Eugene Hale Brading (Jim Braden)
Eugene Hale Brading (also known as James Lee and Jim Braden) developed a long criminal record while living in California. Arrested 35 times he had convictions for burglary, illegal bookmaking and embezzlement.
On 21st November, 1963, Brading arrived in Dallas with a man named Morgan Brown. They stayed in Suite 301 of the Cabana Motel. Later that day Brading visited the offices of Texas oil billionaire Haroldson L. Hunt. It is believed that Jack Ruby was in the offices at the same time as Brading.
After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Brading was arrested and taken in for interrogation because he had been "acting suspiciously" in the Dal-Tex Building, overlooking Dealey Plaza. Brading told the police he was in Dallas on oil business and had gone into the building to make a phone call. Brading was released without charge.
Brading returned to his room at the Cabana Motel. It was later established that Jack Ruby visited the motel around midnight.
In his book, The Kennedy Conspiracy, Anthony Summers shows that Brading had links with Carlos Marcello, Santos Trafficante and David Ferrie.
In 1968 Brading was interviewed by the Los Angeles Police Department because of his presence in Los Angeles on the night that Robert Kennedy was murdered.
Primary Sources
(1) Matthew Smith, JFK: The Second Plot (1992)
Interestingly, there were several arrests made in the Dal Tex building. A young man wearing a black leather jacket and black gloves was taken to the Sheriff's Office who, according to the police, '. . . had been up in the building across the street from the Book Depository without a good excuse'. No record appears to exist of the man or of any interrogation, however, and he seems to have somehow slipped away from the Sheriff's Office and disappeared, without even anything to indicate he was thereafter sought. Larry Florer was also arrested and detained for some hours. He said he had asked where he could find a telephone and had been directed to the Dal Tex building. All lines being busy, Florer said he could not make his call and he was arrested as he left the building. A third man arrested there was extremely interesting. He was Jim Braden, also known as Eugene Hale Brading, a known Mafia courier. He said he had had an appointment to meet Lamar Hunt, son of H.L. Hunt, the oil millionaire, on oil business. Braden was with a friend, Morgan H. Brown, who bolted when he heard he had been taken in for questioning. A man with 30 arrests to his record, Braden had been staying at the Kabanya Motor Hotel, where Jack Ruby - who was to kill Lee Harvey Oswald in the Police Headquarters basement two days after the assassination - had met some of his Chicago friends the night before the President was killed. Braden was not detained. Five years later, however, Braden was to turn up in Los Angeles when Senator Robert Kennedy was murdered.