Kennedy’s Avenger: Assassination, Conspiracy, and the Forgotten Trial of Jack Ruby

Abrams and Fisher follow John Adams Under Fire with a disappointing rehash of the case against nightclub owner Jack Ruby for the killing of JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Since Ruby’s attack on Oswald in a Dallas police station was broadcast on live TV, the major issue at the 1964 trial was Ruby’s state of mind. The prosecution charged him with premeditated homicide, while his defense team, led by flamboyant celebrity defense lawyer Melvin Belli, attempted to convince the jury that Ruby “suffered from a rare form of epilepsy” and had been in a “fugue state” when he shot Oswald. Ruby’s conviction was overturned on appeal, and he died of cancer in 1967 before he could be retried. Despite the subtitle, Abrams and Fisher downplay any evidence contrary to the Warren Commission’s conclusion that both Oswald and Ruby acted alone, and the duelling testimony by expert witnesses over Ruby’s mental state fails to captivate. Tortured prose and awkward embellishments of the trial record don’t help the authors’ cause (“As if he had been hit on the head with his own nonexistent gavel, Judge Brown finally got it”). Readers will consider this a missed opportunity. (June)