5. Kennedy's last autograph
 John Kennedy's final signature is now insured for $250,000 |
Having sold for $38,827 at Heritage Auctions in November 2009, the last autograph John F Kennedy gave before his untimely death is not only one of a kind, but also one of the most valuable items of JFK related memorabilia.
Scrawled in a rush across the front page of the Dallas Morning News on the morning of his death in 1963, it might have been just another JFK signature had the day's events conspired to different ends. The headline seems, in hindsight, ominously portentous: "Storm of Political Controversy Swirls Around Kennedy on Visit".
4. Jacqueline Kennedy's 'sleep bonnet'
 Jackie���s night cap offers us an intimate glimpse of the Kennedys' life together |
The consummate First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy prided herself on always being photo-ready. Remembered more for her hats, handbags and her husband; this white nylon sleep bonnet offers us a rare glimpse of the Kennedy's domestic set up. Featuring pink lace trim, it sold for just $225 in 2003, and suggests Mrs K was always keen to accessorise, even if she was only going to bed.
3. The hat and shackles of Lee Harvey Oswald's killer
 Jack Ruby's fedora achieved a high price at auction |
Lee Harvey Oswald, who shot John F Kennedy as he glided through Dallas' Delaney Plaza in an uncovered limousine, was also shot himself: two days later, at close range, and on live television. Jack Ruby, Oswald's killer, wore a slate grey fedora embellished with a thick black band.
When the hat came up for sale in 2010, Heritage Auctions estimated it would achieve $35,000. The hat went on to sell for $54,000, in a sale that also featured the leg shackles used by doctors to secure Ruby to his bed while he lay dying from pulmonary embolism in 1967.
Although many assume the shackles were employed to prevent Ruby from escaping, they were in fact intended to prevent souvenir hunters from moving his body. The shackles sold for $11,054.
2. JFK's 'personal' long johns
 A close up of the name tag stiched into J.F.K.'s woolen undergarments |
During the early 1950s, Jacqueline Kennedy sold the family's surplus furniture, ornaments and clothing to an antiques dealer in New York. Upon inspecting the delivered items, the dealer discovered that delicate glassware had been wrapped up in JFK's 100% wool long johns to protect them from breaking in transit. He knew they had belonged to Kennedy as the long johns featured a well-worn 'John F. Kennedy' name tag.
The long johns were sold at auction in May 2012 for the princely sum of $7,767.
1. A patch of bloodstained leather cut from Kennedy's limousine
 A gory artefact from a fateful day |
The lineage of this gory artefact originates with White House technical service representative F Vaughn Ferguson, who was charged with cleaning the limousine subsequent to extensive FBI investigations following the shooting.
Ferguson stripped the upholstery from Kennedy's seat and, later, sold large sections of it to collectors, including prominent presidential collector Raleigh DeGeer Amyx. It was from Amyx's collection that a small piece was sold for $956 in August 2012.
View our JFK collectibles for sale here
