The History Diaries – November 24, 1963

Despite being surrounded by a crowd of officers in the Dallas Police Department headquarters, Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of John F. Kennedy, was shot and mortally wounded by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. Because his imminent transfer from the police department to the Dallas County jail was being covered on live television by all the U.S. broadcast networks, millions of viewers were watching as Ruby shot Oswald in the abdomen, at point blank range, with a .38 caliber revolver. On November 24, Ruby drove into town with his pet dachshund Sheba to send an emergency money order at the Wells Fargo on Main Street to one of his employees. The time stamp was 11:17 a.m. for the cash transaction on the money order. Ruby then walked half a block to the nearby Dallas police headquarters, where he made his way into the basement.