Melvin Mouron Belli (July 29, 1907 – July 9, 1996)^[1] was a prominent American lawyer known as "The King of Torts" and by detractors as 'Melvin Bellicose'. He had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Errol Flynn, Chuck Berry, Muhammad Ali, the Rolling Stones, Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker, Martha Mitchell, Lana Turner, Tony Curtis, and Mae West. He won over USD $600,000,000 in judgments during his legal career.^[2]

Early life[link]

Melvin Mouron Belli was born in the California Gold Rush town of Sonora, California in the Sierra foothills.^[3] His parents were of Italian ancestry from Switzerland^{[citation needed]} His grandmother Anna Mouron was the first female pharmacist in California. By the 1920s, the family had moved to the city of Stockton, California where Belli attended Stockton High School.

Education and early career[link]

Belli graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1929 and after traveling around the world for a year, attended the Boalt Hall School of Law at Berkeley in 1933.^[4] After graduation, his first job was posing as a hobo for the Works Progress Administration and riding the rails to observe the Depression's impact on the country's vagrant population. His first major legal victory came shortly after graduation, in a personal injury lawsuit representing an injured cable car gripman. Over insurance lawyers' objections, Belli brought a model of a cable car intersection, and the gear box and chain involved in the accident, to demonstrate to jurors exactly what had happened.^{[citation needed]}

Lawyer career[link]

Besides his notorious personal injury cases, which earned for him his byname "King of Torts,"^[3] Belli was also instrumental in setting up some of the foundations of modern consumer rights law, arguing several cases in the 1940s and 1950s that formed the basis for later lawsuits and landmark litigation by such figures as Ralph Nader. Belli argued (in cases such as Escola v. Coca-Cola Bottling Co., in 1944, which arose from an incident in which a restaurant manager from Merced, California was injured by an exploding Coca-Cola bottle) that all products have an implied warranty, that it is to be foreseen that products will be used by a long chain of people, not just the direct recipient of the manufactured product, and that negligence by a defendant need not be proven if the defendant's product is defective. Belli also was one of the first major attorneys to prominently use demonstrative evidence and courtroom exhibits (such as graphics, charts, photographs, and films).^{[citation needed]}

In his book Ready for the Plaintiff, Belli noted examples of negligence cited by himself and other personal-injury lawyers to win in court—for example, a colleague in Florida, who showed how a builder violated a building code in Miami Beach concerning the use of wooden shims in construction of outside walls (forbidden by the municipal code because of the effect of the ocean salt and air). The facing was a slab of Carrara glass, whose adhesion was eventually weakened by the climate; it fell off the side of the building and injured a passerby, who sued the builder. After winning a court case, Belli would raise a Jolly Roger flag over his Montgomery Street office building in the Barbary Coast district of San Francisco (which Belli claimed had been a Gold Rush-era brothel) and fire a cannon, mounted on his office roof, to announce the victory and the impending party.

In his best-known case, Belli represented Jack Ruby, for free, after Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald. Belli attempted to prove that Ruby was legally insane and had a history of mental illness in his family. On Saturday, March 14, 1964, Ruby was convicted of 'murder with malice,' and received a death sentence. Immediately thereafter, Ruby and his siblings fired Belli as they also hired and fired several other lawyers during the case. In late 1966, Ruby's conviction was overturned with help from other defense lawyers on the grounds that he did not receive a fair trial and a retrial was scheduled outside of Dallas, but Ruby died of cancer before the retrial could take place. Belli became very critical of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover; the agency compiled at least 367 pages of evidence about Belli's activities.^[5]

Belli's firm filed for bankruptcy protection in December 1995. Belli was representing 800 women in a class action lawsuit against breast implant manufacturer Dow Corning. Belli won the lawsuit, but when Dow Corning declared bankruptcy, Belli had no way to recover the $5,000,000 (USD) his firm had advanced to doctors and expert witnesses.

In the 1960s, Belli was among the leading members of the California plaintiffs bar who helped establish the California Trial Lawyers Association, which in the mid-1990s was renamed the Consumer Attorneys of California. The organization was established to help set standards and foment on-going legal education to help consumers have a better chance in court against the powerful legal teams amassed by the insurance companies and big corporations that typically were the defendants in accident, personal injury and other consumer lawsuits.^[6]

Film, television, and recordings[link]

Belli appeared in numerous films and television shows, frequently as himself, and was played by Brian Cox in the 2007 film Zodiac (Belli received a letter from the Zodiac Killer in 1969).^[7]

In perhaps his best-known role, other than as himself, Belli appeared in a 1968 Star Trek episode, "And the Children Shall Lead." In it he appeared as Gorgan, an evil being who corrupted a group of children, one of whom was played by his son Caesar.^[8]

In 1970, he appeared in the Albert and David Maysles documentary Gimme Shelter, which featured his representation and facilitation of the Rolling Stones's staging of the disastrous December 6, 1969, Altamont Free Concert. Belli enjoyed his frequent television and movie appearances; in 1965, he told an interviewer for Playboy that he "might have been an actor" if he had not become an attorney.^{[citation needed]} He also played a criminal defense lawyer in an episode of the series Hunter. In that episode he got three college students off the hook on charges of raping and murdering a fellow student at a party. The police were initially investigating the girls' death as a drug overdose when one suspect blurted a confession before police had an opportunity to read them their rights. The victim's older sister then embarked on a vigilante spree, killing two of the suspects before police stopped her just prior to killing the third.

In June 1996, Belli recited the oratory to David Woodard's brass fanfare setting of Mark Twain's "The War Prayer" at San Francisco's Old First Church.^[9]

Author[link]

Belli was the author of several books, including the six-volume Modern Trials (written between 1954 and 1960) which has become a classic textbook on the demonstrative method of presenting evidence. Belli's unprecedented—and some thought undignified—use of graphic evidence and expert witnesses later became common courtroom practice. His autobiography, My Life on Trial is an account of his life and the noteworthy events he was involved in during his career.

Personal life[link]

Belli was married six times and divorced five.^[3] His marriage to his fifth wife, the former Lia Georgia Triff ended with a scandalous and acrimonious divorce proceeding in 1988, in which Belli was fined $1000 for calling his wife "El Trampo," accused his wife of throwing their pet dog off the Golden Gate Bridge, and was ultimately compelled to pay her an estimated $15 million. She later married a self-styled Romanian prince, Paul Lambrino. Belli married his sixth wife, Nancy Ho, on March 29, 1996.^[3] His youngest child, Melia, from fifth wife Lia, became an art history scholar, and is currently an associate professor of Asian art history at the University of Texas at Arlington.^[10]

Death[link]

Belli died of complications from pancreatic cancer, at his home in San Francisco, on July 9, 1996, aged 88.^[3] His death came suddenly, and in the presence of his wife Nancy. The New York Times quoted his publicist Edward Lozzi saying "He was sitting; he just stopped breathing", [1]"Working with him was the highlight of my career. One of my proudest accomplishments was announcing to the media his billion dollar law suit against the tobacco industries in 1994. We connected Belli with Patrick Reynolds, anti-tobacco activist and grandson of the Head of RJReynolds. We also spread the classic quote from Belli about the tobacco industry's conspiracy to addict Americans. 'They grab you, hold you, addict you then kill you without the slightest remorse.' This quote was devastating to big tobacco and helped bring them down with the help of the Federal Food & Drug Administration (FDA)."^[11] As of his death he had three sons, three daughters, twelve grandchildren, and two dogs.^[3] He is buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery in Sonora, California, his birthplace.

Quotes[link]

• "There may be better lawyers than I, but so far I haven't come across any of them in court."

• "A lawyer's performance in the courtroom is responsible for about 25% of the outcome; the remaining 75% depends on the facts."

• "The god damn Chinese won't give you a short noodle on a verdict. You've got to bounce them out of there. In the last case that I tried, I used all my challenges getting rid of those sons of the Celestial Empire."

Bibliography[link]

• 1950, The Voice of Modern Trials
• 1951, The Adequate Award
• 1952, The More Adequate Award
• 1952, The More Adequate Award and the Flying Saucers
• 1954, Modern Trials (6 volumes)
• 1955, The Use of Demonstrative Evidence in Achieving the More Adequate Award
• 1955, Medical Malpractice
• 1956, Blood Money Ready for the Plaintiff
• 1956, Ready for the Plaintiff: A Story of Personal Injury Law
• 1959, Modern Damages (6 volumes)
• 1960, Belli Looks at Life and Law in Japan
• 1963, Belli Looks at Life and Law in Russia
• 1964, Dallas Justice: The Real Story of Jack Ruby And His Trial
• 1967, Trial Tactics
• 1968, Criminal Law
• 1968, The Law Revolt: A Summary of Trends in Modern Criminal and Civil Law
• 1968, The Law Revolution
• 1971, Angela: A Revealing Close-Up of the Woman And the Trial
• 1976, My Life on Trial: An Autobiography
• 1983, The Belli Files

Filmography (as actor)[link]

• 1968, Star Trek (as Gorgan in the episode "And the Children Shall Lead")
• 1968, Wild in the Streets (as himself)
• 1970, Gimme Shelter (as himself)
• 1973, Ground Zero (aka The Golden Gate Is Ground Zero)
• 1978, Lady of the House (TV, as Mayor Jim of San Francisco)
• 1979, Whodunnit? (TV series, as himself)
• 1984, Guilty or Innocent (TV Series, as himself)
• 1991, Murder, She Wrote (TV series, as Judge Harley in the episode "From the Horse's Mouth")
• 2000, "American Justice: Divorce Wars" (TV documentary)

Sources[link]

• Melvin Belli, King of the Courtroom by Mark Shaw, Barricade Books, 2006

References[link]

External links[link]

• "Enter justice, in alligator boots and a polka-dot tie" (December 11, 1984)
• Film interview with Belli
• Belli's 1996 rendering of "The War Prayer" (mp3)
• Lawyer Hall of Fame: Melvin Belli
• bay area lawyers
• Melvin Belli at the Internet Movie Database
• Melvin Belli at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• "Melvin Belli's Largest Creditors & Lawsuits From 11/95 Bankruptcy"
• FBI file on Melvin Belli

The extent of the Belli people is shown in ochre (darker) yellow.

The Belli, also designated ‘Beli’ or ‘Belaiscos’ were an ancient pre-Roman Celtic^[1] Celtiberian people that lived in the modern Spanish province of Zaragoza from the 3rd Century BC.

Origins[link]

Example of a bronze hospitality token in the Celtiberian Celtic language

.

The Belli were of Celtic origin and part of the Celtiberians.^[1] There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that the ancestors of the Celtiberian groups were installed in the Meseta area of the Iberian peninsula from at least 1000 BC and probably much earlier.^[2] The most complete Celtiberian text we have on the bronze 'hospitality tokens' that acted as a sort of identity card is from the Belli and reads lubos alisokum aualoske kontebias belaiskas meaning 'Lubos of the Aliso family, son of Aualos, from Contrebia Belaisca' showing the self-description of this man, by paternity, extended family and territory which is characteristically Celtic.^[3]

Location[link]

Upon arrival, the Belli settled along the middle Jiloca and Huerva rivers in Zaragoza province with their territories streching up to the Guadalope and upper Turia valleys, close to their neighbours and clients, the Titii. Their early capital was Segeda (Poyo de Maya – Zaragoza; Celtiberian mint: Sekaiza), subsequently transferred to nearby Dúron de Belmonte and later offset by Bilbilis (Valdeherrera, near Calatayud – Zaragoza; Celtiberian mint: Bilbiliz). Other Belli urban centers included Nertobriga (La Almunia de Doña Codina – Zaragoza; Celtiberian mint: Nertobis), Contrebia Belaisca (Zaforas de Botorita – Zaragoza; Celtiberian mint: Contebacom Bel), Beligiom (Piquete de la Atalaya de Azuara – Zaragoza; Celtiberian mint: Belikiom), Lesera (El Forcal) and Belgeda (Belchite – Zaragoza). It is plausible that by the 2nd Century BC they exerted some form of control over the strategic frontier towns of Belia (sited somewhere between the Huerva' and Aguas Vivas' rivers; Celtiberian mint: Belaiscom), Osicerda (El Palau de Alcañiz – Teruel; Iberian designation: Usercerte), Damania (Hinojosa de Jarque – Teruel; Celtiberian mint: Tamaniu) and Orosis (La Caridad de Caminreal – Teruel; Celtiberian mint: Orosiz), facing the Iberian peoples of the modern Valencia coastal region.

Culture[link]

The most culturally advanced of the peoples of southern Celtiberia, the Belli were the first Celtiberian tribe to adopt coinage in the aftermath of the 2nd Punic War and to post laws in written form on bronze tablets (Tabulae), using a modified Northeastern Iberian script for their own language. In this script and language they inscribed the characteristic Celtiberian 'hospitality tokens' which are small bronze objects, in two halves, each half being retained by people who stood in hospitality relationship to one another.^[3] These would act as a sort of identity card, and were probably used as safe-conducts or other warranties.^[3] The two halves have been found in places several hundreds of kilometres apart, which implies that the various Celtic groups maintained a system of communications throughout at least central Spain.^[3]

History[link]

During the 3rd-2nd centuries BC, the Belli joined the Celtiberian confederacy alongside the Arevaci, Lusones and Titii, with whom they developed close political and military ties – in 153 BC the Numantines even elected the Belli General Caros as leader of the Celtiberian coalition army that ambushed the Consul Quintus Fulvius Nobilior at the battle of Ribarroya, at the Baldano river valley in the beginning of the first Numantine War^[4]. Prior to that, they had been forced in 181 BC to accept roman suzerainty by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus^[5][6], but this did not prevented them of resisting further Roman encroachment of their lands as well as fighting off Turboletae raids and the Iberian Lobetani people.

Romanization[link]

With the fall of Numantia in 133 BC and the subsequent collapse of the Celtiberian confederacy, the Belli territory was incorporated into Hispania Citerior province though little is known of their history afterwards. The Belli appear to have remained independent until the Sertorian Wars of the early 1st Century BC, when they were gradually pushed back from the upper Jiloca by the Edetani who seized Beligiom, Belgeda, Damania and Orosis, therefore losing all the lands east of the Huerva River. Around 72 BC they and their Titii allies merged with the pro-Roman Uraci, Cratistii and Olcades tribes to form the Late Celtiberian people (Latin: Celtiberi) of romanized southern Celtiberia.

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Ángel Montenegro et alii, Historia de España 2 - colonizaciones y formación de los pueblos prerromanos (1200-218 a.C), Editorial Gredos, Madrid (1989) ISBN 84-249-1386-8
• Alberto J. Lorrio, Los Celtíberos, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Murcia (1997) ISBN 84-7908-335-2
• Francisco Burillo Mozota, Los Celtíberos, etnias y estados, Crítica, Barcelona (1998) ISBN 84-7423-891-9
• Rafael Treviño, Rome's Enemies (4): Spanish Armies 218BC-19BC, Men-at-Arms series 180, Osprey Publishing, London (1986) ISBN 0-85045-701-7

See also[link]

• Belgae
• Bellovaci
• Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula

External links[link]

• http://www.segeda.net

Paul Kangas
Born	Houghton, Michigan
Ethnicity	Finnish American
Education	University of Michigan
Occupation	Business broadcaster
Notable credit(s)	Co-anchor of Nightly Business Report

Paul Kangas was the Miami-based co-anchor of the PBS television program Nightly Business Report, a role he held from 1979, when the show was a local PBS program in Miami, through December 31, 2009.^[1]

Career[link]

After graduating from the University of Michigan, Kangas entered the United States Coast Guard in the early 1960s and served aboard the USCG Cutter Mackinaw.^{[citation needed]} Later, he served as aide to the admiral in command of the 9th Coast Guard District in Cleveland, Ohio.^{[citation needed]} Kangas completed his Coast Guard service in 1963 as a Lieutenant (junior grade).

Kangas earned his broker's license after studying at the New York University Stern School of Business.^[2] While a stock broker, Kangas began his career as a broadcaster at WINZ, a CBS Radio affiliate in Miami owned by his biggest client.^[2]

Kangas joined Nightly Business Report in 1979; in 2003, his "Stocks in the News" segment earned a Financial Writers and Editors Award from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.^[2] In 2005, he won a Suncoast Chapter Silver Circle Award.^[3] Kangas retired as co-anchor of the Nightly Business Report at the end of 2009.^[4]

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will present the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award in Business & Financial Reporting to Paul Kangas and Linda O’Bryon, the latter the founder of NBR and now chief content officer of Northern California Public Broadcasting.^[5]

Personal life[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2009)

Kangas was born in Houghton, Michigan in 1937^{[citation needed]}, and is of Finnish descent.^[6]

Paul is also an amateur radio operator with the callsign W4LAA.^[7]

References[link]

1. ^ http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/onair/transcripts/paul_kangas_final_farewell_091231/
2. ^ ^{a b c} "About Paul Kangas". http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/about/bio/kangas/. Retrieved 2009-08-06. 
3. ^ 2005 Silver Circle from the Suncoast Chapter website
4. ^ Co-Anchor of ‘Nightly Business Report’ to Depart, a May 2009 blog entry from The New York Times Media Decoder blog
5. ^ http://weblogs.jomc.unc.edu/talkingbiznews/?p=11542
6. ^ The Finns in America from a Library of Congress website
7. ^ ULS License - Amateur License - W4LAA - KANGAS, PAUL H

Jim Dunbar (born 1929 in Dearborn, Michigan) is an American radio program director, talk show host and news anchor who helped boost the ratings of KGO (AM) into to the top five^{[citation needed]} with its unique news/talk format. KGO consistently scored in the top five after 1963 and was #1 for a period of time after 1978, extending to about 2009.

In addition to his radio work, he also hosted the popular A.M. San Francisco program on KGO-TV (Channel 7) for many years beginning in 1965. Dunbar is portrayed in the 2007 film Zodiac in a scene where the Zodiac killer calls in to Dunbar's broadcast (with Dunbar hosting guest Melvin Belli) in 1969.

Dunbar was a graduate of the Fordson High School class of 1947 in Dearborn, Michigan, and later worked as a rock DJ at WXYZ Detroit, Michigan, WDSU New Orleans, Louisiana, and WLS (AM) Chicago before coming west to KGO in 1963. Dunbar worked at KGO for the next 37 years, retiring in 2000.^[1] He was elected to the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1999,^[2] and to the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame (Class 2006) in 2006 as a member of the first class to be inducted.^[3]

References[link]

This article about an American businessperson born in the 1930s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This United States biographical article related to radio is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Jacob Leon Rubenstein (March 25, 1911^[1] – January 3, 1967), who legally changed his name to Jack Leon Ruby in 1947, was convicted of the November 24, 1963 murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy. Ruby, who was originally from Chicago, Illinois, was then a nightclub operator in Dallas, Texas. Convicted of the murder on March 14, 1964, Ruby appealed the conviction and death sentence. As a date for his new trial was being set,^[2] he became ill and died of lung cancer on January 3, 1967.

Ruby was involved with major figures in organized crime; conspiracy theorists claim that he killed Oswald as part of an overall plot surrounding the assassination of Kennedy. Others have disputed this, arguing that his connection with gangsters was minimal at most and that he was not the sort to be entrusted with such an act within a high-level conspiracy.^[3]

Alleged links to organized crime[link]

Ruby was known to have been acquainted with both the police and the Mafia, specifically the Italian Mafia. The House Select Committee on Assassinations said that Ruby had known restaurateurs Sam (1920–1970) and Joseph Campisi (1918–1990) since 1947, and had been seen with them on many occasions.^[4] After an investigation of Joe Campisi, the HSCA found:

While Campisi's technical characterization in federal law enforcement records as an organized crime member has ranged from definite to suspected to negative, it is clear that he was an associate or friend of many Dallas-based organized crime members, particularly Joseph Civello, during the time he was the head of the Dallas organization. There was no indication that Campisi had engaged in any specific organized crime-related activities.

—^[5]

Similarly, a PBS Frontline investigation into the connections between Ruby and Dallas organized crime figures reported the following:

In 1963, Sam and Joe Campisi were leading figures in the Dallas underworld. Jack knew the Campisis and had been seen with them on many occasions. The Campisis were lieutenants of Carlos Marcello, the Mafia boss who had reportedly talked of killing the President.

—^[6]

A day before Kennedy was assassinated, Ruby went to Joe Campisi's restaurant.^[7] At the time of the Kennedy assassination, Ruby was close enough to the Campisis to ask them to come see him after he was arrested for shooting Lee Oswald.^[8]

In his memoir Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story, Bill Bonanno, son of New York Mafia boss Joseph Bonanno, explains that several Mafia families had longstanding ties with the anti-Castro Cubans through the Havana casinos operated by the Mafia before the Cuban Revolution. Many Cuban exiles and Mafia bosses disliked Kennedy, blaming him for the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion.^[9] They also disliked his brother, the young and idealistic Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who had conducted an unprecedented legal assault on organized crime.^[10]

The Mafia were experts in assassination, and Bonanno reported that he recognized the high degree of involvement of other Mafia families when Ruby killed Oswald, since Bonanno was aware that Ruby was an associate of Chicago mobster Sam Giancana.^[11]

Howard P. Willens, third highest official in the Department of Justice^[12] and assistant counsel to J. Lee Rankin designed the organizational structure of the Warren Commission, outlined its investigative priorities,^[13] and terminated the investigation of Ruby's Cuban related activities.^[14] An FBI report states that Willens's father was Tony Accardo's next door neighbor since 1958.^[15]

Four years prior to the assassination of President Kennedy, Ruby went to see a man named Lewis McWillie in Cuba. Ruby considered McWillie, who had previously run illegal gambling establishments in Texas, to be one of his closest friends.^[16] At the time Ruby visited him, in August 1959, McWillie was supervising gambling activities at Havana's Tropicana Club. Ruby told the Warren Commission that his August trip to Cuba was merely a social visit at the invitation of McWillie.^[16] The House Select Committee on Assassinations would later conclude that Ruby "…most likely was serving as a courier for gambling interests."^[17][18] The committee also found "circumstantial," but not conclusive, evidence that "…Ruby met with [Mafia boss] Santo Trafficante in Cuba sometime in 1959."^[19]

About an hour after President Kennedy was shot, White House correspondent Seth Kantor (who was a passenger in the motorcade) arrived at Parkland Hospital where Kennedy was receiving medical care. As Kantor was entering the hospital through a stairway, he felt a tug on his coat. He turned around to see Ruby who called him by his first name and shook his hand.^[20][21] (Kantor had become acquainted with Ruby when Kantor was a reporter for the Dallas Times Herald newspaper.)^[22][23] Ruby asked Kantor if he thought that it would be a good idea for him to close his nightclubs for the next three nights because of the tragedy and Kantor responded that he thought that doing so would be a good idea.^[21][24] It has been suggested that Ruby might have been involved in tampering with evidence while at the hospital.^[25] Ruby would later deny he had been at Parkland Hospital and the Warren Commission decided to believe Ruby rather than Kantor.^[26][27] (In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations reversed the Warren Commission's judgement, stating: "While the Warren Commission concluded that Kantor was mistaken [about his Parkland meeting with Ruby], the Committee determined he probably was not.")^[28]

Goaded by the Warren Commission's dismissal of his testimony, Seth Kantor researched the Ruby case for years. In a later published book Who Was Jack Ruby?, Kantor wrote:

The mob was Ruby's "friend." And Ruby could well have been paying off an IOU the day he was used to kill Lee Harvey Oswald. Remember: "I have been used for a purpose," the way Ruby expressed it to Chief Justice Warren in their June 7, 1964 session. It would not have been hard for the mob to maneuver Ruby through the ranks of a few negotiable police [to kill Oswald].

—^[29]

Witness Wilma Tice also said that she saw Jack Ruby at Parkland Hospital during the time Kennedy was being treated there.^[30] Called to testify before the Warren Commission, Tice said that she received an anonymous phone call from a man telling her "…that it would pay me to keep my mouth shut."^[31]

Within hours of Ruby's arrest for shooting Oswald, a telegram was received at the Dallas city jail in support of Ruby, under the names of Hal and Pauline Collins.^[32] In one of the Warren Commissions exhibits, Hal Collins is listed as a character reference by Ruby on a Texas liquor license application.^[33] Hal Collin's sister was married to Robert Clark, the brother of then-sitting U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Tom C. Clark. Tom C. Clark advised newspaper columnist Drew Pearson that financier Henry Crown and the Hilton Hotel chain had financial interests in syndicated racketeering activities in Chicago.^{[34][35][35][36][37]} Tom C. Clark also recommended that the Warren Commission appoint Henry Crown's attorney, Albert E. Jenner, Jr., to serve as assistant counsel to the commission.^[38]

Criticism[link]

Some writers, including former Los Angeles District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi, dismiss Ruby's connections to organized crime as being minimal at best:

It is very noteworthy that without exception, not one of these conspiracy theorists knew or had ever met Jack Ruby. Without our even resorting to his family and roommate, all of whom think the suggestion of Ruby being connected to the mob is ridiculous, those who knew him, unanimously and without exception, think the notion of his being connected to the Mafia, and then killing Oswald for them, is nothing short of laughable.

—^[39]

Bill Alexander, who prosecuted Ruby for Oswald's murder, equally rejected any suggestions that Ruby was part-and-parcel of organized crime, claiming that conspiracy theorists based it on the claim that "A knew B, and Ruby knew B back in 1950, so he must have known A, and that must be the link to the conspiracy."^[3]

Ruby's brother Earl denied allegations that Jack was involved in racketeering Chicago nightclubs, and author Gerald Posner suggests that Ruby may have been confused^{[by whom?]} with Harry Rubenstein, a convicted Chicago felon.^[3] Entertainment reporter Tony Zoppi is also dismissive of mob ties. He knew Ruby and described him as a "born loser."^[3]

Murder of Oswald[link]

Ruby (also known as "Sparky," from his boxing nickname "Sparkling Ruby"^[40]) was seen in the halls of the Dallas Police Headquarters on several occasions after the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963; and newsreel footage from WFAA-TV (Dallas) and NBC shows Ruby impersonating a newspaper reporter during a press conference at Dallas Police Headquarters on the night of the assassination.^[41] District Attorney Henry Wade briefed reporters at the press conference telling them that Lee Oswald was a member of the anti-Castro Free Cuba Committee. Ruby was one of many people there who spoke up to correct Wade, saying: "Henry, that's the Fair Play for Cuba Committee," a pro-Castro organization.^[42] Some speculate that Ruby may have hoped to kill Oswald that night at the police station press conference.^[43] Ruby told the FBI, a month after his arrest for killing Oswald, that he had his loaded snub-nosed Colt Cobra .38 revolver in his right-hand pocket during the press conference.^[44][45]

Two days later on Sunday, November 24, after driving into town and sending a money order to one of his employees, Ruby walked to the nearby police headquarters and made his way to the basement. At 11:21 am CST — while authorities were preparing to transfer Oswald by armored car from the police basement to the nearby county jail — Ruby stepped out from a crowd of reporters and fired his .38 revolver into Oswald's abdomen, fatally wounding him. The shooting was broadcast live nationally, and millions of television viewers witnessed it. There is some evidence that Ruby's actions were on a whim, as he left his favorite dog, Sheba, in the car before shooting Oswald.^[46]

However, the House Select Committee on Assassinations in its 1979 Final Report opined:

…Ruby's shooting of Oswald was not a spontaneous act, in that it involved at least some premeditation. Similarly, the committee believed it was less likely that Ruby entered the police basement without assistance, even though the assistance may have been provided with no knowledge of Ruby's intentions… The committee was troubled by the apparently unlocked doors along the stairway route and the removal of security guards from the area of the garage nearest the stairway shortly before the shooting… There is also evidence that the Dallas Police Department withheld relevant information from the Warren Commission concerning Ruby's entry to the scene of the Oswald transfer.

—^[47]

When Ruby was arrested immediately after the shooting, he told several witnesses that he helped the city of Dallas "redeem" itself in the eyes of the public, and that Oswald's death would spare "…Mrs. Kennedy the discomfiture of coming back to trial."^[48] At the time of the shooting Ruby said he was taking phenmetrazine, a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant.^[46]

Ruby's explanation for killing Oswald would be "exposed … as a fabricated legal ploy", according to the House Select Committee on Assassinations. In a private note to one of his attorneys, Joseph Tonahill, Ruby wrote: "Joe, you should know this. [My first lawyer] Tom Howard told me to say that I shot Oswald so that Caroline and Mrs. Kennedy wouldn't have to come to Dallas to testify. OK?"^[28][49] Ruby's ploy was confirmed by attorney Melvin Belli. In his book, Dallas Justice, Belli wrote that Ruby told him: "We know I did it for Jackie and the kids… Maybe I ought to forget this silly story that I'm telling, and get on the stand and tell the truth."^[50]

Another motive was put forth by Frank Sheeran, allegedly a hitman for the Mafia, in a conversation he had with the then-former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. During the conversation, Hoffa claimed that Ruby was assigned the task of coordinating police officers who were loyal to Ruby to murder Oswald while he was in their custody. As Ruby evidently mismanaged the operation, he was given a choice to either finish the job himself or forfeit his life.^[51]

Prosecution and conviction[link]

After Ruby's arrest, he asked Dallas attorney Tom Howard to represent him. Howard accepted and asked Ruby if he could think of anything that might damage his defense. Ruby responded that there would be a problem if a man by the name of "Davis" should come up. Ruby told his attorney that he "…had been involved with Davis, who was a gunrunner entangled in anti-Castro efforts."^[52][53] Davis was identified only years later, after research by journalist Seth Kantor, as being Thomas Eli Davis III, a CIA-connected "soldier of fortune."^[54][55]

Later, Ruby replaced attorney Tom Howard with prominent San Francisco defense attorney Melvin Belli who agreed to represent Ruby pro bono. Some observers thought that the case could have been disposed of as a "murder without malice" charge (roughly equivalent to manslaughter), with a maximum prison sentence of five years. Belli attempted to prove, however, that Ruby was legally insane and had a history of mental illness in his family (the latter being true, as his mother had been committed to a mental hospital years before). On March 14, 1964, Ruby was convicted of murder with malice, for which he received a death sentence.

During the six months following the Kennedy assassination, Ruby repeatedly asked, orally and in writing, to speak to the members of the Warren Commission. The commission initially showed no interest. Only after Ruby's sister Eileen wrote letters to the commission (and her letters became public) did the Warren Commission agree to talk to Ruby. In June 1964, Chief Justice Earl Warren, then-Representative Gerald R. Ford of Michigan, and other commission members went to Dallas to see Ruby. Ruby asked Warren several times to take him to Washington D.C., saying "my life is in danger here" and that he wanted an opportunity to make additional statements.^[56] He added: "I want to tell the truth, and I can't tell it here."^[57] Warren told Ruby that he would be unable to comply, because many legal barriers would need to be broken and public interest in the situation would be too heavy. Warren also told Ruby that the commission would have no way of protecting him, since it had no police powers. Ruby said he wanted to convince President Lyndon Johnson that he was not part of any conspiracy to kill Kennedy.^[58]

Alleged conspiracies[link]

Following Ruby's March 1964 conviction for murder with malice, Ruby's lawyers, led by Sam Houston Clinton, appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest criminal court in Texas. Ruby's lawyers argued that he could not have received a fair trial in the city of Dallas because of the excessive publicity surrounding the case. A year after his conviction, in March 1965, Ruby conducted a brief televised news conference in which he stated: "Everything pertaining to what's happening has never come to the surface. The world will never know the true facts of what occurred, my motives. The people who had so much to gain, and had such an ulterior motive for putting me in the position I'm in, will never let the true facts come above board to the world." When asked by a reporter, "Are these people in very high positions Jack?", he responded "Yes."^[59]

Dallas Deputy Sheriff Al Maddox claimed: "Ruby told me, he said, 'Well, they injected me for a cold.' He said it was cancer cells. That's what he told me, Ruby did. I said you don't believe that bullshit. He said, 'I damn sure do!' [Then] one day when I started to leave, Ruby shook hands with me and I could feel a piece of paper in his palm… [In this note] he said it was a conspiracy and he said … if you will keep your eyes open and your mouth shut, you're gonna learn a lot. And that was the last letter I ever got from him."^[60][61]

Not long before Ruby died, according to an article in the London Sunday Times, he told psychiatrist Werner Teuter that the assassination was "an act of overthrowing the government" and that he knew "who had President Kennedy killed." He added: "I am doomed. I do not want to die. But I am not insane. I was framed to kill Oswald."^[60][62]

Eventually, the appellate court agreed with Ruby's lawyers for a new trial, and on October 5, 1966, ruled that his motion for a change of venue before the original trial court should have been granted. Ruby's conviction and death sentence were overturned. Arrangements were underway for a new trial to be held in February 1967 in Wichita Falls, Texas, when on December 9, 1966, Ruby was admitted to Parkland Hospital in Dallas, suffering from pneumonia. A day later, doctors realized he had cancer in his liver, lungs, and brain. Three weeks later, he died.

According to an unnamed Associated Press source, Ruby made a final statement from his hospital bed on December 19 that he alone had been responsible for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald.^[63] "There is nothing to hide… There was no one else," Ruby said.^[64]

Criticisms[link]

In Gerald Posner's book Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK, Ruby's friends, relatives and associates stress how upset he was upon hearing of Kennedy's murder, even crying on occasion, and how he went so far as to close his loss-making clubs for three days as a mark of respect.^[3]

Dallas reporter Tony Zoppi, who knew Ruby well, claims that one "would have to be crazy" to entrust Ruby with anything as important as a high-level plot to kill Kennedy since he "couldn't keep a secret for five minutes… Jack was one of the most talkative guys you would ever meet. He'd be the worst fellow in the world to be part of a conspiracy, because he just plain talked too much."^[65] He and others describe Ruby as the sort who enjoyed being at "the center of attention", trying to make friends with people and being more of a nuisance.^[3]

Death[link]

Ruby died of a pulmonary embolism, secondary to bronchogenic carcinoma (lung cancer), on January 3, 1967 at Parkland Hospital, where Oswald had died and where President Kennedy had been pronounced dead after his assassination. He was buried beside his parents in the Westlawn Cemetery in Norridge, Illinois.^[66][67][68] Considering the relatively short time period between the time of the assassination and his death, there was suspicion that Ruby knew of his terminal cancer at the time of the assassination, which may have contributed to his motives. When asked by the House Select Committee on Assassinations if Ruby could have known about his cancer, Dallas County medical examiner Dr. Earl Rose, who performed the autopsy on Ruby, replied, "No".^{[citation needed]}