Oswald's Coffin Up for Auction

Funeral home hoping to get thousands for battered old coffin
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Suggested by GoingLikeSixty
Posted Dec 1, 2010 1:37 PM CST
Oswald's Coffin Up for Auction
Lee Harvey Oswald reacts as Dallas night club owner Jack Ruby, foreground, shoots at him from point blank range in a corridor of Dallas police headquarters, Nov. 24, 1963.   (AP Photo/Dallas Times-Herald, Bob Jackson)

A funeral home is selling off maybe the creepiest piece of Kennedy memorabilia ever: the coffin Lee Harvey Oswald was originally buried in. The coffin was dug up in 1981 to settle a dispute between Oswald’s widow and brother over whether a lookalike Russian agent had been buried in the alleged assassin’s place. Surprisingly enough, one had not. Oswald was reburied in a different coffin.

The simple pine box was badly damaged by water while underground, but it’s expected to draw strong interest from museums and collectors, the Guardian reports. It’ll be sold at an LA auction house on Dec. 16 (just in time for Christmas!), with a starting bid of $1,000. (More Lee Harvey Oswald stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X