DescriptionAdvertisement for exotic dancer Jada at Jack Ruby's Carousel Club. Jada worked for Ruby for three months in 1963.
The front of the card is a color photograph of the dancer on a dramatic black background, captioned: "Jada 'World's Hottest Exotic'
Madame Francine's, 440 Bourbon St."
Reverse of the card is horizontally oriented and has text in alternating lines of red and black. The text printed in black seems to be the original text printed on the card likely by Madame Francine's. The red text was possibly printed at a different time by Jack Ruby since it pertains specifically to the Carousel Club.
The red text reads:
"'JADA World’s Hottest Exotic at the / Carousel Club, Dallas, Texas
Dallas' only continuous floor shows
Non-stop 'til 1:30 A.M., Fri & Sat., 2 A.M.
Wally Weston - Comedian - M.C.
Plus four other exotics
Friday: Ladies admitted free
Carousel Club - Your Host - Jack Ruby
Corner Field & Commerce
Adjacent Adolphus Hotel RI 7-2362"
The black text is as follows:
"Born in New York City and starting as a chorus girl in N.Y.'s
Copacabana, Jada has since played in two R.K.O. movies
and such outstanding supper and night clubs as the Dunes
and El Rancho in Vegas -- Moulin Rouge in Hollywood, 500
Club in Atlantic City and many more. Recently chosen as
winner of the 1960 Anatomy Award by a leading Health
Studio -- Jada is truly the 'World’s Hottest Exotic.'
Hal Kern - photography"
A stack of these cards was found with many other items in Jack Ruby's car at the time of his arrest on November 24, 1963, for the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald.
This object was originally part of the evidence collected by the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office and specifically prosecutors Henry Wade and Bill Alexander during the investigation leading up to the Jack Ruby trial for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Curatorial Commentary
Jada (Janet Mole Conforto) was hired by Jack Ruby in June 1963 after he saw her perform in New Orleans. She first performed at the Carousel Club in Dallas on July 17, 1963. She and Ruby frequently clashed, arguing about her salary, absenteeism from the club, and performances that pushed the boundaries of Dallas' decency laws. Ruby ultimately fired her - though some accounts indicate that Jada quit - about three weeks before the assassination.
Jada sometimes appears on lists of "mysterious deaths" in the assassination story, largely because researchers were unable to locate her for many years due to her multiple marriages and low profile. She was killed on May 9, 1980, when her motorcycle collided with a school bus in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The mother of two was forty-four years old. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
In order to ensure its long-term care and preservation and to facilitate public access, the Dallas County District Attorney's Office placed their Jack Ruby Trial Collection (sometimes referred to as "the DA's Jack Ruby file") on long-term loan with The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in 2017. The Museum is working to make the entire collection accessible through this online collections database. To find out more about this collection or to access materials not yet included here, contact the Museum's Reading Room at readingroom@jfk.org. - Megan Bryant, Director of Collections & Interpretation
This item, along with materials from the DA's Ruby file (which is on loan to the Museum) and from the Museum's permanent collection, briefly appeared in a temporary display on the Museum's seventh floor in 2017. - Lindsey Richardson, Curator of Collections
