Mr. RUBY. Well, he handled all the contacts with the FBI.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Tonahill did?
Mr. RUBY. Yes; more or less.
Mr. GRIFFIN. It is your understanding that the work of the trial team
was divided up in such a way that only Tonahill dealt with the FBI, for
the most part?
Mr. RUBY. Yes; as far as I know.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Now, so you have no personal information, further personal
information, at this time about this psychiatric help which Jack got at
age 10?
Mr. RUBY. No.
Mr. GRIFFIN. When Jack was 10 was he living in the home?
Mr. RUBY. In a foster home, yes; so far as I can understand.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Well, that would have made you 6, is that right?
Mr. RUBY. Would have made me 6.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Where were you living at age 6?
Mr. RUBY. To tell you the truth, I don’t know but I think I was living
in Chicago, of course, and I don’t remember the name. I think the name
of the people were Speeves, but I don’t know if I went to the farm,
they sent me to a farm for a year, whether I was on a farm at the time
but anyhow we weren’t together those years.
Mr. GRIFFIN. For how many years were you separated from the rest of the
family as a child?
Mr. RUBY. To tell you the truth, I don’t know when it started. I would
say 5, 6 years maybe. I was in three foster homes that I remember all
together. I know I was on a farm, and then at two foster homes that I
can distinctly remember.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Do you remember how old you were when you returned to the
home of your family, your mother’s and father’s home?
Mr. RUBY. Well, I think it was in 1928, 1928, so I must have been 13
years old.
Mr. GRIFFIN. And that would have made Jack 17.
Mr. RUBY. Seventeen; I am not sure whether it was—I just don’t
remember. It has got to be a little before that. Because I went to that
Shepherd School for a few years, it had to be there from 1925 to 1928,
but I don’t know exactly.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Were you living in the home when you went to the Shepherd
School?
Mr. RUBY. You mean was I living with the family?
Mr. GRIFFIN. Yes.
Mr. RUBY. Yes.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Was Jack living with the family at that time?
Mr. RUBY. Yes; that is when we were all brought back together.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Had Jack finished high school at that time?
Mr. RUBY. No, no; Jack didn’t finish high school.
Mr. GRIFFIN. No; but was Jack still attending school when he returned
to the home?
Mr. RUBY. Yes; he was.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Are you able to recall how long Jack continued to attend
school after you returned to the family, to your family?
Mr. RUBY. No; I know he graduated from that Shepherd School but when I
don’t know. As far as I know he graduated from that school and then he
went to Marshall High School for a while and then he dropped out.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Another thing that you mentioned that we were discussing
in Exhibit 1, that Mr. Dann had assembled some facts and had discussed
Jack’s efforts to show that the Jews are good people by himself helping
gentiles.
Now I want you to go back and comb your recollection of the period
you lived with and worked with Jack for incidents when you can recall
of your own knowledge of Jack helping gentiles, or helping people in
general, let’s not limit it to Jews or gentiles.
Mr. RUBY. Well, even when we were in business, we had that problem
which came up several times, where he would take some of the
merchandise, like our pens that we were using, and salt and pepper
shakers, and almost every day or two he would take a load of samples.
When I asked him he would say, “Well, a nice guy here or there and I
gave him one or two, what difference does it make”, in the meantime he
was giving them out all the time. If anybody wanted one he would just
give it to them. But at that time no remark was made as far as I can
remember as to why he did it.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Would you be able to give us names of any people who, you
know might have been the beneficiaries of this?
Mr. RUBY. I wouldn’t remember, because I wouldn’t know where, but most
of this took place or a great part of it anyhow in Dallas, and the
names of those I think we could get.
Mr. GRIFFIN. How about as far as you are concerned, of course, you knew
him in Chicago, how about people that you can think of that Jack would
have extended these kindnesses to in Chicago?
Mr. RUBY. I couldn’t remember any names because there was no reason
to remember this, and this goes back so far. It is 20 years at the
earliest.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Well, you also mentioned that your brother had a great
love for President Kennedy. Can you give us some examples of that?
Mr. RUBY. Well, I didn’t realize it, I mean, because I haven’t been
with him since the Kennedy family and Kennedy himself, to really become
involved in politics because he was in Dallas and I was in Chicago and
in Detroit. However, I know that when they, I think it was the Dallas
Morning News printed that full page, whatever you call that, statement——
Mr. GRIFFIN. The black bordered advertising?
Mr. RUBY. Yes; the black bordered advertising which more or less
definitely insulted the President, he went to the paper and asked them
if they needed the money so bad that they had to print such a horrible
thing even though the other paper had turned it down.
And I think you know he was so upset about seeing that sign on the
roadside about “Impeach Earl Warren” that in the middle of the night he
got his roommate out and got Jerry Crafard, I think his name was, to
take a picture of it.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Do you know why he was upset about it?
Mr. RUBY. Well, he couldn’t see why anything like that could happen.
Here is another great man, and he just couldn’t understand it.