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Warren Commission Hearings: Vol. XV - Page 10« Previous | Next »

(Testimony of Hyman Rubenstein)

Mr. Rubenstein.
Yes.
Mr. Griffin.
How did that come about?
Mr. Rubenstein.
I couldn't tell you.
Mr. Griffin.
Who was supporting the family by 1922?
Mr. Rubenstein.
My father, I think, was giving $10 a week, and the girls were working, I was working, and we tried to keep the rest of the kids in school.
Mr. Griffin.
Can you tell us--first of all, let me ask you, after 1922, prior to the time you went into the service, were there any periods when you weren't living in the family home?
Mr. Rubenstein.
When I wasn't living in the family home?
Mr. Griffin.
Yes.
Mr. Rubenstein.
After 1922?
Mr. Griffin.
Yes.
Mr. Rubenstein.
No; I think I stayed home. I thought it my duty, I believe, to stay home. I think it was that way. I think I felt an obligation to take care, help take care of the family because my father wasn't living with us.
Mr. Griffin.
Did Jack, do you recall when Jack left school?
Mr. Rubenstein.
He went to high school, I think, for I year, I believe he went I year.
Mr. Griffin.
How did he come to leave school?
Mr. Rubenstein.
I don't know. We often wonder ourselves because Jack is no dummy. He has got a good head on him. I don't think he liked school, let's put it that way. That would be honest. He just did not like school, that is all there was to it.
Mr. Griffin.
Are there any incidents that you can recall which would indicate that?
Mr. Rubenstein.
He wouldn't do his homework, that is a good enough incident.
Mr. Griffin.
How about his companions during that period?
Mr. Rubenstein.
He had nice friends. He always had, because Jack was a little bit choosy about his friends, I mean it. He always had nice friends, fellows who either they were doctors' sons or boys in the neighborhood that respected Jack, and Jack was more progressive than the rest of us, was a hustler.
Anything that he could go out and sell and make a dollar, legitimately, even if he had to go on the road, and sell items, he was always trying to work, always tried to--he wouldn't have a steady job, but he was always on the go thinking of ideas of how to make a dollar and helping the family.
Mr. Griffin.
Do you remember when he left school what he first started to do?
Mr. Rubenstein.
That is a good question. I imagine let me think what he did do. I think he scalped a few tickets during the fights. All the kids used to do that to try to make an extra buck. That is the only revelation that I have in my mind, but as far as a steady job was concerned, no. Jack never cared for no steady jobs.
Mr. Griffin.
How did this particular ticket scalping work, where would he get the tickets?
Mr. Rubenstein.
Let's say he borrowed $20 from some friend who had $20. Two days before the fight he would buy $20 worth of tickets, and then if the fight was a sellout, he would sell the tickets for maybe 50 cents or a dollar more than what he paid for the ticket and people would be glad to pay him for it on the outside. So, he would make himself $5 or $6, and $5 or $6 during those years would go a long way.
Mr. Griffin.
Would he buy these tickets at the box office or would there be somebody else who would go in and buy up a big block of them?
Mr. Rubenstein.
No; he would go to the box office himself.
Mr. Griffin.
Let's get back to your own activities a bit. Can you tell us generally what you did from the time you got out of high school in 1922 until you went into the service in 1942?
Mr. Rubenstein.
I drove a cab for a while, I worked in a drugstore for a while, worked for Albert Pick and Company, they were a big hotel supply house on 35th Street.
Mr. Griffin.
What did you do for them?
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