Read the Letters Sent to Boston’s Mayor After JFK Was Assassinated
Fifty years ago, as news surrounding the circumstances of the shooting in Dallas, Texas, trickled through radio waves and television broadcasts, elected officials from around the world drafted letters addressed to Boston’s mayor, John F. Collins, expressing their remorse about the death of President John F. Kennedy, a resident of Massachusetts, and a leader “attached to the city of Boston.”
To mark the anniversary of Kennedy’s death, the City of Boston Archives Department released the series of letters, which were received by Western Union telegram and general mail, from as far away as Spain, Ireland, and England. Also included in the catalogue of historic documents was a letter sent to Collins, who was mayor when Kennedy was murdered in 1963, from Lyndon B. Johnson.
Below are scanned versions of the original letters addressed to Collins, and the city of Boston, courtesy of the City of Boston Archives:
