Mr. RUBY. Anyhow, with leading too we weren’t hitting it off so good,
and my sister Eva was asking him to come down to Dallas, so between
everything we finally decided to buy him out and he took his money and
went down there.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did his sales activities require him to spend most of his
time outside of the place of business?
Mr. RUBY. Of course; oh, yes.
Mr. GRIFFIN. How much of your sales were on a mail-order basis and how
much was this direct selling that Jack may have been involved in?
Mr. RUBY. Well, at this time, the time he was handling the sales, there
was very little mail order. It was mostly accounts that he had secured
or we had in one way or another.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What area?
Mr. RUBY. Like Mar-Din.
Mr. GRIFFIN. That was in St. Louis, wasn’t it?
Mr. RUBY. No, no; in Chicago.
Mr. GRIFFIN. In Chicago?
Mr. RUBY. Yes.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did he travel outside the Chicago area?
Mr. RUBY. Not too much; not too much, if I recall. I don’t recall. I
don’t think he traveled too much.
I think, now that I think of it, that was one of our problems. We
wanted him to go down or go out of town, to Milwaukee or any of
the other cities, even close by, and definitely St. Louis where we
eventually sold Katz Drug which is a big and good account for us and
they turned out to be a pretty fair account. And anyhow as I said one
thing led to another. Eva was wanting him in Dallas and he wasn’t
getting along too well with us so it was decided to buy him out.
Mr. GRIFFIN. The only other topic I want to cover with you now is the
circumstances behind you changing your name from Rubenstein to Ruby.
Did Mr. Hubert cover that with you?
Mr. RUBY. Sort of. Well, first off, there are two reasons. First of
all, we were, I think, very conscious of the Jewish name of Rubenstein,
and we had worked for another Jewish fellow who we all looked up to,
an elderly fellow who had been very successful in business and his
name was Stanley Eisenberg and he said, “When you send out mail orders
you shouldn’t use a Jewish name because of the—some people won’t order
even if they can use the merchandise,” and anyhow he suggested we use
a different name, and so we finally decided since they were calling us
Ruby anyhow, with that in mind, and business reasons, that is, and we
finally decided to—Sam and I did first, you know.
Mr. GRIFFIN. You did.
Mr. RUBY. Yes; and Jack did it down in Dallas.
Mr. GRIFFIN. How much time elapsed between when you and Sam changed
your name and Jack changed his?
Mr. RUBY. Gee, I don’t know.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did you ever discuss with Jack the reasons for his
changing his name?
Mr. RUBY. No.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Do you have any idea why he changed his name?
Mr. RUBY. No; it never came up. We never discussed it as far as I can
remember, we just never discussed that.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Is my understanding correct then that the changing of your
name and Sam’s name was directly tied with your activity in connection
with Earl Products, and thus since Hyman didn’t have any connection
with Earl Products and Jack didn’t have any connection with Earl
Products at the time you two changed your name, why there was no reason
for those two at that time to change their name?
Mr. RUBY. Well, Hyman never changed his name, as you know.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Yes; I know that.
Mr. RUBY. I really don’t know the reason for Jack. He may have had the
same reason but since he did it there, and we never brought it up it
just never was brought into our conversations, that I can remember. We
may have—at that time it was nothing important to us, and it happened
along about 15–16 years ago, I think. I think we changed ours in 1947,
I don’t even remember.
Mr. GRIFFIN. I think we can finish this off here now. I want to hand
you what has been marked as “Washington, D.C., June 3, 1964, deposition
of Earl Ruby, Exhibit No. 3.” This is a copy of a report which was
prepared by two FBI agents, White and Lee of an interview they had with
you on November 25 in Chicago, which consists of two pages. The pages
are numbered at the bottom 171 and 172. I want to hand it to you and
ask you if you had a chance to read that?
Mr. RUBY. Yes; I have.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Are there any changes or corrections that you think ought
to be made in that?
Mr. RUBY. Well, here in the first paragraph it says, “In 1946 his
brothers Jack Ruby” I think, I am not sure of the date. I think it was
1947, and Jack didn’t change his name when we did. He changed it later
in Dallas.
Mr. GRIFFIN. All right. Let’s read into the record the part you are
talking about. In the second paragraph you are talking about the
sentence which reads, “He said that in 1946 his brothers Jack Ruby and
Sam Ruby along with himself legally changed their names from Rubenstein
to Ruby for business purposes.”
Now the correct date of your changing your name is when?
Mr. RUBY. I think it was 1947.
Mr. GRIFFIN. And in any event Jack did not change his name at the same
time that you did?
Mr. RUBY. That is correct.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Okay. Take your time and refer to them—you have notes,
refer to them.
Mr. RUBY. Down here in the sixth paragraph it says, “following military
service Jack returned to Chicago where he resided for several months
and was not employed to his, Earl Ruby’s knowledge,” that is not
correct.
When Jack came back from the service we immediately took him in as a
partner in Earl Products Co., so that is wrong. And then they said
about 1946. I think in 1947 he went to Dallas. However, I am not sure
of that. You probably have that date.
I see on this next to the last paragraph where it says Earl Ruby
stated he could give no reason why Jack Ruby shot Oswald except Jack
is highly—is a highly emotional type and may have thought he was doing
everyone a great service, I don’t remember that, the exact words. I
don’t think I would have made that statement completely. I mean——
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did you have some feeling at the time that Jack may have
thought he was doing a service to the country?
Mr. RUBY. To tell you the truth, I was so upset that I may have made
the statement but I am not sure. You know I was—when was this, this was
the next day, right, Monday?
Mr. GRIFFIN. Yes.
Mr. RUBY. That is it for this one. Some of them are almost exact
duplicates.
Mr. GRIFFIN. I am going to hand you what has been marked as
“Washington, D.C., June 3, 1964, deposition of Earl Ruby Exhibit 4.”
And that purports to be an interview that Mr. Robichau and Mr. Wilson
of the FBI had with you on November 25 in Southfield, Mich. It consists
of six pages and they are numbered consecutively at the bottom 173 to
178.
Have you had a chance to read that over?
Mr. RUBY. Yes.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Would you indicate what changes or corrections should be
made thereon?
Mr. RUBY. Well, in the fourth paragraph I am not certain as to whether
my father was born in Russia and as to whether my mother was born in
Poland. I think my older sisters and brothers know more about that than
I do.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Was the experience of your mother and father in Europe a
topic which was discussed very often in the home?
Mr. RUBY. My father’s experiences were, in telling about the hardships
of it and the persecutions of the Jews.