The Car That Murdered James Dean

James Dean died at age 24 when he was at the peak of his success.

James Dean suffered an accident in his Porsche 550 while going to a race in the city of Salina. From the day of his death, strange things happened to the remains of his car. In 1960, the body of the vehicle disappeared.

Almost 50 years after his departure, James Dean, who still leads women to delirium, was an American actor who starred in such famous films as "Rebel Without a Cause" and became the idol of an entire generation.

On September 30, 1955, the "Golden Boy", as it was called, died at age 24 in a traffic accident aboard his Porsche 550, at the height of his artistic career.

Dean participated in auto competitions, but the day he would debut his new "machine", the tragedy happened. It was one of the best-known sports in history, with a 4-cylinder engine of 1,500 cubic meters, with 100 horsepower per liter of displacement.

The fans refused to believe the idol's disappearance and said that he was still alive; Would have been disfigured after the accident. What actually happened after the crash were strange things to the owners of the remaining pieces of Dean's car. Deaths, rare accidents and, most absurd of all, the Porsche 550, nicknamed by Dean of "Little Bastard", simply disappeared. A curse? Pure chance?

James Dean had decided to take the car on a platform to the race spot. But such an idea was discarded, as the owner wanted to get an idea of ​​how the car would behave when facing its first challenge on the road. But his friends had warned him about the danger he would have to run a high-powered machine.

Accompanied by Wuetherich, after an hour's drive, they came to a junction near the town of Cholame - James spotted another car in the opposite direction. "He has to stop, he has to see us," Dean shouted. But it was not so. Dean crashed into a 1950 Ford Custom Tudor model driven by Donald Turnupseed, who came in the opposite direction and did not notice the presence of the silvery Porsche.

Dean's chaperone broke one leg and suffered multiple bruises and cuts throughout the body, but the star died on the way to the hospital. The driver of the other car bit off and said he did not see Dean's car approaching.

But the tragedy did not end with the death of Dean .... Around the remains of this Porsche has occurred a series of stories that always carry the same question. Would James Dean's car have some kind of curse?

The insurance company sold what was left of the car; George Barkuis, the driver who drove the truck that went to get the "broken" car, died when the Porsche fell on him at the same place as the accident.

A Hollywood car specialist named George Barris bought the car for $ 2,500. When the car arrived in Barris' garage, it slipped and fell on one of the mechanics who unloaded it, breaking its legs. With much fear, Barris began to separate the parts of the car that could be resold, which would not be difficult. Barris said he never had good sensations near 550, on the contrary, but he believed they were just superstitions.

But his suspicions were confirmed in October 1956, when the person who had bought the engine from Dean's car (Troy Mc Henry, a Beverly Hills doctor) died by using it for the first time in his car.

Soon after, another of his clients - William Eschrid, who bought the vehicle exchange - slammed the car violently, yet survived and told that his automobile simply stopped abruptly without explanation.

The wheels were sold to a young man who a week later was involved in an accident due to a defect in the wheels that belonged to Dean's Porsche. But the story did not end in this fact. In an international race, a boy attempted to steal the wheel of the Porsche from Barris (who had previously been Dean) and cut off his arm.

Trying to get rid of the bad luck of the car, Barris lent to the California police what was left of the 550's body, to use it as an example of carelessness in traffic. Before the authorities took him, the garage where he was stored caught fire and mysteriously Dean's Porsche was saved, unlike the rest of the cars parked there that were completely destroyed by the flames.

The day the car was placed at an exhibit in Sacramento, he fell off the bookshelf and injured a teenager. When the car was transported to an exhibition near the town of Salinas, the truck skidded on the runway and crashed. The driver died.

In 1958, Barris loaned the Porsche 550 body to be displayed in a car safety sample in Miami, Florida. When the car was put on top of the truck to be taken to Los Angeles mysteriously disappeared. It never reached its destination. Even today the whereabouts of "Little Bastard" is completely unknown.

Curse or coincidence? The luck of the Dean escort was not the best either. In 1981, Wuetherich died in a car accident in Germany while driving a Honda.