Auctions | June 27, 2016

John F. Kennedy Handwritten Love Letter to Alleged Mistress Sold for $89,000 at Auction

3359738_1.jpgBOSTON, MA - (June 24, 16) A handwritten love letter from President John F. Kennedy to one of his alleged mistresses sold for $88,970 according to Boston-based RR Auction.

The four-page letter written weeks before Kennedy's assassination in 1963 to Mary Pinchot Meyer, a family friend and former wife of a CIA agent.

“Why don’t you leave suburbia for once — come and see me — either here — or at the Cape next week or in Boston the 19th. I know it is unwise, irrational, and that you may hate it — on the other hand you may not — and I will love it,” Kennedy wrote.

The letter was never sent but remained in the collection of Kennedy's longtime personal secretary, Evelyn Lincoln. The tops of the White House stationery were clipped off; the faded presidential seal watermarks are visible under bright light.

Mary Meyer was killed in October 1964, a year after the letter was written. Her murder has not been solved.

“It’s an incredibly revealing Kennedy letter that is written in such a casual and very informal manner — not something that you would expect to see from a president,” said Robert Livingston, Executive VP at RR Auction.  

Highlights from the sale include, but are not limited by:

John F. Kennedy used rocking chair, sold for $74,938.

John F. Kennedy and John Jr. photograph that hung at the White House, sold for $18,375.

John F. Kennedy 1962 Birthday album that is highlighted by two images of Marilyn Monroe taken moments before her famously seductive rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’, sold for $9,334.

John F. Kennedy typed letter to an influential English soldier and military historian, sold for $9,187.

The Pop Culture auction from RR Auction began on June 16 and concluded on June 23. More details, including results can be found online at www.rrauction.com.