Jack Ruby, Oswald and the Cuban Connection
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The News , Jack Ruby, Oswald and the Part 5 of a series Following is the fifth article in a seven- based on other information we had part serialization of Kantor's book. from the CIA and FBI in April 1964. I World now believe the FBI should be asked to By SETH KANTOR disclose all information about the pur- poses of those 1959 contacts with Ruby and the information he was asked to After the Jack Ruby trial ended, provide, if they have not already done Leon Hubert and Burt Griffin, the so." Cuban Warrren Commission's two Ruby ex- THE FBI SO FAR has said the con- perts, tried to convince commission tacts were useless, that Ruby provided of jail in Cuba (at a time when Castro members in memorandums on March no worthwhile information. But what 19 and April 1, 1964, that there was had several U.S. underworld figures Griffin is suggesting here is something jailed there). Ruby meets McKeown in "substantial evidence" showing Jack different, when he asks that the FBI Ruby had maintained unexplained Kemah, Texas, and offers $25,000 for make public now what kinds of infor- a personal introduction to Castro. Cuban associations. But their efforts mation the bureau was seeking from were blocked by the CIA and dis- March 11—Ruby meets with Dallas Ruby in 1959. FBI agent Flynn and agrees to become couraged by others on the commission "If Hoover concealed information staff. an FBI contact. that the 1959 FBI contacts were about March 15—Throughout this time Therefore, the Warren Commission Cuban matter," Griffin says, "such a never explored the possible links of period, Ruby telephones and meets concealment would be important and with Tom Davis, a gun-runner with Ruby's Cuban activities in 1959 with serious." his FBI contacts that year and with CIA ties, in Beaumont, Ruby's totally unexplained use of a April 2—The Dallas police depart- safety deposit box at the time of his By December 1977, the FBI released ment's Criminal Intelligence Division Cuban and FBI interests. some, but not all, information out of lists Ruby and syndicate gambling- agent Flynn's file on Ruby, It shows house operator Lewis J. McWillie RUBY RENTED BOX 448 at his bank among those connected with profes- in Dallas, the Merchants State, where that Ruby was listed as a PCI (potential criminal informant) and was contacted sional gambling activities in the com- he maintained a small business check- munity. ing account and no savings account. on matters concerning the interstate transportation of gambling devices, lot- April 27—Castro travels to Houston He'd had no known safety deposit box after completing a controversial trip of in 11 previous years as a Dallas resi- tery tickets and obscene matter—along with questions relating to the FBI's several days to Washington, New York dent—and he rented the box the day and Boston. Ruby rents safety deposit before the first of his regular meetings general investigative intelligence file, which ranged broadly enough to box 448 at Merchants State Bank. as an undercover FBI contact with FBI April 28—Castro meets with agent Charles W. Flynn. include such categories as organized crime and Cuba. McKeown and,offers him a post in the Then he used the box 12 times in Castro government, but McKeown is 1959, in exactly the same seven-month Ruby's movements at key points in 1959 indicate a proximity of his Cuban, serving a five-year probated federal stretch in which was meeting nine sentence as a gun-runner and would times with Flynn. FBI and bank-box affairs, as this chronology shows: become a U.S. fugitive if he takes off in That seven-month period included Castro's private plane, as he is invited much of Ruby's known Cuban-related Jan. 1—Fidel Castro takes control of Cuba. to do. McKeown turns down the offer trips and meetings in 1959. at the airport. Ruby meets with Flynn But even as they were being thwarted Jan. 8—Ruby is believed to have made his first contact on this date with for the first time in his role as under- within the commission from digging cover contact. into Ruby's Cuban connections, Robert Ray yy "Dick" McKeown, a Hubert and Griffin saw no special rela- Bashore, Texas, gun-runner who had May 7—Ruby uses his safety deposit tionship between Ruby's meetings with been supplying Castro with arms. box. the FBI and his activities concerning Feb. 1—Ruby tells McKeown he May 15 (approx.) —Elaine Mynier Cuba. represents a source in Las Vegas who "I assumed in 1964," says Griffin wants to get three Castro prisoners out now, "that the FBI contacts with Ruby in 1959 were rather routine requests NEW YORK, NEW YORK for information about vice and MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1978 organized crime . I don't remember if it occurred to me in 1964 that such FBI contacts in 1959 might have been in connection with Cuban matters; but I doubt that I ever had that in mind, Connection (cq) of Dallas, who is dating McWillie, carries a coded message to Cuba from Ruby. She relates the message to McWillie. July 1—Ruby uses the safety deposit (he uses it only four times more in the, May 7—Ruby uses his safety deposit box. next 17 months and, when authorities box. July 3—Norman "Roughhouse". crack it open late in 1963, it is empty.) May 22—Ruby uses the safety Rothman, a U.S. Mafia figure and deposit box. Cuban racketeer who is an associate BEFORE HE QUIT the House of Assassinations Committee at the end June 2—Again, Ruby uses the box. Florida numbers-racket boss Santo of March 1977, chief counsel Richard June 5—Ruby meets with FBI agent Trafficante Jr., is arrested in connec- A. Sprague saw to it that Trafficante Flynn. tion with an $8.5 million Canadian was found and subpoenaed to testify June 18—Ruby meets again with bank heist of convertible bonds. before the House panel. Flynn. Federal • authorities link the Canadian June 22—Ruby uses his safety job with a large theft of arms from an (Trafficante refused to be ques- tioned in a closed session. When he deposit box. Ohio National Guard armory and with showed up before cameras and repor- Rothman's $6,000 rental agreement on ters on March 16, 1977, he made a an airplane, as part of a massive Cuban point of refusing to answer any ques- gun-running project. tions posed by Sprague and committee July 7—Ruby meets with agent members, to demonstrate that he Flynn. would not have to be otherwise July 8—The Castro cabinet decides silenced. that Trafficante, key figure in the Of special significance it Traffi- Lansky gambling empire in Havana, is cante's knowledge of what went on at to be expelled from Cuba along with the Churchill Farms estate of Carlos two others. Trafficante, meanwhile, is held in a Havana-area jail. Marcello, the tough little Mafia boss of New Orleans, when Marcello called in July 9—Ruby uses his safety deposit box. other organized-crime. Trafficante was invited to attend the July 20—Ruby uses the safety sinister, turbulent meeting in which deposit box again. Marcello demanded Kennedy blood. July 21—Ruby meets with agent As a result, Trafficante knew Flynn. intimately what transpired at the Aug. 1 (approx.)—A dinner Ruby Churchill Farms meeting. shares in an airport restaurant with one That same month, September 1962, of the Fox brothers (operators of the Trafficante confided to Jose Aleman, a mob-connected Tropicana casino in prominent member of the Cuban exile Havana) and two criminally associated community in Miami, that the Ken- Dallas attorneys, David C. McCord and nedys could not be trusted. Alfred E. McClane, appears to have Trafficante complained that Robert occurred in July or August. Kennedy, the attorney general and Aug. 6—Ruby meets with agent Marcelto's bitter enemy, was harassing Flynn. Jimmy Hoffa, portrayed by Trafficante Aug. 3I—Ruby meets again with as a friend of the working class. As a Flynn in the week of his departure for result, "Louis Santos" said Cuba. menacingly, President Kennedy would Sept. 4—Ruby uses his safety deposit get what was coming to him. box and then departs for Cuba. Aleman disagreed. He recalls argu- Sept. 5—According to estimates of ing that Kennedy would be re-elected, Ruby and others, he spends next according to George Crile several days, including a long Labor III, Washington editor of Harper's, who Day weekend, in Cuba with McWillie. talked with Aleman. Ruby also visits gangster "Louis San- "No, Jose," said Trafficante. "He is tos" (an assumed name used by Traffi- going to be hit." cante) in jail more than once, according In 1961, Ruby was involved in a plan to a British witness. to sell British Enfield rifles obtained in Sept. 12—Ruby is in the Miami area, Mexico to anti-Castro Cubans, accord- where gangster Rothman has an ing to Warren Commission testimony interest in the Biltmore Terrace Hotel. from a self-described ex-prostitute, According to airline records, Ruby flies Nancy Perrin Rich, who had worked back to Havana for one day. for Ruby that year. Sept. 13—Ruby then flies from • Havana to New Orleans. WHEN HE WAS IN JAIL in Dallas in Sept. 21—Ruby uses his safety 1964, Ruby became hysterical one deposit box again. evening, sobbing to his guard that he Oct. 2—Ruby meets for the last time had been running guns to Cuba and with Flynn as a contact.