Bottom post of the previous page:
I think the host made that insane offer because he bought the story about the steering wheel. He had to secure the framed photos, because they go together with the real antique, a one-of-a-kind. He sort of broke the provenance by acquiring the one, and not the other, so the seller has to sell the wheel to him, also, because the items go together. The wheel alone is a piece of trash, that only becomes an antique and a unique piece of motor racing memorabilia, when the set is intact. Unless the wheel has been lost, the only viable buyer is the host. He still needs to work out who the driver was, as his own family apparently doesn't know(!!!), and that's dodgy as hell. The host will certainly make a bundle on that deal, if the wheel turns up, and he is able to create the document on it all. He has to, as the bric-a-brac is worth fuck-all without any proper provenance. And if you sell family heirlooms of that caliber out of your garage, to lunatics, you're quite frankly pissing on your own ancestry.And the pics, maybe they aren't even orig. photos. Maybe some of them are serially produced postcards, as per the era's morbid obsession with Disaster Photography. Hell, WE found them. And I'm morbid like Celtic Frost.
But the fact remains, these two bozos are NOT discussing the pic to ID, they are discussing the wreck pic not properly shown, a different one. The producer/editor highlighted the wrong photo in the vignette! Probably because he doesn't really give a toss.
Odds are, they have zero clue what they are even talking about. If we work it out, and host Cranky McCrank finds this topic, and he gets the wheel for another 500 smackeroos, then we would have given him what he needs to push the lot, and make a bundle. Quite ironic. Without the wheel, he has, as you say, 50 dollars' worth of old photos, only one of which hasn't been found elsewhere, by us. Unfortunately, it was the crucial one. The one they're actually talking about.
This thread is now extremely interesting! I withdraw my suggested ID, and we'll see where it goes. I think it's beyond astronomically unlikely that the name Charles Hamilton would appear twice in so narrow a field of interest, with so many similarities, so I still think I may be right, but I realise I can't call it, at this time. I just don't believe in coincidence. Mr. Jim Michels I think added the case to mmorg, so maybe we'll hear from him, sometime.