LOT #47083 |
Sold on Dec 1, 2022 for: Not Sold
[John F. Kennedy]. Jack Ruby's Personal Wallet and Contents....
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Description
The Wallet Jack Ruby Was Carrying on November 24, 1963 When He Shot and Killed Lee Harvey Oswald
[John F. Kennedy]. Jack Ruby's Personal Wallet and Contents.
Tan leatherette wallet with integral opaque vinyl card sleeves. 4 x
3 x 1-inch. The wallet bears an internal handwritten notation in
gold ink, "JACK RUBY R17-2362 DALL," written by one of the officers
of the Dallas Police Officers at Headquarters.The wallet is accompanied by a number of Jack Ruby's personal items that were in the wallet including his Texas tax operator's license made out to Jack Leon Ruby of 3929 Rawlins, Dallas, his Carousel strip club business card, two YMCA membership cards, business cards, Captain H. T. Vogel of the El Paso, TX Traffic Division card, a Baptist Church business card, two pocket calendars for the years 1962 and 1963, Jack Ruby's Texas vehicle registration receipts for 1962 and 1963, receipts, Merchants State Bank of Dallas checks with Ruby's handwritten notations, and a number of money order receipt stubs. Many of items bear Jack Ruby's handwritten notations.
Included is a Jack Ruby signed February 22, 1961 Certificate of Zoning and Location that certified The Carousel Club was a tavern serving wine and beer for consumption on premises, a carbon copy of a Jack Ruby signed Dallas traffic citation for a failure to yield right of way on March 14, 1963, as well as some newspaper clippings that announced the burlesque dancers who performed at the Carousel Club. The Zoning Certificate has been mounted to card stock for display.
A copy of the Dallas Police Department itemized inventory sheet of his belongings from the day he was booked on November 25, 1963, lists this tan wallet as well as his TX tax operator's license as among the contents.
Born in 1911 as Jacob Rubenstein, Ruby had spent a troubled adolescence dodging truancy officers in the Chicago streets of the Al Capone era, selling horseracing tip sheets and doing odd jobs for a local waste management union that would later become part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. After service in the Second World War, Ruby made the move to Dallas, Texas in 1947 to join a Jewish mafia presiding over the city's illegal gambling, narcotics and prostitution rackets.
Over the course of the next decade and a half, Ruby would earn a reputation as a charismatic but violent procurer of women in his role as proprietor of the Carousel Club, a strip joint less than half a mile from the subterranean garage where he'd secure his eternal infamy. Dallas police frequented the establishment to take statements from patrons thrown down the stairs or beaten with brass knuckles by the short-tempered owner, and to accept cash payments and female companionship to look the other way. This longstanding familiarity with law enforcement has often been referenced by amateur sleuths wondering how an armed man managed to come face to face with Public Enemy Number One inside the main police precinct on November 24, 1963 to commit the first murder ever broadcast on live television.
"Jack, you son of a bitch!" shouted detective Billy Combest as Oswald and Ruby were driven to the ground by the fatal bullet and a swarming tackle respectively. Turning to Oswald, Combest asked, "Do you have anything you want to tell us now?" Oswald, pouring blood, only shook his head in response. Moments later, he'd lose consciousness, never to regain it, forever obscuring what he knew of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy behind the shroud of death.
Condition: Wallet shows some light scuffs and mounting remnants from display. Business cards and other contents show wear from repeated use by Jack Ruby and the Zoning Certificate shows paper loss along the folds and edge chips.
Provenance: Accompanied by a copy of a handwritten letter from a family member of the Academy Award-nominated director, Owen Crump, stating that the wallet was given to him by Dallas County D.A., Henry Wade. Crump was writing a play about JFK's assassination when Wade gave him the wallet. From the Melvin "Pete" Mark, Jr. Collection
Auction Info
2022 December 1 Historical Platinum Session Signature® Auction #6267 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
December, 2022
1st
Thursday
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