Pictures Inside Of Lee Harvey Oswald Casket, Up For Sale
Who would want it, along with the embalming instruments?
He was interred in a pine coffin at Fort Worth, Texas, shortly afterwards. But almost two decades later, his widow Marina and brother, Robert, had the coffin exhumed, after hearing extravagant rumours that his body had been replaced by that of a Russian intelligence agent. A check of dental records by pathologists revealed that the body had not been switched. The remains were duly transported back to Rose Hill cemetery, before being re-interred in a fresh coffin.Oswald’s original coffin has remained ever since at the Baumgardner Funeral Home, the local undertaker which handled the exhumation. They are now cashing in on their brush with historic notoriety by selling it through the LA-based auctioneers Nate D Sanders. “There’s just a lot of interest in Kennedy and anything to do with his assassination,” said Laura Yntema, auction manager at the California-based company.Her catalogue tells the item’s colourful story, noting that it is made from discoloured pine and measures 80 inches long by 24 inches deep. The coffin was badly water-damaged.
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The original coffin in which suspected Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was buried will go on the block on Dec. 16, (just in time for Christmas for the person who has everything!) with bids starting at $1,000. Auction officials anticipate it will sell for much higher.
The Los Angeles auction will also include embalming instruments that were used on Oswald, among other items.
Oswald was arrested about an hour after President Kennedy was shot to death in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. He himself was shot two days later, and was never brought to trial.
Oswald was buried in the casket until 1981, when a legal dispute between his widow and brother led to an exhumation.
“We got a call from the funeral home that this was a coffin that Mr. Oswald’s brother had disposed of after Lee Harvey was exhumed. I never expected that call, but I got it,” Sanders said. His auction house is one of the best-known for JFK assassination memorabilia and other historical collectibles, he said.
