Books in Brief: Who Was Jack Ruby?

Who Was Jack Ruby? by Seth Kantor (Everest House, 242 pp., $10.95).

For anyone who followed the recent House Assassination Committee hearings, this volume is an invaluable source. In many ways it parallels the avenues explored by the Stokes Committee. Kantor goes further, however and hints at a conspiracy linking Cuban-based organized-crime figures, elements of the Dallas Police Force, and the Castro regime. His case is hardly airtight, but he develops it undogmatically, and is not loath to pursue any evidence, whether or not it is congenial with his theory. The book is an engrossing mosaic of observations focusing on the seedily violent Ruby, an aberrent and puzzling figure who had ties to such disparate groups as the FBI, the mob, the Dallas police, Cuban gunrunners, and the Hoffa-dominated Teamsters Union. Particularly fascinating are the Dallas nightclub owner’s shuttlings back and forth to Cuba after Castro seized power. Kantor has also produced a careful critique of the Warren Commission’s hurried and shoddy investigating techniques. Who Was Jack Ruby? provides few solid answers, but it does raise significant new questions, which it presents in a highly readable manner.

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Who Was Jack Ruby? by Seth Kantor (Everest House, 242 pp., $10.95).

For anyone who followed the recent House Assassination Committee hearings, this volume is an invaluable source. In many ways it parallels the avenues explored by the Stokes Committee. Kantor goes further, however and hints at a conspiracy linking Cuban-based organized-crime figures, elements of the Dallas Police Force, and the Castro regime. His case is hardly airtight, but he develops it undogmatically, and is not loath to pursue any evidence, whether or not it is congenial with his theory. The book is an engrossing mosaic of observations focusing on the seedily violent Ruby, an aberrent and puzzling figure who had ties to such disparate groups as the FBI, the mob, the Dallas police, Cuban gunrunners, and the Hoffa-dominated Teamsters Union. Particularly fascinating are the Dallas nightclub owner’s shuttlings back and forth to Cuba after Castro seized power. Kantor has also produced a careful critique of the Warren Commission’s hurried and shoddy investigating techniques. Who Was Jack Ruby? provides few solid answers, but it does raise significant new questions, which it presents in a highly readable manner.