Mr. Rossi.

Well, at present I am primarily in real estate; or I should say, back into the food or restaurant business and various enterprises. I conduct and am interested in two or three different things; investments, and small little businesses, and what have you; but basically always handling some real estate.

Mr. Griffin.

Are you a real estate broker?

Mr. Rossi.

Yes; I am.

Mr. Griffin.

Do you run a brokerage agency of any sort?

Mr. Rossi.

Yes, I am an agent on my own. I operate singly and cooperate with other brokers. I deal mostly in commercial or resort type properties and primarily representing the South Padre Island Investment Company.

Mr. Griffin.

How do you happen to know Jack Ruby?

Mr. Rossi.

Well, for one thing, we came from the same town and the same neighborhood. I met Jack Ruby when he was here in Dallas and I had been in the entertainment business, in a sense, and worked around with shows and clubs and expositions, and naturally knew quite a few of the club operators around town, or restaurant men and one way or another, ran into Jack Ruby, who was operating a club, and, because of our same birthplace, or growing up in the same town, in the same neighborhood, gave us something in common to talk about. I actually didn't know him in Chicago and our paths never crossed there. I am surprised, they didn't because we resided pretty close in the same area.

Mr. Griffin.

How long ago was it that you first met Jack?

Mr. Rossi.

Oh, I would say about 12 or 15 years ago, something like that, and maybe longer now. These months go by now---but I don't really know that.
Mr, GRIFFIN. Over the years, how often did you see him?

Mr. Rossi.

Well, I might see him possibly every day for weeks or so at a time, and then it might be I would not see the man for a year, so to speak.

Mr. Griffin.

How would it come about that you would happen to see him every day for a period of time?

Mr. Rossi.

Well, in the latter years I had a coffee shop in the Mercantile Security Building and Jack had his attorney--who officed there in that building.

Mr. Griffin.

Which attorney was that?

Mr. Rossi.

Stanley Kaufman; and Jack would have occasion to see him on business or one thing or another. Now, during that period of time I saw Jack, you might say, fairly often--once every couple of weeks or sometimes two or three times a week, but sometimes possibly for not a month. Prior to that time, in his different club enterprise or what have you, because my group--myself and my wife would like to dance or occasionally I go out and look for something in 'the way of various ideas and call on different people, and possibly stop into a club or two, and I would am. into Jack Ruby, or possibly meet him out in a bowling alley or something of that nature. I'm not Jewish. but I patronize them because I like Jewish food and I would occasionally run into Jack in a kosher restaurant or somewhere, or anywhere in town, and I am fairly well known in the downtown area of Dallas and so we would always have a little something to say.

Mr. Griffin.

Prior to the fall of 1963, were you ever involved in any business enterprise with him?

Mr. Rossi.

With Jack?

Mr. Griffin.

Yes.

Mr. Rossi.

I never really was involved in any business enterprise with him.

Mr. Griffin.

Did you ever have occasion to discuss with Jack the opening of a new nightclub?

Mr. Rossi.

Yes.

Mr. Griffin.

When did Jack first talk to you about that?

Mr. Rossi.

That was a day or two before the assassination--that must have been about the 20th of November.

Mr. Griffin.

Where did that discussion take place?

Mr. Rossi.

Now, I'm going to just take a guess at the dates when I say the 20th--it may have been the 19th. I would have to go back and check some of these things, but I would say roughly somewhere about the 20th, or the day before I left for Brownsville. I was going to a brokers meeting on South Padre Island.