knowledge, any interest in
rightism, communism, leftism, middle-of-the-roadism, and you mentioned
that one incident.
Mr. SENATOR. Those, none whatsoever, because he is a lover of the
country he lives in. He was never——
Mr. HUBERT. I suppose that would be called Americanism.
Mr. SENATOR. Americanism. He loves the nation he is in.
Mr. HUBERT. You formed that opinion, of course, on certain events or
things that he told you. Can you refer to what those things would have
been?
Mr. SENATOR. No; I can’t, but I know that he has never belonged to any
organizations. He has never attended any meetings to my knowledge, and
this is the only way that I can in all reality base it.
Mr. HUBERT. You say that he is a lover of his country. Now, did he
say so or did he act in certain ways regarding certain instances that
caused you to form that opinion?
You see what I mean, any impression that you have about anybody is
based upon your reactions to things said or done, and that is all I am
asking you to say.
Now you say he is a man who loves his country. I ask you, did you
hear him say so or did you get that impression from things he did, or
attitudes?
Mr. SENATOR. I just take this for granted that he does, the same way as
I take it that I know that I do.
Mr. HUBERT. Of course, you know you do from your own experience, but on
the other hand you don’t know about somebody else.
Mr. SENATOR. I don’t know how to base it with him. I know he is very
fond of the city he lived in.
Mr. HUBERT. And how do you know that?
Mr. SENATOR. Because he has told me he likes Dallas. He likes Dallas,
he likes everything about it. He liked living there. He liked it
because there wasn’t any hustle and bustle like any large, big city
like New York or Chicago or California.
Mr. HUBERT. Have you similar facts or experiences upon which to base
your opinion that he is a lover of the United States as such?
Mr. SENATOR. I can’t base it on anything. It is only what I think. And,
of course, to my way of thinking I think everybody does.
Mr. HUBERT. I think I am beginning to see what you mean. You assume
that everybody loves their country.
Mr. SENATOR. Yes.
Mr. HUBERT. Unless there is something to the contrary.
Mr. SENATOR. Sure.
(Discussion off the record.)
Mr. GRIFFIN. I want to ask some questions along that line.
Mr. HUBERT. Go ahead and do it now unless you prefer to wait.
Mr. GRIFFIN. No; I would just as soon, when you finish with an area,
pick up from notes I have been making.
Did Jack Ruby, George, to your knowledge show any interest in any
political candidates for local office in Texas?
Mr. SENATOR. I don’t know on that. I will tell you, as far as I know of
him, he has never spoken of or never messed around with anything like
that, political-wise or anything of that nature.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did you ever see him with any campaign literature for
anybody?
Mr. SENATOR. No; I haven’t.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did you ever see him with any literature of any political
sort that would be other than newspaper literature?
Mr. SENATOR. No.
Mr. GRIFFIN. You know in Texas and elsewhere there are all sorts of
organizations that are putting out literature, the John Birch Society
and Civil Liberties Union.
Mr. SENATOR. He never messed around with that. The only first showing I
ever seen of any nature was that night he woke me up.
Mr. GRIFFIN. You mentioned that Jack read newspapers, and you thought
every day. Did you have a newspaper delivered to your apartment?
Mr. SENATOR. No; he bought it on the way home.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did he read newspapers from outside of Dallas?
Mr. SENATOR. No; he bought the morning paper and the evening paper.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did he buy the Fort Worth papers?
Mr. SENATOR. Yes; and Fort Worth, come to think of it.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Any particular reason why he should buy a Fort Worth paper
rather than a Dallas paper?
Mr. SENATOR. No; because he bought them both. No particular reason, but
he would buy them both for news or see what is going on in Fort Worth,
I assume.
Mr. GRIFFIN. He would buy a Fort Worth paper at a Dallas newsstand or
would he only buy the Fort Worth newspaper when he went to Fort Worth?
Mr. SENATOR. No; he would buy a Fort Worth paper, I will tell you where
he bought it, he bought it at the Adolphus Hotel. He always picked
his paper up at the stand in front of the Adolphus. He would buy the
morning news. As a matter of fact, he would buy any paper that was
laying around there that the man had in front of the stand there.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did he read the Wall Street Journal?
Mr. SENATOR. No; I don’t even think he could understand it.
Mr. GRIFFIN. How about magazines? Did he subscribe to any magazines?
Mr. SENATOR. No.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Time magazine, Newsweek?
Mr. SENATOR. I never seen any magazines come in.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did you have any magazines around the house?
Mr. SENATOR. No; the only magazines I ever bought was Reader’s Digest.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did you people have a television set at your apartment?
Mr. SENATOR. Yes.
Mr. GRIFFIN. And did you have a radio?
Mr. SENATOR. Yes.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Was Jack accustomed to being at home and watching the TV
or listening to the radio?
Mr. SENATOR. On the TV part; yes, he would put that on. He would have
that on, and, of course, there is two things I know interested him on
TV.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What were those?
Mr. SENATOR. Those were Westerns and the stories, you know, whatever
stories there might be.
Mr. GRIFFIN. You mean the movies?
Mr. SENATOR. Yes; the movies, and he liked the Westerns, you know, the
half-hour or hour programs, whatever they were.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did he have a radio in his car?
Mr. SENATOR. He had, what do you call those little things?
Mr. GRIFFIN. Transistor?
Mr. SENATOR. Yes; transistor.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did he have one that was installed in the car itself?
Mr. SENATOR. You mean put in?
Mr. GRIFFIN. You know.
Mr. SENATOR. He had it put in?
Mr. GRIFFIN. A car radio.
Mr. SENATOR. Oh yes; installed with the car?
Mr. GRIFFIN. Yes.
Mr. SENATOR. Yes.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Was this any sort of special kind of radio?
Mr. SENATOR. No; just a radio that came with the car.
Mr. GRIFFIN. It wasn’t equipped to receive any kind of frequencies?
Mr. SENATOR. No.
Mr. GRIFFIN. FM or anything like that?
Mr. SENATOR. No. As a matter of fact, the last car he bought he bought
second-hand, which he thought he had a good buy on, and he bought it,
and, of course, the thing had a radio in it, you know, whatever make it
was. Nothing special about, just the ordinary car radio.
Mr. GRIFFIN. How about your radio at home? Could that pick up FM?
Mr. SENATOR. I don’t know.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Or shortwave?
Mr. SENATOR. I don’t know if it could or not.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What kind of a radio was it?
Mr. SENATOR. I don’t even know the make or the brand. One side there
was a clock and the other side was a radio.
Mr. GRIFFIN. I take it then your conclusion about Jack Ruby would
be that he didn’t have any particular political feelings one way or
another, and he wasn’t a great patriot and he wasn’t disloyal. As far
as you knew he was just an ordinary American citizen.
Mr. SENATOR. He was a good, sound American citizen, and politics, he
never messed around with that. He never messed around politically at
all. The majority was connected with the music industry, the night
life, you know, his club, his competitors, what they were doing.