Little Bastard - The Cursed Car

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Introduction -

It's everyone's dream to buy a new car especially if that new car was a supercar. But what if that car turned out to be cursed? Yeah, that's exactly what happened with James Dean's new supercar, back in 1955. People still believe that James Dean's death happened due to his cursed car and that's what we are going to discuss with some interesting facts. 

About James Dean -

So, for those who don't know, James Dean was an American actor and he wasn't just any actor. He was nominated two times for the Academy Awards. He was also considered the greatest male gay icon of all time due to his presumed bisexuality. In 1955, James Dean's movie 'Rebel Without A Cause' was a hot topic and he had become a celebrated actor during that time. But rather than acting, James Dean was more interested in racing cars and he had participated in many races to win them.

Dean was quite serious regarding his racing career and he purchased a Porsche 550 Spyder which was not only beautiful in looking but was also quite a fast car. Dean was in love with that car but only after a few days of having bought it, Dean died in a car crash with it. 

Upon listening to this, it seems like a simple car accident. Then, why do people think otherwise? Well, there are many secrets behind this which we are going to discuss further.

The Warning -

So this whole incident starts with British actor, Alec Guinness, who was in Los Angeles for his first Hollywood movie in 1955. Alec Guinness is best known for playing the wise sage Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars movie. Alec revealed his conversation with James Dean on BBC's Parkinson Talk Show many years later.

He said that he met James Dean in a restaurant on 23rd September 1955, mere days before James Dean's death on 30th September. James Dean had proudly shown his new car to him. Upon seeing the car, Alec Guinness felt suddenly uncomfortable like something had taken over him, and said in an almost different voice, 

'Look, I won't join your table unless you want me to, but I must say something: Please do not get into that car, because if you do' — and I looked at my watch — and I said, 'if you get into that car at all, it's now Thursday, 10 p.m. and by 10 p.m. next Thursday, you'll be dead if you get into that car'".

Upon listening to Alec's warning, James Dean laughed and didn't take it seriously. In fact, even Alec Guinness apologized for saying such a peculiar thing. He asked Dean not to take it the wrong way and they parted ways.

Since Dean didn't take the warning seriously, in exactly one week on 30th September, Thursday, James Dean had a fatal car accident with his new supercar and he died on the spot. Dean had given a name to his new car which was, 'Little Bastard' and this whole incident was quite shocking since Alec had already warned him about it.

The Aftermath -

 Now after this incident, a very shocking thing came out. Due to the accident, the car was twisted wreak but somehow the engine didn't have a scratch on it. Other than this, along with Dean, a German mechanic, Rolf Wütherich, who helped maintain the car, was also involved in this accident. He was in the passenger seat with Dean and had fortunately survived the accident.

However, due to this incident, Rolf sustained heavy injuries on his head and legs. The incident affected Rolf so much that in the following years, Rolf even tried to kill himself and his wife, and this was his trauma. In 1981, Rolf too died in a drink-and-drive accident.

Many people believe that on 30th September 1955, Rolf was the one who was driving the car rather than James Dean but this is contradicted as Bill Hickman, a stunt coordinator, was following behind James Dean in his car as they were headed to Salinas.

With this whole incident, another thing is joined as exactly a month ago, James Dean had done a campaign related to over-speeding and he said to not over-speed as it can end up killing us too. Now look, James Dean too died by over-speeding. It is also said that he had even received a ticket for over-speeding. 

Coming back to Dean's car, the insurance company had sold it to Dr. William Eschrich and he used the car's parts in different things. Wherever this car's parts were added, all of them were involved in fatal accidents.

Dr. Troy McHenry, a fellow racer, was sold a part of the car and had added it to his car. During a race, his car got unstable and hit a tree due to which Dr. Troy died. Dr. William was also involved in this race and had added Dean's engine to his car.

He too got in an accident but fortunately, he survived with heavy injuries. The other parts of Dean's car were bought by George Barris, a famous customiser. He had worked on the Batmobile, Gold Rolls Royce, and many more celebrity cars.

George said that the day the Dean's car was unloaded in his garage, it fell on a mechanic's leg which got broken. Other than this, many incidents started happening around the car in the garage due to which Barris decided to not sell the other parts of the car.

He gave the car's scrap to the California Highway Patrol and they decided to put it on display for a 'highway safety' exhibit. Here too the car somehow fell off the display due to which a visitor student's hip bone broke. At this point, the news of the incidents had spread to the public and they started calling it a cursed car.

Now, when anything is bought in public then what happens? Stories start spreading. Something similar happened with this car too. Like, this car's model number was 550 and it was the 55th car, so this number would be '550-055' which is a palindrome and that is why it is a bad omen.

Well, I didn't know that being a palindrome was a bad omen but these are just theories. Dean's girlfriend, Pier Angeli, said in the press that she too didn't want to sit in that car because, from the first day, she felt bad vibes from it. 

After listening to this, Barris decided that he would destroy the car once and for all, and brought the car back to the garage from the exhibit. But the truck that was transporting the car back somehow skidded on the way and it was such a skid that the car slipped out from the back of the truck and fell on top of the driver, who got heavily injured.

The car got back to the garage and again strange incidents started happening. I mean, Barris's garage got mysteriously set on fire and this car went untouched while many cars and parts got damaged. In garage. this car would automatically get hit but it neither had fuel nor it can be started.

A person had stolen a part of the car and had so many unfortunate incidents where his wife died, he lost his job and now he had a terminal disease. He called Barris to apologize and returned the part to him.

After getting fed up with this car, Barris, during the 1960s, decided to transport the car to some faraway place. But during this transportation, the car suddenly disappeared. Yes, the car just disappeared from inside the truck. A reward worth a million dollars would have been given if anyone found it but failed to do so. 

Until 2015, when it was found in bits of the walls of a museum in Washington. People believe that it was Barris who turned it into bits and plastered it on the walls of the museum with the help of some people so no one could reach it. But there is no evidence to prove it. 

For now, the car is out of people's reach but till now no one has been able to solve its haunting mystery.

Conclusion -

So now that you guys have learned about James Dean's cursed car 'Little Bastard', what are your opinions on this, was this all just a coincidence, or this car was actually cursed? If this car was cursed, was it cursed before or after Dean's death? Or was Dean's spirit attached to it after the accident? Why did this car give negative vibes to people? What would happen if someone got their hands on this car's parts? 

Well, do comment on your opinions because I would love to read them. Personally, I think the car was cursed before James Dean's death due to people getting bad vibes from it but I have no idea how and have no explanation for it. Anyway, that is my opinion and you guys are free to have yours.

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This is it, guys. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Please tell me if I was wrong somewhere in the comment section. Also a question for you guys: Did you have any spooky incidents during this festival season?  Tell me in the comment section.

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Peace out ✌️.