For Sale: Ring That's Part of JFK Assassination Story

On Nov. 21, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald surprised his estranged wife, Marina, in Irving, Texas, where she and their children were living with a friend. He wanted her to come back to Dallas and live with him, but she said no. The next morning, he left her almost all the money he had—$187—and also left his wedding ring at her bedside. He then got a rifle he'd hidden in the garage and returned to Dallas, where he assassinated President Kennedy. The ring, which the Christian Science Monitor describes as playing "a key role in Oswald's emotional turmoil on the day of the JFK assassination," is today up for auction in Boston.

The gold band, purchased in Minsk and stamped inside with a hammer and sickle, was found in 2004 in an envelope marked "Treasury Department Secret Service," in the files of a lawyer who once worked for Marina Oswald. A five-page letter she wrote this year accompanies the ring at auction: "At this time in my life I don't wish to have Lee's ring in my possession because symbolically I want to let go of my past that is connecting with Nov. 22, 1963," it reads. The lot is expected to fetch $100,000 or more, the AP reports. (More Lee Harvey Oswald stories.)