by Dan Abrams
First published 2021
Jack Ruby slips into the Dallas police station on November 24, 1963, two days after President Kennedy's murder. The troubled nightclub owner pulls his gun and fires point blank at Lee Harvey Oswald, killing the president's assassin on live television as millions watch. Three months later in Dallas, Ruby faces trial for murder. His flamboyant defense attorney must convince a jury to spare a man whose crime played out before the entire nation. The prosecutor, tough as Texas itself, seeks justice for a killing that shocked the world. Ruby sits in the defendant's chair while Dallas and the American legal system face judgment from across the globe. The case sparks conspiracy theories that persist for decades. Ruby's lawyers face an impossible task: how do you defend someone whose guilt millions witnessed firsthand? The trial becomes a spectacle that tests whether justice can prevail when the whole world is watching.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, crime, legal-thriller, american-history
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: courtroom-drama, historical-events, legal-case
Setting: Dallas, Texas
Period: 1963
Unknown Binding · Hanover Square Press