Lee Harvey Oswald’s original casket is not for sale, judge rules

Washington Post ^ | 1-31-15 | Peter Holley

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A Fort Worth funeral home is being forced to return a coffin that held the body of Lee Harvey Oswald to his brother after attempting to sell it for $87,468, according to news reports.

By concealing the coffin’s existence from Oswald’s family members and later offering it for sale, Allen S. Baumgardner Sr., the owner of Baumgardner Funeral Home, engaged “wrongful and wanton and malicious conduct” Judge Donald J. Cosby of the District Court in Fort Worth ruled, according to the New York Times.

Oswald was originally buried in the pine bluff casket after killing President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963. His remains were removed from the casket in 1981 to quell conspiracy theories claiming the coffin didn’t hold the accused presidential assassin’s remains, but instead that of a soviet spy, according to the Associated Press. After dental records proved the remains belonged to Oswald, the body was reburied in a different casket due to water damage, the AP reported.

Robert Oswald sued the funeral home in 2010 after his family learned that the original casket was still in existence and was being sold via an auction house in California, according to the AP. The sale was halted and the coffin has remained in storage ever since, according to the Times.

In addition to paying the auction house $10,000 in storage fees, the ruling forces the funeral home to return the casket to the Oswald family as well as pay $87,468 in damages, according to the AP. The funeral home must also finance the cost of transporting the coffin from California to Texas, the AP reported.

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[Beowulf9]

Interesting.

[IronJack]

I didn't know that Oswald's body was exhumed and reburied.

By the way, who were the pallbearers?

[mlo]

Reporters there to cover the story. They couldn’t find anyone else.

[mlo]

"I didn't know that Oswald's body was exhumed and reburied."

So was JFK's. The original grave was temporary until they constructed the existing one with the eternal flame. There was a re-internment into the new grave.

JFK's original casket was taken on a plane and dropped into the ocean.

[smoothsailing]

Judge got it right.

[ConservativeDude]

Wow....that is poignant and memorable.

[jocon307]

The funeral home could not provide pall bearers? I admire those men for doing that, I’m sure they found it quite distasteful. That is really very interesting.

Now, what is this family supposed to do with a used, damaged casket?

I can’t believe what ghouls they are at that funeral home. Would you have your funeral there?

[IronJack]

Seriously? I understand the reinterment and all, but why destroy the casket? I suppose to prevent some ghoul from buying a macabre memento. But it also destroyed a part of history.

Bizarre.