Unseen photo of JFK before assassination found in Texas thrift shop

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This picture might be worth way more than a thousand words.

A bargain shopper discovered a never-before-seen photo taken on the day of John F. Kennedy’s assassination in a Ferris, Texas, thrift store.

George Rebeles found the Polaroid snapped on Nov. 22, 1963, in a CD he purchased at Soul’s Harbor Thrift Store.

He was browsing the aisles for a CD of Bachman Turner Overdrive’s “The Anthology” album and only later uncovered the JFK snapshot from that infamous day.

“I was shocked, I was shocked — and that’s putting it mildly,” Rebeles, 53, told WFAA upon stumbling across the 59-year-old photo. He noted that he hadn’t opened the CD case until a month after he purchased it.

The black-and-white image showed the late president riding in his motorcade in Dallas, with the date “11-22-63” inscribed on the back.

The black-and-white photo was taken shortly before Kennedy’s assassination. WFAA
Soul’s Harbor Thrift Store in Ferris, Texas. WFAA

“Of course [I] realized immediately that this was an unpublished photograph. So I was excited,” Rebeles continued. “It just struck me as odd to find it in a CD case. How this could have ended up in a small town thrift store fascinates me. It wasn’t until I turned it over that I noticed what it was.”

Farris Rookstool III, a former FBI analyst and JFK historian, told the local ABC outlet that the mysterious photo of the 35th president was probably taken as the motorcade left Love Field in Dallas, Texas.

Rookstool said he gave an “Antiques Roadshow” interpretation of the old photograph to determine the location. He noted that Love Field is a fair distance away from the spot of the assassination.

The old pic was inscribed with the date of JFK’s murder: “11-22-63.” WFAA
The 1963 image was discovered in a copy of Bachman Turner Overdrive’s “The Anthology” CD. WFAA

He acknowledged that the photo is “a nice keepsake” and “a nice heirloom,” but Rookstool guessed that the picture probably has very little financial value.

“It’s something that meant something to someone in someone’s family,” he revealed. “I would say that if someone thinks this is of high monetary value, prepare yourself to be underwhelmed or disappointed.”

However, Rookstool noted that the image is a beautiful piece of history that people haven’t seen for almost six decades.

George Rebeles scoured the thrift store’s contents for a CD and found a 59-year-old snapshot inside it. WFAA
The photo was found in a CD case purchased at the Texas thrift store Soul’s Harbor. WFAA

The documentary producer added: “I just hope that someone will look at this and say, ‘You know what, this is pretty nice to have something from history, to see something that no one has seen in probably 60 years.’ “

Rebeles is still in possession of the artifact, and he still has yet to decide if he will keep it or sell it to an antiques dealer.

In December 2022, the National Archives and Records Administration released more than 13,000 files about the JFK assassination.

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