THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
SECTION: SUNDAY READER; BOOKS; Pg. 8J
Gary Mack is the archivist at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, but the opinions he expresses in this review are his own.
(excerpt)
NIGHTMARE IN DALLAS
By Beverly Oliver (Starburst Publishers, $ 19.95)
In this book, she recalls talking with Jack Ruby there less than two weeks prior to the assassination when he graciously introduced her to his friend “Lee Oswald of the CIA.”
According to Ms. Oliver, also present was her friend Janet Conforto, better known as Jada, the hottest stripper Ruby ever hired. But Jada had quit Ruby nearly two weeks before the introduction supposedly occurred, and Oswald’s documented whereabouts preclude such a meeting.
According to Ms. Oliver, Jada revealed the Ruby-Oswald connection to a reporter the day after Ruby killed the accused assassin, then she mysteriously disappeared. A few days later, Ruby’s assistant manager, Andy Armstrong, supposedly offered to sell Jada’s expensive costumes to Ms. Oliver because she wouldn’t be needing them.
But the historical record contradicts the book. Jada heard of the Oswald shooting on the radio while driving home to New Orleans, immediately called a Dallas Times Herald reporter with her Ruby recollections, then headed back to Big D for publicity. She appeared on network television that evening in an interview with Paul Good. WFAA-TV kept a video tape of it and the Warren Commission published a transcript. No known Jada interview suggests any Ruby-Oswald relationship.
Within 10 days Jada was taking it off in the Big Apple, where FBI agents James Rogers and Edmund Flanagan interviewed her and, in their report published by the Warren Commission, wrote “she had no knowledge of any association between Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald (and) had never seen Oswald in the Carousel Club, or at any place.”
In recent interviews, her son confirmed Jada’s information and said she died in a motorcycle/bus accident in the late ’70s. As for Jada’s wardrobe, the FBI report says, nearly three weeks before the assassination “she went to the club and picked up her gowns.”
RIVERA: How do you know that Jack Ruby was a member of the mob? I mean, after all, you worked next door in the Colony Club. You didn’t work in the Carousel, Jack’s club. How did you know about Jack?
Ms. OLIVER: Well, I don’t know that Jack was a member of the mob. I mean, there were rumors all around Dallas, and there was definitely dark mobster-type figures that was there on occasion. I worked next door at the Colony Club for Abe Weinstein. And between our shows–our shows were staggered–and between shows I would go next door to visit with my friends, one being Shari Angel and one being Jada–or Janet Conforto. And…
RIVERA: Jada, the–I guess, the headliner in Oswald’s club…
Ms. OLIVER: Yes. At that time it was because Shari…
RIVERA: This is her card. I think we have it on ESS–do you want to regale our audience with this, Jim
Bob? A picture of Jada… (Photograph of Jada shown)
RIVERA: (Voiceover) …the lead stripper in the–in the club. Tell us about the time Jack Ruby–and… probably your most sensational allegation, Beverly–introduced you to a man who turned out to be Lee Oswald, the man accused of assassinating the young and gracious 35th president of the United States.
Ms. OLIVER: One evening I had gone over to visit with Jada because we were going to a party that evening, and something had come up to prevent me from going to the party. So I went over to tell her I wasn’t going that night, and she was sitting at the corner of the runway with Jack Ruby and another man.
And I just went over to the table and started talking to her to explain to her I wasn’t going that evening. And Jack said, Beverly, I want to introduce you to my friend, Lee Oswald. He’s with the CIA.’ At 17 years old…
RIVERA: Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Say that again, what he said.
Ms. OLIVER: He said, This is my friend, Lee Oswald. He is with the CIA.’ At 17 years old, I didn’t know what the CIA was. I was not impressed. It didn’t make any difference to me who he was