Persons of Interest – Thomas Henry Ruby

Today marks the return of the series Persons of Interest here at the Guild General News. It seems fitting that as the Guild celebrates our 40th anniversary and one of our anniversary projects is the collaborative Ruby one-name study, our first 2019 Persons of Interest article is about a Ruby!

Thomas Ruby, born September 21, 1922, must have been one of the more bizarre members of the pantheon of American gun criminals, which also features one Jack Leon Ruby in its Hall of Fame.

At the age of four, on April 12, 1927, his mother told him to stop playing with matches.  Angered, he climbed the kitchen cupboards, grabbed his father’s revolver and shot her, killing her instantly. That’s not even the end of the story.  After being apprehended the boy even threatened the local coroner with a kitchen knife, saying that he would shoot him too.

Here is a copy of the article from the Diss Express (Norfolk, England) of April 29, 1927 where a Ruby team member happened to spot it.

That is almost the end of the story, however, because Thomas was too young to be charged with a crime.  As you can see, from his record on our website,  http://ruby.one-name.net/getperson.php?personID=I2782&tree=Ruby, the US newspapers gave a good deal more detail on the story. 

Also from his page you can see that he was living with his family in the 1930 and 1940 censuses.  One just cannot imagine how the family must have struggled to accept him and bring him up normally, but apparently they did.  Thomas served in the US Navy for three years in World War II, and thereafter married and settled down in the town in Central Pennsylvania where he grew up, eventually dying just a few miles away in 1995.

[postscript – the mother’s maiden name was Byers, another ONS. How often can a person in one ONS have killed another in a different ONS?!]

Paul Howes, Member 4836 & Ruby Project Team Leader

On the second and fourth Mondays of each month, we share a short story provided by a member about a person of interest in their one-name study. Whether your person is good, bad, or simply interesting or unusual, please send us your story.

This post is from Guild member Paul Howes, who not only works on his own Howes ONS but also serves as project team leader for the Ruby ONS. Paul is a member of the Guild’s USA Southeast Region. Paul has been a member of the Guild since 2007.

Calling on all Guild members – whether or not you have a registered one-name study – why not submit a story (200-300 words OR a bit longer if need be) about a person of interest in your own one-name study. Email each story and image(s) to marketing@one-name.org.