Lee Harvey Oswald's Brother Sues Funeral Home For Selling Oswald's Old Coffin
from the ownership-of-coffins dept
Paul Keating alerts us to a bizarre lawsuit, where the brother of JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, Robert Edward Lee Oswald, is suing a funeral home and an auction house because they auctioned off an old casket that Lee Harvey Oswald had been buried in for a while. Apparently, back in 1981, due to one round of conspiracy theories that claimed that Lee Harvey Oswald was not actually buried in his grave, the grave site was dug up and Owald was exhumed and proven to be Lee Harvey Oswald again (for the doubters). In doing so, it was discovered that his original coffin had "deteriorated" (they tend to do that), so it was replaced with another one.Fast forward to December of last year when Robert Edward Lee Oswald discovered that the funeral home was auctioning off the old casket, along with some other items related to the funeral of both Lee Harvey Oswald and his mother. It's not clear how he has any right to claim ownership or some sort of contractual obligation concerning those items, but he's trying. While it's true that he did "buy" the original coffin, it does not appear that he paid for the replacement coffin, which leads to all sorts of interesting "ownership" questions. Do we really continue to "own" a coffin after it's been buried in the ground? And then what if it's been exhumed and replaced? The living Oswald didn't seem to have any issue with the fact that he never got back the original coffin until he found out it was being sold, so perhaps an argument could be made that he "abandoned" it. The whole thing will likely make for an entertaining trial either way, assuming it gets that far.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: caskets, lawsuits, lee harvey oswald, robert edward lee oswald
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A moot point
Needless to say, the Illuminati will make sure that this case quietly disappears.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I don't think there are any upstanding citizens in this suit.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Uh...
Whoa, whoa, whoa, my friend. I'm not so sure you want to write that sentence out quite so definitively....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Uh...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A little sharp reading shows that even this simple story can be poorly presented on TD.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
With the fact that the living Oswald didn't pay for the new coffin, this is a win-win for the funeral home. They'll simply dig up the dead Oswald and put him back in his old coffin and sell the "new" one, that presumably they still own.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Discarded items are no longer considered your property (this is why police officers don't need a warrant to go through your trash when it's at the curb).
If the family were the ones who said "Yeah, toss it" then the funeral home has a good claim on it. If the family said "Where's the old one?" and the funeral home said "Uh, we burnt it." when they really didn't, then not so much.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
umm...no.
The key point is that there are people creepy enough out there that is is worthwhile to auction off a USED COFFIN.
Apparently, it IS true that you can buy anything on eBay...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'll be the skeptic for the other side and think that the funeral parlor misled the plaintiff into believing the casket destroyed with the intent of profiting off the item themselves.
Think they can just replace and sell off old tombstones or mausoleums, maybe some bonus ashes? If you cant profit off of the momentos that people purchased for their deceased loved ones, whats the point of running a chop shop?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
There are laws about interring bodies (and re-interring counts,) so it's a fairly objective call.
As alluded to above, the time to claim your 'property' is sometime in the previous thirty years. This reeks of rent seeking.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dead and Buried now who owns ya
For that matter what about great, great, great grandpa's stuff that went to the grave with him?
Reminds me of Kennewick Man http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennewick_Man (Who looked amazingly like Patrick Stewart) Where federal government and the Umatilla Indians have spent millions trying to determine the ownership of bones found on public land that are somewhere between 5650 and 9510 years old.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Dead and Buried now who owns ya
Okay wow, yeah... that corpse is clearly the result of some sort of time-travel paradox. Turns out "Time's Arrow" had it almost right...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Too much TV?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Too much TV?
If they were selling it as a casket for use in a burial, AND, not disclosing the previously used nature of the casket, then yes, I would imagine that is illegal. Prevents dishonest funeral homes from selling the same caskets over and over.
Anything can be sold as a "collectible" as long as the item itself is legal.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Too much TV?
Just because it was on TV does not make it true.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Too much TV?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Hmmm...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
JFK-Oswalds casket
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
lho casket
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
LBJ Killed JFK (Here's the Proof)
The Case Against LBJ (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZzEbKxCFBM&feature=related
The Case Against LBJ (Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZcecy1btLY&feature=related
The Case Against LBJ (Part 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BiYVw8ml9c&feature=related
The LBJ-CIA Assassination of JFK
http://www.federaljack.com/?p=18969
Read 1) BLOOD, MONEY & POWER, by Barr McClellan, 2) Mary’s Mosaic: Mary Pinchot Meyer & John F. Kennedy and Their Vision for World Peace, and 3) JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, by L. Fletcher Prouty.
Did you know, that LBJ would have gone to PRISON, for the murders of 8 people in Texas (including LBJ’s own SISTER!), at the hand of Mac Wallace, LBJ’s hired hit-man, had LBJ NOT become President? LBJ wanted DESPERATELY to become President. (Just like Tricky Dick Nixon, who was at Clint Murchison’s house, the night before the Assassination, along with many, many other colorful characters, such as J. Edgar Hoover, and Jack Ruby). TPTB (The Powers That Be) knew that JFK and RFK were trying to get LBJ OFF the ’64 ticket! In order for TPTB to reverse all of JFK’s actions as President (such as Executive Order 11110) – LBJ would HAVE TO BECOME PRESIDENT. The choice was clear – the deed would be done in Dallas, but only after they ruled out Chicago, and Tampa). LBJ suggested the Dallas venue. JFK agreed. Jack Ruby owed a favor to Carlos Marcello. That’s why he was the one who took out the patsy: Oswald.
FIVE important books on the subject:
1) Blood, Money & Power, by Barr McClellan
2) Mary's Mosaic: Mary Pinchot Meyer & John F. Kennedy and their Vision for World Peace, by Peter Janney
3) JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, L. Fletcher Prouty
4) Coup d'Etat in America: The CIA and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, by Alan J. Weberman and Michael Canfield
5) Plausible Denial: Was the CIA Involved in the Assassination of JFK? by Mark Lane
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
LBJ Killed JFK (Here's the Proof)
The Case Against LBJ (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZzEbKxCFBM&feature=related
The Case Against LBJ (Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZcecy1btLY&feature=related
The Case Against LBJ (Part 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BiYVw8ml9c&feature=related
The LBJ-CIA Assassination of JFK
http://www.federaljack.com/?p=18969
Read 1) BLOOD, MONEY & POWER, by Barr McClellan, 2) Mary’s Mosaic: Mary Pinchot Meyer & John F. Kennedy and Their Vision for World Peace, and 3) JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, by L. Fletcher Prouty.
Did you know, that LBJ would have gone to PRISON, for the murders of 8 people in Texas (including LBJ’s own SISTER!), at the hand of Mac Wallace, LBJ’s hired hit-man, had LBJ NOT become President? LBJ wanted DESPERATELY to become President. (Just like Tricky Dick Nixon, who was at Clint Murchison’s house, the night before the Assassination, along with many, many other colorful characters, such as J. Edgar Hoover, and Jack Ruby). TPTB (The Powers That Be) knew that JFK and RFK were trying to get LBJ OFF the ’64 ticket! In order for TPTB to reverse all of JFK’s actions as President (such as Executive Order 11110) – LBJ would HAVE TO BECOME PRESIDENT. The choice was clear – the deed would be done in Dallas, but only after they ruled out Chicago, and Tampa). LBJ suggested the Dallas venue. JFK agreed. Jack Ruby owed a favor to Carlos Marcello. That’s why he was the one who took out the patsy: Oswald.
FIVE important books on the subject:
1) Blood, Money & Power, by Barr McClellan
2) Mary's Mosaic: Mary Pinchot Meyer & John F. Kennedy and their Vision for World Peace, by Peter Janney
3) JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, L. Fletcher Prouty
4) Coup d'Etat in America: The CIA and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, by Alan J. Weberman and Michael Canfield
5) Plausible Denial: Was the CIA Involved in the Assassination of JFK? by Mark Lane
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lee Harvey Oswalds Coffin.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Story
I would like for your news staff to take a look at my website (www.franklingriffin.com)
and consider my story for your news. Endorsements: President George H.W. Bush,
Dr. Howard Jones, professor at the University of Alabama, Dr Larry Sabato, University
of Politics West, Va. and country singer George Jones. You will find more reviews at my web-site.
My book can be purchased through my web-site and most books stores ie Barnes & Noble,
Ingram & Baker Taylor. Former Governor John Patterson wrote the foreword in my book.
Places of interest where "Touched by Fire" can be found.
1. Texas State Library & Archives Commission.
2. State of Alabama Department of Archives and History.
3. Check (world catalog) for libraries that list my book.
4. Dealey Plaza Musume Library
5. Would be interested in a book signing.
Second Edition. Hardcover, 190 Pages
Publisher: Lulu.com (January 17, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1105921794
ISBN-13: 978-1105921797
Frank Griffin Author of Touched by Fire has signed on to join our JFK whodunnit? tour for October 22 , 2014. Author of the book "Touched By Fire" a national best seller Frank will be signing autographs and selling his book at Lee Harvey Oswald's rooming home in Dallas Texas.
For info contact : 214-310-0700
www.Oswaldroominghousetours.com
STORE · CONTACT. Local & National Interviews
6th Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza Oral taped interviews.
Thank you
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Book
I would like for the news to take a look at my website (www.franklingriffin.com)
and consider my book "Touched by Fire" for your news. Endorsements: President George H.W. Bush,
Dr. Howard Jones, professor at the University of Alabama, Dr. Larry Sabato, University
of Politics West, Va. and country singer George Jones. You will find more reviews at my web-site.
My book can be purchased through my web-site and most books stores i.e. Barnes & Noble,
Ingram & Baker Taylor. Former Governor John Patterson wrote the foreword in my book.
Places of interest where "Touched by Fire" can be found.
1. Texas State Library & Archives Commission.
2. State of Alabama Department of Archives and History.
3. Russia National Library
4. Oklahoma Historical Society
5. Dealey Plaza Museum Library
6. British Public Library
7. Moncton Public Library, Canada
8. Walsall Library & Museum UK.
Second Edition. Hardcover, 190 Pages
Publisher: Lulu.com (January 17, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1105921794
ISBN-13: 978-1105921797
STORE · CONTACT. Local & National Interviews
6th Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza Oral taped interviews.
Narrative Decryption on "Touched by Fire".
"It's no wonder that, after reading "Touched by Fire," country music legend, George Jones, wrote Frank Griffin to say: "I thoroughly enjoyed the book" and former President George H.W. Bush called it "a most interesting read." The book tells an amazing American story. In 1954 Johnnie Frank Griffin witnessed the violent death of Alabama's Attorney General-elect Albert Patterson. six months later he told a grand jury about it. The next day he was stabbed. He died that night in a hospital built on profits from crime. Nine years later Johnnie Frank's son, Frank Griffin, saw Lee Harvey Oswald fleeing down a Dallas street. Between these two events Frank grew up in one of the strangest decades in American history. His story touches that of Alabama Governor John Patterson. It collides with mob bosses and CIA operations. There's even room for country music and barroom brawls. This book shows how Frank Griffins' life is truly touched by fire and he has survived with strength.
Thank you
Author
Frank Griffin
[ link to this | view in chronology ]