A love letter allegedly written by President John F Kennedy to one of his mistresses is up for sale at RR Auction in Boston.
The letter was intended for Mary Pinchot Meyer, a family friend of the Kennedys who reportedly had a secret affair with the president for several years.
 "Why don't you leave suburbia for once?" suggests the president |
According to accounts, the pair met around 30 times during their relationship, and were rumoured to have smoked pot together in a White House bedroom.
The four-page handwritten letter, signed "J", is dated circa October 1963, just a month before the president was killed in Dallas. It reads in full:
"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. You say that it is good for me not to get what I want. After all of these years—you should give me a more loving answer than that. Why don't you just say yes."
The letter remained unsent, but was retained by the president's secretary Evelyn Lincoln, who clipped the White House stationary marks from the top of each sheet.
It's unknown whether the pair shared the rendezvous JFK suggested, but it is known that he was in Boston on October 19, appearing at a Democratic Party Fundraiser at the Boston Armory. Less than five weeks later he was dead.
Twelve months later, following the release of the Warren Commission Report into Kennedy's assassination, Meyer was herself found murdered on a canal towpath in Georgetown. A local man, Ray Crump, Jr, was charged but acquitted, and her death remains unsolved to this day.
Details of her affair with Kennedy were revealed in 1976 in an article by the National Enquirer, and later confirmed by sources including journalist James Truitt and Meyer's brother-in-law, Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee.
The mysterious nature of Meyer's death, and her links to the CIA including her ex-husband Cord Meyer, a high-ranking CIA official, have led conspiracy theorists to believe she was caught up in a cover up surrounding Kennedy's death.
This highly rare letter, which offers an intriguing glimpse into JFK's private life, is expected to sell for $30,000-$40,000 in the online sale, which runs from June 16-23.
View this unusual JFK artefact you can own today.
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