former border patrol mark morgan. we wish you a great weekend. good night from new york. >>president kennedy has been assassinated. it's official now. the president is dead. >> even the most hated man in america... [gunshot ] >> [groans] >>lee oswald has been shot! >> ...gets his name on a headstone. >> the stone clearly shows oswald's date of birth and death. >> but how did it become their strange inheritance? >> i thought, "what on earth was a tombstone doing under my mother's house?" >> only after it's stolen, recovered, hidden, found, fought over, and more. >> we're going to take it back to texas, back home to the good ol' boys where it can have a lone star beer and make a lot of noise. >> you really wanted it back, dave. why? >> maybe they messed with the wrong tombstone owner.

[ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] >> i'm jamie colby, and today i'm driving down the street in dallas where president john f. kennedy was shot on that horrible day in november 1963, and i'm about to meet a man who was left with a dilemma tied to jfk's assassin. >> my name is david card. my family's not related in any way to lee harvey oswald, so i don't know what's stranger -- the story of how we inherited his grave marker, or the story of what happened after. >> hi, dave. i'm jamie. >> jamie, david card. such a pleasure to meet you. >> thank you. same here. >> yeah. >> thanks for having me in. great bar. >> since the late 1970s, dave card has owned and operated poor david's pub, a bare-bones downtown dallas club that provides a stage

for up-and-coming singer-songwriters. >> is it here? >> if you're talking about the tombstone, yes, it is here. >> dave doesn't usually keep his strange inheritance in his nightclub. he has a secret hiding place for it, but he's taken it out to show me. >> this is the original tombstone of lee harvey oswald. >> whoa. it feels wrong, but i'm just admiring the carving and everything. i mean, somebody went to a lot of trouble to make this headstone. i do want to hear more of the story. >> well, let's go have a seat and talk about it. >> okay. >> dave tells me that in november 1963, he was back in dallas after a tour of duty with the marine corps. ♪ on friday, november 22nd, president john f. kennedy and his wife, jackie, land at dallas love field. >> i was on the parade route at the corner of oak lawn and lemmon avenue as he drove

by. >> at the time, dave's stepsister, cleo, is a 16-year old sophomore in town. >> did you see it? >> the motorcade drove straight in front of our school on the freeway. >> i was feeling very patriotic at the time. >> though not exactly a jfk fan. >> i waved to him. i don't think he noticed me, but i did whisper under my breath, "i'm still not gonna vote for ya." >> 12:30 p.m. as the motorcade enters dealey plaza, shots ring out. >>it appears as though something has happened in the motorcade route. something, i repeat, has happened. >> how did you learn that the president had been shot? >> it came over the loudspeaker at school. >> what was the reaction? >> silence. nothing but silence. >>it is official now. the president is dead. >> what a horrible thing to happen, an assassination of the president of the united states, and in your city, in your hometown.

>> within hours, police arrest 24-year-old lee harvey oswald, an employee at the texas school book depository building, which overlooks dealey plaza. >> oswald was a suspect almost immediately because people had pointed to him leaving the building, and that's what i remember -- that he was apprehended rather quickly. >> a shocked nation learns he's an ex-marine who defected to the soviet union, married a russian woman, and, then, disillusioned with the soviet system, came home to texas. >> so why do you think he did it? >> i think maybe he thought that this was a point in history where he was doing a great thing and maybe a touch of megalomania.o days aft oswald assassinates jfk... >> i was watching television when it happened. [gunshot] >> [groans] >> i saw this commotion. >>he's been shot!

lee oswald has been shot! >> no one knew immediately what it was that happened, but jack ruby shot and killed him on national television. >> dallas nightclub owner jack ruby murders oswald in the basement of the dallas police department. >> it's just this person stepping forward, making a lunge like that, and then there was a shot... [gunshot] ...and it was unreal. it was incredible. i do remember my mother calling me from michigan and saying, "what's wrong with those people down there in dallas?" and i said, "well, mom. it's not us. we don't hate the president." >> does that mystery behind the shooting of lee harvey oswald add extra significance to having his tombstone? >> i really can't answer that. i just feel like the story behind it is so much bigger than what actually we know.

>> ruby claims he killed oswald to spare kennedy's widow the anguish of having to attend a murder trial in texas. and now the assassin's widow, young daughters, brother and mother must attend his funeral -- the same day as jfk's. oswald has no friends to carry his coffin, so seven reporters step up as pallbearers. it's marguerite oswald, the assassin's mother, who orders the headstone to be placed atop her son's grave. >> it happens to be the tombstone of the most famous assassin in the history of western civilization. >> like many notorious figures in history, oswald's grave attracts the grimly curious. and that presents the next big plot point in this "strange inheritance" story. in november 1967, on the fourth

anniversary of the jfk assassination, oswald's headstone goes missing. the caper is quickly solved when the father of a teenager in bartlesville, oklahoma, turns in his son and a friend. >> they came down as a prank, stole that tombstone, and were showing it off to a bunch of their high school buddies. >> it's returned to marguerite oswald, but never to the cemetery. she substitutes a more austere design. >> on the grave, she put a different headstone that was less attractive and much heavier. >> but what does marguerite do with her son's original, ornate gravestone? and how in the world, decades later, do the heirs in this "strange inheritance" tale end up with it? this is where the stories of two families, the cards and the oswalds, intersect. >> so this was marguerite oswald's house. where did your mom live?

>> she lived across the street in that second duplex from the corner. >> that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question -- what was ronald reagan's secret service code name? was it...? the answer after the break. wind]

>> so, what was reagan's secret service code name?

the answer is "a," rawhide. "trailblazer" was george w. bush, and "scorecard" was dwight d. eisenhower. >> in the mid 1970s, more than a decade after the jfk assassination, dave card's father and stepmother happen to be living in a one-bedroom flat on this block in fort worth, texas. living across the street, a well-known neighbor -- the mother of lee harvey oswald. >> your stepmom and dad end up living across the street from marguerite. >> yes, and they would talk as neighbors occasionally. i don't think they were very close. >> ida card, however, admires marguerite's home, which is a little bigger and nicer than her duplex. >> well, it's a 2-bedroom. it's got a garage out back, a driveway, small porch out front. >> and when marguerite dies in 1981, donald and ida card purchase it.

>> your family bought the house that lee harvey oswald's mother lived in? >> yes, they did. >> for real? hi, cleo. i'm jamie! >> it's now home to dave's stepsister, cleo. >> i'd love to see inside. can i? >> yes! >> thank you. it's not haunted or anything? >> not yet. >> after moving in, cleo and dave's parents do some home improvements. >> it required an electrician to go under the house, through the crawlspace, and he came out, and he made a statement like, "there's a tombstone under there." >> well, that explains what marguerite oswald did with the tombstone after the oklahoma teenage thieves returned it back in 1967. >> the tombstone was about midway, centered, under this bar. >> cleo, what did you think when you first saw the tombstone? >> goodness, i thought, "what on earth was a tombstone doing under my mother's house?"

>> seems marguerite just wanted to secret the stone away, where nobody would think to look. >>the stone was wrapped in heavy plastic, placed behind a brick wall. it clearly shows oswald's date of birth and death. >> the discovery hits dallas tv news. >>the new owner of the residence is mrs. ida card. >> but notice. you only see a photo of the gravestone in this report. there's a reason for that -- ida's dispatched it to a new hiding place. >> in fact, my stepmother was rather paranoid about the publicity that it was generating back then, so she transferred it for safekeeping over to her sister's house. >> that would be ida's sister, billie, and her husband, albert, who also live in fort worth a few miles away. >>it is in a safe location, but they wouldn't tell me, and i didn't ask 'cause i didn't want to know. >> dad never tried to sell it? >> at one point, they did have a family lawyer come over and look at it, and he said,

"hold on to it for a while. it may increase in value." >> and that's just what they do. so the tombstone remains hidden -- in uncle albert and aunt billie's garage -- for decades. even after ida dies in 1994, donald doesn't remove it from his in-laws' custody. but he doesn't forget about it, either. when he passes away in 2001, along with his will, he leaves this handwritten accounting of assets he hands down to dave and brother clifford. and look. right there -- "lee harvey oswald tombstone stored in cleo's aunt's garage to be shared with cleo." it now falls to cleo and dave to figure out what to do with this strangest of inheritances. >> the oswald's didn't even want it. >> it's a rather morbid piece. >> what did you decide? >> we were just gonna leave it there until we came up

with a plan for it. >> they're not the first seemingly drawn to the headstone without quite knowing why. what do you do with lee harvey oswald's headstone? >> did aunt billie's end up being a safe place? >> unfortunately, aunt billie started to experience a little senility. at that time, her son, johnny ragan, offered to take it to his house for safekeeping. >> are you following this? let's review. lee harvey oswald's original headstone is placed on his grave in 1963. it's stolen in 1967, then returned to oswald's mother, who hides it under her house. in 1981, it's discovered by the new owners of the home, dave and cleo's parents, who then store it at cleo's aunt and uncle's house for safekeeping. it stays there, even after dave and cleo inherit it in 2001.

then around 2004, after aunt billie goes senile, her son, cleo's cousin johnny, hides it at his house. >> so johnny became the custodian, and were you and dave okay with that? >> yes. >> he was a trusted relative. >> underscore "was." >> johnny went incommunicado. holly said, "i haven't seen that tombstone in 20 years, and this is none of your business." >> that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you... the answer in a moment. ♪ limu emu and doug.

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[ wind howls ] >> so... it's "b," andrew jackson. in january 1835, a mentally deranged painter named richard lawrence tried to shoot jackson at close range. old hickory responded by beating the would-be assassin with his cane. >> it's 2008 in dallas/fort worth, and, oddly enough, dave card and his siblings have never actually taken possession of the strange object they inherited seven years before -- lee harvey oswald's tombstone. cleo's cousin, johnny ragan, and his wife, holly, are supposedly hiding it for the heirs. then... >> unfortunately, johnny passes away in some form of an industrial accident, which involved a camper extension.

>> somehow or another, he got caught between the wall in his shop and the expansion that goes out from an rv. >> when they found his body, he was lying there crushed between the camper extension and the wall. >> oh, my gosh. >> now, how that happened is a mystery. >> despite the odd circumstances, the police call johnny's death accidental. we requested an interview with holly, but through her attorney, she declined. >> after a certain amount of respectful time, cleo went and asked holly about the tombstone and where it was. >> was everything okay? >> holly disavowed any knowledge of where it was. >> so you said, "sorry for your loss. by the way, i'd like to pick up our tombstone," and she said? >> she did not know where it was, that she didn't know what johnny had done with it. >> did you believe her? >> i had no reason to distrust her at that time.

>> holly said, "this is none of your business." we thought maybe johnny had stored it somewhere else and that eventually it would surface. >> did it surface? >> yes, it did. >> and nowhere near dallas. >> my brother, clifford card, was surfing the internet, and up came oswald's tombstone, being displayed on a website in illinois. >> how did it get to illinois? >> well... >> it didn't walk there. >> next, the going price of an assassin's headstone and the cost of getting it back. when we return. what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com.

(sfx:birds singing, distant dog barking) (sfx:footsteps in wet cement) (sfx:birds singing, distant dog barking) hi hi ♪(whistling tune: "don't worry, be happy")♪ [ wind howls ] >> now back to 'strange inheritance." >> it's 2011, and a family of texans are trying to locate their strange inheritance -- the

gravestone of john f. kennedy's assassin, lee harvey oswald. it was supposed to be at the home of a cousin in fort worth, but he's dead, and his wife, holly, is telling them to go away. where else can they go but the web? >> my brother, clifford card, was surfing the internet, and up came oswald's tombstone, being displayed on a website in illinois. >> how did it get to illinois? >> well... >> it didn't walk there. >> wondering what the heck happened to his strange inheritance, dave has his attorney call the man in illinois. >> it turned out that holly had sold it to him. my lawyer asked him, "so you bought this from holly ragan, didn't you?," and he says, "well, yes i did." >> directly? >> yeah. >> the man, who runs a small museum, claims to have paid holly $45,000 after holly showed him a document that she said proved she had inherited

the stone after her husband, johnny's, death in 2008. >> the cards were going to have to take legal action in order to get back what they truly believe, and i believe, was rightfully theirs. >> but before dave's lawyers let him unleash a costly lawsuit, they make one more call just to make sure the oswald family won't now claim the $45,000 headstone really belongs to them. >> the legal representative of the oswald estate was contacted, and there was no expression of interest in making a claim. >> but dave card is ready to press his. >> after a year of trying to resolve the issue, we finally filed a lawsuit. >> you really wanted it back, dave. why? >> i wanted it back, one, because it was ours. secondly, because of what it represents -- a dark time in the history of the united states.

>> but dave admits there may be one more overriding reason. >> maybe they messed with the wrong tombstone owner. [ chuckles ] >> after a dallas judge orders the two sides into mediation, they settle the case. >> how much money did it cost you to get the tombstone back? >> it was a bundle. >> we're talking six figures? >> we are talking six figures, yes. we have finally recovered the original lee harvey oswald tombstone. >> in august 2015, dave drives up to illinois with a friend to, for the first time, take possession of his strange inheritance. >> we're going to take it back to texas, back home to the good ol' boys where it can have a lone star beer and make a lot of noise. >> after that, well, dave still doesn't know exactly what he's going to do with it. >> justice prevailed. >> maybe he'll sell it.

>> so, that's the way it is at the moment. >> maybe he'll display it. maybe he'll -- well, that's the dilemma, that as i said at the beginning of this story, dave's inherited. it's the same one faced by marguerite oswald... >> i think we got the state line of texas coming up here soon, don't we? >> ...those oklahoma teenagers... >> yes, we do. >> ...donald and ida card and the rest. >> right now, we're in texas. >> what do you do with lee harvey oswald's tombstone... >> ♪ hallelujah >> say bye now. >> bye now. >> ...except put it back in a secret place until you decide? ♪ if you're wondering about that gold cross on oswald's headstone, he was raised lutheran, but his mother couldn't secure a christian minister for his funeral. after the assassination, oswald, a fervent marxist, told police interrogators, "what religion am i?

i have no faith." i'm jamie colby. thanks for watching "strange inheritance." >> it's a collection most any girl would die for... >> it's almost too much barbie for a girl. >> ...a houseful of dolls from all over the world. >> you couldn't even walk into the room. there were thousands. >> so what makes this inheritance so strange? [ clockwork music playing ] say hello to the heir. >> "mother, why -- me being a boy, why was it dolls?" >> she had a dying wish. >> "please don't throw these dolls away. find a home for them." and that's what i want to do. >> but does the man have a plan? >> they call me the "doll boy." [ laughs ] >> how's that working out for you? >> i thought, "you can call me whatever you want. i've got a pretty good inheritance here, boys." [ door creaks ]

[ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] ♪ >> i'm jamie colby, and i'm driving into portales, new mexico, along the texas border and near the cannon air force base. you know, the welcome sign here says it all -- "17,000 friendly people (and three or four old grouches). i'm here to meet a man whose strange inheritance certainly called for that kind of sense of humor. >> my name is john wall. my mother, irene wall, passed at 90 years old. she had left me with a very large collection that meant a lot to her, but i didn't know what to do. >> great. so nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you. welcome to my home. well, so, what do think of all

these dolls? >> wow! >> this is kind of the way it was in my mom's house, only there were so many more. >> johnny, i feel like i'm 8 years old again with all these dolls. >> well, i have the reputation around here as the "doll boy" but i don't know anything about them. >> looking around, you have earned that reputation. what are you going to do? >> the goal of my mom's and mine was to find a home for them, and that's what i want to do. >> the collection meant the world to john's mother because of the world she grew up in. >> december 7th, 1941. a date which will live in infamy. >> when the u.s. enters world war ii, 20-year-old irene jennings is teaching high school in her hometown of dora, new mexico. she's barely older than her

students. >> this is when she graduated from new mexico state university. >> now, for the time, graduating from college is very important for a woman. >> very important back then. very few got to be there. >> of all the inheritances i've learned about, your family has suffered so much pain. it started with your mother's brother. >> yes. >> tell me about him. >> he was drafted after pearl harbor, and they were sent to the philippines. >> irene's brother vernon is one of more than 60,000 american and philippine soldiers captured by the japanese on the bataan peninsula. they're forced to march 80 miles in scorching heat without food, water, or medical care. thousands die of exhaustion. some are executed by the japanese. did your mom think that her brother was going to come home? >> they always had hopes. >> many of the boys in irene's

classroom are eager to sign up and fight. their way of assuring her that they will return is to promise to bring her something back. like a doll, maybe. your mom was such a beloved teacher that they brought her these dolls. >> even back then, mother was known to be a doll lover, and the students would bring them to her. >> the returning vets do bring irene dolls from all over the world. rare geisha dolls from japan, lifelike celluloid dolls from germany, and beautiful duchess dolls from france. for irene, whose hardscrabble youth left little time for fantasy, her foreign dolls open a window to the big wide world. >> my grandparents were sharecroppers. toys was not one of those luxury items they had a lot of. and i think once she become financially able, she had those feelings that, "i love dolls, and i think that's what i would

like to collect." >> when the war ends in 1945, irene finally gets a letter saying her brother vernon died in captivity. >> he had died during this death march deal, and was buried in the philippines. >> in a twist of fate, this tragic news brings irene in contact with the man she would eventually marry, a man who nearly starved to death in a japanese prison camp. >> when my dad came home from the service, he felt he owed it to the families of roosevelt county to go around and talk to them about their loved ones that they lost. and my mother's brother was one of them, and then that's where they got acquainted. >> as she collected all these dolls, what did your dad say? >> my dad let my mother have a lot of reins. irene was a very keen woman. >> john wall jr. is their only

child. he grows up, marries a hometown gal, starts a family of his own, and gets a job as a groundskeeper at new mexico state university. over the years, irene's ever-growing collection is a marvel to her great-niece lori davis. >> every year we went over there, there were more dolls in her house. >> there was campbell's soup dolls, flintstone dolls, dolls like shirley temple. >> irene invests thousands of dollars into collecting a wide variety of dolls. then, in 1977, her husband, john sr., dies of respiratory failure at the age of 63. irene's obsession with dolls only grows after her husband's death. that worries her little sister juanita. >> i'd say, "irene, do you know what a mess your house is in?" and she'd say, "it's my house."

>> juanita asks her daughter emma and her granddaughter lori to go to irene's house and conduct a head count. a census might be more like it. are their hundreds of dolls? a thousand? many thousands? >> i was shocked, and i know lori was... >> oh, my gosh. >> ...really shocked. >> that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. the world's priciest doll is the $6 million clockwork l'oiseleur doll. what makes it so special -- it was owned by marie antoinette, it was the barbie prototype, or because it has thousands of moving parts? the answer in a moment.

>> so, what makes the $6 million clockwork l'oiseleur doll so special? the answer is "c." the four-foot tall french doll is also known as the bird trainer, and has more than 2,300 gilt or steel parts. >> john wall's mother, irene, had always promised to leave him with a strange inheritance -- her extensive collection of dolls. maybe promise is the wrong word. threaten is more like it. didn't you ever wish your mom bought half as many dolls and put the other half in a bank account for you? >> oh, yes. it would have been sure enough easier. but, then again, maybe she wanted my inheritance to be a

bit of a challenge. i don't know. >> by 1990, no one knows exactly how many dolls irene's collected in her house in portales, new mexico, and she shows no sign of slowing down. irene's younger sister juanita enlists her daughter emma and granddaughter lori to visit aunt irene and, while they're there, find out just how many dolls she has. >> i was shocked, and i know lori was... >> oh, my gosh. >> ...really shocked. the first room we tackled, you had to suck up, yes... >> [ laughs ] >> ...to walk around. >> right. >> we knocked some dolls off while we were counting. >> i was like, "oh, my gosh. i don't know if this is collecting or hoarding." i've never seen anybody with that many dolls. >> emma and lori are flabbergasted to see dolls packed like sardines occupying every room in the house. >> we're counting one by one, and we're just overwhelmed.

>> the final tally for irene's collection? over 5,000 dolls! it's time for an intervention. >> enough was enough on the doll collection. i had to sit down and speak with her about the matter. and it was hard. >> irene is fiercely opposed to just throwing away her lifelong collection. next-door neighbor suzy nuchols comes to the rescue. >> i do a lot of ebay, and so he knew that because we're neighbors, and we just decided, "let's do it." and we went to his mom's house, and it was full of dolls. everywhere you looked. and so we started just looking them up and just getting an idea. >> one of the first things they learn on ebay -- irene wall isn't the only one obsessed with dolls. >> there are some people that are on there continuously watching these dolls. it's amazing. >> dolls are scooped up by buyers from all over the world. one of irene's favorites, a german celluloid doll -- likely

a gift from a returning world war ii vet -- is bought for $225. john and his wife lynn are mesmerized by the bidding process. >> it sometimes would get down to the last five minutes, for sure, then those prices would just run through the ceiling. and lynn thought it was kind of like playing the slot machine. >> over the summer of 2007, they sell about 60 dolls to online bidders for a total of $15,000. >> and mama was happy. >> i could tell by the look in her eye, the amazement, was, "i told you so." >> but out of 5,000-plus, it's not even a dent in the collection. then, in april 2010, john's beloved wife, lynn, passes away at the age of 57. 18 months later, his mother, irene, dies, too, at 90. >> i lost mother, and i lost lynn to... phew!

[voice breaking] ...cancer. and that's the hardest thing i've told people you'll ever lose... is a wife and a mother. >> his children are grown up and on their own, leaving john with more than 4,000 dolls to sell to keep his promise to his mom. now john gets help from a second lady friend. patty beggs, who, like john, has also suffered the death of a spouse. >> did john ask you for help? >> oh, no. we just was there for each other, and he needed help. i don't know if he asked or if i volunteered, but we just started doing it. i mean, we had to do something with them. >> between suzy and patty, it just seems as if women like coming to john's rescue. >> [ laughing ] >> those dolls ended up helping you out in those young days. >> and evidently it did. i was around some awfully nice girls in my life. >> in 2011, john and patty

actually start dating. with patty's help, john rents a storefront in downtown portales from thanksgiving until christmas, and calls it the dollhouse. the dolls sell like hot cakes, some for $1, some for $10. >> it went really well. we had lots of people in, because everybody wanted to buy the dolls, hear the story. >> and meet john? >> but he was mine at that time, so they couldn't have him. [ laughs ] >> i like that. you must have a reputation around town? >> they call me the "doll boy." [ laughs ] >> how's that working out for you? >> once everything started going, with both ebay and the dollhouse, i thought, "you can call me whatever you want. i don't care. i've got a pretty good inheritance here, boys." >> and john does make a tidy sum -- $5,000 on the store. add that to the $15,000 from ebay, and he's liquidated the bulk of his mom's doll

collection for $20,0000. but his job isn't over. john still has close to 1,000 dolls stacked in his barn that he's yet to unload. >> will selling the doll collection help your life? >> it will help me to know that i've fulfilled what my mother asked of me. >> well, if that's what's important to you, johnny, i want to help. >> oh, i would love that more than anything. there is a few of them out there you might like to see, too. >> oooh! >> do you like barbies? there are 19 boxes of solid barbies. >> barbie?! >> yes! >> that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you. which of these toys sold for the highest price at auction -- was it the 1963 g.i. joe prototype, a diamond barbie, or a gold-plated nintendo wii? the answer in a moment.

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>> so, which of these special-edition toys sold for the highest price at auction? the answer is "b," the canturi diamond barbie, which sports a four-carat pink-and-white diamond necklace. it sold for over $300,000 in 2010. >> john wall's mother leaves him a strange inheritance -- more than 5,000 dolls from all over the world. now he's taking me out to his barn to show me the last of his mother's collection, and what he believes may be the cream of the crop. john's hopeful the rest of his mother's dolls are worth one more big payday. >> close to 500 of these

barbies, still in their original boxes. >> johnny! i knew there'd be one just for me. seriously? sagittarius barbie! i am a sagittarius. you know what? earrings -- check. evening gown -- check. beautiful silky hair -- check. this is me! >> it's everything, yes. >> and you have almost 500 of these barbies? that's almost too much barbie for a girl. >> yes. >> and i know someone that may be able to tell us what it's worth. to help john out, we contact tim luke of the treasure quest appraisal group based in south beach, florida. here's tim. he's the former director of the collectibles department at the famed christie's auction house in new york. >> i understand you've got a great collection. >> tim has agreed to help appraise john's strange inheritance. you looked at all these barbies. i really need your opinion. >> well, barbie's a cultural icon. i think that today you see a lot

of people that are in their 40s and over, that's the demographic that is really holding onto this. it's that nostalgia. >> barbie's dream house! >> in 1959, the first year of production, mattel sold more than 300,000 barbies, and a first edition can go for about $8,000 today. >> suntan barbie. >> yes, her features are a tad unrealistic, but she's a strong female character, beautiful, powerful, and rich. and that's what attracts collectors. how do you tell what year a barbie is made? >> well, the very first year that they came out, mattel had to recall and change. they had to soften her features because she looked too much like a, um... "lady of the night." and the mothers... >> oh, my! >> yeah. the mothers, they just -- uproar because of the eyeliner and shadow. and the number-ones will have a hole in the foot, both feet, because there was a stand that barbie came on.

>> there are ken dolls here, too. >> [ laughs ] >> is ken more valuable than barbie? >> no. he doesn't even rate. >> i'm thinking, "and they call john 'doll boy'?" sounds like tim's just the guy to tell us what john's collection is really worth. >> my mother's thoughts were that it was worth over $25,000 for that barbie collection alone. >> johnny, the most important thing is to fulfill mother's wish. will it be the payday john is hoping for? that's next.

>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> here's tim. john wall is hoping doll expert tim luke can give him some good news about the value of his remaining inheritance -- about 500 mint-condition barbies, all in their original boxes. of the 5,000 dolls his mother collected, this is the bulk of what's left.

tim, we went through all these barbies. there's plenty of them. you have to have an opinion. >> the downside is that most of them are from the '90s. >> but they say collector. >> they do. [ sighs ] and don't be seduced by the box. >> so, let me stop you there. you're saying that this barbie, this is a reproduction. >> this is the 50th anniversary, but this came out in the '90s as a celebration of the 50th anniversary. not as valuable. >> johnny told me he thinks $10,000 to $15,000, maybe $25,000 for all of this. how off the mark is he? >> i think he's close to the lower end. >> tim thinks john can still make about $10,000 with a good strategy. >> i think the best way to do this is to put these on ebay, because it's worldwide. somebody may only need one item for their collection, and they're gonna pay a premium for it. >> hello. >> time to share the expert opinion with the heir. >> your mother had such a wonderful time putting this all

together. what i suggest is that you put these on ebay. they're all salable, and they could all do well. >> john takes the sober appraisal of $10k like a man. what do you think mother would say? >> well, she'd say, "we got to do what we got to, baby." >> [ laughs ] >> you know, "let's move with it." >> i'm here. i got my checkbook. i would like to take the last of that series, the sagittarius. i'm thinking i'm going to offer $100. >> i think that's very fair. but if you wanted to step up and offer him $200... >> hell no! i'm not overpaying. [ laughter ] >> hey, we'll have an auction. wait a minute. we'll do an auction. i know. i'm looking out for my client here. >> oh! before i go, i get my barbie sagittarius, and i ask john if he plans to save any of his mother's other dolls. he says just a few, in particular those fragile japanese dolls from world war ii, a reminder of how

his mother started collecting them in the first place. >> i kept going back to what my mom told about them, to please respect it as an inheritance. i've did everything i can to do it in a way that is respectful to her wishes. >> and here's a note to those of you who might want to start a barbie collection of your own -- to tell when a vintage barbie was manufactured, you have to... well, you have to take a look under her dress. in the back. in the early days, when barbie was made in japan, the year each model was created got stamped on her right buttock. now that's a pretty private hiding place, proving that barbie's age is really no one's business but her own. i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. do you have a "strange inheritance" story

you'd like to share with us? we'd love to hear it! send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. threats from nicolas maduro. we will be on it for you. exclusively for you on "trish regan primetime". have a terrific weekend! maria bartiromo is next. happy weekend everyone! welcome to the program that analyzes the week that was and helps position you for the week ahead. i maria bartiromo. thank you for joining us. in a few moments, citigroup special economic advisor is my special guest. document economic growth. then later in the program joining me for former director, doug aiken whose group, american action form edit at the cost of the green new deal. you will not believe the price tag. meanwhile, the u.s. economy grew at