Lee Harvey Oswald’s coffin is up for sale. It is unusual enough for any coffin to go up for sale, but one of a man believed to have shot and killed a president of the United States is very strange indeed.
President John F Kennedy was shot in Dallas on 22nd November 1963 and Lee Harvey Oswald was accused. He shot himself a few days later and so was never tried for the crime. There are all sorts of theories with regards to this very famous case and some people still believe that he was innocent.
The coffin itself is available for auction because Lee Harvey Oswald’s wife asked for him to be exhumed in 1981 so that she could verify that it was him in the coffin. This was because there were some that believed it was a soviet agent that had carried out the shooting and took the identity of Lee Harvey Oswald in order to do so. She wanted to therefore make sure that this was not the case, as if her husband was not in the coffin then she wanted to know where he actually was. Once the identity was confirmed, as that of lee Harvey Oswald, he was reburied in a new one because the original had become damaged by water. Therefore making the original one available for collectors.
The bidding is expected to start at $1000 but experts believe it will go much higher as any artefacts related to the death of President Kennedy tend to go for a lot of money. There are other items being auctioned at the same time including instruments used for the embalming of Lee Harvey Oswald, an Easter card he sent to his brother, his death certificate and part of the car seat that the president was sitting on when he was shot.