News Online Casino Buys Titanic Plate From Homeless Dallas Man 23 Dec 2004
The online casino, GoldenPalace.com, which recently made headlines by purchasing a ten-year-old, partially eaten cheese sandwich thought
to bear the image of the Virgin Mary was back in the news Wednesday after agreeing to pay $10,000 to a homeless Dallas man for a plate the man claims a relative took from the doomed Titanic.
Jay Sherman, who according to newspaper reports had been sleeping under a bridge, says he inherited the plate from his great-aunt, Eva Freada Husted, who he claims was a passenger on the ship that sank in 1912.
About 1,500 passengers and crew died when the Titanic sank after striking an iceberg.
Husted's name doesn't appear on passenger lists and leading memorabilia experts are skeptical about whether the plate is authentic.
Whatever the case, before taxes, Sherman will receive about $8,125 from the sale after paying the auction house its commission. He was not immediately available for comment.
Peter Boyd-Smith, a leading expert in Titanic memorabilia, said
he doubts the plate actually was on the ship.
He said none of the dishes aboard the Titanic bore the ship's name, as this plate does.
But the auction house, San Mateo, California-based Door to Door
Auctions, said it had the plate's maker authenticate it.
Meanwhile, a casino spokesman took Sherman to a Dallas Target on Tuesday to buy him new clothes.
The casino planned to present him with a check
on Wednesday at a soup kitchen he frequents.
