Thousands of President John F. Kennedy memorabilia was sold at an auction on Sunday including President Kennedy's Air Force One bomber jacket that according to the Huffington Post sold for $570,000 by John McInnis Auctioneers in Amesbury, Massachusetts.
Auction appraiser Dan Meader said the bomber jacket was only expected to get around $20,000 or more so getting over half-a-million for the jacket exceeded the auctioneers expectations.
The items belonged to the estate of David Powers who was a close friend and aide for President Kennedy and found by his relatives in drawers and file cabinets. President Kennedy named Powers to be his special assistant in the White House after Kennedy won the presidential election in 1960.
"There's never been an auction like this," Meader said. "The amazing thing about this whole thing is that it shows the personal connection. This is stuff that's true, it's pure, it's right from the family home ... right from the president's best friend."
Meader said Powers traveled with President Kennedy to monitor the reaction of the crowds. He served as a spokesman for the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston where he was the museum curator from 1965 until he retired in 1994. Powers died of a cardiac arrest in 1998.
"Dave was the pulse of the nation," Meader said. "He was basically the eyes and ears of the American public,"
The auction which started Sunday morning went throughout the night. It has been 50 years since President Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald who shot him from a building which was along the presidential motorcade throughout the streets of Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.
Video - Take a look at some of the items sold at the Kennedy Auction on Sunday in Amesbury, Massachusetts.
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