Take a look back at the fascinating true story of the blood-soaked pink suit former First Lady Jackie Kennedy was wearing when her husband, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated – which has still never been washed, despite being covered in limb, and now sits in a temperature-controlled windowless room in a secret location.
Jackie wore the two-piece set on the fateful day in November 1963 when her husband was brutally killed just inches from her as they rode in the back of an open-top limousine in Dallas, Texas together.
During the horrific shooting and its aftermath, JFK’s blood spattered his clothes, but his grieving widow refused to take it off afterwards – and it has been said that she insisted on continuing to wear it because she wanted his killers to ‘see what they had done’.
The whole world was devastated by JFK’s shock passing and was quickly consumed by the events that took place on that devastating day, so it comes as no surprise that the ensemble is now a big part of the story.
Take a look back at the fascinating true story of the blood-soaked pink suit that former First Lady Jackie Kennedy was wearing when her husband, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated
Jackie wore the two-piece set on the fateful day in November 1963 when her husband was brutally killed just inches from her as they rode together in a limousine in Dallas, Texas.
During the horrific shooting, JFK’s blood spattered his clothes, but his grieving widow refused to take them off afterwards because she wanted his killers to ‘see what they had done’
But what happened to the suit after Jackie finally took it off — which reportedly wasn’t until the morning after the shooting — is actually just as compelling.
Almost no one has laid eyes on the now infamous set since the assassination, and it has been said even now, decades later, that it has never been cleaned and still has the late president’s remains on it.
It is said to be stored in a climate-controlled vault outside Washington, DC under strict Kennedy family restrictions, not to be seen by the public until at least 2103.
The story of what came out of the outfit recently became a hot topic of conversation on social media after videos of it went viral on TikTok.
According to Lady Bird Johnson, wife of then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, a grief-stricken Jackie was ‘placed over the president’s body’ after the shooting, resulting in it being ‘almost completely covered’ in his blood.
She wrote in her diary that she asked someone to help Jackie get changed while she was in the hospital afterwards, but the First Lady refused.
‘With almost an element of harshness – if a person so gentle, so dignified can be said to have such a quality – she said: “I want them to see what they have done to Jack,” Lady recalled Bird.
Jackie was seen wearing the bloody clothes hours later when Lyndon was sworn in as president.
The clothes have still never been washed, despite being covered in lint, and now sit in a temperature controlled windowless room in a secret location
Jackie was seen wearing the bloody outfit hours later – when Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president (seen)
“Somehow it was one of the most poignant sights – the immaculate woman, exquisitely dressed and caked in blood,” Lady Bird continued.
According to Los Angeles TimesJackie finally changed out of the suit the next morning after arriving back in DC
Her maid then put it in a bag and sent it to her mother, Janet Lee Bouvier. About six months later, it was reportedly sent to National Archives headquarters with an unsigned note that simply said: ‘Jackie’s suit and bag worn November 22, 1963.’
The LA Times reported that the clothing was ‘never cleaned’ and is currently kept ‘in an acid-free container in a windowless room somewhere inside the National Archives and Records Administration’s compound in Maryland.’
‘The exact location is kept secret. The temperature is between 65 and 68 degrees, the humidity is 40 percent, the air is changed six times an hour,” it added.
It was an approved copy of a Chanel suit that she had bought at the New York-based shop Chez Ninon, which made many of Jackie’s clothes
The outfit appeared to be one of the first lady’s favorites as she had worn it at least six times before the tragic day. She is seen wearing it at an event in 1962
“It looks like it’s brand new except for the blood,” senior archivist Steven Tilley, one of a handful of people who saw the suit, told the publication.
The outfit appeared to be one of the first lady’s favorites as she had worn it at least six times before the tragic day.
It was an approved replica of a Chanel suit that she had bought at the New York-based shop Chez Ninon, which made many of Jackie’s clothes.
Biographer Justine Picardie wrote in her book about the ensemble: ‘The clothes were not fake or pirated, but made to order using materials supplied by Chanel in Paris.’
The outfit’s matching pillbox hat and white kid gloves, lost in today’s chaos, are still missing.
The items legally belonged to daughter Caroline Kennedy after Jackie’s death in 1994, until a deed of gift was made in 2003 to the National Archives with the condition that the suit would not be seen for at least a century.