Nov. 26, 1963 - Jack Ruby was indicted by a Dallas County grand jury today in the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy. He is expected to go on trial in mid-January in the Criminal District Court in Dallas for the shooting of Oswald in the Dallas police garage on Sunday. The charge, that Ruby killed Oswald “voluntarily and with malice aforethought,” carries a maximum penalty of death in the electric chair at the Huntsville State Prison. Under Texas law, the 52-year-old nightclub operator, even if convicted, could receive as little as a suspended two-year prison sentence. His principal lawyer, Tom Howard, said today he would seek a verdict of not guilty on the ground that Ruby was insane at the time of the crime. Mr. Howard said Ruby, now in the county jail, had been examined by a psychiatrist for the county and would be examined by one for the defense. The lawyer again declared that his client had been emotionally overwrought by sympathy for the Kennedy family. He also said Ruby had had a metal plate in his head since 1940 as a result of a Chicago street fight. The prosecution will ask for the death penalty.
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