Coffin of JFK's killer should not have been sold, court rules

A judge says the original casket in which Lee Harvey Oswald was buried belongs to Oswald s brother, not the funeral home that auctioned it off for more than $87,000.

Oswald s brother, Robert, had sued Baumgardner Funeral Home after it sold the pine coffin for $87,468 in 2010.

Lee Harvey Oswald at the Dallas Police Headquarters

A judge on Friday ordered the funeral home to pay the same amount of money in damages to Robert Oswald, saying its conduct was "malicious and wanton."

Lee Harvey Oswald, accused of assassinating President John F. Kennedy, was fatally shot during a jail transfer two days after Kennedy s death. His body was exhumed in 1981, but the casket was too damaged for reburial.

The lawsuit says Oswald s family thought the casket had been thrown away but was actually kept in storage.