[KevinP73]

I've never been a big fan of conspiricies. I believe there was only one gunman in the Kennedy Assasination, Amelia went down in the pacific and Elvis and John Lennon are dead. I also belive that the James Dean Spyder no longer exists. Let me share what I know.
What I know as fact.
I worked for Barris in the '70's. George is and will likely remain one of my personal hero's for a long long time. My job amongst many other menial tasks was to transport show cars to various venues for display or cars to lacations for the movie industry. As a result of this duty I knew of every car George had in inventory. Even the cars that were "not available for public display" (ie the real Ford Futura) If George had in his posession the James Dean 550 Spyder during this time period I would have known it.
What I also know is that George Barris is the ultimate showman. He knew what the people wanted to see and he would give it to them and sometimes he would get very "creative" to accomplish this. Barris had a car he promoted as the "Bonny and Clyde Death Car". It was a 1934 Ford Fourdoor Sedan that was riddled with "bullet" holes. I'm sorry did I say "bullet" holes? I meant pick hammer holes. We beat this poor car to death with a pick hammer, a sharpened tire iron (for those larger caliber rounds) and just about anything that would penetrate the sheetmetal. No one really believed this was the actuall car that Bonny and Clyde died in but it never failed to draw a crowd. "Creative" not missleading or decietful just creative.
Fast forward a couple years and I'm working in Burbank at American International Racing, also known as A.I.R. The occasional work related injury was treated by Dr. William F. Eschrich, During my years with A.I.R I became acquainted with a gentleman by the name of Bill Lanphear. Bill was a very close friend of the Eschrich family. So close in fact that I have heard him referred to as "the fourth Eschrich boy". This friendhip dates from the boys in thier early 20's to this date.
I called Bill today and asked him what he knew about this topic. I also sent a link to this thread in the hopes that he personally would join the conversation. He shared with me a story that reads very similar to the original post of Bkrueger. Similar expect for the final resting place of the 550. Bill's version of the story has the 550 after having the engine and driveline and assorted parts removed going to a scrap yard in San Fernando. He didn't say exactly which one, I quess I could have asked but I didn't. It was from the scrapyard that Barris got the rear body shell and the right door. These two parts were added to a wrecked 550 that he had acquired elsewhere. This is the car that Barris promoted for a short time as the actuall James Dean 550 Spyder. He adds that the rumor of the actuall 550 driven by James Dean being in possesion of any remaining Eschrich family member is 100% false. The conversation included Bill sharing with me the history of most of the parts that were removed from the 550, thier whereabouts,and states that the people who are in posession of the parts have varified the authenticty of those parts.
I've known Bill for a good many years and I have every confidence in his sincerity and his belief in his version of this little mystery. I guess we'll all have to decide for ourselves which story we'd like to hold as truth.