Take a look back at the fascinating true story of the blood-soaked pink suit that former First Lady Jackie Kennedy wore when her husband, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated – which has still never been washed, despite being covered in blood, and is now in a windowless, temperature-controlled room in an undisclosed location.
Jackie wore the two-piece set on the fateful day in November 1963 when her husband was brutally murdered just inches from her as they rode together in the back of an open-top limousine in Dallas, Texas.
During the gruesome shooting and its aftermath, JFK’s blood splattered all over the outfit, but his grieving widow refused to take it off afterwards – and it is said that she insisted on continuing to wear it because she wanted his killers to ‘see what they had done’.
The entire world was devastated by JFK’s shocking death and was quickly engulfed by the events that took place on that devastating day, so it’s no surprise that the ensemble is now an important part of history.
Take a look back at the fascinating true story of the blood-soaked pink suit worn by former First Lady Jackie Kennedy 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 murdered just inches from her as they rode in a limousine together in Dallas, Texas.
During the gruesome shooting, JFK’s blood was splattered over the outfit, but his grieving widow refused to take it 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 didn’t happen until the morning after the shooting — is actually just as compelling.
Almost no one has seen the now infamous set since the assassination, and even now, decades later, it is said that it has never been cleaned and that it still contains the remains of the late president.
It is reportedly being stored in a climate-controlled vault outside Washington, DC under strict Kennedy family restrictions so that it cannot be seen by the public until 2103.
The story of what came of the outfit recently became a hot topic of conversation on social media after videos about it went viral on TikTok.
According to Lady Bird Johnson, wife of then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, after the shooting, “a distressed Jackie laid a grief-stricken Jackie over the president’s body, leaving it ‘almost completely covered’ in his blood.”
She wrote in her diary that she asked someone to help Jackie change while she was in the hospital afterwards, but the First Lady refused.
“With almost an element of fierceness – if such a gentle and dignified person can be said to have such a quality – she said, ‘I want them to see what they’ve done to Jack,’” Lady Bird recalled.
Jackie was spotted in the bloody outfit hours later, when Lyndon was sworn in as president.
The garment has still never been washed, despite being covered in blood, and now lies in a windowless, temperature-controlled room in an undisclosed location.
Jackie was spotted wearing the bloody outfit hours later – as Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president (seen)
“Somehow that was one of the most moving sights: that immaculate woman, exquisitely dressed and caked in blood,” Lady Bird continued.
According to the Los Angeles TimesJackie finally changed out of his 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 sent to National Archives headquarters with an unsigned note that simply read: “Jackie’s suit and bag worn on November 22, 1963.”
The LA Times reported that the equipment “has never been cleaned” and is currently being stored “in an acid-free container in a windowless room somewhere in the National Archives and Records Administration complex in Maryland.”
‘The precise location is kept secret. “The temperature is between 65 and 68 degrees, the humidity is 40 percent and the air is changed six times an hour,” he added.
It was an approved copy of a Chanel suit that she had purchased from the New York-based store Chez Ninon, which made many of Jackie’s clothes.
The outfit seemed to be one of the First Lady’s favorites as she had worn it at least six times before the tragic day. She saw it at an event in 1962
“It looks like it’s brand new, except for the blood,” senior archivist Steven Tilley, one of the few people who have seen the suit, told the publication.
The outfit seemed 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 copy of a Chanel suit that she had purchased from the New York-based store Chez Ninon, which made many of Jackie’s clothes.
Biographer Justine Picardie wrote in her book about the ensemble: ‘The garments were not fake or illegal, but made to order with materials supplied by Chanel in Paris.’
The outfit’s matching pillbox hat and white kid gloves, lost in the chaos of the day, are still missing.
The items were legally the property of daughter Caroline Kennedy after Jackie’s death in 1994, until a deed of gift was made to the National Archives in 2003 with the stipulation that the lawsuit would not be seen for at least a century.
