[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

“Jack Ruby’s occupational pursuits in Dallas encompassed three standard underworld
arenas: illegal gambling, narcotics and prostitution.” 457 His many and close contacts with
the Dallas police forces enabled him to be a “mob fixer.” 458 His long-time mob
associates include alleged gamblers, murderers, and drug traffickers such as Lewis
McWillie, Paul Roland Jones, and Joseph Campisi, and even the reputed head of the
Dallas underworld, Joseph Civello. Ruby traveled several times to Cuba, allegedly on
Mafia errands, including helping arrange the release of Santos Trafficante from a Fidel
Castro jail.
The culmination of Ruby’s mob career was fulfilling what Scheim called “a
meticulously coordinated murder contract” to kill Oswald. 459 Scheim denounced the
official version that Ruby killed Oswald in a spur of the moment fit of rage and sadness
over Kennedy’s murder. Instead, Scheim outlined Ruby’s extensive phone contacts with
mobsters in the weeks leading up to the assassination, and alleges that the Dallas police
must have tipped off the nightclub owner of the time of Oswald’s transfer to the Dallas
city jail. Ruby apparently hoped to receive a reduced sentence, but when he was
convicted of first degree murder, he attempted in his Warren Commission testimony to
indicate mob involvement. He asked to be taken to Washington, where he could talk
freely, but his request was denied. According to Scheim, “Ruby, a lifelong criminal,
briefly rose to a level of nobility by attempting to put the truth on the record,” but in the
457 Scheim, 87.
458 Scheim, 67.
459 Scheim, 124.
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