Oswald Wedding Ring Among JFK Items Up For Auction
DALLAS (AP) — On the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald left his wedding ring in a cup on the dresser and left $170 in one of its drawers before he headed for work at the Texas School Book Depository.
The gold band that belonged to the man who assassinated President John F. Kennedy later that day is among nearly 300 items linked to the former president that go up for auction Thursday in Boston.
Bobby Livingston, an executive vice president with the New Hampshire-based auction house, RR Auction, described the ring, which has a tiny hammer and sickle engraved on the inside of the band, as a "very powerful, significant piece of evidence."
"It gives you such insight into the mind of Lee Harvey Oswald," said Livingston, who added that the ring could bring $100,000 or more.
It was relatively recently that the seller, Oswald's widow Marina Oswald Porter, recovered the ring, which apparently sat forgotten for decades in the files of a Fort Worth lawyer who once did work for her.
With the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination in downtown Dallas coming up in November, the auction house has gathered items ranging from Kennedy's rosary beads and clothing items to Oswald's U.S. Marine Corps rifle score book to a hat worn by Jack Ruby, the nightclub owner who killed Oswald two days after Kennedy's assassination.
Accompanying the ring is a five-page handwritten letter dated May 5, 2013, in which Marina Oswald Porter writes: "At this time of my life I don't wish to have Lee's ring in my possession because symbolically I want to let go of my past that is connecting with Nov. 22, 1963."
At her request, the auction house is not releasing the full contents of the letter, in which Porter documents the history of the ring, from its purchase in the Soviet city of Minsk, Belarus, before their April, 30, 1961, wedding, to how it was left on the dresser at her friend Ruth Paine's home, where she and their children were living when Kennedy was killed. Oswald, who lived during the week in a rooming house near downtown Dallas, usually only visited on the weekend.
The ring took a circuitous route from the dresser to being offered at auction. In 2004, it was discovered in the files of a Fort Worth lawyer who once did work for Porter. It was in an envelope marked "Treasury Department Secret Service" with a receipt stating that Paine gave it to the Secret Service on Dec. 2, 1963.
A July 2012 letter from the Fort Worth law firm of Brackett & Ellis to Porter says the ring had apparently been in lawyer Forrest Markward's possession since 1964.
Luke Ellis, a partner at the firm, said when the ring was discovered, the retired Markward couldn't recall exactly how it came into his possession. Markward has since died.
Also up for auction Thursday are a white Lincoln Continental that the president and first lady rode in hours before his death and the sixth-floor window believed to have served as Oswald's sniper perch, which the building's owner removed in the weeks after the attack.
(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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