Ownership Battle Over Casket of Lee Harvey Oswald

Who owns a casket after it has served its intended purpose and been buried in the ground? That is the question fuelling a legal battle over ownership of the casket used in the original burial of Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald was buried in 1963 in a casket bought by his brother Robert Oswald. After the 1981 exhumation of Lee Harvey Oswald to confirm the identity of his remains, the casket was determined unfit to be used in the reburial and sat in storage at a funeral home until the funeral home attempted to sell it in 2010.

Robert Oswald brought suit claiming he is the owner of the casket because he purchased it. The Funeral home is arguing in the case being heard in Fort Worth, Texas, that the casket was a gift to the deceased and that only his estate has a claim to it, which is not a party in the case.

See Jason Whitley, Judge to Decide Fate of Oswald's Original Casket, USA Today, Dec. 9, 2014.

Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.