Assassination!: The Brick Chronicle of Attempts on the Lives of Twelve US Presidents (25 page)

A few blocks away, Oswald ducked into a movie theater without buying a ticket. Spotted by a shoe salesman across the street from the theater, the police were notified of the man’s description and soon surrounded the theater.

Oswald was captured at 1:45 PM, sitting by himself during a showing of the movie, War Is Hell. “Well, it’s all over now,” he said, before trying to punch a policeman and draw his revolver. He was quickly overpowered and beaten down.

Interrogated for hours at police headquarters, Oswald repeatedly denied shooting Tippit or President Kennedy. Confronted with his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, he denied owning any rifles. Affirming he was a Marxist, he said he had no reason to kill Kennedy, as he would be replaced by someone who would continue his policies.

At midnight, Oswald was paraded in front of the press gathered at the police station. “They’ve taken me in because of the fact that I lived in the Soviet Union,” Oswald told reporters. “I’m just a patsy.” Posing as a member of the press that night was a local strip club owner named Jacob Rubenstein, better known as Jack Ruby.

Distraught over the president’s assassination, Ruby hung around police headquarters all weekend, carrying his .38 caliber revolver in his pocket. On Saturday, he had no chance to get close to Oswald as he was shuttled back and forth between interrogations and police lineups.

But on Sunday morning, as Oswald was being lead out of the basement garage of the police headquarters before live TV cameras, the fifty-two-year-old Ruby stepped out of the crowd and shot Oswald in the chest, shouting, “You killed my president, you rat!”

The twenty-four-year-old Oswald was soon pronounced dead. Questioned by police about his motive, Ruby said he wanted to spare the first lady the agony of a trial, and later added, “I guess I just had to show the world that a Jew has guts.”

After President Kennedy’s autopsy, his brain, several tissue samples, and blood slides were turned over to the Kennedy family. In 1966, they were discovered to be missing. It is likely that they were disposed of by Robert Kennedy, so it would not come out that his brother had Addison’s disease and had been taking steroids to treat it.

Byck married in 1957, and had four children. But his inability to hold a steady job and his failed business ventures put a strain on his marriage. In late 1968, Byck applied to the Small Business Administration (SBA) for a $20,000 loan to start a business selling tires out of a brightly painted remodeled school bus.

Then, in 1969, Byck committed himself to a psychiatric hospital for a month of inpatient treatment for anxiety and depression. While there, he received notice that his loan from the SBA had been denied. He was diagnosed with manic-depressive illness.

Rather than see mental illness as the root of his problems, Byck became convinced that, like millions of other poor Americans, he was the victim of a hopelessly corrupt political system. In 1972, Byck expressed his admiration for those willing to take a stand against societal injustice by contributing $500 and some tires to the Black Panthers.