The license plates that were on the limousine carrying President John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963 — saved from the trash more than half a century ago — are going up for auction.
The opening bid for the plates being offered by Heritage Auctions on Saturday in Dallas is $40,000.
Heritage says that after the assassination, the vehicle was sent for upgrades to a Cincinnati company that retrofitted presidential limousines. When a new set of plates arrived, the old plates were discarded. But the company’s owner retrieved them from the trash.
The owner, Willard Hess, kept the plates between books on his bookshelf. His daughter, who later kept them in a drawer in her Ohio kitchen, is offering them for auction.
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