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Feb 17, 2008 12:00 am US/Central
More JFK Documents To Be Released
Dallas DA Plans To Release Files From Jack Ruby Trial
Prosecutor Notes Among Files Stored For More Than 40 Years
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ―
Marti Ricci was just 11 years old when the 35th president was shot on Nov. 22, 1963.
"I think it was a cover up," the now-soon-to-be-grandma said recently when she visited the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza with her family.
Ricci often wonders if she'll ever learn the whole story behind that fateful day. "I think we're told what they want us to know, but I don't think it's the whole truth," she said.
Touched by whole story that has fascinated people around the world for decades, she is one of the many people who comes to the museum and believes there is more to the president's death that what is known.
More than 40 years ago, Jack Ruby said the world would never know the truth about the president's death. "I'm the only person who knows the truth," Ruby said in 1963.
Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the man accused of killing President John F. Kennedy.
When shots were fired at the presidential motorcade in Dealey Plaza, many eyewitnesses thought they came from a building at 411 Elm Street known as the Texas State Book Depository.
Although some eyewitnesses thought shots came from a grassy knoll in front of the President; no evidence was found there.
All official investigations concluded the shots that struck and killed President Kennedy and wounded Texas Gov. John Connally came from the Book Depository.
The building now houses the Sixth Floor Museum, which contains a permanent exhibition focusing on JFK's life, death and legacy. A big part of the collection depicts the impact of his death on the nation and the world.
Opened in 1989, the museum is located on the sixth and seventh floors of the building. Investigators found three spent shells, a sniper's nest, and a rifle on the sixth floor of the building.
A move by current Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins is expected to reveal never-before-seen information surrounding Kennedy's assassination.
"That safe is couple of thousand pounds," the DA explained. The 6-foot wide safe is inside a vault on the 10th floor of the Frank Crowley Building.
Watkins plans to release thousands of pages of documents and photos from Ruby's trial that have been stored in the safe for years.
After archiving the documents for the last year, Watkins said there are two things that will raise eyebrows.
The first is a $1 million movie contract signed by former DA Henry Wade, the prosecutor in the Ruby trial.
The other is a highly suspect two-page transcript dated Oct. 4, 1963. The transcript reads in part:
Lee: You said the boys in Chicago want to get rid of the Attorney General.
Ruby: Yes, but it can't be done ... it would get the Feds into everything.
Lee: There is a way to get rid of him without killing him.
Ruby: How's that?
Lee: I can shoot his brother.
Ruby: You mean the President?
Lee: Yes, the President.
Ruby: But that wouldn't be patriotic.
Lee: What's the difference between shooting the Governor and in shooting the President?
Ruby: It would get the FBI into it.
Lee: I can still do it, all I need is my rifle and a tall building; but it will take time, maybe six months to find the right place; but I'll have to have some money to live on while I do the planning."
Ruby goes on to tell Oswald that no one must ever know the money for the job came from the Mafia. Ruby adds not to get caught or else he would have to kill Oswald.
The man who prosecuted Ruby still practices law in Dallas.
Bill Alexander, who talked to CBS 11 News, but did not want to go on camera, discussed in length details of the 1964 trial.
Alexander knows some of the documents about to be released to the public were salvaged from the trash by Henry Wade. "I put my private notes in the trash because I did not want anyone to ever claim that I removed anything that belonged to the DA's office," Alexander said.
Alexander is the only living prosecutor from that trial and feels some of the information that comes out from their release could be embarrassing.
The former Ruby prosecutor believes some of his notes -- on legal pads and in other forms -- could be in this cache.
"I also feel the papers should have been shown to me before made public," Alexander said.
Although no details of what exactly is in the safe has been released to the public, Watkins feels the documents need to be released because they belong to the people.
"I was guaranteed that every elected DA after Wade knew they were there," Watkins said.
Watkins feels some of the documents will provide more material for conspiracy theorists and are probably fake.
The documents have a stamp on the right corner that state, "Plaintiff Exhibit." If they were going to be entered into evidence in a court case, like the Ruby trial, they would have a stamp saying, "State Exhibit." Watkins said the documents could have been props for a movie.
Watkins doesn't want to second guess why his predecessors have not made the files public before now.
CBS 11 News tried to contact former District Attorney Bill Hill, but he could not be reached for comment.
Ruby was convicted of Oswald's death on March 14, 1964. He appealed for a new trial with the argument he did not receive a fair trial in Dallas. He was awarded a new trial on Jan. 3, 1967, but died at Parkland Hospital before it could start.
What happens to the files once Watkins releases them is still unknown, but museum officials hope to add the Ruby files to the anthology. "I'm hoping they'll stay in Dallas," says Nicola Longford, the museum's executive director.
"We were terribly excited to learn of this new cache of historical materials," Longford continued, "and we would be thrilled if they would come to the Sixth Floor Museum for long term preservation."
A year ago, museum officials scored when they acquired a 40-second 8mm color clip that they described as "the clearest, best film of Jackie in the motorcade," said Mack. That film also was unveiled on President's day and can be seen on the museum's Web site.
The home movie, shot by amateur photographer George Jefferies, shows a brief but clear glimpse of President Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy just seconds before his assassination. The footage contained no sound and also does not show the assassination.
Everyone will be able to get a glimpse of the archived documents during a 10 a.m. news conference on Monday.
Watkins called everything in the cache "interesting" and added, "Everything in there will maybe change the conclusions that have been made to how this unfortunate event unfolded."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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