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Life Imitates Art – Truman Capote’s Ashes Sold for $44,000

12103664664_35e910375b_hHere’s a story which should sound familiar to Star Trek fans.

The Guardian reports that Truman Capote’s mortal remains were sold at auction this week:

The ashes of In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany’s author Truman Capote have been sold at auction in Los Angeles for $43,750 (£33,800).

Kept in a carved Japanese wooden box, the ashes belonged to the late Joanne Carson, wife of the former Tonight Show host Johnny Carson. According to vendor Julien’s Auctions, Carson, who died last year, said that owning the ashes “brought her great comfort”. She and Capote were good friends, and the celebrated writer died of liver disease at her mansion in Bel-Air in 1984, at the age of 59.

Along with his ashes, the clothes Capote was wearing at the time of his death were sold for $6,400 and two lots of his prescription pill bottles went for a combined $9,280.

The SF tv show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine introduced or reinterpreted many alien species during its seven-year run in the 1990s. One of those species, the Ferengi, were ultra-capitalists with the most ridiculous funeral ritual DS9's creators could think of: after someone died, their remains were sold as collectibles. (Click on the lead photo for an explanation, and a show prop.)

Suddenly that ritual doesn’t seem so improbable.

P.S. Did this story remind anyone else of a certain scene in The Addams Family?

image by ironypoisoning

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Comments


Peter Winkler September 27, 2016 um 12:49 pm

Why anybody would spend more money than many people earn in a year to acquire someone’s remains falls into my personal "never ceases to amaze me" category." Also, it’s morbid and creepy as hell. Eww!


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