JFK Through the Looking Glass (Oliver Stone), Gail Raven & Jack Ruby (Jefferson Morley)

Oliver Stone's memoir, "Chasing the Light," was published last July. It is just now out in paperback. Oliver Stone: The causes of Kennedy's death, I had no idea of. I accepted the Warren Commission at that time. So, when I got back to the States, I went to NYU film school and tried to funnel what I had seen of the world into learning film. But looking back, at the time, I didn't see the Vietnam war in this perspective. I went to Yale University, but I couldn't last. I didn't see the point of that whole life, and I think that's part of the problem we've had in this country, this dislocation. A lot of people have felt this, and certainly, I was one of the early people who felt this because I never recovered in the sense of going back into society in a normal way.

MS. HORNADAY: You did mention the murder of John F. Kennedy as one of those ruptures, right? It's one of those lies that maybe you didn't recognize as a lie at the time but that you came to. I'm interested to hear you optioned--to make JFK, you optioned two books that were advancing pretty out there, conspiracy theories about the assassination. Were you intending for JFK to meet the audience where they already were? Because more than 70 percent of Americans did not believe the Warren Commission at that time. I mean, it's interesting to me that JFK comes out in '91, the same year that the internet comes out. 

MR. STONE: Honestly, I had no opinion of it. I was making movies. I started with--as you know, "Salvador" was my first successful movie as a filmmaker in 1985 and then "Platoon" in '86, which was a huge success worldwide. I mean, it was like the dream come true. I had always wanted to be a filmmaker since NYU film school at the age of 23, and here I was around 39 years old finally connecting in a big, big way. After 1986, after "Platoon," a whole other set of things happened. I make more films. I learned how to make films better. I make "Wall Street." I make "Born on the Fourth of July," "Talk Radio," "The Doors," which was a raucous, big film. I was always interested in the world news and politics; later I met this woman, Ellen Ray, who had published this book by Jim Garrison called "On the Trail of the Assassins," which was his second attempt to write about this assassination--he had written another book in 1969, "Inheritance of Stone," but this one was "On the Trail of the Assassins." But now, 30 years later, we live in rabbit holes. It almost feels like the rabbit hole of JFK has become our collective way of life, and the mistrust of institutions that "Mr. X" is sort of an avatar for is now among us. 

Well, as one of our interviewers, David Talbot, says in the film, once you kill a sitting president in high noon in Dealey Plaza and blow his head off, you're not going to go back to normal and say, "Oh, wow! We found this whacky--this crazy lone nut who killed him." It doesn't work. It doesn't really work as a narrative for this country. What happened was much deeper than that, and there was so many inconsistencies, so many holes in the Warren Commission. The point is that you cannot remove legitimacy from government like that and get away with it, and the people knew something was wrong. They didn't know exactly what was wrong, but they sensed that something had gone astray, like anarchy has set in. Some method of control was being exerted because forces that were more powerful than one person were able to kill him, forces that were somewhat, I mean, clearly related to intelligence agencies, to possible military agencies, and these forces came to dominate American life. Nobody asked what was Kennedy's real policy on Vietnam? Well, it's a very interesting story, and we go into it in this documentary called "JFK Through the Looking Glass," which is coming out this year at the Cannes Film Festival (July 6-July 17), and the story of Vietnam is one of many stories in the world picture. But JFK was going to pull out of Vietnam. He was very clear about it. Lyndon Johnson, who took over the office went right to war quickly. He went to a far more aggressive posture of Vietnam.

Listen, I don't follow conspiracy theories in general. The point is I've been interested in this case, and I've done a hell of a lot of work with it, and so have a lot of researchers. And we went to a war on a false basis. It was a lie, another lie, and that war was a disaster. Unfortunately, the same forces that made that war happen continued in our life, and they controlled us. We're still stuck in this. We're stuck in a military industrial syndrome, but we don't really know who the enemy is. We're in this loss of purpose, this anarchy, which came about, started really in 1963 on that day. That's what the link is, and we make that link in this new film. So, I think I've been very humanist in my interviews and allowed the subjects to express themselves and ask very intelligent questions. We have to change our point of view because we are seeking to still be the only power in the world that is in control of the world. We cannot continue on this path; it's a suicidal path. And I think many Americans agree with me, but it's never been allowed to be stated politically. People who say this type of stuff never win elections because they're ridiculed or marginalized in the press, to be honest. Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Jeff Morley (author of CIA & JFK: The Secret Assassination Files): After JFK Facts recounted Jack Ruby’s pursuit of an exotic dancer named Gail Raven in January 1963, I received a message from a woman who identified herself as Raven’s daughter. She told me that her mother was still alive, and she confirmed that her mother and Jack Ruby were close. I asked her if her mother would share her memories of the man who killed accused assassin Lee H. Oswald. She said yes. In 1963 Gail Raven was the stage name of a precociously mature 20-year-old woman who danced on the national nightclub circuit that included Ruby’s Carousel Club in Dallas. Ruby (born Jack Rubenstein) was a Chicago tough guy who took a shine to her, and they became friends. Now close to 70 years old, Gail Raven is living in the southern United States. I have confirmed her real name but have agreed not to publish it here to protect her privacy.

Jack Ruby never mentioned President Kennedy, Raven said. “He was not in love with the Kennedys and he did NOT like Robert Kennedy by no means,” she says. This is not surprising, according to journalists and historians who have studied Ruby’s life. Phone records reviewed by JFK investigators showed that in 1962-63 Ruby made phone calls to no less than seven organized crime figures who had been prosecuted by Attorney General Bobby Kennedy’s Justice Department. The Warren Commission did not consider this evidence relevant to Ruby’s motivation for silencing Oswald. Why did Ruby kill Oswald? Raven's reply: “He had no choice. Jack had bosses, just like everyone else.” Raven says she believes “he was instructed on what he needed to do, therefore he did it. And when the opportunity presented itself he went ahead and took it.” Did Ruby kill Oswald to spare First Lady Jackie Kennedy the ordeal of a criminal trial? “That was absolutely made up,” Raven said. Ruby and the Dallas police: “He was very close with Dallas authorities, including the police and sheriff’s department. He helped them out and was friends with many,” she says. 

Raven thinks those friends may have informed Ruby about the transfer of Oswald and let him be there to witness it, but she stresses these are her thoughts only.  After the shooting, Raven visited Ruby in the Dallas jail. She says Wally Weston, the house MC at the Carousel Club, took her to see him. During the visit Ruby kept repeating to her that she shouldn’t worry, and that everything would be OK after the first of the year. He wanted to take her on a trip to Cuba to “gamble,” Raven says. She worked in Las Vegas but wasn’t allowed to gamble in the casino because she was only 20. She only worked in the floor shows. Raven remembers “a gambling friend” from Cuba who visited Ruby on the occasion of a big horse race. “The race didn’t turn out as everyone said it would and a lot of money was lost in Vegas,” Raven says. 

Ruby as suitor: After Ruby ended a long relationship with a young woman, he continued to ask Raven to marry him. They were friends. He liked her because she didn’t drink or smoke. She told him she didn’t want to get married. He teased that they needed to get married for the “shock factor” and to surprise her friend Tammie True (stage name). But in Raven’s words they were “always just good friends.” “Jack was NOT crazy as he has been portrayed,” Raven says. “He did have a temper and when he saw something going wrong he would take care of things himself instead of depending on his bouncer like others.” “He was good to my grandmother when she visited,” she said. “He was good to everyone he was close to.” Source: https://jfkfacts.org