History James Dean Death Car… interesting find.

I wanted to share this with people because I think it’s interesting and regardless of the speculation around it nobody really knows for sure what happened to the Dean Death Car.

This is the letter from the Show Promoter who was supposedly the last person in possession of the Dean Death Car (by the time the car was making the show circuit it was actually only pieces of the original wreck as George had clearly sold parts from the car to other people)

Lots of rumors about what happened to the car? The show promoter stole it blah blah blah.

the facts have always been that “The Florida Auto show” was under contract to display the Dean wreckage at their show.
We have found documented proof and actual photos of the car being displayed in Florida.
This event did take place and I actually was able to track down some original photos that I ended up purchasing of the car being displayed.

The story goes that the next showing of the car was supposed to be Tucson Arizona and it was long rumored that the car was supposedly never shipped back to George Barris and the car completely disappeared. The Promoter Leroy Gonzales was accused of lying and of stealing the car.
We started going through paperwork years ago that George gave us. Boxes of miscellaneous paperwork trying to piece things together from the early 1950’s -the early 1960’s key pictures of Kusoms being built etc. we studied these pictures and identified people in the pictures and we even scouted locations of some of the photos.

So now going in with some names based on stories around the Dean Car,
(George always avoided our questions about the car)
With the names, It never occurred to me who all these people actually were. I found the name Leroy Gonzales and I did as much research as I could on such a common name and as I was going through stuff I was able to find some key pieces to the puzzle. Below are two letters that were written from Leroy requesting the Death Car for his Florida show.
I also documented the dates and the times of the correspondence between the two and I have uncovered that the original check that was written for the rental and display on the Dean Car originally bounced. This is what started to put George at odds with Leroy.
(I have a copy of the check that bounced with Leroy’s signature and George’s signature on the back)
It’s the actual physical check.

the missing piece to the puzzle has always been whether the car was stolen in Florida or if the car was actually shipped to Tucson.
George has always claimed that the car was never shipped and it never arrived to the Auto Show in Tucson. It’s also been claimed that the car was shipped via railway which is absolutely not true according to these documents.

you can look at these documents and make your own opinion.
My opinion is that the car most definitely arrived in Arizona and only George knows what happened to it and why.
I spend a lot of my time researching these photos and these items and I’ve really enjoyed putting together an archive that most people will never care about.

To a lot of people nowadays our History isn’t important unless its immortalized on a fucking T-shirt or it becomes a sloganeering symbol for some neo-make believe millennium counter culture that it’s current participants try to compartmentalize by pretending that one’s involvement in it creates some kind of “terminal uniqueness”.
Hot rodding and Kustoms was never about Gate Keeping to me.

please look at these photos. I do have more to this story. I’ve just never been able to find the right time to articulate them into something worth reading.
I also enjoy that people still reach out to me and I’m able to provide them with some photos of certain cars that I’ve been able to study.

PS. Please let JJ know that i’m the original “pope of welding” and if he wants to have a weld off we can hug each other and I can return Sandra’s award that I ended up with on a random drug induced night back in the day.

XOXO
germ

 

Alway enjoy your stories and insight, Keep it coming !

 

Thank you Germ. I always enjoy stories like this, someone horded paperwork for years, then it goes to someone who has an understanding of history and details on a mystery get pieced together.

 

April 1st “1910”?

 

he was such a good and raw actor . died way before his time , imo . can only imagine at what kind of film s he could ve acted in if he did nt have that incident w that infamous accident . . .

https://matthiasevereligh1994.blogspot.com/2021/07/james-dean-body-after-crash-james-dean.html

 

So what happened to it after it reached Arizona? I’m hooked. Did George just sell it for parts? Have any parts of the car shown up in the market place?

 

When somebody is cagey and tries to sidestep issues it usually rings an alarm bell.
It almost appears like an insurance fraud [double dipping] where it was sold off to never be seen again. And an insurance claim for it being stolen at the same time.
It is probably sitting in a private collection somewhere [just like stolen Art]

 

Or someone ran across it and had no idea what it was and it is simply GONE for scrap. Cars do tend to get lost when someone dies and there is nobody who knows or cares about what it was. Especially something that is wadded up and looks like junk.

 

interesting art to have laying around a garage

 

Heck of a story. Thanks, Germ!

 

Don,t you guys watch the TV ? It was on " ghost adventures " . The American guy with big black glasses who can find spooks in your house or abandoned building found and bought the rear axle of the James Dean wreck . He even picked up some "vibes" from the parts. Has it in his spooky museum.

 

Something I've noticed that I find interesting, but is likely inconsequential, is that Leroy did not sign off on the shipping document, but the signature to the left of the shippers line at the bottom appears to be similar to the witness signature on the guarantee of return letter. Wonder who Jerry is/was in terms of his affiliation to Leroy goes.

 

Y'all missing the bigger mystery here. How dafuq a guy like Germ ends up with the Sandra Bullock award. C'mon folks you're asleep at the wheel here

 

As usual,

You don't post often but when you do, interesting read.
Thanks

 

The BoL (Bill of Lading) is interesting. The interesting thing about it is that the picture is of the shipper’s copy. Of note is the lack of a driver’s and receiver’s signature. There is none of the expected annotations of a shipment that was picked up by the carrier. Are there any other documents that show it was shipped and received? The other point is, despite a date on the document, there is no way of knowing when this was filled out and by whom. There is always something suspicious when one of the principal parties always avoid the topic. This could be something he was given in an attempt to prove it was shipped. Please continue the story, I’d love to follow along and see this resolved.

 

Germ!

I have heard about the crash, display and knew it was 'lost', but didn't follow up on the details.
Found these. Seems the facts are light and the carnival barker atmosphere is still swirling.

https://www.volocars.com/blog/Museum has new lead in hunt for James Dean's wrecked Porsche

https://www.cultofweird.com/transportation/james-dean-cursed-car/

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/...eally-happened-to-james-deans-cursed-porsche/

 

The rumors about it being Tucson have been around for as long as the show was supposed to happen. All the old Hot Rod guys in Tucson never saw the car come to town, and only 5 major players in Tucson did vw/Porsche work back then. Now it's down to two, and all the old guys in the vw/Porsche industry never had anything like that.

 

Maybe she has the car.

 

I am honestly extremely curious how someone ends up with Sandra Bullock's Fun Fearless Female of the year award. Like, did she go to this awards ceremony and get this, but then sell it at a rummage sale 15 years later? Or did Cosmo make up a bunch of awards in the hopes of attracting famous people to their awards show that never got claimed? Why is the bottom plastic so crazed, was it used as a murder weapon? So many questions.

 

Thought this would be a fun addition to this thread.

 

See

Reread his PS, It almost sounds like he got it from Jesse James one night when they were both high.

 

Doesn't answer it tho. A bet? Contest? Dare? Used as a jackstand while they fixed a tire? Used as a chair leg? Inquiring minds wanna know...

 

For the record @Germ this is really kool stuff about the L'il Bastard.

 

that Porsche wrecked a perfectly good Shoebox.

 

Very interesting and timely for me. I am clearing out a lot of stuff and ran across two fan magazines from the 1950's about James Dean. I was a kid back then and a big fan.

 

With the little I know about Porsche Spiders I would think the engine would have been one of the first pieces sold off for a few bucks.

 

Ah, conspiracy theories... What the hell, I'll play.

First, doesn't it seem odd that Barris would buy this? More than a bit ghoulish and not something you'd think would be in his wheelhouse. Granted, he was a shameless self-promoter, another way to get his name out there, although he didn't seem to advertise his association to the car. Or was it simply an economic move, an easy way to generate some cash? And did the car turn into a bit of a hot potato, making him decide that it needed to go away?

Was there pressure from the Dean estate/family to stop touring the car? If they wanted closure, parading the car around would be like continually ripping off the scab.

Or did Barris get pressure from his customers? It was during this era that George was building his relationship with Hollywood. Did some of them think that if this happened to them while driving one of his creations, they would be the next 'victim' and that would be part of their legacy?

If the goal was to 'disappear' the car, a reported theft was a very smart idea. Any insurance claim would require a police report (has anybody looked for that?) and the car is now stolen property. And did the insurance pay off? If the remains still exist, a resurfacing of it is going to cause some sticky questions to be asked and there will be disputed claims as to who owns it. Of course, at this late date anyone with first-hand knowledge is dead so getting an accurate story will be all-but-impossible.

 

Possibaly before George bought the wreckage it was displayed by the Greater Los Angeles safety council.

Mick

 

@Crazy Steve I agree with you.

I think George just seen it as a side attraction to earn more money and it being car related just made the choice for George.

I would also bet that there was pressure from family to have the car destroyed instead of being paraded around and being made a spectacle, I can also see Hollywood wanting it to quietly put to rest too (maybe even some family pressure there too).

Now I don't see George giving in easily, especially if it meant lost revenue so, as you stated, it being "stolen" solved that problem as I'm sure he would have fought for the value of the car plus "lost" revenue from it being "stolen"...

I also think that's where the "story" of it being dumped off of the back of a truck into the river originated...

..

 

Gotta wonder if it made it to Rudi Klien's in LA, no? I'm sure in his tenure he'd been asked dozens of times.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/ent...llion-dollar-classics-left-to-rot/ar-AA1poKQV