1963 Jack Ruby Signed Fingerprint Card from Arrest for the Murder of Lee Harvey Oswald....

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Rescued from destruction by a Dallas County Sheriff's Department employee

1963 Jack Ruby Signed Fingerprint Card from Arrest for the Murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. They are the nine fingers that slammed the door shut on the greatest mystery of 20th century America, the tenth having been chewed off at the knuckle in a barroom brawl common to the seedy Dallas underbelly that Jack Ruby called home. 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.

After what must have been a lengthy but unsatisfying interrogation throughout the night, the number "129175" was hung around Ruby's neck for his mug shot (modern copy of photo included in lot), and typed upon the FBI fingerprint sheet to which Ruby applied the inked imprints of his murderous digits. In the box entitled, "7. Left Index," the typed words "AMP[utated] 2d Joint 1952" appear. Ruby's black ink signature just above rates 9/10. On verso, the "Charge or Offense" box reads, "Murder with Malice."

The 8x8" booking sheet remains in fine condition and is accompanied by a notarized letter of provenance from James Cron, who worked as a civilian employee of the Dallas Police Department from 1958 to 1964, then as a deputy sheriff with the Dallas County Sheriff's Office from 1964 to 1993, where he served as a crime scene investigator. His service brought him in close contact with many of the key figures in the Kennedy and Oswald investigations, and he was able to retain various documents marked for destruction as the hard copies were digitized for computer storage.

According to Cron, only six fingerprint cards were created as Ruby entered the Dallas County Jail on November 25, 1963. Two were retained by the Dallas Sheriff's Office, one by the Texas Department of Public Safety, and three went to the FBI. It is likely that this is the only surviving example in private hands. Notarized letter of provenance from Dallas County Sheriff's Department employee James Cron. Full LOA from PSA/DNA. Full LOA from Beckett Authentication Services.

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