The Provenance of JFK's Cartier Watch

JFK’s GOLD CARTIER WATCH – The Provenance

Item in evidence: Engraved 18 K gold round, Cartier watch, serial number #345090. The original black alligator strap with gold buckle was removed and replaced with a Lord Elgin leather strap before it was returned to Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy.

Jacqueline Kennedy gave JFK a gold Cartier watch engraved with his initials on the caseback for their fourth wedding anniversary in 1957. He didn't wear it much, but she gave it to him to wear at the Fort Worth Hotel the morning of November 22, 1963. 

President John F. Kennedy was wearing this watch when he was murdered on November 22, 1963.

He was holding his hand with the watch close to his head when the fatal shot hit there and sprayed the watch with blood and brain matter.

Parkland nurse Diana Bowron, in Trauma Room One with the President, took the watch off the limp President’s wrist as his clothes were being removed so he could be attended to. Originally from England, Diana Bowron put the watch in her pocket, and after the President’s body was removed from Parkland, she remembered she had the watch and turned it over to Parkland Security officer O. P. Wright, who had also received the bullet WC Exhibit #399.

When she testified before the Warren Commission, in a short and sweet session,

Mr. SPECTER - And what, in a general way, did you observe with respect to President Kennedy's condition?
Miss BOWRON - He was very pale, he was lying across Mrs. Kennedy's knee and there seemed to be blood everywhere. When I went around to the other side of the car I saw the condition of his head.
Mr. SPECTER - You saw the condition of his what?
Miss BOWRON - The back of his head.
Mr. SPECTER - And what was that condition?
Miss BOWRON - Well, it was very bad---you know.
Mr. SPECTER - How many holes did you see?
Miss BOWRON - I just saw one large hole.
Mr. SPECTER - Did you see a small bullet hole beneath that one large hole?
Miss BOWRON - No, sir…… 

Specter didn’t like her talking about a large wound to the back of the head and not seeing a small entrance wound there, so he didn’t really want to hear any more from her, and finally asked her:

Mr. SPECTER - Do you have anything to add that you think might be helpful in any way to the Commission?
Miss BOWRON - Yes. When we were doing a cutdown on the President's left arm, his gold watch was in the way and they broke it---you know, undid it and it was slipping down and I just dropped it off of his hand and put it in my pocket and forgot completely about it until his body was being taken out of the emergency room and then I realized, and ran out to give it to one of the Secret Service men or anybody I could find and found this Mr. Wright.
Mr. SPECTER - Was that the same day?
Miss BOWRON - Yes--he had only just gone through O.B.---I was just a few feet behind him….. 

Although not mentioned in the reports, Bowron wrapped the watch in a white handkerchief before she gave it to Wright, and Wright said he did not open the handkerchief to look at the watch.

Wright logged the watch and the bullet in Parkland’s log, and notified Dallas Secret Service Agent in Charge Forest Sorrels. They were interrogating Lee Harvey Oswald when Sorrels asked S.S. Agent Robert C. Warner, who picked it up from O.P. Wright, who noted that he had received it from nurse Bowron.

Parkland Hospital’s statement of O.P. Wright, Memo. #245 states in part:

“…Approximately 1:00 P.M., I was notified that a casket would arrive soon….Approximately thirty minutes later, the casket was brought out through the door. I was told the casket contained the body of the late President, Mr. John F. Kennedy. It was accompanied by secret service men, Mr. Oneal (of funeral home), and Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy, who walked beside it with her hand on the casket. We cleared the hallway and assisted this party out of the…area.”

“…Thereafter, Miss Bowron, R. N. in the emergency room, handed me a wrist watch…I was informed the watch belonged to the late President, Mr. John F. Kennedy. I put the watch in my pocket and as soon as I could find the time to get to a telephone, I notified Mr. Forrest Sorrells, Agent-in-charge of the Secret Service in Dallas, Texas, I was in possession of a watch that was reported to be that of the late President.”

“Sorrells told me to keep the watch and he would send an agent,….to pick up the watch. I carried the watch in my pocket for several days and when it had not been picked up. I again called Forrest Sorrells and reminded him I was still in possession of the watch. He told me that he had not forgotten it and he did not have the manpower to send for it, but that he would send for it soon.”

“The watch was picked up on November 26, 1963, at 4:05 P.M. by Mr. Roger Warren, an officer of the U.S. Secret Service.”

In a signed and notorized statement Roger C. Warner, Special Agent of the Secret Service, wrote: “I was sent to pick up the President’s wristwatch from O.P. Wright, the 26^th of November, 1963. I did not look at the watch. I was not interested in seeing it. We were very busy at the time. I do not recall exactly how we sent it back to Washington. Because the watch was the personal possession of President Kennedy, we were not required to testify about it, so a specific receipt was not issued to me. But everything in the assassination went back and through PRS (Protective Research Section) of the Secret Service in Washington, D.C. where careful documentation took place. That was our clearance house for items from Dallas.” Signed Roger C. Warner.”

In a legal letter from attorney Molly H. Sherden of Peabody & Sullivan (Boston), the lawyers at Williams & Connolly (Washington D.C.) were notified that: 

“I have reviewed the provenance of this item that was provided to Guernsey’s (Auction House NY). According to this information, the watch was removed from President Kennedy’s wrist at Parkland Hospital in Dallas on November 22, 1963. The watch was then in possession of Nurse Diana Bowron who turned it over to Parkland Head of Security, Mr. O.P. Wright. Mr. Wright delivered the watch to Dallas Secret Service Agent Roger C. Warner, who was sent to pick it up at 4:00 p.m. on November 26, 1963. Agent Roger Warner sent the watch from the Dallas Secret Service office, via their liaison, who delivered it to the PRS Section of the Secret Service in Washington D.C. Robert I. Bouck, Special Agent in charge of the PRS Section, released it to Jacqueline Kennedy’s Secret Service agent Clinton J. Hill for its return to Mrs. Kennedy on December 2, 1963. I enclose a copy of a receipt for the watch bearing this date, signed by Mr. Hill and authenticated by the National Archives and Records Administration. Mr. Hill returned the watch to Mrs. Kennedy the same day.”

And Mrs. Kennedy gave the watch to RFK, who cleaned it and replaced the band and returned it to Mrs. Kennedy, who gave the watch to Mrs. Lincoln as a gift before she left the White House.

“According to sources who prepared the provenance on the watch, this item was too vivid a reminder to Mrs. Kennedy of her late husband and, therefore, she gave it as a special gift to Evelyn Lincoln when she moved from the White House to Georgetown in 1964.”

“Other consignors to the auction have confirmed that Mrs. Kennedy expressed her desire to have  many of the late President’s personal effects removed from the White House and discarded or given away because she did not want to have them or to have to see them after the assassination. I have spoken personally with an individual who was in the service of the Kennedys at the time in question and who has substantiated this account….”

Mrs. Lincoln, uninvited to Caroline's wedding, felt put off and in her last will and testament, left all of her personal possessions, except two trunks she sent to her Nebraska attorney (Mr. Norton), to Mr. Robert White of Maryland. He then sold off many of the artifacts, records and documents at auction, and with the rest opened a Museum dedicated to "the life and legacy of JFK" at Trump Tower in New York City. 

When White died of a heart attack at the age of 54 the remainder of the Mrs. Lincoln's collection was sold at auction, against her will, as she wanted the collection to remain together. 

White then sold the watch and two Oval Office tape recordings to Mr. Christoper Fulton, an American citizen and building contractor living and working in Canada. 

NOTES: 

Record – Item Gold wrist watch (Cartier) of the late President Kennedy – Date 12/2/63 HSCA Record Number 180-10109-10378.

HSCA Record Number 180-10087-10095 – COMMENTS: Receipt of Wrist Watch (CARTIER), Box 16 (which is comprised of RFK’s private papers from the JFK Library.

Among the Assassination Record Review Board (ARRB) files at the National Archives and Records Administration JFK Collection are the “Files of Kim Herd,” a ARRB staffer. Among his records are numerous references to the “Evelyn Lincoln Project” and “Robert White.” (ie. Box 2), CIA documents 179 Series 10271-10336; Robert White Depositions; Appraisal, Inventories, Subpoena, Guernsey’s Lists, AARB Correspondence with National Archives….and Box 4, that should contain “January, 1998 Round Meeting; and July, 1998 Board Meeting,” that should contain minutes of meetings that discuss the “Mrs. Lincoln Project,” Robert White’s inheritance, and the watch.

But I say should because the NARA admits that after a search of the Archives for Kim Herd’s Box 4 – “The box is currently considered missing. We checked the other boxes to see if the records had been re-boxed and the number 4 simply skipped when the boxes were labeled. This was not the case. There is a box and folder list for the files of Kim Herd on our website and none of the files listed as being in box 4 are in any of those boxes. There is no pull slip on the shelf to indicate who last removed the box, but there is a space where box 4 should fit. At the moment, it (is) believed that the box was improperly re-shelved. We did a quick survey of the space and could not locate the box. We have put out notice that the box is not in its proper location. Finding the box may not be a quick process…”

Notes: Harrison Livingston’s Interview with Diana Bowron:

https://alt.assassination.jfk.narkive.com/QbgORExR/nurse-diana-bowron

HL: How much skull was missing on the top of the head, would you say, that
extended into that back of the head region?

DB: Oh, a reasonable amount.

HL: So part of the top of the head was missing in the back?

DB: Just trying to think how to put it to you. The hole was basically
almost the size of a saucer, and sort of from the occiput. So there was
quite a reasonable amount missing from the top as well.

From JFK's Watches are Legendary: 

John F. Kennedy Watches are Legendary - Bob's Watches

"There’s a bit of a mystery surrounding another thin gold JFK wristwatch, this one an 18k gold Cartier round-dialed piece that was given to him by Jackie for their fourth anniversary in 1957 and engraved with his initials on the caseback. The confusion arises because the Omega Ultra Thin resembled a Cartier tank, and because JFK gifted Jackie a tank as well. But there’s no evidence that JFK himself wore a Cartier tank. The round Cartier is apparently the watch he wore when assassinated which was taken off his wrist and given to Jackie at the hospital (sic)."