JFK's Love Letter to Alleged Mistress Is up for Auction

Bidding for the letter is expected to top $30,000.

ByABC News
June 3, 2016, 1:30 PM

— -- A handwritten love letter from President John F. Kennedy to one of his alleged mistresses is up for sale by RR Auction in Boston.

The four-page letter was written weeks before Kennedy's assassination in 1963 and is believed to be intended for Mary Meyer. The love note, however, was never delivered, according to Bobby Livingston, executive vice president of the auction house.

"He even had second thoughts about writing it," Livingston told ABC News. "He never sent it, and the letter was retained by his longtime personal secretary, Evelyn Lincoln."

PHOTO: Mary Pinchot Meyer, a Washington painter who allegedly had a secret affair with U.S. President John F. Kennedy, is shown in this undated photo | Sen. John F. Kennedy, posing for picture in this undated photo.
Mary Pinchot Meyer, a Washington painter who allegedly had a secret affair with U.S. President John F. Kennedy, is shown in this undated photo | Sen. John F. Kennedy, posing for picture in this undated photo.

RR Auction acquired the letter from the estate of the late Robert White, who amassed an impressive collection of Kennedy memorabilia.

"And it's on White House stationery, but as you can see, they've cut the White House off the top of the letters," Livingston told ABC's Manchester, New Hampshire, affiliate, WMUR-TV.

In the intimate letter, Kennedy pleads with the recipient to come and see him, giving his love interest three venue options: here (believed to be the White House), the Kennedy Compound in Cape Cod, or a third, unnamed location in Boston.

"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," the handwritten letter reads. "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?"

Livingston said he expects the bidding to top $30,000 by the time the auction closes on June 23.

Other Kennedy items are also up for sale, including other letters and photographs.