DescriptionVideotaped oral history interview with Bill Cannon. As a Dallas County deputy sheriff from 1954 to 1956, Cannon was acquainted with Jack Ruby. He later visited Ruby in jail in 1965 and made detailed notes of the experience. Cannon was in Houston, Texas at the time of the assassination. After retiring, he wrote a series of books on Texas history and trivia.
Interview recorded at Christian Care Center in Mesquite, Texas on August 29, 2014 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is one hour and four minutes long.
Curatorial Commentary
Eleven years prior to this 2014 oral history, Bill Cannon recorded his first interview with The Sixth Floor Museum. Donated at the time of that 2003 oral history, the Museum's Bill R. Cannon Collection (2003.003) includes two sets of documents, dated June 21, 1965, that detail his immediate impressions after interviewing Jack Ruby at the Dallas County Jail. Cannon also donated the room service menu that he retreived from the presidential suite at the Rice Hotel in Houston on Friday, November 22, 1963. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
Bill Ray Cannon passed away on January 12, 2021, at the age of 90. The Museum's Library Collection includes two of his books, A Treasury of Texas Trivia (1997) and A Treasury of Texas Trivia II (2000). Both may be found here: Bibliovation | Catalog Search Results. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
