In Tarrant County, Oswald's Brother Sues Auctioneer, Funeral Home Over Lee's Coffin

Remember when that L.A. auction house auctioned off the pine box in which Lee Harvey Oswald was buried on November 25, 1963, at the Shannon Rose Hill Funeral Chapel & Cemetery in Fort Worth? Man, seems like only six weeks ago. Since then, of course, the coffin sold -- for...

By Robert Wilonsky

January 17, 2011

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Remember when that L.A. auction house auctioned off the pine box in which Lee Harvey Oswald was buried on November 25, 1963, at the Shannon Rose Hill Funeral Chapel & Cemetery in Fort Worth? Man, seems like only six weeks ago. Since then, of course, the coffin sold -- for a whopping $87,468. But, see, Lee Harvey's brother -- one Robert Edward Lee Oswald of Wichita Falls -- is furious over the sale, so much so that on Friday in Tarrant County District Court he sued Nate Sanders (the auction house) and Baumgardner Funeral Home (which bought the original cemetery) in Fort Worth over the sale of not only the coffin, but other grisly remnants sold at auction (including Lee's death certificate, which went for close to $50,000).

Courthouse News has the full complaint, in which Robert Oswald says that, look, selling off his dead brother's casket was just wrong -- a violation that would be "highly objectionable to a reasonable person." So, yes, while he wants money -- the $160,000 raised at auction for all the items sold -- he also wants a judge and jury to acknowledge that, look, this was just ... just ... wrong: "The damages suffered by plaintiff as a result of the circulation of these confidential items far outweighs the market value brought at auction."

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