JFK files – FBI were warned of death threats against Lee Harvey Oswald a day before he was killed… so why was nothing done to stop Jack Ruby?

THE FBI was warned that someone was going to try and kill JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald the night before the killer was gunned down.

Thousands of documents about the death of President John F. Kennedy have been released by the US government - containing jaw-dropping revelations about a case that has gripped the world for more than 50 years.

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One of the documents included a transcript of a November 24, 1963 conversation with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who said his agency relayed a warning to Dallas police and was assured Oswald would be sufficiently protected.

The next day Jack Ruby shot the 24-year-old suspect in the abdomen at point blank range.

On November 24 1963, two days after the assassination and his arrest, Oswald was being escorted from Dallas Police Headquarters to county prison.

As he was taken out in front of the world’s media, Ruby stepped forward and shot him dead - the killing witnessed by millions of Americans on live TV.

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Ruby, a shadowy figure from Chicago, was convicted of murder in 1964, but this was overturned and a date for a new trial set.

But in 1967 Ruby died of a pulmonary embolism from lung cancer in jail before the fresh trial could take place. He was 55.

Hoover wrote in the report: "Last night we received a call from our Dallas office from a man talking in a calm voice and saying he was a member of a committee organised to kill Oswald."

Hoover also vented his frustration in the report, writing: "There is nothing further on the Oswald case except that he is dead."

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But, reflecting on Oswald less than an hour after he died, Hoover already sensed theories would form about a conspiracy broader than the lone assassin.

He said: "The thing I am concerned about, and so is (deputy attorney general) Mr. Katzenbach, is having something issued so we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin."

Ruby and Oswald may have met weeks before the murder.

WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR

• Trump finally released the hotly-anticipated files but withheld thousands of others, saying he had "no choice" due to "national security reasons"
• Lee Harvey Oswald had secret meetings with KGB assassination chief two months before JFK was killed - and the FBI knew
• The CIA and FBI blocked the release of hundreds of the most sensitive documents
• Soviet leaders considered Oswald a "neurotic maniac" who was disloyal to country
• They feared they would be nuked and ultimately blamed for JFK assassination
• FBI agents were grilled by a Senate committee over their failure to stop Oswald after his six-day Mexico visit
  
• The FBI had been trying to track Oswald before the assassination, with Cuban sources having said he was of interest
• Bizarre assassination plots for Fidel Castro also revealed including shell bomb
• Cambridge newspaper received mystery tip-off 25 minutes before assassination
• New conspiracy theory suggests Dallas cop J D Tippit was JFK's real killer
• The FBI warned Dallas police there was a threat to kill Oswald after the President's assassination but it was not acted on
• Hoover flagged concerns about Oswald, saying: "The thing I am concerned about is having something issued so that we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin."
• FBI memo reveals details of Bobby Kennedy's relationship with Marilyn Monroe
• According to the records, Oswald and Jack Ruby met in a Florida airport as part of a group heading to Cuba to "cut sugar cane" before the assassination and were heard by an informant discussing "Big Bird"

Ruby claimed he had simply acted out of grief and denied any involvement in a conspiracy.

But many theories about his involvement have sprung up over the years.

The nightclub owner had links to organised crime in Dallas and was said to be involved in running guns to Cuba.

Many of the conspiracy theories swirling about Ruby stem from the fact Ruby was able to get into the police station through a mysteriously unlocked door.

In its report, the House Select Committee on Assassinations said it was "troubled by the apparently unlocked doors along the stairway route and the removal of security guards from the area of the garage nearest the stairway shortly before the shooting."

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