Trying to get accurate information on the elder brothers of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby respectively is hampered by the conspiracy soup that brews in pools across the internet. Nevertheless, some reliable information is attainable.
Robert Oswald, the older brother of Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine and salesman, wrote a biography of his sibling, which I think was published in 1967. In 1993, he was interviewed for PBS. "You look at all the data there, and it comes up to one conclusion as far as I'm concerned -- the Warren Commission was correct, " he states.
In 1997, he gave an interview to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, where he spoke a bit more about his own life.
Robert Oswald was named after his father and grandfather:
The Oswald family tree dated back to colonial times. He'd learned as a child that he was a fifth or sixth cousin of Gen. Robert E. Lee, which explained why he had been named Robert Edward Lee Oswald Jr., and his little brother Lee Harvey Oswald. To change his name would have amounted to a betrayal of his heritage, he believed.
…He grins companionably. By nature, he is affable, soft-spoken, gentle, a chronic laugher, utterly without pretense.
...Two weeks after the assassination, he made himself return to his job as a sales coordinator for a brick company in Denton, 30 miles outside of Dallas. He would neither run nor deny he was an Oswald. Neither he nor his family was guilty of anything, he kept telling those closest to him. A childhood spent in and out of orphanages had prepared him for hard times and steeled his belief in, among other things, his ability to get along with people and survive the worst of circumstances.
...In the summer of 1964, Acme Brick Co. transferred him to Wichita Falls in dusty north Texas -- not to get an Oswald out of the Denton-Dallas area, believes Bob Oswald -- but simply because Wichita Falls needed a sales coordinator. Regardless of the motive, the move placed the family in an area that has largely respected their privacy for more than three decades and let them live as ordinary people unburdened by stigma.
"They'd come to the Little League games back in the early days, and they were very reserved," recalls longtime friend Helen Seyler. "They just quietly tried to be a part of the community. I think people respected them for that. ... The nice thing is, they let you live your life in these parts. People know plenty from personal experience about families having black sheep sometimes. They know you can't hold that against someone."
His father died when he was five:
"I had 51/2 wonderful years with father and I had memories; Lee had zero time, OK?" he says, repeating the figures -- five, zero. "I don't think we'd be having this conversation if father [had lived] and Lee had had him around. ... We all know that lots of people do OK with just one parent, one good loving parent. ... But let's just say we had a situation that was different."
Hyman Rubenstein, Jack Ruby's older brother was the only other member of the family who, according to this report, had a run in with the law:
"On May 1, 1916, Chicago's juvenile court declared Hyman incorrigible, a term covering a wide range of misbehavior. Because of the absence of informative court records and the lapse of time, the misconduct that occasioned this proceeding could not be ascertained, but Hyman is not known to have encountered subsequent difficulty.
He was the only member of the family to participate actively in politics:
Sponsored by various political officials, he became a sidewalk inspector and warehouse investigator for 8 years. On one occasion, he obtained a permit for Jack to sell novelties from a pushcart located in a business district during the pre-Christmas buying rush. Eventually the complaints of enraged businessmen led licensing authorities to declare that a mistake had been made and to revoke Ruby's permit.
Hyman's testimony before the Warren Commission tells us something of his own background:
Mr. GRIFFIN. Can you tell us when you were born?
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. December 28, 1901.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Where were you born?
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. Warsaw, Poland.
Mr. GRIFFIN. When did you come to this country?
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. When I was 2 1/2 years old.
Mr. GRIFFIN. That would have been in 1903?
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. I don't--all right, put it down, I don't know.
Mr. GRIFFIN. The only recollection, I take it, you have--
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. From my folks when they told us when they came here.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What is your occupation at the present time?
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. I am a salesman.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Who do you work for?
...
Mr. GRIFFIN. What do you sell?
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. Florist supplies.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What do those consist of?
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. Bird cages, stands, different things that the florists sell in their shops and greenhouses.
....
Mr. GRIFFIN. When did you begin to work for the Davidson-Uphoff Co.?
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. Last month.
Mr. GRIFFIN. I see. So between approximately last January and last month or January 1963 and last month, you were employed for yourself, is that correct?
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. Practically.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Practically?
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. I mean because I haven't done much work since the incidents down in Dallas.
....
