A Texas judge has ruled that the funeral home who handled the casket belonging to JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald should not have auctioned it off.
According to The Washington Post, Oswald’s casket was exhumed in 1981 when conspiracy theories were running that claimed his body was not inside. Dental records for the accused killer proved the body was that of Lee Harvey Oswald and he had been reburied since the coffin had sustained damage from water.
However, the owner of the Baumgardner Funeral Home, Allen S. Baumgardner, reportedly did not tell the family members that they had the casket and soon put it up for sale. The Judge in the case, Donald J. Cosby in Fort Worth, said the funeral home used “wrongful and wanton and malicious conduct” in their decision to try and sell the casket.
The Associated Press reported that Oswald’s 80-year-old brother, Robert, sued the funeral home for $87,468, which is the amount that the casket sold for back in 2010. The lawsuit stated the family thought the original casket was initially thrown out.
The lawyer for Oswald, Grant Grimes, reportedly told the New York Times Robert Oswald was “pleased with the outcome” and that the casket would probably be destroyed “as soon as possible.”