Conspiracy books will make a big deal about the fact that Jack
Ruby urged the Warren Commission to allow him to come to Washington,
D.C.

The implication usually drawn is that Ruby was a member of The
Conspiracy, and wanted to go to Washington so that he could
"spill the beans" and tell the whole truth about what
happened.

Read his testimony carefully, and see whether he is saying that
he participated in any conspiracy.

He certainly *did* believe there was a conspiracy.  The 
question is:  what kind?

Read the testimony and decide for yourself.

The following is from the Warren Commission volumes,
5H208-211:

-------------------------------------------------------

     Chief Justice WARREN. Now you said there were some
other things.  Would you mind telling us anything you
have on your mind?

     Mr. RUBY. No; because as I said earlier, you seem
to have gotten the juicy part of the story up to now in
the various spasmodic way of my telling it.

How valuable am I to you to give you all this
information?

     Chief Justice WARREN. Well, how valuable is rather
an indefinite term, but I think it is very helpful to
our Commission report. I think the report would have
been deficient if it had not been for this interview we
have had with you.

So we are interested in anything that you would like to
tell us, in your own language.

     Mr. RUBY. The only thing is this. If I cannot get
these tests you give, it is pretty haphazard to tell
you the things I should tell you.

Mr. Moore, you seem to have known more about my
interrogation than anybody else, right?

     Mr. MOORE. I think you have told us about
everything you told me.

     Mr. RANKIN. It isn't entirely clear how you feel
that your family and you yourself are threatened by
your telling what you have to the Commission.

How do you come to the conclusion that they might be
killed? Will you tell us a little bit more about that,
if you can?

     Mr. RUBY. Well, assuming that, as I stated before,
some persons are accusing me falsely of being part of
the plot--naturally, in all the time from over 6 months
ago, my family has been so interested in helping me.

     Mr. RANKIN. By that, you mean a party to the plot
of Oswald?

     Mr. RUBY. That I was party to a plot to silence
Oswald.

All right now, when your family believes you and knows
your mannerisms and your thoughts, and knows your
sincerity, they have lived with you all your life and
know your emotional feelings and your patriotism--on the
surface, they see me only as the guilty assailant of
Oswald, and by helping me like they have, going all
out. 

My brother who has a successful business, I know he is
going to be killed.  And I haven't seen him in years.
And suddenly he feels that he wants to help me, because
he believes that I couldn't be any further involved
than the actual ----

When I told him I did it because of Mrs. Kennedy, that
is all he had to hear, because I would never involve my
family or involve him in a conspiracy.  

Everyone haven't let me down. Because they read the
newspapers away from Dallas that stated certain facts
about me, but they are untrue, because they wouldn't
come out and put those things in the newspapers that
they should be putting in; and people outside of Dallas
read the Dallas newspapers and are all in sympathy with
me, as far as the country itself.  

That they felt, well, Jack did it. They probably felt
they would do the same thing.  

That sympathy isn't going to help me, because the
people that have the power here, they have a different
verdict. They already have me as the accused assassin
of our beloved President. 

Now if I sound screwy telling you this, then I must be
screwy.

     Chief Justice WARREN. Mr. Ruby, I think you are
entitled to a statement to this effect, because you
have been frank with us and have told us your story. 

I think I can say to you that there has been no witness
before this Commission out of the hundreds we have
questioned who has claimed to have any personal
knowledge that you were a party to any conspiracy to
kill our President.

     Mr. RUBY. Yes; but you don't know this area here.

     Chief Justice WARREN. No; I don't vouch for
anything except that I think I am correct in that, am I
not?

     Mr. RANKIN. That is correct.

     Chief Justice WARREN. I just wanted to tell you
before our own Commission, and I might say to you also
that we have explored the situation.

     Mr. RUBY. I know, but I want to say this to you.
If certain people have the means and want to gain
something by propagandizing something to their own use,
they will make ways to present certain things that I do
look guilty.

     Chief Justice WARREN. Well, I will make this
additional statement to you, that if any witness should
testify before the Commission that you were, to their
knowledge, a party to any conspiracy to assassinate the
President, I assure you that we will give you the
opportunity to deny it and to take any tests that you
may desire to so disprove it.  

I don't anticipate that there will be any such
testimony, but should there be, we will give you that
opportunity.  

Does that seem fair?

     Mr. RUBY. No; that isn't going to save my family.

     Chief Justice WARREN. Well, we can't do everything
at once.

     Mr. RUBY. I am in a tough spot, and I don't know
what the solution can be to save me.  

And I know our wonderful President, Lyndon Johnson, as
soon as he was the President of his country, he
appointed you as head of this group. But through
certain falsehoods that have been said about me to
other people, the John Birch Society, I am as good as
guilty as the accused assassin of President Kennedy.  

How can you remedy that, Mr. Warren? Do any of you men
have any ways of remedying that?

Mr. Bill Decker said be a man and speak up. I am making
a statement now that I may not live the next hour when
I walk out of this room.

Now it is the most fantastic story you have ever heard
in a lifetime. I did something out of the goodness of
my heart. Unfortunately, Chief Earl Warren, had you
been around 5 or 6 months ago, and I know your hands
were tied, you couldn't do it, and immediately - the
President would have gotten ahold of my true story, or
whatever would have been said about me, a certain
organization wouldn't have so completely formed now, so
powerfully, to use me because I am of the Jewish
extraction, Jewish faith, to commit the most dastardly
crime that has ever been committed.

Can you understand now in visualizing what happened,
what powers, what momentum has been carried on to
create this feeling of mass feeling against my people,
against certain people that were against them prior to
their power?

That goes over your head, doesn't it?

     Chief Justice WARREN. Well, I don't quite get the
full significance of it, Mr. Ruby. I know what you feel
about the John Birch Society.

     Mr. RUBY. Very powerful.

     Chief Justice WARREN. I think it is powerful, yes
I do. Of course, I don't have all the information that
you feel you have on that subject.

     Mr. RUBY. Unfortunately, you don't have, because
it is too late. And I wish that our beloved President,
Lyndon Johnson, would have delved deeper into the
situation, hear me, not to accept just circumstantial
facts about my guilt or innocence, and would have
questioned to find out the truth about me before he
relinquished certain powers to these certain people.

     Chief Justice WARREN. Well, I am afraid I don't
know what power you believe he relinquished to them. I
think that it is difficult to understand what you have
to say.

     Mr. RUBY. I want to say this to you. The Jewish
people are being exterminated at this moment.
Consequently, a whole new form of government is going
to take over our country, and I know I won't live to
see you another time.

Do I sound sort of screwy in telling you these things?

     Chief Justice WARREN. No; I think that is what you
believe, or you wouldn't tell it under your oath.

     Mr. RUBY. But it is a very serious situation. I
guess it is too late to stop it, isn't it?

All right, I want to ask you this. All you men have
been chosen by the President for this committee, is
that correct?

     Chief Justice WARREN. Representative Ford and I
are the only members of the Commission that are here.

Mr. Rankin of the Commission is employed as our chief
counsel.

Mr. Rankin employed Mr. Specter and Mr. Ball as members
of the staff.

You know who the other gentlemen here are.

You know that Mr. Moore is a member of the Secret
Service, and he has been a liaison officer with our
staff since the Commission was formed.

     Representative FORD. Are there any questions that
ought to be asked to help clarify the situation that
you described?

     Mr. RUBY. There is only one thing. If you don't
take me back to Washington tonight to give me a chance
to prove to the President that I am not guilty, then
you will see the most tragic thing that will ever
happen.  

And if you don't have the power to take me back, I
won't be around to be able to prove my innocence or
guilt.  Now up to this moment, I have been talking with
you for how long?

     Chief Justice WARREN. I would say for the better
part of 3 hours.

     Mr. RUBY. All right, wouldn't it be ridiculous for
me to speak sensibly all this time and give you this
climactic talk that I have?  

Maybe something can be saved, something can be done.  

What have you got to answer to that, Chief Justice
Warren?

     Chief Justice WARREN. Well, I don't know what can
be done, Mr. Ruby, because I don't know what you
anticipate we will encounter.

     Representative FORD. Is there anything more you
can tell us if you went back to Washington?

     Mr. RUBY. Yes; are you sincere in wanting to take
me back?

     Representative FORD. We are most interested in all
the information you have.

     Mr. RUBY. All I know is maybe something can be
saved. Because right now, I want to tell you this, I am
used as a scapegoat, and there is no greater weapon
that you can use to create some falsehood about some of
the Jewish faith, especially at the terrible heinous
crime such as the killing of President Kennedy.

Now maybe something can be saved. It may not be too
late, whatever happens, if our President, Lyndon
Johnson, knew the truth from me.

But if I am eliminated, there won't be any way of
knowing.

Right now, when I leave your presence now, I am the
only one that can bring out the truth to our President,
who believes in righteousness and justice.

But he has been told, I am certain, that I was part of
a plot to assassinate the President.

I know your hands are tied; you are helpless.

     Chief Justice WARREN. Mr. Ruby, I think I can say
this to you, that if he has been told any such thing,
there is no indication of any kind that he believes it.

     Mr. RUBY. I am sorry, Chief Justice Warren, I
thought I would be very effective in telling you what I
have said here. But in all fairness to everyone, maybe
all I want to do is beg that if they found out I was
telling the truth, maybe they can succeed in what their
motives are, but maybe my people won't be tortured and
mutilated.

     Chief Justice WARREN. Well, you may be sure that
the President and his whole Commission will do anything
that is necessary to see that your people are not
tortured.

     Mr. RUBY. No.

     Chief Justice WARREN. You may be sure of that.

     Mr. RUBY. No; the only way you can do it is if he
knows the truth, that I am telling the truth, and why I
was down in that basement Sunday morning, and maybe
some sense of decency will come out and they can still
fulfill their plan, as I stated before, without my
people going through torture and mutilation.

     Chief Justice WARREN. The President will know
everything that you have said, everything that you have
said.

     Mr. RUBY. But I won't be around, Chief Justice. I
won't be around to verify these things you are going to
tell the President.

     Mr. TONAHILL.  Who do you think is going to
eliminate you, Jack?

     Mr. RUBY. I have been used for a purpose, and
there will be a certain tragic occurrence happening if
you don't take my testimony and somehow vindicate me so
my people don't suffer because of what I have done.

     Chief Justice WARREN. But we have taken your
testimony. We have it here. It will be in permanent
form for the President of the United States and for the
Congress of the United States, and for the courts of
the United States, and for the people of the entire
world.

It is there. It will be recorded for all to see. That
is the purpose of our coming here today. We feel that
you are entitled to have your story told.

     Mr. RUBY. You have lost me though. You have lost
me, Chief Justice Warren.

     Chief Justice WARREN. Lost you in what sense?

     Mr. RUBY. I won't be around for you to come and
question me again.

     Chief Justice WARREN. Well, it is very hard for me
to believe that. I am sure that everybody would want to
protect you to the very limit.

     Mr. RUBY. All I want is a lie detector test, and
you refuse to give it to me.

Because as it stands now--and the truth serum, and any
other--Pentothal--how do you pronounce it, whatever it
is. And they will not give it to me, because I want to
tell the truth.

And then I want to leave this world. But I don't want
my people to be blamed for something that is untrue,
that they claim has happened.

     Chief Justice WARREN. Mr. Ruby, I promise you that
you will be able to take such a test.