Can't install OS X on late 2008 MBP 15" Unibody

I know that this is a super old model and I'm not sure if there's anyone that has had a similar issue. My model is the first unibody MBP 5,1. Just to hopefully nip this comment before it shows up. This model of the unibody is the only MBP that had a removable battery, so I was able to test with and without a battery rather easily.

The core of the issue is that I cannot install any version of OSX on this machine. When I try to get the installer to go, I either get a boot loop where the loading bar under the Apple logo goes about 3/4 of the way and then the screen goes black followed by the chime. Or if I'm using a DVD, I'll get a kernel panic that grays out the screen and tells me to restart.

I have a retail disk of Snow Leopard that I've tried, as well as bootable USB that was created using another Mac and with official downloads from Apple first with El Capitan, and then Yosemite.

I have also removed the battery that is still good with several hours of charge, and tried just using the power adapter. Still the same result. This was a known issue when I first got this laptop. It was a project computer for me, so I wanted the challenge and this isn't my daily driver by any means. I was able to get around the boot loop by installing Linux Mint and it worked without issue. Booted right up and had all the accessories available like wifi, bluetooth, USB, ethernet etc. The RAM showed both sticks without any issues, and the SSD that's in there had no errors when I ran a scan on it.

I am getting ready to sell it off and I would like to just have some form of OS X even if it's no longer supported by Apple. If there is just no solutions that will allow me to install OS X, I'll just go back to Linux.

Is there something I'm missing here? Is there such a thing as safe boot installing?