Lot 169

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Description:

J. F Kennedy Resuscitation Anesthetic Instruments from Assassination Day From Parkland Dr. Jenkins 

A profound set of the ORIGINAL anesthetic instruments used to work on President John F. Kennedy on the day of his assassination while he was at the Parkland Hospital, Dallas, November 22, 1963. This set was used by Dr. Jenkins, who then kept the pieces and later gifted them to his daughter, Christie Jenkins. Substantial accompanying provenance from Christie Jenkins as identified below will accompany the entire set. This archive will include numerous additional relics and articles, including a transcript of Jenkins personal diary of that day. In addition to the above, Jenkins participated in the Oliver Stone movie, JFK, and photos of Jenkins in the movie are also included. The list of the entire archive as prepared by Christie Jenkins is shown below:


1. Anesthetic Instruments, used by Dr. M.T. Pepper Jenkins in resuscitation effort of President John F. Kennedy. Parkland Hospital, Dallas, November 22, 1963.


2. Dr. Jenkins personal briefcase from that era. 13" X 18"


3. Partial handwritten letter to his parents describing a job at Parkland he might accept.


4. Photo of Dr. Jenkins with his daughter, Christie, in 1958, showing his Dictaphone and briefcase


5. Large newspaper description/interview of the tragedy from December 1963
6. Graphic illustration of the shooting sequence in Dallas


7. Newspaper article re JFK, Oswald, Connally January 1964


8. NY Newsday Cover 1988


9. Parkland postcard 1959


10. Dad's personal letter recollection dictated July 1992 of the tragic weekend


11. Stapled to his original letter of that recollection from 1988


12. Cover + inside of Anesthesia Rounds, Vol II, #1, 1968


13. Two photos of dad on movie set of Oliver Stones' JKF 1991


14. Article I wrote about his experience on the set


15. Invitation to Los Angeles lecture evening with Pepper Jenkins & Gerald Posner


16. DVD made of that lecture evening, December 1993


17. New article about my efforts to make/fund documentary 2013


18. Dr. Jenkins obit from the Dallas Morning News 1994


19. Three letters highlighting his relationship with my mother/his wife, Betty


20. Dr. Jenkins "business card"


21. Newly written Provenance, and a bit of info about Dr. Jenkins

By the fall of 1963, President John F. Kennedy and his political advisers were preparing for the next presidential campaign. Although he had not formally announced his candidacy, it was clear that President Kennedy was going to run and he seemed confident about his chances for re-election.


President Kennedy was aware that a feud among party leaders in Texas could jeopardize his chances of carrying the state in 1964, and one of his aims for the trip was to bring Democrats together. He also knew that a relatively small but vocal group of extremists was contributing to the political tensions in Texas and would likely make its presence felt-particularly in Dallas, where US Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson had been physically attacked a month earlier after making a speech there. Nonetheless, JFK seemed to relish the prospect of leaving Washington, getting out among the people and into the political fray.

Mrs. Kennedy would accompany him on the swing through Texas, which would be her first extended public appearance since the loss of their baby, Patrick, in August. On November 21, the president and first lady departed on Air Force One for the two-day, five-city tour of Texas.

The procession left the airport and traveled along a ten-mile route that wound through downtown Dallas on the way to the Trade Mart where the President was scheduled to speak at a luncheon. Crowds of excited people lined the streets and waved to the Kennedys. The car turned off Main Street at Dealey Plaza around 12:30 p.m. As it was passing the Texas School Book Depository, gunfire suddenly reverberated in the plaza.Bullets struck the president's neck and head and he slumped over toward Mrs. Kennedy. The governor was shot in his back. The car sped off to Parkland Memorial Hospital just a few minutes away.

This would be when and how Dr. M.T. Pepper Jenkins encountered the President.

The incredible grouping of medical instruments offered here are the famous anesthesia instruments used by M.T. Jenkins to try to resuscitate the President at Parkland Hospital. Below, in part, is some of his written notes from that day:

"When I first saw him in the emergency room, his pupils were widely dilated, his face was suffused a deep blue color, he evidenced an agonal-type respiration … Many patients look this bad … who are resuscitated and who leave this hospital later without apparent loss of mental facilities …"

"Dr. Ronald Jones, answered the page and returned immediately to the table looking blanched and shocked "The President has been shot and is on his way here … I shouted to Dr. A.H. Giesecke … to bring an anesthesia machine down from the operating suite to the emergency room …"

" Dr. Dulaney was cutting clothes off the President In order to allow for rapid inspection and to get the sites to start intravenous infusions, and I was busy connecting the endotracheal tube to a ventilator and instituting artificial respiration before connecting up electrocardiograph lead …"

"(there was) the cyanotic look on the President's face, the gasping agonal attempts at respiration, a dying heart pattern on the EKG …"


Jenkin's detailed memory and notes also meander into noticing that Mrs. Kennedy was holding a chunk of brain tissue in her hand, noting the extent of Kennedy's brain damage, and inquiring with a priest regarding "Must the last rites be performed before the patient is declared dead?" Jenkins diary includes the moments in which Jacqueline entered the room just before President Kennedy was given his last rites, and then the rushing of the body out of the hospital before an autopsy was performed.

This spectacular archive has remained with Dr. Jenkins until his death, and to his daughter, Christie Jenkins, by descent. The archive will include two documents signed by Christie Jenkins detailing the contents of the archive and the provenance/chain of custody of the instruments.


This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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August 19, 2020 10:30 AM EDT
Wilton, CT, US

University Archives

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