RUBY, Jack (1911-1967). Autograph manuscript signed (in the third person) written from his jail cell while incarcerated for the murder of Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, [n.d., ca 1966].

14 pp, 12mo, 154 x 101mm. Written in pencil on rectos only of hand-numbered sheets. (A few minor marginal chips, some tiny pinholes on upper lefthand corners.) Slipcase. Provenance: Earl Ruby, Jack Ruby’s brother (accompanying affidavit copy, see below); Anthony V. Pugliese III (purchased from Earl Ruby, 21 December 1992, according to affidavit).

An autobiographical account by the Dallas night-club owner, written while incarcerated awaiting a new trial for the nationally televised murder of Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. The text begins: “Here are the facts about Jack Ruby!!…” and goes on to tell about his early jobs and his first visit to Dallas, the building of his sister’s nightclub near the Ambassador Hotel, hiring a band leader, moving back to Chicago, and returning to Dallas to take over his sister’s club. According to the a copy of the notarized statement by Jack’s brother Earl Ruby on 22 December 1992, this is an “autographed, unpublished manuscript written by my brother Jack Ruby from Jail at my request after Jack was convicted of murder and sentenced to death…” According to to his brother’s affidavit “the manuscript was to be used by Jack’s lawyers if a new trial was granted to establish his character as not being capable of pre-meditated murder and that his act on November 24, 1964 was spontaneous and born of anguish and grief. A new trial was granted, but Jack died before the new trial could commence”.

On March 14, 1964, Ruby was convicted of murder with malice and was sentenced to death.

Ruby's conviction was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on the grounds that "an oral confession of premeditation made while in police custody" should have been ruled inadmissible, because it violated a Texas criminal statute. The court also ruled that the venue should have been changed to a Texas county other than the one in which the high-profile crime had been committed. Ruby died technically unconvicted, because his original conviction was overturned and his retrial was pending at the time of his death.

Property from the Patrick Atkinson Collection, Minneapolis, Minnesota