Folks Of Interest When I was in school 60+ years ago "I heard" about....

somebody that had a brand new Corvette and died in it!
The guy wasn't found for a couple months and the smell was horrible.....
The family had it for sale for 50 bucks and no takers because of the terrible smell that would NOT come out.....
I never saw the car or knew anybody that bought it.
Schoolyard folk lore????
You guys ever hear the same 'bologna-tale'??(almost like the hook left on the passenger side door handle..........we told our dates)
6sally6
(hey......its almost halloween)

 

I thought he froze to death and the price was $300 ... but the car was 3-4 years old.

 

You guys are both wrong. In my neighborhood we heard he was a fighter plane mechanic in the Korean War and he somehow walked into a propeller on the flight line. His low mileage 1953 Corvette was still in the garage 15 years later and mom would not sell it.

 

Myth busters did this with a late model corvette and some pigs, the look on the guys face they bought it off when they told him what they were doing with it was hilarious.

 

Yes, Halloween is just around the corner. Here is a thread that I like reading.
Haunted cars : https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...he-grave-to-life.404262/page-11#post-13797625

 

The classic Corvette story where the married guy runs off with his girlfriend and he calls his wife and says to sell the Corvette and send him the money, so she did, the enclosed note said " I did what you asked me to do, heres your $50.00".

 

I first heard that story in high school in 1973.

 

Had an older native gent who lived by himself and didn't go to town or associate with many people die in his Pontiac about 15 miles from me about 40 years back who wasn't found for a couple of months and a friend ended up towing the car into his wrecking yard and the only thing he saved was the engine and trans before he crushed it. I'm thinking the thing stunk so bad that he hauled it out back and burned it out to try to get rid of the smell and that didn't totally work.

When I was working at the Pontiac Dealer in Yakima in 1978 we had a 73 Lemans out in the bull pen that was traded in by a native dude who hauled the salmon he caught in the trunk just by tossing them in the trunk. That car reeked of rotten fish and sat out back with all the windows down and the keys in it. We would have to move it around once in a while and one day the owner had to get in it and move it to get to a customer's car. He walks back in the shop and asks "who owns that Green Lemans out there?" one of the service writers say "you do, they took it on trade in". Not 30 minutes later a tow truck from a local wrecking yard was there to pick it up.

 

It was a '59 and an elderly mother found her son dead in it. She tried to sell it
but there were no takers at any price. No idea what the poor old lady did with it.
Maybe sold it to Resurrection Mary who haunted the streets of the southwest
side of Chicago and went dancing at the Willowbrook Ballroom in her white
gown.

 

Don't forget about the "If you can beat me, you can eat me" Corvette and Camaro stories

 

Had a friend who worked at a new car dealership in Wisconsin back in the 1960"s. A older guy drove his new car to his summer cabin ,and died in it out front of the cabin while parked with the engine running.When it ran out of gas the car died too. A deer hunter stumbled on to it in November.They towed it back to the dealership where they removed,and replaced the entire interior,and let the car air out. Guess it got resold on the used market.

 

Have heard this story a hundred times since 1973.Ever one who tells it thinks I havent heard it before! Just for the record the Korean war ended on July 27th 1953. Was the first Vette even in a dealership yet?

 

What a bleak thread!

 

I bought a pan head Harley from the widow of a guy that had died trying to start it...

 

The Corvette was introduced in January of 1953, and GM was looking for press and sold (or gave ?) the early cars to celebrities. But surely some must have gotten into the hands of others, so why not a guy in the military?

 

I always heard it was Army surplus motor cycles still in crates.

 

No your all wrong it was a brand new 1963 Corvette, but I have forgotten the price

 

Back in the 70s I was into 66-67 Fairlanes and I found a nice GTA in a junk yard with nothing wrong with it . I asked the yard guy why the car was there since it wasn't very old. He said the guy who owned it blew his brains out in it and no one would buy it so the family junked it. I already had 3 so I passed on it.

 

Friend of mine was in college back in the mid-1960's in San Diego when he and his roommate found another place to live. Gave their landlord plenty of notice, but he refused to return their deposit. They were walking on the beach and discussing the situation when they came upon a dead sea lion. They got a blanket, wrapped up the sea lion, and put it in the trunk of their landlords brand new Buick convertible, which was parked in the driveway. The landlord was out of town for several days, and, well, the last time they saw the car it was being towed, and all the windows were fogged up...

 

Now, I graduated in 1959 and I had heard the story in school so it had to be a '59 or older. I think it's still for sale.

 

Hello,

Of all places in our Bixby Knolls and So Cal cruising grounds, there was one spot (an old stucco house across the street on an industrial complex) that had a ton of hot rods and cruisers out every weekend. It was not in Bixby Knolls, but just over the PCH bridge over the L.A. River and L.B. Freeway from our Westside Long Beach house. It was closer to the old trailer compound that we lived from 1946 to 48. It was considered located in the “eastside” of Long Beach.

During the Halloween season, it was a Friday/Saturday hot rod traffic jam as we all knew where it was. The story was that someone had a bad incident inside of the house and for years, it was for sale, but no takers. By the time we were in the high school teen years, the story’s power grew and we had to see it for ourselves.

Driving by on Friday/Saturday night were sure to get the hot rod/cruisers interests, especially on “date” night. Yes, girls were insistent on driving by or even parking across the street to check it out. No one in their right mind wanted to go up to the door for any reason. Some walked on the sidewalk, but never stopped. it was chuckles galore.

If one stayed in the car across the street, (no one wanted to park on the curb in front of the house) the shadows inside moved with each passing car. There were some people that actually used their Appleton spot lights to go over the windows and driveway. So, we all saw shadows inside, but we all knew the house was empty.

Of course, older guys/girls from previous high school classes had different stories about a deadly crime taking place or a bad robbery or two. No one knew the exact story, but as the word of mouth spread fast with each incoming driving, teenage class of kids, it was a mandatory cruise-by or actual stop across the street.

Jnaki

No one bothered the teens parked across the street as it was on the industrial building side. But, the stories in the papers did nothing to stop the influx of teens and others that wanted to see what they wanted to see. an empty house with some character made the teenage minds do wonderful circles.

What was the real story? For these past years, it has its own history and the house still stands. In 2017 after visiting the newly opened Lion’s Dragstrip Museum, I took the same street and drove right by the house to get past some heavy traffic on PCH through that portion of the neighborhood.

It was not quite as eerie as those teenage years in the dark with a shivering girl in the front seat or another couple in the back seat telling stories about the mysterious house. Local legends last and Halloween is the season for anxious and fun loving teenagers.

It was a different "Dark side to hot rodding and cruising..." especially for the locals.

 

It happens. We had a tech at work return to the shop at the end of the night. Backed his rig into a parking space, then died in the seat of a massive heart attack. Warehouseman going into work at 5:00AM noticed the truck door open, took a look and had a hell of a surprise.

This all reminds me of this story. Lady died in her car/in her garage and wasn't discovered for 5-6 years;

https://www.cnn.com/2014/03/07/us/michigan-mummified-body-found/index.html

 

And it was supposed to be a Corvette and turned out to be a Corvair

 

Makes a guy wonder if anyone noticed the water and electric bills weren't getting paid, not to mention the taxes.

 

We had an O/T car towed into the shop i used to work at and the guy shot himself in it ,it sat outback for a few days the insurance appraiser show up looked in the window at the million of flies in the window never even opened the door and wrote the car off right then

 

It was a challenger in my area!

 

Story told recently. Man's Corvette gets restored after his death and his ashes were mixed into the resin.

 

In my neck of the woods back in'57, the car was a new T-Bird. A man supposedly drove into the mountains, took his life sitting in the car, he wasn't found for some time. The man who purchased the car for a steal, had it thoroughly cleaned, and re-upholstered. When the engine was finally started, and warmed up, the smell returned. In 1964, I do remember seeing a new Falcon Sprint in the local wrecking yard, that was a that was a similar situation. Me and some buddies were looking for parts, and saw the car sitting there. I didn't go near it, but my pal Mel Smith, walked over to it, and with the driver's side window down, he said he said the smell would choke a maggot off a gut wagon !

 

Said vehicles mentioned were born evil from the line.

 

Marty
This is a pretty mild one but in the early 70's a mutual acquaintance of ours told about going to the wrecking yard, not sure what he was after but he did have a 55 T-bird.
He said he was laying on his back reaching under the dash and a finger came falling out.
Pretty minor compared to these other "tales" but it made this kid a bit squeamish whenever I went to the wrecking yard and pawing around in a car.