Coffin Conversations - by dementia

NASHUA, N.H. --A 1959 Cadillac known locally as the "Death Car" was a big draw at an auto auction this month.

The car, which experts say is the lowest-mileage '59 Cadillac in the world, sold for $165,000 at last week's Barrett-Jackson Auction Co.'s car auction in Scottsdale, Ariz.


The blue and white Caddy made news in 1959 when it was found in a Nashua parking lot, with the murdered body of its owner, Maurice Gagnon, inside. The car was parked in a police impound garage for nearly 15 years before being released to Gagnon's family.

The family sold it to John Pfanstiehl of Indian Rocks Beach, Fla., a decade later, and he sold it last week to collector Jim Mangione of Newport Beach, Calif. Pfanstiehl had kept the Caddy in an environmentally controlled garage in Florida.

Gagnon, a flamboyant Rhode Island businessman, was killed in his car by Frederick Martineau and Russell Nelson, who were convicted after a sensational trial and sentenced to hang but never did. They were released from prison in 1973, a year after the death penalty was overturned.

With copies of 1959 Nashua Telegraph newspapers and other memorabilia in its open trunk, the sparkling Caddy was one of the major attractions at the weeklong auction, Pfanstiehl said.

"I talked with thousands of people, thousands . . . they were fascinated by its history, but also because it's 100 percent original and has such low mileage," he said.


The odometer read 2,224 miles.

via Boston.com