quent to 1947 was spent in Dallas. Some of his travels, including, his efforts in behalf of "Little Daddy" Nelson and his visit to New Orleans in June 1963 have been discussed.402 Ruby stated that he went to Chicago in 1952, in 1958 when his father died, and in August 1963 when he met members of his family at O'Hare International Airport while en route from New York to Dallas.403 His August trip to New York motivated by his dificulties with the American Guild of Variety Artists and his desire to obtain talent, has been completely established by hotel records.404 Early in 1963 Ruby also traveled to Wichita, Kans., because of his interest in stripper Gall Raven,405 and on May 25, 1968, he apparently registered in an Oklahoma motel.406

Although Ruby denies being in Las Vegas after 1937,407 there are unsupported rumors that. he was in that city in late 1962,408 and the early part of November 1963.409 Reports that he was in Las Vegas during the weekend prior to the assassination 410 appear similarly unfounded.411

There is some uncertainty about Ruby's trip to Havana, Cuba, in 1959. The evidence indicates that he accepted an invitation from gambler Lewis J. McWillie, who subsequently became a violent anti-Castroite, to visit Havana at McWillie's expense.412 Ruby apparently met McWillie in about 1950, when McWillie operated a Dallas night-club.413 McWillie, whom Ruby said he idolized,414 supervised gambling activities at. Havana's Tropicana Hotel in 1959 and later was employed in a managerial capacity in a Las Vegas gambling establishment.415 Ruby testified that he went to Havana for 8 days in August 1959 and left because he was not interested in its gambling activities.416 McWillie corroborated this story except that he stated only that Ruby visited Havana "sometime in 1959." 417 Three Chicagoans reported seeing Ruby in Havana during the Labor Day weekend in 1959.418 Meyer Panitz, an acquaintance of McWillie, reported that when he met Ruby in Miami during the "summer of 1959" Ruby stated that he was returning from a pleasure trip to Cuba.419 The theory that the trip to Havana had conspiratorial implications is discussed in chapter VI. There is no reliable evidence that Ruby went to Havana subsequent to September 1959.420

Although Ruby denied ever being in Hawaii,421 there is some evidence that. during the summer of 1961 he was in Honolulu seeking dancing talent.422 While it is unlikely that Ruby would forget a trip to Honolulu in 1961, there is no other indication that such a trip, if it occurred, had any sinister motives.

CHARACTER AND INTERESTS

Family Relationships

As mentioned previously,423 Eva Grant was the only member of the family living in Dallas when Ruby returned to that city in late 1947. In 1948, she returned to the west coast, visiting Dallas sporadically