the patsy

 

Bobby Kennedy; Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy

Jack Ruby was the name of the man who shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24th, 1963.

Jack Ruby.

Ruby.

It was an easy name to remember, and it sounded -- sporty.

His name when he was born was Jacob Leon Rubenstein.

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President Kennedy, murdered by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Lee Harvey Oswald, murdered by Jack Ruby.

Ruby was the owner of a nightclub in Dallas.

[Wikipedia excerpt] ----------------------- In September 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that Ruby acted alone in killing Oswald, shooting him on impulse, and out of grief over Kennedy's assassination.  

These findings were challenged by various critics who suggest that Ruby was involved with major figures in organized crime and that he was acting as part of an overall plot surrounding the assassination of Kennedy. ----------------------- [end / excerpt]

        A Dallas jury found Ruby guilty and sentenced him to death.  His conviction was appealed later on and he was going to have a new trial.  Before that could take place, however, Ruby got sick in prison and died, at the age of 55.

        I was in second grade, then, in Mineral City, Ohio.

        (I remember riding in the car and leaning forward from the back seat to ask my parents where was Jack Ruby and what happened to him, and they answered that he was in jail, and was very sick.)

        I would go for long periods of time in my life, years maybe, and never think about John Fitzgerald Kennedy, or the assassination, and then something would remind me.

        In 1991 a movie came out titled JFK -- it was directed by Oliver Stone.  Back then I paid attention to movies coming out, but I didn't go to see all of them.  I was going to skip JFK because from the title I assumed it was a biography of his life, and I sort of knew enough about his life story, I thought.  At that point I was just interested in other kinds of movies.

Then there were so many articles and TV interviews with people bitching about this movie and warning us all to Not go see it.

        Official word and interpretation of the president's assassination had been given by the Warren Commission, their report having been released September 24, 1964.  Here we were, 27 years later, and the JFK movie was questioning the Warren Commission's conclusions, and all these apoplectic critics were screaming, "You can't question!  Noooooooooooooooo!"

        Which made me suspicious.  Oh, self-proclaimed experts in the "establishment" (if we're still calling it that) are telling me I must not see a movie?  I'd better definitely see it.

        When the movie came to our state, I was working in the state capital during the legislative session -- a group of us went to see JFK together:  a newspaper guy, three other lobbyists, and me.

Four years later another Oliver Stone-directed movie came out, called Nixon.  I didn't see it until about ten years ago.

At 0:55:17 in that movie Nixon says, "If I'd been president, they never would have killed me."

        At 1:12:00 he's discussing "Track 2" -- activities the CIA was doing that were unknown to their bosses.  The aide says, "Why didn't Kennedy get the blame for any of that?"

        Nixon says, "Because he didn't know about it!  They didn't tell him -- didn't want him to get the credit."

As he talks about this shady stuff, and the Camera pans along a wall with a framed painting of Abraham Lincoln on it, a song plays very softly in the soundtrack.

♪ ♫

Never know how much I love you

Never know how much I care

When you put your arms around me

I get a fever that's so hard to bear

You give me fever

When you kiss me, fever when you hold me tight

Fever!  In the mornin', a-fever all through the night

Sun lights up the daytime

Moon lights up the night...

_________________________________

On You Tube type in

Peggy Lee - Fever (Lyrics)

uploader / channel:  Mr. Sandman

and Play.

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