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FBI seizes letter from Jackie Kennedy to RFK's widow
• Story Highlights
• FBI trying to determine who
owns letter written by Jackie Kennedy in 1968
• Letter passed from collector to
collector, but widow says she gave it to no one
• Letter found among papers of
Russell Nuckols, who died in 1999, son says
• Son Thomas Nuckols told
authorities he found it among the papers left by his father
DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- The FBI has seized a two-page, handwritten letter of condolence sent
by Jacqueline Kennedy to the widow of Robert F. Kennedy shortly after he was
assassinated in 1968. The family contends the letter was stolen.
"We're
trying to determine who the legal owner is," said Mark White, a spokesman
for the FBI. "There's still an ongoing investigation."
The
letter's path fromthe Virginia home of Robert Kennedy's widow,Ethel Kennedy, to
a locked evidence vault in the Dallas field office of the FBI is described in a
six-page affidavit filed last month in U.S. District Court in the Northern
District of Texas by Special Agent John Skillestad.
It
says Max Kennedy, the son of Ethel and Robert, alerted the bureau in July 2006
to the letter's pending auction at Heritage Galleries and Auctioneers Galleries
in Dallas.
Max
Kennedy, who said he is the sole person in charge of his parents' papers,
"stated that he had not given authority to sell, give, or donate any
papers of Ethel or Robert Kennedy to anyone," the affidavit says.
After
the gallery pulled the letter from its auction, the FBI traced its provenance to Thomas Nuckols,
who told authorities he had found it among the papers left by his father,
Russell Thomas Nuckols, a plumber who died in 1999.
"Thomas
Nuckols said he was dumbfounded upon discovery of the letter because he had
never seen it before and did not know how it came into his father's
possession," the affidavit says.
Nuckols
said he contacted the Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts, but "the
person on the telephone did not seem too interested in the letter" and
referred him to a Connecticut collector, who bought it for $6,000, the
affidavit says.
CNN
has not been able to reach Nuckols.
The
letter was then resold to several other collectors, and was at one time valued
at as much as $30,000 before it wound up with the Dallas auctioneer, who has
cooperated with authorities, the FBI said.
Last
October, the FBI spoke with Ethel Kennedy, who said she remembers Russell
Thomas Nuckols as a plumber who worked at the Kennedy house in Virginia during
the 1960s and 1970s, the affidavit says.
The
81-year-old widow of the former senator and attorney general said she
"never gave the letter to anyone to keep and under no circumstances would
anyone have the authority to transfer ownership of the letter to anyone."
The
affidavit concludes that the letter "is considered as a stolen good."
Once
the rightful owner is determined, it will be given to that person, FBI
spokesman White said. "I don't know how long it will take."
Jacqueline
Kennedy was the widow of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in
1963.
In
the letter she mentions "Stas," an apparent reference to Stanislas
Radziwill, her brother-in-law.
Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis died in 1994.
The
letter is not dated, but appears to have been written shortly after Robert
Kennedy died on June 6, 1968, the victim of an assassin's bullet. The Dallas
News printed a copy of the letter, which White confirmed is authentic.
It
reads:
My
Ethel --
No
one in the world could have ever been like you were yesterday -- except maybe
Bobby -- We are going home now -- Your phone was busy
You
don't want any more callers you must be so tired -- I stayed up till 6:30 last
night just thinking -- and praying for you -- and for you in the months ahead
--
I
love you so much --
You
know that anything -- Stas will take little Bobby to Africa -- I'll take them
around the world + to the moon + back -- anything to help you + them now and
always --
With
my deepest deepest love
Jackie
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