Courtroom sketch of juror Glen Holton being questioned at Jack Ruby trial

Jury selection in the Jack Ruby trial took place between February 17 and March 3, 1964. During that two-week period, 162 prospective jurors were interviewed, which District Attorney Henry Wade informed the news media was not a Dallas County record. Of the 162 individuals interviewed for the Ruby trial, twelve were accepted, eighteen were challenged by the defense team, eleven were challenged by the prosecution, sixty-two were ruled out because they were against the death penalty, fifty-eight were ruled out because they held fixed opinions on the case, and one was excused due to illness. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator

Juston Glenn Holton, Jr. (1932-2017) worked for the U.S. Postal Service in Grand Prairie, Texas, for forty-five years. He was selected as a juror in the Jack Ruby trial on February 26, 1964. Like other members of the jury, Holton was reluctant to share his memories of the trial over the years. Although he declined multiple invitations to record an oral history with the Museum, he was a recognized guest at a Museum public program held on the 40th anniversary of the Ruby trial verdict, March 14, 2004. At that event, held inside the former Texas School Book Depository building a short distance from where the 1964 trial took place in the Dallas County Criminal Courts Building, Holton reunited with fellow juror J. Waymon Rose for the first time in exactly forty years.

Holton gave a rare audio interview to researcher John Mark Dempsey in 1998 for this book, The Jack Ruby Trial Revisited (2000). That audio recording is part of the Museum's Dr. John Mark Dempsey Collection (2014.019). -- Stephen Fagin, Curator