Ruby Shoots Oswald: Kennedy Mystery Deepens
Jack Ruby stepped from a crowd of reporters in the basement of Dallas Police headquarters on November 24, 1963, and shot Lee Harvey Oswald once in the abdomen with a .38 revolver as Oswald was being transferred to the county jail. It was broadcast live on NBC television to an estimated 20 million viewers, the first time a murder was committed on live national television. Oswald died at Parkland Memorial Hospital, the same hospital where Kennedy had died two days earlier. Ruby, a nightclub owner with connections to organized crime and local police, claimed he shot Oswald to spare Jacqueline Kennedy the ordeal of a trial. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, but the conviction was overturned. Ruby died of cancer on January 3, 1967, before a new trial could be held.
November 24, 1963
63 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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