HISTORY TIP OF THE DAY

Jack Ruby dies, January 3rd, 1967

Ruby argued that he shot Lee Harvey Oswald to redeem the city of Dallas after the Kennedy assassination. The legendary San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli defended Ruby for free at his trial, but his insanity defense did not sway the jury. Ruby was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The Texas Criminal Court of Appeals granted him a new trial, on the grounds that the enormous publicity precluded him from getting a fair trial, but before proceedings could begin, Ruby was hospitalized and found to have cancer in his liver, lungs, and brain. He dies of a pulmonary embolism at the age of fifty-nine.