Notarized authorization to exhume and autopsy the body of Lee Harvey Oswald

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Notarized authorization from the Dallas County Medical Examiner Office, dated August 14, 1980, to exhume and autopsy the body of Lee Harvey Oswald, buried in Rose Hill Memorial Park in Fort Worth, Texas. The form is authorized and signed by Dr. Charles S. Petty, Chief Dallas County Medical Examiner, to direct Paul J. Groody, undertaker for Oswald's funeral, to disinter the body. Handwritten in black ink are the signatures of Dr. Petty and the notary public, and the dates. Near the notary public's signature is an embossed notary stamp.

Object Details

Object title:

Notarized authorization to exhume and autopsy the body of Lee Harvey Oswald

Date:

08/14/1980

Terms:

Exhumation

Oswald's corpse

Autopsy

Letters

Oswald, Lee Harvey

Oswald, Marina

Petty, Charles

Groody, Paul

Dallas County Medical Examiner

Rose Hill Cemetery

Dallas

Medium:

Paper

Dimensions:

14 × 8 1/2 in. (35.6 × 21.6 cm)

Credit line:

Dallas County Medical Examiner Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

Object number:

2013.083.0001

Curatorial Note:

The controversial 1981 exhumation of Lee Harvey Oswald was done at the behest of British lawyer and author Michael Eddowes, who theorized that a Soviet imposter took Oswald's place while in Russia and subsequently returned to the United States where he assassinated President Kennedy and, after being shot by Jack Ruby, was buried at Rose Hill Memorial Park in Fort Worth. Tests on the decomposed remains proved, however, that it was indeed Lee Harvey Oswald. - Stephen Fagin, Associate Curator