Kennedy memorabilia up for auction

DALLAS, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Memorabilia linked to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy was being auctioned Saturday in Dallas, the city where he died, the auction firm said.

The Dallas Morning News reported Saturday's Heritage Auction Galleries sale was to include a newspaper whose front page Kennedy signed shortly before his 1963 assassination. The newspaper, which Kennedy signed for a hotel maid, enjoyed bids as much as $10,000 in advance bidding.

Also among the nearly 700 pop-culture items up for auction was a gray fedora regularly worn by Jack Ruby, the man who fatally shot Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

Joyce Gordon, who worked for Ruby when he was a nightclub owner, recalled how she knew her boss shot Oswald in 1963 based on the hat description.

"They said over the radio a man in a gray felt hat had just shot Oswald," she said of a news report of the deadly shooting.

"I said, 'Oh my God, he did it.'"

The Morning News said the hat was won by its current owner at a 2008 auction for $61,000.