Next up for auction; ambulance that carried jfk from andrews to bethesda..

[Bernice Moore]

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2011/01/0...test=faces

[Peter Lemkin]

brain next?....or how about the container that once had the brain.....or probes and scalpels used at autopsy, how about the magic bullet - that would fetch a very nice price!!!....very sick stuff. Everything is for sale in America....even freedom and democracy [sorry already purchased and put away in a vault...no longer available for others]

[Bernice Moore]

You about said it all; peter.. shame, i have a wee teddy bear that were handed out as gifts, i think the night of the inauguration or the nomination, by the kennedy team, i would have to check to see which, for sure but one of those i believe, got it years ago from a collector out west who i did business with for his book collection, hmm i wonder if any are into wee teddys..????????:phone:but they can't have him, he's a favourite...b..

[Ed Jewett]

Friday, January 21, 2011

Jalopnik.com proves JFK ambulance is a fake.

From Jalopnik.com


The JFK Ambulane is a Fake



This Saturday's auction of the ambulance that carried President John F. Kennedy's body has garnered worldwide attention. The only problem? It's a near-perfect fake. Here's how a group of historians discovered the truth about what happened to the real ambulance.
In a probe with as many twists as one might expect from a JFK assassination artifact, the history buffs of the Professional Car Society were able to not only poke holes in the documentation provided by the seller of the '63 Pontiac Bonneville ambulance, but produce photographic proof that the real vehicle ceased to exist in 1986. After weeks of its own research, and its original touting of the ambulance's history, we're now told that Barrett-Jackson will hold a press conference Friday to reveal the findings we lay out below.
Touted since late last year by the auction company, the slate gray JFK ambulance received hundreds of profiles from the Wall Street Journal to CBS News, almost every major news outlet ran a story about this Saturday's auction.


And why not? It's a compelling vehicular tale to tell. When Jacqueline Kennedy returned to Washington with the president's body on Nov. 22, 1963, the Secret Service ordered his remains to be transported to the Bethesda Naval Medical Center for an autopsy. Awaiting the Kennedys at Andrews Air Force Base was a slate gray ambulance, tagged "U S Navy 94-49196," visible in TV footage showing the arrival of the president's casket.
Barrett-Jackson announced in December that it would offer the JFK ambulance for sale, saying that it had sat in government storage until it was auctioned for surplus. Auction house president Steve Davis touted its historical value and provenance, with estimates from some that the vehicle could easily fetch more than $1 million. "No one had ever connected the dots, the builder, the manufacturer, the navy and their documentation," Davis told a Phoenix TV station. "There was reports that car had been crushed, that the Kennedys okay'd it to be crushed, that it didn't exist… well, those things have been proven wrong."
The ambulance's appearance instantly raised doubts among the members of the Professional Car Society, in part because they had been through a similar case before. A decade ago, a California collector had claimed to have owned the same ambulance, painted slate gray with the same U.S. Navy numbers, but had later dropped his claims. The owner of the Barrett-Jackson ambulance, John Jensen, told several outlets that he had bought it from a California collector within the past couple of years.
After some emails from Professional Car Society members, Davis replied to the forum earlier this month that the seller had been able to use the Freedom of Information Act to prove that his ambulance was the same vehicle that hauled President Kennedy's body:

Barrett-Jackson has in its possession copies, supplied at our request by the consignor, of recently uncovered documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act from the Department of the Navy/Surgeon General, as well as Superior Coach Corporation, that for the first time, ties the Navy registration number and the VIN number of the 1963 Pontiac Bonneville chassis together.
Barrett-Jackson was previously offered this ambulance for auction, by a different owner, but we refused to accept it, based on the fact that there was no VIN documentation, or provenance, that linked this specific ambulance to the Kennedy ambulance.
Subsequently the new, and current owner, through an extensive investigation, was able to uncover documents, that, as I stated, for the first time, tie the VIN, and Naval registration numbers together.
Documents show, Superior Coach Corporation, in response to a investigation by the Navy, confirmed the Navy registration number, 94-49196, as well as the Navy contract number, DA-20-113-AMC-1236-X, and the serial (VIN) number, 863P198767, of the ambulance that transported JFK, his wife, and brother from Andrews Air Force Base.
While additional photos showing matching serial numbers were enough for some of the doubters, it didn't satisfy Dan Brintlinger, who had a 22-year old piece of evidence to the contrary.
In 1988, Brintlinger had written his congressman, Rep. Bob Michael, to ask what had happened to the Pontiac hearse. Michael forwarded a response from the U.S. Navy, which said that at the Kennedys' family request, the hearse had been donated to the Kennedy presidential library in 1980 and was later destroyed.

As Brintlinger was raising his doubts, questions about the documentation also began to arise, this time from a different source. Historian Paul Hoch, a University of California-Berkley professor and one of the foremost experts on the Kennedy assassination, wrote Barrett-Jackson to question two of the letters the auction house had posted from the FOIA file on the ambulance. The letters were sent from Surgeon General of the Navy Rear Adm. Bart Hogan, and were dated Dec. 10, 1963.
The problem? Hogan retired from the Navy in 1961, and was head of the American Psychiatric Association at the time of the Kennedy assassination.
On Jan. 11, Barrett-Jackson president Davis replied to Hoch and the Professional Car Society forum again, offering an update on the auction house's investigation. While saying that Barrett-Jackson "is not the entity making the representations as to the history or particular provenance of this car," Davis did say an inspection showed the serial numbers on the Bonneville's parts matched those in the documents.
Another factor that has played into our analysis here is the credibility of the consignor of this vehicle. He is a physician and an avid collector, and has gone to extraordinary lengths to complete his own diligence in researching the history of the vehicle. He has also been exceptionally cooperative and responsive as we have addressed various questions with him throughout this process.
At that point, the questions stood in stalemate, with the auction house holding one set of documents and the auto historians holding evidence that suggested the original JFK ambulance was destroyed, but no proof that it actually happened.

But the longer they looked, the more questions the Professional Car Society found. The JFK ambulance was described in some cases as "unrestored," yet the lettering on the sides and rear did not match that of the ambulance shown in the 1963 films at Andrews Air Force Base; the Barrett-Jackson car had periods between the "U" and "S" where the original did not.

On Tuesday, PCS director Steve Lichtman got the proof the auto society had sought: On June 26, 1986, the hearse had been crushed in a Boston junkyard, under witness from the John F. Kennedy Library, apparently at the request of the Kennedy clan. Photos from that day show the ambulance with the ID numbers from 1963 still on its rear door.

fter sending the photos to Barrett-Jackson, Davis sent a new message to the forum, announcing the auction house would hold a briefing Friday to announce what it's found out so far about the vehicle:
It's important to understand that Barrett-Jackson is not affirmatively making any representations as to the history or particular provenance of this car, and we will be clear about all of these facts with the bidders who register at auction to participate in the sale of this vehicle. What we are trying to do is uphold the high standard we've set for ourselves in following up on legitimate inquiries and questions related to a vehicle as important as the Kennedy ambulance.
A spokeswoman for Barrett-Jackson confirmed the company would hold an event Friday, but did not provide full details of what the auction house would say. Based on the dogged work of the Professional Car Society, there's one less mystery surrounding the Kennedy assassination. (H/T to Drujon!)
Send an email to Justin Hyde, the author of this post, at justin@jalopnik.com.

Posted by Joseph Backes at 8:56 AM

http://justiceforkennedy.blogspot.com/20...ce-is.html

[Peter Lemkin]

Now there's a 'great' idea....a cottage industry making fake JFK memorabilia and artifacts of his assassination......I believe the USG started that even before the event...but HEY!, the average citizen can get in on the act too and make a killing on eBay or some auction house. So, B. don't auction you teddy...just have some place in China make new ones and sell them as old.

[Keith Millea]

It's no secret in the automobile restoration market that there are sleazy individuals that restamp numbers on vehicles and parts.Restorers make very much more money on all original numbers matching cars/components.For example,a correct numbers matching carburator for a Buick GS 455 Stage 1 car can bring as much as $2,500.00,where a regular Buick 455 carb,can be bought for under a hundred dollars.

[Bernice Moore]

thanks for the article from jim's site and further info, i just got my lap back and back on da web, the techie,sterilized it i shall put it, and then restored all with the saved resources on click free, was a long process but, i hope worth it, thanks peter but no rip offs from moi, i imagine there are other bears out there, held by some who attended the event or passed along, but all are unique, so they shall remain but..thanks anyway...has anyne heard any further news on robert oswald suing for the moneys received at the auction of lho's coffin...just wondering..thanks..b

[Bernice Moore]

http://www.autoevolution.com/news/jf-ken...30258.html

[Ed Jewett]

Convicted Alaska Briber Bill Allen's Daughter Buys Fake JFK Ambulance

January 25, 2011, 12:11PM

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Justin Hyde | Jalopnik



On Saturday, right after Barrett-Jackson sold the ambulance that didn't carry President John F. Kennedy's body following his assassination, another collector bought it for "slightly more" than the $120,000 auction price -- and she's no stranger to politics.
After the "JFK Ambulance" sold for $120,000 on Saturday to Addison Brown, seen here attending a private party at Barrett-Jackson CEO Craig Jackson's house, Speed TV and others reported that Tammy Allen bought the ambulance from Brown, paying something slightly more than the crossing price. This was mere minutes after Brown told Reuters she plans to keep the vehicle in her collection for now and will see if the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., is interested in the ambulance. Hmm. We guess that didn't happen.
Meet Tammy Allen, a car buff who runs Allen Unique Autos in Grand Junction, Colo. An avid collector, Allen's business offers limousine service in everything from a pink stretched Mini Cooper to a 1939 Cadillac, and recently opened the museum based on the collection of her and her father, Bill Allen.
Bill Allen is unable to enjoy the museum currently due to his lodging in a federal prison in California, serving his sentence for charges stemming from a political bribery scandal in Alaska that involved several state legislators and eventually led to a federal case against the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.
And now here Tammy is immediately snatching up a car "shrouded in mystery" from a bidder, friendly with Craig Jackson, who claimed she'd wanted to keep the vehicle and even donate it to the Smithsonian -- and all for just a touch over what the initial bidder paid for it. Sound suspicious to you?
All we know is somehow, sadly, we doubt this will be the last we hear of this particular Pontiac Bonneville ambulance.


The original version of the story appears here: http://jalopnik.com/5742459/the-jfk-ambu...ells-again
Jalopnik, the world's largest auto enthusiast website with over 4.5 million monthly readers, is obsessed with the cult of cars. Secret cars, concept cars, flying cars, vintage cars, red cars, black cars, blonde cars -- sometimes, cars just because of the curve of a hood.


http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com...ulance.php

[Keith Millea]

The near collapse of the auto restoration hobby began with the price bubble created by Barrett-Jackson.Their sales are to the very rich who just want some trophy car to show off,and probably a tax write-off too.Barrett-Jackson literally forced regular folks out of the game because of the huge increase in SUPPOSED worth of classic cars.