In the wake of the recent 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.
“Jack Ruby: The Many Faces of Oswald's Assassin book does what few books on the JFK assassinations have even attempted by painting a humanized depiction of the many complex layers of Jack Ruby, the killer of the one of the most notorious presidential suspected assassins.” —Mark S. Zaid, Esq., JFK assassination historian
Danny Fingeroth is a biographer and cultural historian/commentator, specializing in the intersection of Jewish and American cultures. He's the author of Superman on the Couch and Disguised as Clark Kent. His acclaimed 2019 biography of Stan Lee, A Marvelous Life, is a laser-sharp look at this innovative figure--the inventor of Marvel Comics. Fingeroth has spoken at venues including the Smithsonian Institution and Columbia University, as well as on NBC's Today Show and NPR's All Things Considered. He has written commentaries for publications including The Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal. Danny was born, raised, and lives in New York City.
