$220,000 Buys Gun Used to Kill Oswald
The gun that Jack Ruby used to kill Lee Harvey Oswald was auctioned Thursday night for $220,000.
Bidding for the gun, with the police evidence tag still attached, started at $100,000 and quickly escalated. The buyer was a New Jersey gun collector who asked to remain anonymous. The buyer did not attend the auction, sending a surrogate to bid for him.
Ruby’s brother Earl, a Detroit businessman who got control of Ruby’s estate in August after a long court fight, intends using $80,000 of the proceeds to pay Ruby’s income tax bill, said the auctioneer, Herman Darvick.
“I feel great,” Earl Ruby said after the sale. “I don’t feel too good about having to get rid of the gun but I’m glad the bills will be paid.”
Ruby shot Oswald to death with the .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver in the basement of the Dallas City Jail on Nov. 24, 1963, two days after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Oswald was accused of the killing.
Ruby was convicted of murdering Oswald, but the conviction was overturned and he died in jail in 1967 while awaiting a second trial. The gun stayed in a Dallas safe deposit box while Ruby’s brother battled Ruby’s former lawyer for control of the estate.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
