Do you ever wonder if history got it right? If the account that goes “down in the books” will be the event that truly happened?
I wonder about this sometimes. I often speculate about those future generations who will be looking at their past. What things will they see? Through whose lens will they view the past?
Forever, the following story will be one for debate.
Today is the birthday of Jack Ruby. He was born in Chicago on March 25, 1911. His real name is Jacob Leon Rubenstein. His parents were Joseph Rubenstein and Fannie Turek Rutkowski, both Polish-born Orthodox Jews Sokołów, Poland to be exact.
I know I’ve told his story before. Jack had trouble from day one. While he was growing up, his parents were often violent towards each other. His home was “broken,” as they say, and his parents were not together much, if at all. And when they were together, they fought like angry wasps.
His mom was eventually committed to a mental hospital.
Most of his childhood was spent in foster homes, and he was constantly in trouble with matters of juvenile delinquency. By the time he was 11 in 1922, he was arrested for truancy. They say that young Jacob Leon Rubenstein skipped school so often that he had to spend time at the Institute for Juvenile Research. Places to go, people to see, I suppose.
So as you can see, his life got off on the wrong foot. As a young man, he sold horse-racing tip sheets, and it all went downhill from there. Trouble. With a capital T.
We know him, of course, as that rough-looking Jack Ruby who walked right up to Lee Harvey Oswald and shot him with a handgun. Killed him on the spot. That was November 24, 1963.
Lee Harvey Oswald killed President John F. Kennedy two days before, from a lofty roost with a rifle. Shot him on the spot too.
I write today, not so much to report the story we all know, but to ask the question? Did history get this one right? Were these guys, both of them, acting alone? Lee shooting John? Jack shooting Lee?
Is this how it truly went? The question remains for many. Does it remain for you?
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“If you want the answer—ask the question.”
― Lorii Myers
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“How come some stories have an ending when they never had a starting?”
― Neeraj Agnihotri
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“Questions open a space in your mind that allow better answers to breathe.”
― Richie Norton
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What history do we see, right or wrong, or will we know.
