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NEWS ABOUT: coffin

Oswald Brother Furious About Coffin Sale

Coffin should have been destroyed, not sold, brother says

(Newser) - Lee Harvey Oswald's brother says he bought the pine box the presidential assassin was buried in and a funeral home had no right to auction it off earlier this month. The coffin—which was replaced when Oswald was reburied in 1981—fetched $87,469. But Robert Oswald says it's not... More »

Oswald's Coffin Up for Auction

Funeral home hoping to get thousands for battered old coffin

(Newser) - A funeral home is selling off maybe the creepiest piece of Kennedy memorabilia ever: the coffin Lee Harvey Oswald was originally buried in. The coffin was dug up in 1981 to settle a dispute between Oswald’s widow and brother over whether a lookalike Russian agent had been buried in... More »

Prince Charles Pushes Woolen Coffins

It's a greener way to go!

(Newser) - Prince Charles—who recently stressed the value of woolen clothes for sustainable living —believes the material is perfect for sustainable dying as well. The prince asked for a selection of woolen coffins, which are reinforced with recycled cardboard and can feature a personalized embroidered nameplate, to be displayed prominently... More »

Woman Hides in Coffin to Escape Police

Nicole Kelly decides she can't go to jail, so she finds another tiny spot

(Newser) - From the brilliant criminals department: Upon arriving at a correctional facility after being arraigned on two outstanding warrants, a Philadelphia woman decided she "just couldn't do this," wrestled free, and ran away. A still-handcuffed Nicole Kelly, 19, managed to shake the authorities who chased her, ducked into the... More »

Jack Nicholson Wouldn't Mind Being Eaten by Vultures

Actor, 72, mulls Native American 'sky burial'

(Newser) - At 72, Jack Nicholson has been thinking about death, or, more particularly, burial arrangements. One option he finds appealing, he tells German TV, is a Native American practice that would leave his body to the vultures. “I liked the nature of the Indians who haul their bodies up into... More »

Wal-Mart Enters Coffin Biz

Funeral homes face competition from discount caskets

(Newser) - America's leading big-box store is now also a pine box store. Wal-Mart has started selling a range of discount coffins on its website and plans to expand its death products to include pet urns and memorial jewelry. Prices start at just $895 for a steel coffin. Funeral home owners say... More »

Media Lose Interest in War Dead: Only AP Shoots Coffins

Photo ban lifted, but photographers aren't bothering

(Newser) - Back when George W. Bush was president, the media made a big fuss about the administration’s refusal to allow the press to photograph soldiers’ coffins, saying it hid the true cost of the war. President Obama lifted the ban in April, and the media flocked to snap shots of... More »

Jackson May Be on View in Glass Coffin

Funeral promises to be extravagant event

(Newser) - Michael Jackson’s funeral could be as lavish as one of his concerts. His body will reportedly be transported in a horse-drawn carriage, and he could be on view in a glass coffin. “The glass casket idea would create so much public interest it would take time to organize,... More »

Should We Allow Coffin Pics?

(Newser) - President Obama is reviewing a media ban at Dover Air Force Base, where dead soldiers arrive in flag-draped coffins, but "in truth, it's not an easy issue," John Barry writes in Newsweek. There is widespread support for raising the ban "as a way of reminding the... More »

Final 'Green' Frontier: Cemeteries

Increasingly popular embalming- and casket-free option freaked locals out

(Newser) - As the green movement contemplates the afterlife, more funeral directors are seeing demand for a sendoff without the embalming and sturdy coffins of traditional burials, the Wall Street Journal reports. Natural burials won't necessarily put funeral directors out of business: Yes, simple shrouds are available, but so is a $300... More »

Fans Get Prime Seats for Eternal Extra Innings

Logo coffins, urns make case for 'long-term' devotees of Sox, others

(Newser) - Die-hard baseball fans can now continue showing their team pride even in the afterlife. A Boston-area funeral home is offering its first-ever Red Sox casket, emblazoned with the team’s logo and accented with baseball-bat-type wood. “It's really a beautiful thing,” the funeral-home director, a Sox fan himself,... More »

Thais Take Coffin Naps to Fix Karma

$5 buys a few minutes in monastery's gaudy pink boxes

(Newser) - As Thailand's economy slows and its government falters, growing numbers of deeply superstitious citizens are jostling into a pink coffin to "die," the Telegraph reports. At about $5 a head, monks in a monastery outside Bangkok officiate over the "dead bodies" in the coffins, before ushering in... More »

Lost Coffins Remain Part of Katrina's Legacy

(Newser) - Louisiana is still finding coffins displaced by Hurricane Katrina three years on, the Wall Street Journal reports. Katrina and Rita moved 1,500 bodies from their resting places in the state's swampy south, where floating coffins during floods have long been part of local folklore. Hundreds remain unidentified, and they... More »

Greenies Can RIP With Eco-Friendly Funerals

Cardboard caskets, natural burial sites catch on in US

(Newser) - Greenies who bought organic in life can become more organic in death, the AP reports. Brits have enjoyed the eco-friendly funeral for years, but now cardboard coffins and natural fibers for corpses are catching on Stateside. "People are trying to think about what's the best way to live and... More »

Death Be Not Proud (At a Discount)

(Newser) - What does it say about us, Mark Morford asks, that wandering the aisles at Costco in Palm Desert, CA, we come upon not only drums of olive oil and eighty-packs of frozen cream puffs, but over there, right next to the tires and the lawn furniture and right behind the... More »

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