For Sale: XL Slightly Used Casket

Are you in the market for a plus sized casket? Are you looking for a coffin with some history?

I've got fantastic news for you.

That's right. The Big Bopper's family is putting his used casket up for sale!

If you are like me, you may be wondering why there is a vacancy where J.P. Richardson once rested in peace. Well, I'll tell you.

Richardson's family had his body exhumed and an autopsy was performed.

Surprise! He died of injuries related to being in an airplane crash on the day the music died. That usually does the trick.

aside: No disrespect, but what was the family expecting to find? Someone poisoned Richardson and then crashed his plane just to make sure he was really dead? Was there some sort of insurance investigation 50 years later? I'm serious it was 50 years ago. The plane crash was on February 3, 1959. We've got to be beyond the statute of limitations here.

Anyway, like I was saying before. The Big Bopper's family put him in a new casket when they *shudder* reburied him and now they are planning on auctioning off the old one.

The family says the casket is in pretty good shape. You would be getting a 16 gauge steel coffin. There is a little bit of water damage on the outside but the inside is as good as new.

Except that is had a dead body in it for about 48 years.

The item in question has been on display at the Texas Musicians Museum for about a year if you want to get a look at it yourself before putting in a bid on this wood overcoat.

See?

And yes, I do feel bad about myself.

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My brother was buried without us ever really knowing the cause of death thanks to my parents not wanting an exhaustive autopsy. There was a cursory on done for the state, as required by law, but no detailed toxicology or genetic testing was done. Sadly, he was cremated as well as per my parents' wishes, so I'll never know what my brother died of.

If I could have his remains exhumed and an investigave autopsy done, I WOULD. Because sometimes you just wonder, and I would never question a family's decision to get all the answers they could about a loved one's death.

Posted by: Karen | January 05, 2009 at 12:23 PM

Wow that's really messed up. Seriously. I wasn't alive back then, but remember the movies/documentaries/family retellings of that night. Here's how I imagine the Big Bopper's familial discussion going prior to doing this (NOT that it's a laughable situation...just REALLY messed up, and it created a visual soap opera in my mind):

BB (Big Bopper) Relative #1: Huh. Our mortgage is due soon. And property taxes. Any ideas on how we can pay this?

BB Relative #2: Golly, I don't know. I sure don't want to get one of them job thingies.

BB Relative #3: Say...didn't we used to have a famous relative or something? What do you think dead celebrities are going for these days?

BB Relative #1: Silly! We can't just go and ebay the guy's corpse!

...Then again...he WAS buried...think we could make a few bucks on the coffin?

BB Relative #3: We'll need an excuse for getting him out of the coffin. We can't just sell it with him in it!

BB Relative #2: Hey! Let's say we needed to do an autopsy or somethin'! That'll get him out of it. I'll get a new credit card, to cover the cost of that autopsy. I bet we'll get lots of money, once we sell that coffin! We can pay off the credit card, the mortgage, and the property taxes with that, and probably still have some left over!

BB Relative #3: What'll we do with him once the autopsy is done?

BB Relative #2: We'll just dump him in a cheapie coffin. He'll never know the difference. *snort!*

BB Relative #1: 'mkay. But I say we DON'T pay off the money we're gonna owe everywhere, and just pocket what we get. We'll think of some other way to take advantage of the dead guy, to pay next month's mortgage. HAHAHAHAHAHA!

(end scene)

Posted by: DianaCLT | January 05, 2009 at 12:32 PM