Feb. 15, 1964 - Jack Ruby’s favorite sister says she is certain that he was insane when he shot Lee Harvey Oswald. “In his right mind, he would never have done it,” Mrs. Eva Grant (pictured Nov. 24) said today in an interview. “Why do they just test his mind?” she asked. “Why can’t there be a test of his heart, to show how he felt about the President?”
Ruby goes on trial for murder Monday in the slaying of Oswald, accused assassin of President Kennedy. Mrs. Grant is expected to testify about her brother’s actions before he shot Oswald on Nov. 24.
Mrs. Grant, two years older than the 52-year-old defendant, is a deceptively fragile-looking grandmother with tinted red hair. At the Vegas Club in Dallas, which Ruby owned and she managed, she often served as her own bouncer, she said. Ruby has seven brothers and sisters, but his relationship with Mrs. Grant has always been especially close.
Her brother felt great admiration for every President, Mrs. Grant said, “even Ike.” She was asked why, if he admired Mr. Kennedy so greatly, Ruby had not joined the throng that greeted the President in Dallas Nov. 22. “He had several errands that morning,” she said, “and he planned to watch it all later on television. He had to go to the bank, drop off some twist boards at the post office, and get to the newspaper to take care of his ad for the weekend.” One of Ruby’s enterprises was the sale of a device to teach the dancing of the twist.
Mrs. Grant contended that Ruby could not get a fair trial in Dallas because of anti-Semitic feelings there. She said she had frequently experienced such hostility. “Of course, Jack would fight. You could call him a so-and-so, and that might not be too bad. But call him a so-and-so Jew, and he’d start swinging.”
Mrs. Grant pictures her brother as impulsive, loyal, and sincerely religious. “He’s no angel, and neither am I,” she said, “but he’s always had respect for religion. He’d never let comedians at his club joke about a priest or minister or anything about religion.” Like her brother, Mrs. Grant resents rumors that Ruby was affiliated with the Communist party or with the underworld. “I’d rather be called anything than a Communist,” she remarked.
“I’ve seen stories that we grew up in a Chicago ghetto or slum,” Mrs. Grant continued. “It was a poor neighborhood, but there were families of all religions, and we never went without what we needed. Some of the boys turned out bad. That happens anywhere. But I never knew anything about questionable characters in Chicago.”
She also challenged suggestions that Ruby’s sexual life was not normal. “I’m his sister, and it’s not good for me to say, but Jack has always had plenty of girls,” she said. “When he was younger, they used to chase after him all the time.”
