Lee Harvey Oswald's Original Coffin To Be Auctioned Off
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A creepy link to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is up for sale to the highest bidder.
Bidding for the original coffin of Lee Harvey Oswald will begin at $1,000, but auction organizers expect it will fetch much more at the Los Angeles auction.
Oswald was arrested about an hour after President Kennedy's assassination in 1963. He was later shot and killed by Jack Ruby before he could stand trial.
Oswald's heavily water-damaged casket was replaced with a new one when Oswald was reburied at Rose Hill Cemetery in Texas, after his wife exhumed his body as part of a legal battle amid theories a Russian agent was buried in his place.
The pine coffin will be accompanied by a letter of authenticity by Funeral Director Allen Baumgardner, who assisted at the original embalming of Oswald.
Instruments used to embalm Oswald and a blood-stained piece of the leather seat Kennedy was sitting will also be auctioned off.
Nate D. Sanders Auctions of Santa Monica, which is handling the sale, believes it could fetch as much as $100,000.
The online auction ends Dec. 16.
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