Ruby Reportedly Killed Oswald Out of Sympathy for Kennedy Family

Nov. 24, 1963 - Jack Ruby, the 52-year-old night-club operator who today fatally shot President Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was taken to the same fourth-floor cellblock in Dallas City Hall where his victim had been the focus of attention the last two days. Reports about his preliminary remarks said he had felt impelled to kill President Kennedy’s assassin out of sympathy for Mrs. Kennedy. It was reported he did not want Mrs. Kennedy to go through the ordeal of returning to Dallas for the trial of Oswald. District Attorney Wade said yesterday he was sure the prosecution of Oswald could be carried out without the personal involvement of any members of the Kennedy family. A half-dozen lawyers who have worked for Ruby converged on police headquarters within two hours of the shooting. They said they had been directed there by relatives and friends of Ruby and had not been called by Ruby himself. One lawyer said he had arranged for a hearing before a justice of the peace tomorrow morning to ask for Ruby’s release on bail. “He’s a respectable citizen who’s been here for years and certainly is entitled to make bail,” the lawyer said. “Well make any amount of bail.” “He is a great admirer of President Kennedy,” the lawyer added, “and police officers.” The last remark was an allusion to the fact that Oswald was accused of fatally shooting a Dallas patrolman after the President’s assassination. Ruby, the lawyer said, “is a very emotional man.” Ironically, it appeared that Ruby might have had a number of far easier opportunities for killing Oswald than the method he finally used. He was reported to have circulated repeatedly the last two days among the throng of people that was constantly in the third-floor corridor near the homicide bureau. Oswald was led along this corridor a number of times as he was taken down from the fourth-floor jail for interrogation.

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