Jack Ruby: The Many Faces of Oswald's Assassin by Danny Fingeroth

 

Earlier this year, I listened to and reviewed an audiobook about Lee Harvey Oswald and his wife, Marina, titled, The Oswalds by Paul R. Gregory. Essentially, I wanted to learn more about the life of Lee Harvey Oswald and his role in the assassin of President John F. Kennedy.

After listening to The Oswalds by Paul R. Gregory, I wanted to learn more about life and times of Jack Ruby. Jack Ruby fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald approximately 48 hours after Oswald's arrest for shooting President John F. Kennedy on live television. This happened while Lee Harvey Oswald was being transferred from the Dallas City Jail to the County Jail!

This has always brought up loads of questions for me. Like how did Jack Ruby gain access to a restricted area with a loaded gun when he wasn't a police officer or a reporter? Decades ago, I'd heard wild tales that Jack Ruby had been paid by the mob to act as a hitman to kill Lee Harvey Oswald to keep Oswald from testifying in court.

So, when I came across the audio version of Jack Ruby: The Many Faces of Oswald's Assassin by Danny Fingeroth, I figured why not listen to it and hopefully, learn more about Jack Ruby and perhaps his true motives for shooting Lee Harvey Oswald.

First off, Jack Ruby: The Many Faces of Oswald's Assassin is narrated by author, Danny Fingeroth. I've heard several authors narrate their own books before with success. However, I think Danny Fingeroth was a distraction. I wished someone else had narrated his book instead.

Although parts of Jack Ruby: The Many Faces of Oswald's Assassin by Danny Fingeroth were fascinating, I felt some parts of this book were lackluster. Additionally, I felt like Jack Ruby: The Many Faces of Oswald's Assassin was too long and could have been condensed for a more pleasurable read. There was just too much detail in sections for my liking.

Below is the publisher's summary for Jack Ruby: The Many Faces of Oswald's Assassin by Danny Fingeroth from the Goodreads website:

Jack Ruby changed history with one bold, violent killing accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on live TV two days after the November 22, 1963, murder of President John F. Kennedy. But who was Jack Ruby—and how did he come to be in that spot on that day?

As we approach the sixtieth anniversaries of the murders of Kennedy and Oswald, Jack Ruby’s motives are as maddeningly ambiguous today as they were the day that he pulled the trigger.

The fascinating yet frustrating thing about Ruby is that there is evidence to paint him as at least two different people. Much of his life story points to him as bumbling, vain, violent, and neurotic; a product of the grinding poverty of Chicago’s Jewish ghetto; a man barely able to make a living or sustain a relationship with anyone besides his dogs.

By the same token, evidence exists of Jack Ruby as cagey and competent, perhaps not a mastermind, but a useful pawn of the Mob and of both the police and the FBI; someone capable of running numerous legal, illegal, and semi-legal enterprises, including smuggling arms and vehicles to both sides in the Cuban revolution; someone capable of acting as middleman in bribery schemes to have imprisoned Mob figures set free.

Cultural historian Danny Fingeroth's research includes a new, in-depth interview with Rabbi Hillel Silverman, the legendary Dallas clergyman who visited Ruby regularly in prison and who was witness to Ruby’s descent into madness. Fingeroth also conducted interviews with Ruby family members and associates. The book’s findings will catapult you into a trip through a house of historical mirrors.

At its end, perhaps Jack Ruby’s assault on history will begin to make sense. And perhaps we will understand how Oswald’s assassin led us to the world we live in today.

I am giving Jack Ruby: The Many Faces of Oswald's Assassin by Danny Fingeroth a rating of 2 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!!