Which person was sentenced to death in 1964 as a result of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy?

Two days after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, the nation witnessed another shocking act of violence, this time on live television. As police were transferring accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald through the basement of the Dallas police headquarters, a local nightclub owner named Jack Ruby stepped out from a crowd of reporters and fatally shot him. The dramatic, public nature of the killing cemented Ruby's place in one of the most tumultuous chapters of American history.

Ruby claimed he killed Oswald to spare Jacqueline Kennedy the ordeal of a trial, but his motives have been debated ever since. Regardless of his reasoning, he was quickly arrested and tried for murder. In March 1964, a Dallas jury found him guilty of "murder with malice" and handed down the ultimate sentence: death by electrocution. This made him the only person ever convicted and sentenced to death in a case directly resulting from the assassination.

However, the death sentence was never carried out. Ruby's conviction was successfully appealed in 1966 on the grounds that he could not have received a fair trial in Dallas due to the immense publicity, and a new trial was ordered. Before it could begin, Ruby's health rapidly declined. He was diagnosed with lung cancer and died of a related pulmonary embolism in January 1967, taking any secrets about his true motivations to the grave.