Does anyone know or have an idea about the origin of this expression?

Rip

take your pick.

the consensus is, no one knows; so we're all free to speculate.

-joe (I dunno) friday

I'll speculate. The forbidden fruit might be in there.

I had always assumed that it had something to do with taking severed heads away in baskets in the bloody aftermath of the French Revolution, but the most likely answer is that it is "an English alliterative phrase of unclear origin," to quote one of the above mentioned sources.

I picture a woman (since I are one) on a bicyle, carrying a basket in one hand while steering with the other and going breakneck down a steep hill.
Don't know why. Juat do.

of course a woman --Helena Handbasket...

one of those name you use in a sign in sheet for a substitute teacher.. (i went to all girl schools, so i know the girl ones.. (vs Richard (aka dick) Hurts.... Who's dick hurts..sort of stuff)

Wasn't it the Helena Handbaskets in the independent Northern Plains States League where Barry Bonds went after the Giants dropped him?

We always spelled it Hertz