Before OJ and Casey Anthony, this was the 1st courtroom verdict to be televised

From the archives: Jack Ruby verdict read live

The murder trial of Jack Ruby, who was accused of killing Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, was broadcast live -- a television first. Here's a look at coverage from KRLD-TV Channel 4, now KDFW FOX 4, as it aired on March 14, 1964.

Sixty-one years ago today, long before the infamous TV moments of OJ Simpson and Casey Anthony, Jack Ruby’s murder conviction became the first-ever courtroom verdict to be televised.

Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, was found guilty of "murder with malice" for shooting and killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who assassinated President John F. Kennedy. He was sentenced to death by electric chair, according to The History Channel’s website.

Who was Jack Ruby?

The backstory:

Ruby was a Dallas nightclub owner well acquainted with many police officers.

Two days after Oswald fired three shots at Kennedy from a window in his Dallas workplace, Oswald was being transferred from police headquarters to the county jail on Nov. 24. That’s when Ruby shot him in the chest from close range.

Jack Ruby listening to the verdict in the Dallas courtroom. (Photo by Donald Uhrbrock/Getty Images)

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Oswald was rushed unconscious to Parkland Memorial Hospital — where doctors had tried to save Kennedy’s life two days earlier — and died there at 1:07 p.m.

Ruby was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, with the historic verdict televised for the first time.

He appealed and was granted a new trial, but died of lung cancer before a trial date was set.

Why did Jack Ruby kill Lee Harvey Oswald?

Dig deeper:

Ruby said he was angered by Kennedy’s assassination and wanted to spare Jacqueline Kennedy the ordeal of a trial for Oswald.

Skeptics, noting that Ruby had some connections with underworld figures, have suggested his shooting of Oswald was part of a broader conspiracy, but the Warren Commission, established by President Lyndon Johnson to investigate the assassination, concluded in 1964 that Oswald acted alone.

Why did Oswald kill Kennedy?

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The Warren Commission never established a motive for Kennedy’s assassination.

Oswald "was moved by an overriding hostility to his environment," the report said. "He does not appear to have been able to establish meaningful relationships with other people. He was perpetually discontented with the world around him. Long before the assassination he expressed his hatred for American society and acted in protest against it."

A few days after taking office for his second term, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to declassify files on the assassinations of JFK, civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

The Source: This report includes information from The History Channel, The Associated Press and previous LiveNow from FOX reporting.

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