Final_Judgment

[184] FinalJudgment 245
Oswald. It appears that Washington knows or suspects something about
Oswald that it does not want Dallas and the rest of the world to know or suspect.
Why is Oswald being kept in the shadows, as dim a figure as they can make
him, while the defense tries to rescue his killer with the help of information
from the FBI? Who was Oswald, anyway?" 503
Perhaps Miss Kilgallen found out the answer to the questions. She
reportedly told several friends, shortly before her "accidental" death from a
combined drug overdose and alcohol, that she was about to crack the
Kennedy case wide open. That Ruby's path to possible freedom was being
assisted by the FBI (during his first trial) does raise questions. Then, coupled with
his reported "death" prior to a second trial—especially considering the story told
by the late Grace Pratt—the mystery deepens.
Did Jack Ruby really die in prison or did he secretly emigrate to the Jewish
homeland of Israel? The answer to that question has no direct
bearing on the thesis of Final Judgment, but it may be a
mystery that deserves further scrutiny. Perhaps some enterprising
researcher may answer the question: "What did happen to the `corpse' of Jack
Ruby?"
A NOTE FOR THE RECORD: Following the release of the first edition
of Final Judgment, the author came across an obscure volume entitled The
Ruby-Oswald Affair, published in 1988. The author was the late Alan
Adelson who had served as the attorney for Jack Ruby's family in the probate of
Ruby's will. Adelson died just shortly before his book was published. At the
beginning of the book Adelson describes how he attended Ruby's funeral in the
company of Ruby's brother, Earl:
"The funeral had been a closed-casket affair. I realized immediately that the
closed casket would raise questions. Who was to know if Jack was really in the
casket? I had heard rumors that Kennedy was not really dead, but was hidden
away in South America. 'Earl,' I said, let them see. I know it sounds grisly,
but let's put it to rest.' The lid of the casket was opened, and for the first time
I saw Jack, the man I would learn to know almost as well as I knew myself."
504 To the best of my knowledge, this is the only known reference to anyone
actually having seen Jack Ruby in the casket. In this case, the reference came
from someone who had not actually known Jack Ruby in person. Although
photographs of Lee Harvey Oswald (both during his autopsy and in his coffin)
as well as photographs of John F. Kennedy (during his autopsy) have been
widely circulated, there are no known such photographs of Ruby.
Frankly, I do not find Adelson's posthumously-published proclamation of
having seen "Jack" (a man he never saw alive) as any refutation of the story by
Grace Pratt. For the record, however, it seems appropriate to record the
comments attributed to Adelson.
A FINAL MYSTERY—RUBY AND THE ADL
On June 27, 1964, Stanley Kaufman, Ruby's lawyer and longtime
friend, testified before the Warren Commission and noted the following: