Contrary to popular opinion, the first tow truck was built on the chassis of a 1913 Cadillac rather than a heavy-duty truck. According to the Chronicle and numerous reports, Ernest Holmes, a technician in Chattanooga, Tennessee, received a call from his old business school professor, John Wiley, who had drove his Ford Model T off the road and upside down into a creek bed on a day in 1916. Holmes took eight hours, six men, and an unimaginable amount of human labor to raise the T out of the creek bed and erect it.

However, the experience inspired Holmes to install a crane and pulley system in a three-year-old Cadillac capable of lifting and securing broken-down and destroyed vehicles for towing back to a neighboring mechanic's shop. In November 1917, Holmes filed a patent for his amazing new concept (US Patent 1254804) after reproducing it with a pair of outriggers to offer stability for elevating additional vehicles. However, Holmes wasn't finished yet. With his new patent in hand, he refocused his company to produce Holmes Wrecker tow vehicles and sell them to other mechanics and garage owners as a strategy to genuinely increase revenue.

He patented at least a half-dozen versions on the basic tow truck concept, as well as another half-dozen automobile lifts, creepers, and jacks, before passing away in 1945. Wikipedia cited this article as a source of information.

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