the carpentry trade, which had been practiced by his father and at least one brother 19 and he picked up the habit of excessive drinking that was to plague him for the rest of his life.20 While in the army,21 he married Jack's mother, Fannie Turek Rutkowski; 22 the marriage was arranged, as was customary, by a professional matchmaker.23 According to his oldest son, Joseph Rubenstein served in China, Korea, and Siberia, detesting these places and army life. Eventually, in 1898, he simply "walked away" from it and about 4 years later he went to England and Canada, entering the United States in 1903.24

Settling in Chicago Joseph Rubenstein joined the carpenters union in 1904 and remained a member until his death in 1958.25 Although he worked fairly steadily until 1928, be was unemployed during the last 30 years of his life.26 The only other group which Joseph Rubenstein joined consisted of fellow immigrants from Sokolov. His daughter Eva described this group as purely social and completely nonpolitical.27

Jack Ruby's mother, Fannie Rubenstein, was probably born in 1875 near Warsaw, Poland.28 She followed her husband to the United States in 1904 or 1905, accompanied by her children Hyman and Ann.29 An illiterate woman, she went to night school in about 1920 to learn how to sign her name.30 She apparently failed in this endeavor, however, for an alien registration form, filed after about 35 years in the United States, was signed by an "X".31 Although she apparently learned some English, her speech was predominantly Yiddish, the primary language of the Rubenstein household.32 Still, Mrs. Rubenstein felt strongly that her children required an education in order to better themselves. She frequently argued about this with her husband, who had received little, if any, formal education and firmly believed that grammar school training was sufficient for his children.33

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH (1911-33)

In 1911, when Jack Ruby was born, his family resided near 14th and Newberry Streets in Chicago, the first in a series of Jewish neighborhoods in which the Rubensteins lived during his childhood.34 In 1916, the Rubensteins lived at 1232 Morgan Street, where they apparently remained until 1921.35 This was the fourth residence in the first 5 years of Jack Ruby's life.36 Earl Ruby described one typical neighborhood in which the family lived as a "ghetto" with "pushcarts on the sirens." 37 His sister Eva characterized it as "below the middle class but yet it wasn't the poorest class." 38 The family generally lived near Italian sections, where there were frequent fights along ethnic lines.39

The Rubenstein home was marked by constant, strife and the parents were reported to have occasionally struck each other.40 Between 1915 and 1921, Joseph Rubenstein was frequently arrested because of disorderly conduct and assault and battery charges, some filed by his wife.41 In the spring of 1921, Jack Ruby's parents sep-