If you’ve ever wanted to own an incredibly macabre piece of American history, start saving your pennies. The ambulance that transported JFK’s body from Parkland Memorial Hospital to Love Field is going up on the auction block next month in Scottsdale, Jalopnik‘s Tom Joslin reported.
O’Neal Funeral Home in Dallas owned the 1964 Cadillac Hearse at the time of the car’s grim fifteen minutes. “This car has only changed hands three times in its life and accordingly is very well documented to be the actual Cadillac that transported the president’s body,” Joslin wrote. The white hearse—which has a green and white interior—will not have a reserve when it is auctioned on January 21. “The pedigree and originality of this car is impeccable and without question,” the listing proclaims.
Barrett-Jackson is dubbing the car the “most significant piece of John F. Kennedy memorabilia ever,” but this isn’t the first time the auction house has dealt with a JFK-related vehicle. Last year, the same auction house sold the naval ambulance that transported JFK’s body from Air Force One to Bethesda Naval Hospital for $120,000, despite questions over that car’s authenticity, Jalopnik reported at the time. The claim that the car was a fake was raised prior to the auction, and Barrett-Jackson decided to proceed with the sale.
As for the actual limo JFK was riding in when he died? Unless you can sweet talk the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, into giving it to you, it can never be yours. After being impounded as evidence, the 1961 Lincoln Continental limo went through an “extensive renovation process,” gaining an armored top. Four presidents—Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter—would use the same limo until its retirement in 1977, Paul A. Eisenstein of the Detroit Bureau wrote.
