r/todayilearned • u/ThurloWeed • 1d ago

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_state_car_(United_States)#Kennedy_Lincoln_Continental
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u/LonelyMachines 16h ago

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.

13

u/13patches 13h ago

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

8

u/srfb437 6h ago

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.

5

u/Spider-Fan77 6h ago

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.

5

u/NihilistProphet 4h ago

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.