Flawed JFK death certificate could be worth $120,000

DALLAS – A document said to be the flawed original version of President John F. Kennedy’s death certificate is up for sale, 43 years after a typo helped make it void.

Don McElroy, a funeral home worker who helped load Kennedy’s casket into the hearse at Dallas Parkland Hospital, believes he has the first death certificate from the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination.

The document mistakenly lists Kennedy’s address as “600 Pennsylvania Ave.” – not 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., better known as the White House. The certificate also omits Kennedy’s Social Security number.

McElroy, who now works for an East Texas funeral home in Tyler, says he kept the flawed certificate after his boss tried throwing it out. Auctioneers trying to sell the document put its worth at $80,000 to $120,000.

The Worldwide Group Auctioneers pulled the certificate from the Internet auction site eBay this week after not finding a buyer. A spokesman for Worldwide Group said eBay was the “wrong venue” for the item and that the certificate will likely go to a live auction.

The curator of a Dallas museum devoted to the Kennedy assassination believes the document is authentic.

“It’s an interesting artifact,” said Gary Mack of The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. “We’d be interested to have it in our collection.”