1963 Tapes after JFK Killing Found, Offered for Sale

An audio recording from Air Force One after the 1963 assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy has been located and was offered for sale Tuesday by a Philadelphia dealer in historical documents.

The tape, believed to have been lost for decades, includes conversations between the presidential plane, the White House situation room, and other places in the immediate wake of the assassination, according to the Raab Collection, which values the tapes at $500,000.

The group said the recording is a longer, unedited version of audio produced by the library of President Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy after the assassination on November 22, 1963.

The discussion included the disposition of the president's body, plans for where Mrs. Kennedy would be taken, the autopsy and other issues

The Raab Collection said the reel-to-reel recording is more than 30 minutes longer than the version at the National Archives and contains incidents and code names never before heard by the public.

"As Americans have looked to the history of the Kennedy assassination in search of answers, somewhere in an attic there existed a tape, made years before the only known surviving version, of the conversations on Air Force One on that fateful day," said Nathan Raab at the Raab Collection.

"This longer, more complete tape is a crucial discovery, and a landmark piece of American history."

Raab said a digital file will be provided at no cost to the National Archives and John F. Kennedy Library.

The only version of the tape previously known to exist was created later in the Johnson Administration and begins with a statement that it has been edited.

The newly discovered tape, created by the White House Communications Agency, was found among the personal effects of general Ted Clifton, a senior military aide to presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

Clifton's effects were recently sold by his heirs.

The new material on the tape includes previously undisclosed code names and incidents; a private conversation by the head of the Secret Service and an expanded conversation about how to remove the body from the plane and where to take it.

"That this tape even exists will change the way we view this great event in history," said Raab.

"It took decades to analyze the shorter, newer version and it will take years to do the same here. This provides a concise 'tale of the tapes' and offers great insight into ongoing research."