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1 Jack Ruby, the Law & Psychiatry 1964

handle is hein.trials/jackruby0001 and id is 1 raw text is: JACK RUBY, THE by MANFRED GUTTMACHER HE AMERICAN PUBLIC followed the Jack Ruby trial T with avid interest, expecting it to settle defi- nitely the question of the culpability of the man who shot Lee Harvey Oswald. In fact, the trial, in conduct and outcome, raised more questions than it answered. And among conscionable citizens, the questions remain of some concern. The factors working against Jack Ruby at Dallas were many. As in all trials in which the death sentence is being sought, the elimination from the jury of those who oppose capital punishment tends to exclude jurors of a more liberal temperament, sympathetic to psychiatry and its methods. Moreover, it is very The most controversial difficult for people who have actually seen a murder enacted-and eleven of the twelve jurors had-to trial in a decade conceive of the act as a product of mental illness. Jack Ruby shot Oswald in a very businesslike way. Here was no raving madman; his hat and tie were on brought into focus a straight, and his manner was seemingly cal. He looked like any sane man. clash of opinion Yet unquestionably Jack Ruby is a very abnormal person; psychiatrically he is a very sick man. As a witness for the defense, I examined Ruby on four sep- among psychiatristse, arate occasions. Out of these interviews came the pic- ture of a man who all of his life has exhibited intense jurists,J and laymen instability and irrational episodic outbursts of aggres- sion. He has had many fights and scuffles; in some he has received serious blows on the head. He had a ooedrunken, sadistic father and a mother who spent many years in a state hospital. During much of his childhood of the criminal. he was shifted about from one foster home to anoth. In 1952, after a business failure, he had a depressive illness of psychotic proportions, but sought no medical WIDE WORLD assistance. Jack Ruby has a voracious need to be accepted and admired, even to be loved by everyone, but particu- larly by individuals in positions of authority and great social prestige. His strong identification with President Kennedy and his family was unique and complex. But he appeared to be incapable of establishing deep and meaningful relationships with others. There is a distinct paranoid flavor in his relationships with people; he sees insults and criticisms when none are intended. He exhibited some distrust of his lawyers and psychiatrists. From psychiatric examinations, the interviews with Ruby's family and his friend, George Senator, it was clear that Jack Ruby is in many respects psychologic- ally abnormal. This view was confirmed by two inde- pendent objective testing techniques over which he THE JOHNS HOPKINS MAGA7 - 4

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