Kennedy family letters to be auctioned off in U.S.

BOSTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) A trove of Kennedy family paraphernalia, including a letter in which former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy appears to counsel her sister-in-law about marital troubles, will be auctioned off in Connecticut this weekend.

The letters, along with a life preserver from President John F.

Kennedy's sailboat and other items, were found in a storage unit on the Cape Cod summer resort area of Massachusetts, where the Kennedys still maintain a family home.

''Be a bit mysterious,'' reads one of the letters in which Jacqueline Kennedy appears to advise Joan Kennedy on how to handle her marriage to US Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat.

The letter is unsigned, but the handwriting appears to be Mrs.

Kennedy's, said Bill Panagopulos, president of Alexander Autographs, which will hold the auction in Stamford.

''This is a side of Jackie that you've never seen,'' Panagopulos said.

Panagopulos said the letters, life preserver and other materials appear to have been thrown away by Joan Kennedy when she moved out of a Cape Cod house. He said that a man who worked for the Kennedys -- whom he would not name -- took the items and put them in a storage locker.

The auction house obtained the merchandise through an intermediary after the former Kennedy employee ceased to pay rent on the locker.

Panagopulos said the letter appears to date from the late 1970s. Another letter on auction is signed only ''J.'' As of yesterday afternoon, bidding for the marital advice letter had hit 4,500 dollar on the Web.

Joan and Edward Kennedy have since divorced. The senator is married to Victoria Reggie Kennedy.

Representatives for Sen. Kennedy were not immediately available to comment.

The Kennedy family is one of the United States' most famous political clans, and it has often been touched by tragedy.

President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were both assassinated while in office.

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