Janet Mole was Born on This Day in 1936
On this day in 1936, Janet Mole is born in New Orleans. She would make a name for herself as a burlesque dancer on Bourbon Street known as Jada and becomes a figure in the JFK conspiracy. Jada is the talent that Jack Ruby “borrows” from New Orleans Family member Frank Caracci who owns the 500 Club on Bourbon Street a few months before the assassination.
On this day, February 12, 1936, Janet Mole was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. She would go on to become one of the most intriguing peripheral figures in two of the twentieth century's most sensational stories — the golden age of American burlesque and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Growing up in New Orleans, Mole found her calling on the legendary stretch of Bourbon Street that had long served as the beating heart of the city's nightlife. Reinventing herself under the stage name Jada, she developed a reputation as a genuinely talented and provocative burlesque performer, drawing crowds night after night with an act that pushed the boundaries of what audiences expected from the form. Her home venue was the 500 Club, one of the most celebrated establishments on Bourbon Street, owned and operated by Frank Caracci, a significant figure within the New Orleans crime family — the organisation that had long held dominion over the city's gambling, vice, and entertainment rackets.
It was through this underworld connection that Jada's story intersected with one of the most scrutinised events in American history. In the months preceding the assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby — himself a man with well-documented ties to organised crime — essentially borrowed Jada from Caracci to perform at his Carousel Club in Dallas. Ruby's relationship with mob figures stretched back years, and his ability to call in favours from a New Orleans family operative like Caracci spoke to the broader network of criminal associations that investigators would later attempt to untangle. Jada duly performed at the Carousel Club, placing her squarely within Ruby's orbit during one of the most consequential periods in modern American history.
When Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald on live television just two days after the Kennedy assassination, the world began scrutinising every corner of his life, and Jada found herself drawn into the resulting investigations. She was interviewed by the Warren Commission and provided testimony that contributed to the exhaustive, if ultimately inconclusive, examination of Ruby's background and motivations. Her account offered a rare first-hand perspective on the atmosphere inside the Carousel Club and the nature of Ruby's character and associates.
Jada's story remains a compelling footnote in both the annals of American entertainment and the enduring mystery surrounding Dallas in November 1963. She stands as a reminder of how deeply the tentacles of organised crime reached into the fabric of mid-century American life, touching everything from the nightclub stages of Bourbon Street to the corridors of a presidential assassination inquiry.
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