License plate from JFK’s Limo sold for $100,000
License plate from JFK’s Limo, saved from the trash 52 years ago, bring $100,000 in Dallas auction
Offered by Heritage Auctions, Nov. 7, 2015, as part of its Americana & Political Auction; the plates were saved a half century ago in Cincinnati after an FBI agent discarded them while JFK’s limo was being retrofitted after the President’s 1963 assassination in Dallas.
DALLAS — The license plates used on the Presidential limousine carrying President John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas — saved from the trash 52 years ago by Willard C. Hess, the owner of Hess & Eisenhardt, the company that retrofitted presidential limousines — sold for $100,000 at Heritage Auctions on Nov. 7, 2015, more than doubling the $40,000 opening bid.
The plates were purchased by an ardent Kennedy collector who wished to stay anonymous. They were consigned to Heritage by Jane Walker, Hess’s daughter, who kept the license plates for the last half century in a drawer in her Ohio kitchen. While her father was alive, said Walker, he kept them between a pair of books on his bookshelf.
“I was very aware of their significance,” said Walker. “On occasion, I would take them out and show them to friends.”
License plate from JFK's Limo sold for $100,000 (1)
License plate from JFK's Limo sold for $100,000 (2)
License plate from JFK's Limo sold for $100,000 (3)
License plate from JFK's Limo sold for $100,000 (4)
License plate from JFK's Limo sold for $100,000 (5)
“The response to these license plates was immediate,” said Don Ackerman, Consignment Director at Heritage Auctions. “Kennedy collectors from all over, as well as historians and admirers of the late president, expressed their amazement that these plates had survived in such great condition for so long. In the end, we saw what that meant to the collector who bought it by the very strong price realized.”
The Presidential limousine was ordered from Ford’s Advance Vehicle Group and outfitted by Hess & Eisenhardt of Cincinnati. Known within Secret Service circles as SS-100-X, it was placed in service in March 1961. After the assassination, it was sent back to Hess & Eisenhardt for upgrades (additional armor plating and a bullet-proof roof), painted black and used through 1977. It now resides in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.