JDL Leader Irv Rubin Dies at 57

The Associated Press Nov 14, 2002 : 5:32 am ET

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Jewish Defense League leader Irv Rubin, who has been hospitalized for more than a week after attempting to commit suicide in jail, has died, authorities said Thursday.

Rubin, 57, had been in a medically induced coma since Nov. 4 but died at about 11:45 p.m. Wednesday, said Adelaida De La Cerda, a spokeswoman at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. No other details were immediately available.

Rubin and fellow JDL member Earl Krugel had been in jail since December for allegedly plotting to bomb a Southern California mosque and the office of Rep. Darrell E. Issa, R-Calif., who is the grandson of Lebanese immigrants.

Federal officials said Rubin slashed his neck with a prison-issued razor blade on Nov. 4 and tumbled 18 feet over a railing at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center. His wife, Shelley Rubin, has called for a further investigation, believing that Rubin would not try and kill himself.

But authorities said interviews with witnesses -- including officers and inmates -- left no doubt about the cause of Rubin's injuries.

Rubin and Krugel were arrested Dec. 11 after an FBI informant delivered an explosive powder that authorities believed was the last component in making pipe bombs for the alleged targets -- the King Fahd mosque in suburban Culver City and Issa's office. The charges carry up to 40 years in prison if Krugel is convicted.

Rubin, who by his own account has been arrested more than 40 times, joined the JDL early in the 1970s and quickly moved up, becoming chairman in 1985.

In 1989, the leader of the rival Jewish Defense Organization was charged with firing shots at Rubin and wounding three others in New York. Mordechai Levy was convicted of assault.

-- Anonymous, November 14, 2002