T04 Transcript of State vs. Ruby: Motion for a Change of Venue, Volume 2

The Museum recorded oral histories with the following individuals named in this document: community leader Stanley Marcus, the Rev. William A. Holmes, journalist Tony Zoppi, musician Billy Joe Willis, defense attorneys Joe Tonahill and Phil Burleson and Dallas County D.A. Henry Wade. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

The late Dallas Morning News nightclub columnist Tony Zoppi knew Jack Ruby better than most journalists. When asked by his frustrated colleagues why he tolerated such an annoying personality, Zoppi brilliantly summed up his strange affection for Jack Ruby in a single sentence: "He's a letter from home."

As he explained in his 1992 oral history: "Where I lived in New Jersey, there were people like Jack Ruby. He was very ethnic. He was Jewish. I was Italian, and that's the kind of neighborhood I was brought up in. I mean, there was every nationality imaginable. And there was a pool hall downtown. I was never in it, but I'd see the fellows coming and going. And Jack Ruby was that type, and that's why I said he was like a letter from home. I mean, he was like a pool room character. In his youth, I'm sure he was the type that hung around the pool rooms." - Stephen Fagin, Curator

The Rev. William A. Holmes, minister at Northaven Methodist Church in Dallas, was an unusual witness for this change-of-venue hearing. Holmes had gained international notoriety when he gave a powerful and controversial sermon on Sunday, November 24, 1963, stating that some fourth grade students in a north Dallas elementary school had cheered news of President Kennedy's assassination. Portions of that sermon were broadcast on CBS News the next week, and Holmes and his family immediately received death threats and required police protection. As Rev. Holmes reflected in his 2007 oral history, "[Defense attorney Melvin Belli] was obviously counting on me to demean the city for its response to my sermon. However, I had always argued that Dallas's primary problem was not necessarily its extremists, but the apathy of its silent majority, who allowed the extremists to speak for us and to go unchallenged. When [Belli] called me to the stand, I testified that Ruby could receive a fair trial in Dallas if the jury was chosen from the majority of the city's population, who I believed would rise to the occasion and be fair. Clearly, Belli was not happy with me as a witness." - Stephen Fagin, Curator