At 12:30 p.m. on November 22, 1963, a dark blue Lincoln convertible carried John F. Kennedy through Dealey Plaza in Dallas with its top off, built so the crowds could see him. Seconds later, it was a crime scene.What the government did next is the stranger part. It didn't destroy the car or lock it in a vault. It rebuilt it, armored it, painted it black and put four more presidents in the back seat.Kennedy in the Dallas motorcade on November 22, 1963. Photo: Walt Cisco, Dallas Morning News via Wikimedia Commons, Public domainBuilt to be seenThe Secret Service called it SS-100-X. It started life as a 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible and was reworked by Hess & Eisenhardt in Cincinnati into a parade car: a longer wheelbase, extra bracing, removable roof panels, rear steps and grab handles for agents, and a hydraulic rear seat that could raise the president so crowds could see him. Ford leased it to the White House rather than selling it.The whole point of the car was visibility. In Dallas, that turned out to be the problem.Back to workUnder a program known as the "Quick Fix," the Lincoln was rebuilt with armor plating, bullet-resistant glass and a permanent roof, repainted from dark blue to black, and sent back into service. It went on to carry Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter before it retired in 1977.That decision tells you how the government saw the car at the time. It wasn't a relic or a crime scene. It was expensive, specialized equipment with work left to do. Only later did it become the historical object we treat it as today.SS-100-X today, with the permanent roof added after Dallas. Photo: Chris Short from Detroit, MI, United States via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0Since 1978 it has been on display at The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan, alongside other presidential cars. Standing next to it is strange. It looks like a big, handsome Lincoln, and then you remember what happened in it.The ghost storyEvery year a legend makes the rounds: on each November 22, a figure resembling Kennedy appears beside the car, leaves a red rose and whispers "it was two men." It's easy to see why it spread. It also has nothing behind it. No museum record, no named witness, nothing beyond the story being passed along. It's folklore about a place where something terrible happened.No hammer priceDon't expect SS-100-X to cross an auction block. It's part of The Henry Ford's collection, and its value isn't the kind a bidder can set. Mechanically, it's a heavily modified 1961 Lincoln. Historically, there's nothing else like it. That gap between hardware and history is the same one that turned a stolen Ford into Bonnie and Clyde's death car.The rose-and-whisper story will circulate again this November. The stranger fact is the real one: after Dallas, four more presidents rode in that back seat.Was putting it back in service practical, or tone-deaf? What would you have done with it in 1964?SourcesWhat Happened to JFK's Assassination Car — Houston Press10 Notoriously Haunted Vehicles — TopTenz