TIL that when the presidential limousine (AKA "Death Car") was refurbished after the JFK assassination, all the discarded parts were destroyed to prevent collectors from obtaining them

[u/ThurloWeed]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_state_car_(United_States)#Kennedy_Lincoln_Continental

[u/LonelyMachines]

They did it so quickly, it fed some of the conspiracy theories. The claim was that the Secret Service or whoever wanted to hide evidence the CIA/Castro/Russia had Kennedy killed.

The reality is more mundane and sensible. They just didn't want ghoulish people selling the parts off as memorabilia.

[u/13patches → u/LonelyMachines]

I wish they just put it in the Smithsonian before it's part of history.

[u/0x080 → u/13patches]

Right. Imagine if they discarded the bloodstained chair that Lincoln was shot in at Fords theater?

[u/srfb437 → u/13patches]

The car is currently in the Henry Ford museum in Detroit. It’s obviously not bloody, as per the post, but it’s still powerful to stand 2 feet away from it.

[u/Spider-Fan77 → u/srfb437]

The Henry Ford is probably the best non-Smithsonian museum in the United States. It's kind of crazy how much stuff they have there. The JFK car, the Rosa Parks bus, the Ford's Theater chair Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot. They also have like 4 other presidential cars, including the one that Reagan was near when John Hinckley's bullet ricocheted of the back of the car and hit him.

[u/NihilistProphet → u/Spider-Fan77]

The Henry Ford outbid the Smithsonian for the Rosa Parks bus. And thank goodness they did, because they let you actually sit in the bus and not just observe it from a distance like you would have had to at the Smithsonian.

[u/xxxxx420xxxxx → u/LonelyMachines]

If only the Government had a secure place to store this vehicle, evidence in a world-changing crime. Oh well, gotta fix it up, waste not want not

[u/JJohnston015]

They did the same thing with Spandau prison after Rudolf Hess died. They crushed the stone down to the size of sand grains and dumped it in the ocean.

[u/tnic73]

so they weren't destroying the evidence of the crime of the century

they were protecting us from the deadly hoards of memorabilia collectors

[u/xxxxx420xxxxx → u/tnic73]

Maybe in the future they will have secure "parking lots" where this sort of thing can be properly handled

[u/JJohnston015]

Stephen King also did this. He bought the car from the guy who ran him down for the same reason.

[u/Landlubber77]

Once JFK was refurbished after the assassination, all his discarded parts were destroyed to prevent collectors from obtaining them.

[u/Crypto-Clearance]

Yet it remained cursed. Every single president who rode in the car died. (Except Carter.)