ABOVE: The Bloodworth Massacre. The crusher was brought right to the property. Of the 230 plus doomed cars, this one is a circa 1947 Lincoln five-passenger coupe.
Written by Charles “Murph” Schneider of Roswell, Georgia.
Originally published in the November-December 2004 (# 261) issue of Lincoln & Continental Comments magazine.
It took about 35 years for over 230 Lincolns and Packards (and parts) to be accumulated. But it took only a short time for all these cars and parts to be loaded on a slow boat to China. Right now, as I write this, many are coming back in containers full of barnyard fence posts, gates, barbeque grills, brake rotors and calipers, fenders, axles, and ad infinitum. The Lincoln genes still exist in the molecules of many new steel products stamped “Made in China”.
Several years ago, a story was in Continental Comments showing Bennie Bloodworth’s Lincolns resting on his 67 acres in Lutherville, Georgia, which is 60 miles south of Atlanta. Now they are all gone. Many of our fellow members’ cars are running and showing with parts from Bennie’s land.
This past April, my wife Jan and I spent a week with Bennie to help him organize the “crushing” massacre of these cars. We actually wept to see a 1969 Mark III being reduced to 12 inches in height. (Rusty 30s and 40s Lincolns much less.)
Bennie ran ads in LZOC and LCOC publications and Hemmings for over a year offering rock bottom prices for parts and whole parts cars from $100 each to about $300 each. There were not many takers. Due to his health, Bennie had to sell his land. But it had to be cleared of all cars, parts, automobilia, by June 3, 2004, as a contingency of the sales contract. Now Bennie has one Lincoln, a 1941 Continental Cabriolet, totally restored, that he bought in 1957 as the second owner.