The latex mask bearing the likeness of Casey Anthony recently sold for nearly a million dollars on eBay, shocking followers of the “Tot Mom” trial in the weeks following her acquittal. The creepy buy certainly is not the first of its kind: Since the media has been covering murders, memorabilia affiliated with suspects and convicts has been in high demand. From John Lennon’s “Double Fantasy” album to the Unabomber’s journals to Charles Manson’s X-ray, see photos of some of the most morbid “murderabilia” ever to be auctioned off.
Researched by Allison Maloney
Price: $999,900
One of the most shocking, high-profile cases to rock the American courtroom involved the mysterious death of 3-year-old Caylee Anthony in 2008. All evidence seemed to point to her mother, Casey, whose story changed constantly after she reported her daughter missing nearly a month after Caylee was seen last. The case, dubbed to the “social media trial of the century,” ended with Anthony being found not guilty of first-degree murder or manslaughter.
And October 31st comes early this year for one eBay customer. User “jnco6970” outbid 104 others to purchase a latex rubber mask that looks remarkably like the “Tot Mom++.” It’s speculated that the winning bidder participated only to leave neutral feedback on the seller’s page, as money has yet to be exchanged.
Ebay.com
Price: starting at $4,500
Chicago killer John Wayne Gacy was dubbed “Killer Clown” during his trial for the rape and murder of 33 young men in the 1970s. It was a fitting nickname for a man who’d once worked as a clown for children’s parties and parades. Pogo, his alter ego devised while he was still a performer, became the subject of numerous works of art Gacy created while awaiting his 1994 execution. This painting, “Goodbye Pogo,” is a self-portrait by the serial killer that went on display at Arts Factory Gallery in Las Vegas earlier this year. Pricing started at $4,500, with proceeds to be donated to the National Center for Victims of Crime—before the organization obtained a cease and desist order in the use of its name in connection with the controversial exhibit, which features more than 70 of Gacy’s paintings.
Price: $40,676
Theodore Kaczynski’s role as the “Unabomber” left authorities baffled for 18 years. Once a University of California math professor, the Chicago native conducted a mail-bombing spree that left three dead and 23 others injured before his 1996 arrest. The bombings, according to his manifesto, were attempts to call attention to the rise of modern technology and subsequent decline of freedom. Earlier this year, the U.S. General Services Administration and U.S. Marshals Service conducted an online sale of the Harvard graduate’s personal affects. Hopes of raising money for the $15 million restitution to the families of Kaczynski’s victims fell short, though the sale of personal journals seized from Kaczynski’s Montana cabin documenting “thoughts and feelings about himself, society and living in the wilderness” cost one bidder a hefty chunk of change.
U.S. Marshals Public Affairs
Price: $87, 469
More than 47 years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the original casket of his alleged shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, was sold at auction in 2010 to an anonymous buyer. Oswald was arrested less than an hour after the president was shot in Dallas in 1963, only to be famously gunned down two days later by nightclub owner Jack Ruby (born Jack Rubenstein). An
original pine box held Oswald for nearly 20 years as conspiracy theories ran wild, with some people insisting a lookalike Russian agent was buried in his place. The exhumation of the coffin in 1981 debunked all claims, as biological evidence proved the body to be Oswald’s, despite extensive water damage to both the interior and exterior of the casket. Funeral Director Allen Baumgardner, present at Oswald’s autopsy, kept the piece of history in storage in Fort Worth for three decades before deciding to sell. Oswald’s brother claims to be the rightful owner of the casket and plans to sue the Texas funeral home Baumgardner operated.
Charley Gallay / Getty Images
Price: $9.99
While his name may not be instantly recognizable and his closing cost seemingly low, California serial killer Roy Norris was a major catalyst for the rise in popularity of “murderabilia” online auctions. With his accomplice, Lawrence Bittaker, the former Navy man was responsible for the brutal kidnapping and murder of five teenage girls along the Pacific Coast Highway in 1979. Norris avoided the death penalty in return for his testimony against Bittaker, and served a life sentence. He returned to the public eye in the 1990s with the sale of his fingernail clippings taped to the back of a Christmas card via auction on eBay, which outlawed the sale of such memorabilia in 2001. This sale brought attention—and potentially drew in a larger dealer/customer base—to the darker side of online auctions.
AP Photo
Price: $8,500-$12,000
Amateur musician and commune advocate Charles Manson is one of America’s most notorious criminals, found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder for the Tate/LaBianca cases in the late 1960s. Since being jailed in 1970, the long-haired Manson Family leader has received more mail than any prisoner in U.S. history and maintains relationships with both pen pals and the media. The sale of Manson memorabilia is a lucrative business, with locks of hair, expired drivers licenses, artwork and hand-written notes all selling easily to a well-established market. This X-ray of his spine is rumored to have been taken in 2000, obtained directly from an employee of the San Quentin State Prison that Manson still calls home. One of the more obscure pieces of Manson material, the scan certainly is for the most dedicated and serious “murderabilia” enthusiast. It has yet to be sold.
California State Prison / AP Photo
Price: $925 (later $25,000)
Handsome and charismatic serial killer, rapist, and necrophile Ted Bundy (born Theodore Robert Cowell) once called himself “the most cold-blooded son of a bitch you’ll ever meet.” His clean-cut law-student image helped him evade authorities, as he brutally killed more than 30 women in six different states throughout the 1970s. Bundy removed the passenger seat of his tan 1968 Volkswagen Beetle, the “death wagon” to make room for his victims’ bodies. Utah deputies purchased the mobile murder site in the years following his conviction for $925, turned over, for a profit of $25,000, in 1997. Today, the car sits on display at the National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, D.C. on lease from a private owner.
Price: $850,000
Five hours before murdering John Lennon on Dec. 8, 1980, deranged fan Mark David Chapman had the legendary musician sign a copy of his “Double Fantasy” record. Their fateful meeting was captured on film, Chapman focusing on the rocker he’d shoot later that day. A maintenance man allegedly discovered the album in a planter outside the former Beatle’s Dakota building, turning the LP over to New York City police officers as evidence following the murder. The album, complete with Chapman’s enhanced fingerprints on the sleeve, originally sold at auction for $450,000, only to be turned over on a U.S. online auction house site for $150,000—a fraction of the original price. The most important piece of musical “murderabilia” on the market, this “Double Fantasy” is once again for sale via online auction site Moments in Time. The asking price this time around? A staggering $850,000.
MomentsInTime.com
Price: $501-$3,600
Decades before Casey Anthony’s mask hit the Internet auction circuit, gangster extraordinaire John Dillinger took the Depression-era United States for ransom and refused to back down. The deeds of America’s original Public Enemy #1 led to the establishment of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and with Dillinger’s death came the end of mob rule that had held the country’s major cities captive. After the robberies of two dozen banks and four police stations (don’t forget the murder of an East Chicago police officer and two escapes from jail), Dillinger eventually was gunned down by authorities as he left the Biograph Theater in Lincoln Park in 1934. Four casts of the infamous gangster’s face were made, supposedly by amateur criminologist Kenneth “Doc” Hoffman, who sneaked past the guards at Cook County morgue. The highest price paid to date for the mobster’s likeness is $3,600.
Nam Y. Huh / AP Photo
Price: $4,995
The details surrounding the murders committed by Jeffrey Dahmer are not for the weak-hearted: rape, dismemberment, cannibalism, and necrophilia were staple signatures of the Milwaukee Cannibal’s crimes. The alcoholic murderer was responsible for the death of 17 young men in Ohio and Wisconsin, a spree that lasted almost two decades before his arrest in 1991. Arresting officers found photographs of mangled bodies on the walls, a human head in the refrigerator, and a human heart in the freezer. Dahmer was beaten to death in jail in 1994, making his remaining “murderabilia” more highly sought after. Among the collectibles, a pop-up 3D greeting card containing a poem that speaks of the “cherished madness of my heart” has been put up for pricy auction on numerous Internet outlets. Although it’s uncertain whether Dahmer composed the poem himself, he did personalize the creepy card by signing, “All my love, Jeff.”
AP Photo
