JFK's possible last signature and Jack Ruby's fedora ready for Heritage Auctions' 20th Century Icons Kennedy-signed front page Dallas Morning News morning edition of Nov. 22, 1963, signed at the Texas Hotel in Ft. Worth before flying to Love Field, at Heritage Auctions, Nov. 7
Dallas, TX -- Two incredibly evocative items relating to John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination will highlight Heritage Auctions’ 20th Century Icons Auction, Nov. 6-7 in Dallas. Offered is most certainly one of the last autographs signed by the president, possibly the very last - a morning edition of the Dallas Morning News of Nov. 22, 1963, as well as the fedora hat worn by Jack Ruby when he shot Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.
"The Kennedy-signed Dallas Morning News has been authenticated by the three top, independent Kennedy authorities in the world," said Doug Norwine, Heritage Auctions' Director of Music & Entertainment, "and Ruby's fedora, via a sworn affidavit from his brother Earl, can be traced undoubtedly back to Ruby's family, so we know that what we have here is the real deal from the single most seminal event of the second half of the 20th Century."
On the morning of the Nov. 22, 1963, while Kennedy was on his way to give a breakfast speech before the Fort Worth, Texas Chamber of Commerce at the Texas Hotel, a hotel housekeeper encountered the president and his Secret Service detail in the hallway, where she asked him to sign her copy of the newspaper. Kennedy’s inscription and signature span the width of Jackie’s skirt. Within hours he was dead, the victim of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Because the Kennedy-Johnson ticket had barely won Texas in 1960 (and had lost in Dallas), the President had traveled to D/FW with three basic goals in mind: to help raise contributions for the Democratic Party presidential campaign fund, to make early campaign steps towards re-election in November 1964, and to end the political infighting occurring within the Texas Democratic Party. The articles featured on the front page, currently on site at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, detail the political maelstrom that surrounded Kennedy on that fateful trip. The banner headline reads: "Storm of Political Controversy Swirls Around Kennedy On Visit."
Heritage Auctions estimates the paper at $20,000+.
The phrase "follow the hat" immediately conjures images of grainy black and white video broadcast from the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters on Nov. 24, 1963. From right to left, a man wearing a gray and black fedora moves across the screen and through the crowd before emerging, drawing a gun, and shooting Oswald point blank. The phrase and the hat, currently at Heritage Auctions awaiting auction, would assure Jack Ruby's place in infamy.
"When Ruby was arrested immediately after the shooting he stated that he shot Oswald to avenge Kennedy, to help the city of Dallas 'redeem' itself in the eyes of the public, and to spare First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy the pain of having to testify at Oswald's trial," said Kristen Painter, Chief Cataloger at Heritage Auctions. "He would later claim he shot Oswald on the spur of the moment when the opportunity presented itself, without considering any reason for doing so."
Ruby was convicted of murdering Oswald on March 14, 1964, and successfully appealed his conviction and
