Lee Harvey Oswald Shot By Jack Ruby
In this entry, I want to focus on the fatal shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald without detouring too much into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Hello, and welcome to On This Date, Some Years Back. Today is November 24, 2017, and on this date, 54 years back, Lee Harvey Oswald was fatally shot by Jack Ruby on live television.
On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a sniper firing from the Texas School Book Depository as his motorcade drove through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. A short while later, Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot and killed J.D. Tippit, a local police officer on the street before hiding in a movie theater where he was soon arrested. Oswald was then charged with the murder of the president as well.
Two days later, Oswald was being moved from the Dallas Police Headquarters to the county jail. Detectives led him through the underground parking structure towards the transport vehicle, as a throng of reporters and other onlookers lined their route. With a tv broadcasting the scene live to millions of viewers on NBC, Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, stepped forward from the crowd and fired a single shot into the left side of Oswald’s abdomen.
Oswald was then rushed to the same hospital that had treated the president two days earlier, but died shortly after arriving there. Jack Ruby was arrested, and claimed that he shot Oswald because he was distraught over the assassination, and wished to spare Jackie Kennedy from ever having to look Oswald in the eye at a trial. He was tried and sentenced to death for the murder.
However, Jack Ruby was known to have stalked Oswald for the entire time he was in police custody. He pretended to be a reporter at a press conference on the night of the assassination, and had his revolver in his pocket inside the police headquarters. Many people have claimed that Jack Ruby had ties to organized crime, and may have been tasked with shooting Oswald in order to keep some larger truth from emerging. It’s just one of the many puzzle pieces that fuels conspiracy theorists.
While in jail, Ruby won a few appeals for various technical reasons, but was never released entirely. He wrote several letters begging to speak with members of the Warren Commission, the task force assigned to investigating the assassination. When he finally got the chance, he spoke cryptically about wanting to tell the truth, but being unable to unless he was moved to a different prison, claiming he wasn’t safe where he was.
Jack Ruby died on on January 3, 1967, due to a pulmonary embolism caused by lung cancer. He was awaiting a new trial at the time. With him, and possible secret truths about his motives were lost.
Dallas Times Herald photographer Robert H. Jackson was on the scene when Ruby shot Oswald, and captured a photo of almost the exact moment it happened. He would later win a Pulitzer Prize for the image. This in conjunction with the live television broadcast of the incident would serve as early signs of what was to come in the future.
Seeing a man murdered on live tv is a big deal, and yet this was barely a blip on the radar due to the state of shock and morning the country was in. It would also serve to help desensitize the world to the televised violence that would become commonplace in during the Vietnam War and beyond. Media coverage of violent and controversial events would grow grittier and grittier over the next decade, reflecting the growing public unrest.
It rightly should be considered one of the most shocking moments ever broadcast on live television, though, even if its age and seeming lack of impact make it appear less important.
Thanks for reading, and be sure to check back tomorrow for one of the most devastating storms in American history.
Creating quality content on a daily schedule requires a massive commitment, and my desire is to not only do that, but expand into even more mediums (audio podcasts, web videos, etc.). If you enjoy these posts, or would like for them to be available in other formats, please consider supporting me on Patreon. Just $1 a month will help a ton, as well as get you access to exclusive content. Thanks.
