The "JFK Ambulance"Tuesday, April 19, 2011 5:14 PM
From: "Stephen Lichtman" <stevel200@att.net>
To:
laurena.davis@gjsentinel.com
Ms. Davis,
I know that PCS Member Darren Bedford has already contacted you, and provided you with a link to the Professional Car Society website and our discussion about the validity of the so-called "JFK Ambulance", which now resides in Grand Junction at the Allen Museum. I'd like to follow up on that if I may.
Your newspaper report seems to state that it is a fact that the ambulance in the Allen Museum is the real "JFK Ambulance" and that all other information are just "theories". As you may have seen in the discussion, we have discovered through significant research just what the facts and theories of this matter are. I realize the discussion thread is quite long and, in some cases, rather rambling. So I'd like to take the opportunity to summarize the information we found in our research.
Our club is a historic club dedicated to the history of "professional cars" - that is, ambulances, hearses, limousines, funeral flower cars, and similar vehicles (not police cars or taxis - while they are cars used in a profession, the automotive definition of a professional car is as I stated). We are an international club of historical hobbiests - our's is more than just a car club where we get together to show our cars and hang out. There is significant history in our unusual vehicles, and we document that history.
In the 1980's, one of our members began to research the fate of the ambulance which transported President Kennedy's body in 1963. Through his US Congressman, he received a letter from the US Navy stating the car had been transferred to the John F. Kennedy Library in Massachusetts, and it was subsequently scrapped.
Using that information as a basis for our research earlier this year, I contacted the Kennedy Library. They have significant documentation to prove this was the case, including photos and sworn affidavits from people who were witness to the vehicle being scrapped. Indeed, they have records dating back to the early 1970's showing that the correct ambulance was set aside for preservation and intended to be destroyed, so as to prevent it from becoming a morbid curiosity. As the Kennedy Library is part of the National Archives, the veracity of these photos and documents is unquestionable.
If your reporters would like to contact the Kennedy Library to verify these facts, they may. All these documents are public information available to anyone on request.
The theory presented by Ms. Allen, Barrett-Jackson, and the previous owner, Dr. Jensen, is that the actual ambulance was not destroyed, but rather, spent 20+ years in a shipping container in the California desert before being "discovered" by an earlier owner. Dr. Jensen bought the car and attempted to resell it in less than a year, though he was hampered by the lack of documentation. The theory continues that he somehow found the proper documentation and offered the car for sale again.
The problem is that the documentation provided with the sale is not proper, and quite certainly falsified. The "documents" include a letter from the Surgeon General of the Navy requesting the link between the serial number and Navy ID number, addressed to Superior Coach (the builder of the ambulance), and a reply from Superior Coach connecting the serial number of his car to the Navy ID number seen in period photos of the actual ambulance. The problems with these letters are that the signer of the Navy letter was not Surgeon General of the Navy at the time, having retired from the Navy in 1961, two years before the assassination. And the reply from Superior Coach to the Navy was written on stationary bearing a logo of the company that was retired in the 1950's in favor of a more modern logo. It's hard to imagine them replying to such an "important" request using obsolete stationary.
In addition, the data plate on the ambulance in question, which bears the vehicle serial number and Navy ID number, is not the correct data plate for that vehicle. The correct data plate had the Superior Coach company name pre-printed on the plate. The data plate on the car is a generic plate not used on these vehicles, reproductions of which are readily available for sale on the internet. Also, the ambulance was said to be "unrestored", yet the lettering on the doors of the ambulance does not match original photos in size or style (font), and also includes periods after the "U.S." which the original photos show it did not have.
In summary, the theory is that the previous owners "miraculously" found this historic car previously sold as surplus and/or assumed to have been scrapped, and offered it for sale to the highest bidder, who now charges folks to come see it. The facts are that the car was specifically set aside for historic reasons and scrapped to prevent a "circus" atmosphere, similar to that which currently surrounds the car in the Allen Museum. All the facts can be documented by the National Archives and Kennedy Library. All the "documentation" provided with the sale has been proven to be false.
The research our club members did to discover the facts were presented on the internet. Several national media outlets, including Fox News and Bloomberg News, picked up on the story, and doing their own investigating, agreed with and reported our findings. So we are not just hobbiests with a wild theory, the facts we presented from the Kennedy Library have been verified by major news organizations.
My personal opinion is that Ms. Allen, and the previous owner, are trying to gain financially off the memory of a tragic event in US history and off the memory of the revered President Kennedy. And that is, itself, a travesty.
I'm sorry your newspaper chose to report only one side of the story, the side presented by a wealthy local resident, and did not do due diligence in researching the facts of the story. I do hope you can do better.
I will also say that I visited Grand Junction several years ago, and found it to be a lovely city. I enjoyed my stay there.
Thanks for your time, feel free to contact me if you have further questions on this matter or if you'd like me to provide copies of the documents we received from the Kennedy Library.
Take care.
Steve Lichtman
Board of Directors Member, Professional Car Society
Mount Airy, MD
The Doc has them so they have to be!
