Commemorating a American Icon

November 22, 1963, 50 years ago today… The world lost one of our greatest heroesJohn Fitzgerald Kennedy was only 46-years-old when he was tragically shot while traveling in a presidential  motorcade.

This year, to memorialize the great President, we featured him in a two page spread in our annual, Dare to Look!

 The Ripley’s Collection

Ripley’s has long been fascinated the Kennedy assassination. Throughout the years we’ve picked up a few interesting items.

Lee Harvey Oswald’s morgue toe tag

We acquired the mortician’s toe tag of Lee Harvey Oswald directly from the Oswald family via Herman Darvick Auctions of New York in 1994.

Shown here is the actual identification toe tag signed by the doctor, nurse, and mortician. A lock of Oswald’s hair clipped by the attending nurse is also affixed to the tag. The tag is currently on display at our San Antonio Odditorium.

Oswald’s bed

We have eight pieces of furniture and five framed papers from the room where Lee Harvey Oswald planned President Kennedy’s assassination.

Car that drove Oswald to assassination site

Buell Wesley Frazier was Lee Harvey Oswald’s neighbor and close friend. Oswald did not have a driver’s license and regularly had Frazier drive him to work.

On the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, Frazier drove Oswald to the Texas School Book Depository. In the back seat of this car wrapped in papers was the $12 rifle that Oswald used to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. Frazier thought the package contained curtain rods.

Stricken with grief and haunted by the memory, Frazier sold the car years later for a mere $10. This car is also on display at the San Antonio Odditorium.

These are the medical instruments used in the embalming of Lee Harvey Oswald.

The largest piece shown here is the embalming machine. We also have a Letter of Authenticity for each item by  the Funeral Director, Allen Baumgardner, who assisted on Oswald’s embalming.

Oswald’s police booking fingerprints

Signed by policeman M. Nick McDonald, the officer who arrested Oswald on November 22, 1963, this is the Dallas P.D. fingerprint card containing all of Oswald’s fingerprints.

Bullet from the gun that shot Oswald

Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby took the law into his own hands and shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald. Shown above is a bullet from Ruby’s gun, along with one of the most famous photos of the 20th century.

The Shot Heard Around the World

Was Oswald working alone? What is all a government cover-up? Was it the Russians, Cubans, or even the C.I.A.?November 22nd will be forever remembered as one of the great tragedies for the American people. The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald was shocking and conspiracy theories circle this event.

Ripley’s has collected these theories, and other unbelievable facts, figures, and statistics, in our annual, Dare To Look!

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