Posted by Mike Sylwester

Article from The Washington Post, November 26, 1963, page A-6

[title] "Wife and Mother See Oswald Buried Secretly in Ft. Worth" 

by Bryce Miller 

Excerpt:  

Ruby has been linked to the West Side Chicago mob that tried to take over the Dallas rackets in the post war years, the Chicago Daily News Service reported.  He was also identified as a Government informer against some of the gang, two of whom were later murdered and the bodies stuffed into car trunks.  

A Chicago attorney who represented Ruby before the Old Kefauver Crime Committee has been questioned by the FBI, which entered the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald on direct orders from President Johnson.  

Luis Kutner, Chicago attorney who at one time was a consultant with the Kefauver Committee, said he has been questioned by the FBI agents about his relationship with Ruby.  

Kutner said that in 1950 he arranged a meeting for Ruby with Rudolph Halley, chief counsel of the Kefauver committee.  

At the meeting, which took place here, Kutner said Halley disclosed evidence gathered by Dallas Det. Lt. George Butler.  This was that Ruby was part of the Chicago mob, possibly the go-between, that planned on taking over all rackets in Dallas.  

Kutner also linked Ruby to Dave Yarras, Lennie Patrick, William Block, West Side gamblers questioned in the murder of racing czar James Ragen, and with Zookie the Bookie Zuckerman.  

"He was really part of the West Side Mob," said Kutner of Ruby.  "He liked to hang around with those fellows."  

Ruby also worked as a union organizer for Paul (Red) Dorfman, Chicago union boss and close buddy of James R. Hoffa, Teamsters President.  

[end of excerpt] 

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Dallas Morning News, Nov 27, page 1

[quote]

[title] Chicago Police Knew Ruby as Union Organizer, Gambler

by George Bliss, Special to the News

[....]

Ruby was once questioned in the killing of his close friend and union associate, Leon R. Cooke.  But this incident in Ruby's life is no longer on record in the Chicago police files.  

Chicago police hope to establish whether Ruby had an arrest record through fingerprints expected from Dallas.  

But years ago, it can be recalled, police records and fingerprints had the habit of disappearing in wholesale lots from the Chicago police records division. Hoodlums with a "political clout" or who knew where to make a payoff, were able to have their record "pulled" from Chicago police files in the old days.  

[....]

In 1937, Ruby teamed up with Cooke, a young lawyer and neighbor, who organized the scrap iron and junk handlers union.  

"Rubenstein was a good organizer, and he organized every worker in the industry," recalled Abe Cohn, president of Sangamon Paper Grading Co. 

In December 1939, Cooke was shot to death in the union office by John Martin. Martin, who later surrendered to police, claimed self-defense and was acquitted. Martin, who held the title of union president, was known as an associate of Terry Druggan, notorious dry era bootlegger.  

On Monday, FBI agents began a check on the Cooke shooting.  They also are checking Ruby's involvement with the union and his association with the people presently operating the union -- some are friends of Teamster union president James R. Hoffa.

Much of the information on the union in the shooting was obtained by police from Ruby, who held the title of union secretary. Ruby told police that notorious hoodlums had established themselves as business agents in the union, but he insisted he had nothing to do with them. 

Early in 1940, Paul Dorfman, a close friend and business partner of Hoffa, grabbed control of the union at a meeting and took over the title of secretary-treasurer.  Dorfman, now vacationing in Palm Springs, Calif., said Ruby was dropped from the union in 1940 because Ruby was "just too temperamental and not good for the union." In 1957, Dorfman and the local were expelled from the AFL-CIO on charges of unethical practices. 

Ruby knew Nathan Gumbin, wealthy businessman who was assassinated by gangland gunmen in 1948.  The two had business dealings when Ruby was in the union.  Ruby was known to spend time at a gambling place frequented by Gumbin. Ruby left Chicago for Dallas shortly after Gumbin was cut apart by a shotgun blast while he was sitting in his auto. 

Luis Kutner, a Chicago attorney, said Ruby visited his office in 1949 and told him that he was interested in talking to Rudolph Halley, chief counsel of the Kefauver Senate Investigating Committee.  Kutner said Ruby was vague, but indicated he wanted to establish himself with Halley so that he could furnish Halley with information on "certain people" and at the same time get an idea of what the Senate committee was up to. Kutner said Ruby was living in Dallas at the time, and he doesn't know if Ruby ever contacted Halley, although arrangements were made for a meeting. 

Kutner said he knew Ruby when the man was with the union and that Ruby had heard that he, Kutner, was an advisor to the Kefauver committee.  "Rubenstein had the habit of tassing off names of hoodlums, but I don't think he had an intimate knowledge of what was going on," Kutner said.  

Ruby, who spent a lot of time watching fighters work out in gymnasiums and making small bets on the side, patronized cheap night clubs in Chicago and had a habit of grabbing a microphone and "taking over the act."

Police Capt. Louis Caprelli said he knew Ruby as a loiterer in the Maxwell district, a notorious neighborhood of the toughest mobsters in Chicago.  He said Ruoby was known as a man who just liked to be seen and heard.  Caprelli said Ruby could be classed as a "frustrated" policeman who liked to be in the company of officers. 

[unquote]