Dallas D.A. Releases New JFK Documents

Dallas D.A. Releases New JFK Documents

CBS News Interactive: JFK Remembered

DALLAS (CBS) ― There's new information about Jack Ruby and the JFK assassination today.

Monday morning, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins displayed to the public previously unseen documents related to the case.

Watkins said the documents have been locked in a safe in the D.A.'s office for decades, but have never been shown to the public until now.

In a Monday morning news conference about the documents, Watkins said today is an "interesting and historic day for Dallas County."

He said he learned of safe a year ago, not long after he took office. Watkins said that every Dallas County D.A. since the assassination has known about the contents of the safe. All have kept it secret.

After learning what was in the safe, Watkins said his staff determined that they had to catalog it. He said his staff members are still going through the documents, and said it would take some time to finish the job.

After archiving the documents for the last year, Watkins said there are two things in particular that will raise eyebrows.

The first is a $1 million movie contract signed by former DA Henry Wade, the prosecutor in the Ruby trial. Watkins said the contract would have made Wade a rich man if the movie had been produced.

The other is a highly suspect two-page transcript, allegedly of a conversation between Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald, dated Oct. 4, 1963. The transcript reads in part:

Oswald: 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.

Oswald: There is a way to get rid of him without killing him.

Ruby: How's that?

Oswald: I can shoot his brother.

Ruby: You mean the President?

Oswald: Yes, the President.

Ruby: But that wouldn't be patriotic.

Oswald: What's the difference between shooting the Governor and in shooting the President?

Ruby: It would get the FBI into it.

Oswald: 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.

According to the document, 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.

No claims have been made that the alleged conversation ever took place.

CBS station KTVT-TV in Dallas was first to report the existence of the documents, in a story published Sunday morning.

Watkins said that he was not "lending his authority" to whether the documents are authentic or fake. He said he was releasing the documents because the people of Dallas County "should have access to this information."

Watkins also displayed documents from other district attorneys that he said showed the poor state of race relations in Texas during the 1960s.

Watkins said no decision has been made about what will become of the documents. He said his staff is talking to the Sixth Floor Museum and other groups.

Other items were also in the safe. Two sets of brass knuckles and a pistol holster were part of the trove and on display Monday morning. Watkins said all three belonged to Ruby and were taken from him when he was booked into the jail after killing Oswald. He said the holster held the gun that was used to shoot Oswald.