The life insurance policy on the man who assassinated US president John F Kennedy paid out less than 900 dollars to his mother – but the death claim she filed to get that sum has sold at auction for almost 80,000 dollars (£61,000).

The original Notice of Insurance Claim for Lee Harvey Oswald sold for 79,436 dollars, Boston-based RR Auction said.

The one-page document came inside a frame alongside a photograph of Oswald.

The Notice of Insurance Claim for Lee Harvey Oswald
The Notice of Insurance Claim for Lee Harvey Oswald (RR Auction via AP)

The Proof of Death certificate is signed by Marguerite C Oswald, and is dated December 26 1963, just 32 days after Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby.

Issued by the National Life and Accident Insurance Company of Nashville, Tennessee, the document includes Oswald’s name, dates of birth and death, specifies the place of death as Dallas, and the cause of death as “gunshot wound”.

The insurance company honoured its obligations by paying Mrs Oswald 863 dollars.

Ruby, meanwhile, was found guilty of murdering Oswald and sentenced to death, but both the conviction and death sentence were overturned and Ruby died before he could be retried.