Lee Harvey Oswald's first coffin is sold for $72,890

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A wooden coffin that once held the remains of President Kennedy’s assassin has sold for $72,890, an auction company said Friday.

Thirty-six bidders were vying for the pine box in which Lee Harvey Oswald was buried in 1963 after he was gunned down by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby as police investigated the president’s murder.

The identity of the coffin’s purchaser was not revealed by Nate D. Sanders Auctions of Brentwood.

"It was a bidding war the last two hours" of the online sale that ended Thursday, said company representative Sam Heller.

Counting the sales commission, the buyer will pay nearly $87,000 for the pine coffin, Heller said.

Oswald’s body was exhumed in 1981 to resolve an accusation that a look-alike Russian agent was actually in the grave. Because the coffin sustained water damage, Oswald’s remains were reburied in a new coffin. Fort Worth funeral home operator Allen Baumgardner kept the old one and was its seller.

RELATED:

Lee Harvey Oswald's coffin seeks a final resting place

-- Bob Pool

Photo: Lee Harvey Oswald's original pine coffin. Credit: Charley Gallay /Getty Images

Comments

[My opinon means nothing]

So some clown pays $87,000 for the coffin of a dead guy. I've got a pet rock I'll sell him!

[Anonymous]

Sick individuals who'd pay for a macbre coffin so they can profit later from sicker people. God forbid they do some good with $87.000.

[Greg Maragos]

Burn it.

[kwitcherbellyakin]

Just saw a documentary on Hulu called "The Collectors". The own art from such luminaries as John Wayne Gacy and other who show amazing artistic ability, but of course are responsible for the often torturous deaths of many innocents. Anyway, these collectors collect serial killer art, shrunken heads, enjoyed a visit to the Melcher/Tate manse before it was bulldozed, and so on.

[badcompany]

This man was literally killed twice, let the dead rest in peace...

[Steve O.]

Lee? Harvey? You're a mad man!

[Moribund Fascination]

You have mental problem if you think buying a disinterred casket that once held a rotting corpse is worthwhile; there are disgusting and potentially dangerous things such as bacteria, poisonous chemicals like formaldehyde, vestiges of a rotted corpse, etc. That is eerie, creepy, and disgusting. I can't imagine you having a healthy social life if you engage in such things.

[Anne Papineau]

The thing's ugly, broken, dead man has been out of it longer than he was in it. The seller totally scored. Good for her/him.

[larry92108]

I couldn't thing of anything to say about this coffin story either.

[Charles J]

Is this gonna make a great conversation piece in the living room or what?

[Dean McAdams]

Morbid. Money. Murder.