BOOK REVIEW: “Jack Ruby – The Many Faces of Oswald’s Assassin by Danny Fingeroth,” by C. Ellen Connally

Danny Fingeroth is a biographer, cultural historian and commentator who specializes in the intersection of American and Jewish cultures. His previous works include an acclaimed 2019 biography of Stan Lee, the co-creator of the Marvel Comic superheroes such as Spider Man, X-Man and the Black Panther. Fingeroth worked for 18 years as a writer and editor for Marvel Comics, which gave him a unique perspective on Lee, his life and his works.

In 2008, Fingeroth wrote Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero (Continuum International Publishing 2008), which explores the largely unrecognized fact that Superman and his progeny of superheroes were for the most part created by young American Jewish men of Eastern European backgrounds. The superheroes they created are now an integral part of American culture and the epitome of what it means to protect society from evil. But, as Fingeroth so aptly points out, the creators of the saviors of society were scions of immigrant families who had histories of persecution and were sometimes themselves relegated to second class citizenship. But yet, they created the image of what it means to be an American hero.

Fingeroth’s research led him to Cleveland to study the lives of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who, while students at Glenville High School in 1932, created Superman. The Siegel residence is located at 10622 Kimberly Avenue and although a private residence, is heralded by a historic marker. Fingeroth has also done numerous speaking appearances at comics conventions and other events in Cleveland, including a recent appearance at Beachwood’s Maltz Museum, which celebrates and recognizes the Jewish heritage of Cleveland.

In his latest work, Jack Ruby — The Many Faces of Oswald’s Assassin (Chicago Review Press Inc. 2023) Fingeroth looks at the life of a Jewish man, who in a demented way sought to be an American superhero by killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy.

For those who are too young to remember, which is now much of the population, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Within an hour, his accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested and taken into custody by the Dallas police department. Since it was not a federal crime in 1963 to kill the president, the prosecution of the murder of the president would be carried out by the Dallas County prosecutor’s office and investigated by the Dallas police.

On Sunday morning, November 24, 1963, Oswald was to be transferred from the Dallas City jail to the county jail — which in the case of any other prisoner would have been a perfunctory matter. But this was the crime of the century, and the eyes of the world were glued on Dallas. The police had advised the media that Oswald would be transferred at 10am. But due to a series of delays the transfer did not happen until approximately 11:15am.

As cameras rolled, a man jumped out of the crowd and shot Oswald at point-blank range, making this the first murder ever captured on live TV. The assassin of the assassin was Jack Ruby, born Jacob Rubenstein, a Dallas night club owner who was well known to the Dallas police department. The first words out of Ruby’s mouth after his arrest were purported to have been “I had to prove a Jew had guts.”

It is difficult for those who were not alive at the time to understand the trauma the nation experienced that fateful weekend in November 1963. There were fears that Oswald would be taken by a crowd and lynched. At the time of his arrest, the police had to protect him from a hostile crowd. When Ruby took the law into his own hands and killed Oswald, he thought he would be declared a hero. He received numerous telegrams and messages praising his acts and in fact calling him a hero.

When Ruby received the news of the president’s death on Friday afternoon, he went into a frenzy fearing that Jews would be blamed for the death of the president. On the day of Kennedy’s arrival in Dallas, there had been a full-page ad with a black border in the Dallas Daily News attacking Kennedy. The ad was signed by Bernard Weisman, a man with a Jewish name, which gave rise to Ruby’s fears of retribution against Jews for the president’s death. Fingeroth masterfully chronicles all of Ruby’s steps from the time that he first received the news, through the murder, his arrest, trial and death.

In 2021, ABC legal affairs analyst Dan Abrams along with David Fisher published Kennedy’s Avenger – Assassination, Conspiracy, and the Forgotten Trial of Jack Ruby (Hanover Square Press, 2021). While Abram’s work is comprehensive in its account of the trial of Ruby, sticking very close to the transcript, Fingeroth’s work is up close and personal. He provides insights and little-known facts about Ruby’s life, his state of mind, the decisions made by his family regarding his legal defense team and the trial itself. Fingeroth makes good use of notes taken by Rabbi Hillel Silverman who regularly visited Ruby while awaiting trial. Silverman passed away this year at age 99.

Fingeroth places great emphasis on the subtle forms of discrimination against Ruby, the classic example being that Ruby was indicted under the name of Jacob Rubenstein, although he had legally changed his name some two decades before. As one of the prosecuting attorneys later said, Ruby was Jewish, originally from Chicago and the owner of a striptease club, all of which worked against him in the public eye.

While striving to remain agnostic regarding conspiracies, Fingeroth, relying on records from the Warren Commission as well as other sources, shows that Ruby acted alone. He failed to discover any evidence of a conspiracy or mob connections to Ruby.

On that Sunday morning, Ruby went to the Western Union Office, a block away from the Dallas police department, to wire money to one of his dancers. He waited in line to send the telegram, which was sent at 11:17. He left the office and saw the commotion at the police station. Leaving his favorite dog in his car, he walked down the street, surreptitiously walked into the basement of the Dallas police department and came face to face with Oswald, who Ruby later recalled as having a smirk on his face. Pulling out the gun that he always carried, he fired one shot fatally killing Oswald at 11:21.

Fingeroth follows the trial which was a classic of how not to conduct a criminal trial. Many legal pundits believe that had Ruby kept his original lawyer, who was a courthouse regular, skilled in plea negotiations with the prosecutor, Henry Wade, who ironically would become the Wade in the landmark case of Roe vs. Wade, it is likely that Ruby would have gotten a jail sentence and eventually granted parole.

But instead, as Fingeroth documents, the Ruby family hired prominent personal injury lawyer Melvin Belli, who often seemed more concerned about writing a book about the trial and enhancing his own image rather than the trial. Perceived by the local bar, media and judiciary as a city slicker, Belli proceeded to assert a defense of insanity that went over like a lead balloon. After a trial that lasted on the final day until 1am, it took the jury slightly more than two hours to return a verdict of guilty and sentence Ruby to death.

Eventually, the case was reversed on appeal. Ruby died of cancer on January 3, 1967, before a second trial. Like Oswald, both the assassin and the assassin’s assassin died without a conviction. Of the four presidential assassins in United States history — Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley — the JFK assassination is the only one in which no person was ever convicted in connection with the death of the president.

Considering the tragic rise of antisemitism in today’s American society, it is important to consider Fingeroth’s perspective of the events of 60 years ago. He makes Jack Ruby more than just a footnote to the Kennedy assassination. He shows how antisemitism and the fear of antisemitism have impacted our society in many obvious and subtle ways. But he also brings a unique perspective to a topic that will be forever seen as a major turning point in American history. For JFK assassination buffs and those with a general interest in American history, the book is well worth the read.

C. Ellen Connally is a retired judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court. From 2010 to 2014 she served as the President of the Cuyahoga County Council. An avid reader and student of American history, she is a former member of the Board of the Ohio History Connection, and past president of the Cleveland Civil War Round Table, and is currently vice president of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission.  She holds degrees from BGSU, CSU and is all but dissertation for a PhD from the University of Akron.

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