Interest ‘quite high’ on objects tied to assassination of John F. Kennedy

DALLAS — Items related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy are being auctioned as the 53rd anniversary of the president’s assassination in Texas approaches.

Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, as the president traveled through downtown Dallas in a motorcade.

The Dallas Morning News reports a .38-caliber Colt Police Positive double-action revolver is being touted by Heritage Auctions as the gun used by late Dallas police officer Gerald Hill in Oswald’s arrest. Bidding opened at $4,000, double what was asked for the sports coat Hill wore during the arrest.

Goldin Auctions opened bidding for the handcuffs placed on Oswald at $50,000, although the auction house now predicts they’re worth around $250,000.

Heritage consignment director Don Ackerman said there is a lot of interest in items tied to the assassination and expects there will be other objects for sale in the coming months.

He said while “interest is quite high” in objects tied to the Kennedy assassination, “there hasn’t been much material to come on the market.”

Wife of the late Hill, Bobbye Hill, said she wished her husband’s gun and sports coat weren’t being auctioned. She instead would have liked to seem them in the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Bobbye said she’s donated many of her husband’s belongings to the museum in the past.

Many other artifacts and pieces of evidence from the assassination have been up for auction in the past, including Kennedy’s limousine license plates, Oswald’s casket and the gun Jack Ruby used to kill Oswald.

“These are the types of pieces collectors like to show,” Ackerman said. “They like to show things they added to their collection. Even if they’re not gun collectors, they can look at it and think back to the event that occurred. It’s very evocative.”