Jack Ruby was born Jacob Rubenstein in Chicago in 1911. His parents, Polish Jews, immigrated to the U.S. in 1903. An unstable home life marked his childhood, and the county placed Ruby in foster care for a short stint. He left school early, became a ticket scalper, sold novelties from a pushcart, and often brawled with other young men in the mean streets of Chicago. He later worked as a union organizer and door-to-door salesman, among other work, and served stateside as a mechanic in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II.
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By the late 1940s, he was living in Dallas, Texas, had changed his name to Jack Ruby, and operated a string of nightclubs, including strip joints. He racked up eight arrests for carrying a concealed weapon, simple assault, and disturbing the peace, among other violations (per National Archives). He counted Dallas police officers, gamblers, and various underworld figures as friends. Even so, the Warren Commission, established to look into Kennedy’s assassination, determined Ruby wasn’t actively involved in mob-related business. “Based on its evaluation of the record … the Commission believes that the evidence does not establish a significant link between Ruby and organized crime,” the members wrote in the report.