AMERICANS who dream of walking in the shoes of John F Kennedy were yesterday offered a chance to try on his underpants instead. A pair of white boxer shorts worn by the late president was among 330 Kennedy-related items put up for auction in New Jersey.

The US Navy-issue pants, of second world war vintage, fetched £3,100 in a sale of intimate items that included two pairs of JFK’s pyjama bottoms and a pair of nylon tights worn by his widow, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

A catalogue provided by Hantman’s Auctioneers of Potomac, Maryland, said of the underpants: “White cotton with snap closures and drawstring waist. Sewn label Jack Kennedy in red with laundry number S 3980 stamped twice on inner waistband.”

Paula Hantman, the auctioneer handling the sale in conjunction with eBay, the internet auction house, said the fact that the pants had been laundered indicated they must have been worn. Kennedy served in the US Navy during the second world war. He was hailed as a hero when he survived the sinking of his patrol boat, PT-109.

The items were put up for sale by Mary Gallagher, former personal secretary to the president’s wife, and by Providencia Paredes, her personal assistant from 1960 until the former first lady’s death. After previous sales by family and other staff members, it was believed to be the last JFK collection likely to come to auction.

The women discovered the underpants in a box of the president’s clothing. A dinner jacket and a pair of his beach sandals were also auctioned. Hantman insisted that the sale was being conducted “very tastefully”.

Kennedy’s pants were right on the borderline of taste. “I almost decided not to put the boxer shorts in,” said Allan Stypeck, one of the auction organisers. “If you knew what we didn’t put in because we felt it wasn’t appropriate, then you’d understand what our position is.”

Among the first items sold were a small black journal used by JFK during his successful 1960 presidential campaign. It fetched £14,130, while his leather attaché case went for £20,400. A pair of Jackie’s gloves and an evening purse were sold for £2,040; a nightgown raised £535.

The American public’s seemingly inexhaustible appetite for anything Kennedy-related was confirmed earlier this month by the media frenzy that greeted a book on the supposed marital crises of John F Kennedy Jr and his wife Carolyn Bessette before their deaths in a plane crash in 1999. Bessette was depicted as an addled cocaine addict whose drug-fuelled tantrums drove JFK’s son to despair.

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