BP-2026.006.1
Little Bastard
- Claim
- 5 of 5
Irreversible harm to the body, to a life, or to its continuation. - Evidence
- 2 of 5
One retelling, publication or sale listing. - Provenance
- 0 of 3
The object cannot be produced.
These three figures are kept separate and are never combined into a single score. How grave the claim is, what it rests on, and whether the object can be traced are different questions. How the register reads them.
Asserted
Accounts attributed to a source. The register does not adopt them.
That it caused a death in the household. The car in which James Dean was killed in September 1955 is said to have carried its misfortune into the parts salvaged from it. Two racing drivers who fitted its engine and transmission to their own cars are said to have been killed and injured in the same event; its tyres are said to have blown out simultaneously on another car; a bystander is said to have been injured when the shell fell from a display; and a man who tried to remove the steering wheel is said to have broken his arm.
- C14
fire or destruction of property
- C20
accident or injury
- C27
death
- I14
resists removal
- T2
passes by contact
- T5
divides with the object
- H13
present at a death
index v0.8: Present at a death or violent crime
- H21
associated with a named legend or figure
reported by: by five identifiable people since 1956
Recorded
Established by the register, or received with the object.
File
- Register number
- BP-2026.006.1
- Entry type
- Object entry
- Opened
- 2026-09-16
- Coded against
- Claim Index v0.8
Object
- Type
- motor car, Porsche 550 Spyder
- Materials
- aluminium, steel, leather
- Date
- 1955
- Origin
- Germany
- Whereabouts
- the object cannot be produced. Last recorded in 1960
Custody
No custody record has been entered.
On what grounds
Contemporaneous press reporting of the two racing deaths in 1956. Reported by five identifiable people since 1956. Evidence is capped at 2 in effect: the deaths are recorded, but every account linking them to the car traces back to one man, who bought the wreck and promoted the story through shows, interviews and books for decades.
Counter-indications
What weighs against the claim. These are never subtracted from a figure; the lowest applicable ceiling is applied instead.
- CI2
sources conflict on the event
- CI18
the record of ownership breaks
- CI23
the reporter had a commercial interest in it
The car is said to have disappeared in 1960 during transport from Florida to California. The accounts given of the disappearance differ — a lorry in some versions, a train in others — and no shipping documentation has been produced.
Register findings
- MT7
price record on file
- MT8
replicas marketed
- MT26
exhibited publicly
- MT28
has appeared in film and broadcast
Market
Sold as a wreck in 1955. Parts sold on separately. Replicas marketed.