The Warren Commission established the timing to the minute. A Western Union money order Ruby sent to Karen Carlin, one of his dancers, was time-stamped at almost exactly 11:17 a.m.; the office was about 350 feet from the top of the Main Street ramp into the police basement. Ruby shot Oswald at 11:21. [1][2]
Ruby told police he walked down the ramp as a police car pulled out. The Commission said the evidence on his entry was not conclusive but pointed to the ramp; it found no evidence that police helped him. It criticized the Dallas police for letting reporters and others fill the basement after threats against Oswald. [1][2]
The House committee in 1979 took a darker view. It believed, on circumstantial evidence, that the shooting “was not a spontaneous act, in that it involved at least some premeditation,” and that it was “less likely that Ruby entered the police basement without assistance.” It noted that his close relationships with police officers may have been a factor. It did not identify who, if anyone, helped him. [3]
Supporters of the lone-killer view point to the money order: anyone planning to kill Oswald at a fixed time would not have been standing in line at Western Union minutes before a transfer that had already been delayed. Supporters of a plot answer that the transfer time was widely known in advance and Ruby had been near the police building over the weekend.
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