Kennedy's Funeral Required Two Caskets

After American President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, two caskets were used. The first one was a 400-pound, solid-bronze Handley Britannia casket that carried his body from Parkland Memorial Hospital to Bethesda Naval Hospital. Bodily fluids heavily stained the expensive coffin during the flight to Washington, D.C., and it sustained further damage when workers removed it from Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base. Kennedy's state funeral instead used a second casket made from hand-rubbed, 500-year-old African mahogany and upholstered in white rayon.

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