Stealing Lincoln's Body
On the night of the presidential election in 1876, a gang of counterfeiters out of Chicago attempted to steal the entombed embalmed body of Abraham Lincoln and hold it for ransom. The custodian of the tomb was so shaken by the incident that he willingly dedicated the rest of his life to protecting the president's corpse.
In a lively and dramatic narrative, Thomas J. Craughwell returns to this bizarre, and largely forgotten, event with the first book to place the grave robbery in historical context. He takes us through the planning and execution of the crime and the outcome of the investigation. He describes the reactions of Mary Todd Lincoln and Robert Todd Lincoln to the theft--and the peculiar silence of a nation. He follows the unlikely tale of what happened to Lincoln's remains after the attempted robbery, and details the plan devised by the Lincoln Guard of Honor to prevent a similar abominable recurrence.
Along the way, Craughwell offers entertaining sidelights on the rise of counterfeiting in America and the establishment of the Secret Service to combat it; the prevalence of grave robberies; the art of nineteenth-century embalming; and the emergence among Irish immigrants of an ambitious middle class--and a criminal underclass.
This rousing story of hapless con men, intrepid federal agents, and ordinary Springfield citizens who honored their native son by keeping a valuable, burdensome secret for decades offers a riveting glimpse into late-nineteenth-century America, and underscores that truth really is sometimes stranger than fiction.
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25 Reviews
| From: Amazon Posted: Nov 18, 2007 Type: User Review |
Interesting and Entertaining.
This book covers one of the most interesting footnotes in American History - the attempted theft of Abraham Lincoln's body by counterfeiters seeking to free an associate. Extremely interesting information on how counterfeiting, in the post-Civil...
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 4.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Nov 05, 2007 Type: User Review |
Better a screenplay
Only one chapter of this book describes the actual attempt to steal Lincoln's body. The rest is background on the whys and the men who made the attempt. A book easy to read, its content would be more effectively presented in a novel or screenplay...
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 3.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Nov 04, 2007 Type: User Review |
Fascinating and well-written
"Stealing Lincoln's Body" is well researched and entertaininly written. One might think that there is little to be added to the thousands of books about Lincoln, but this book is one that all readers and civil war "buffs" should read.
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 5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Sep 21, 2007 Type: User Review |
I'm off to Springfield...
A must read before your next tour to Springfield, IL and I apologize to all my grade school teachers for rolling my eyes during those trips. This has got to be one of the most intriguing series of historical data I have ever read. Craughwell...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Jul 22, 2007 Type: User Review |
wonderful book
The box was full of ants. They spilled out when I opened the box. It was really creepy.
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Jul 16, 2007 Type: User Review |
Love This Book!
I had just finished American Brutus and was hungry for more on the subject when I came across this charming and extremely well told narrative of the plot to steal Lincoln's body. Mr. Craughwell has a pitch perfect ear, capturing both the tragedy...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Jul 16, 2007 Type: User Review |
Thomas Craughwell exhumes a bizarre and long forgotten episode in our nations history.
It was an incident that I had never heard of or read about anywhere. Indeed, when I asked about a dozen friends and relatives not one of them had ever heard about it either. On Election Night 1876 Terrence Mullen and Jack Hughes attempted to...
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4.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Jul 09, 2007 Type: User Review |
One of the best!!
One of the best history books I've read in a long time! Some fascinating and little known facts. Couldn't put it down!
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Jul 07, 2007 Type: User Review |
DISORGANIZED AND DISAPPOINTING
The true story behind the several movements of Lincoln's body and the attempt to steal it is an interesting one. However, Craughwell falls far short of taking advantage of the material in this book. Overall the narrative is disjointed,...
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 2.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Jul 06, 2007 Type: User Review |
A Wild Ride through the Dark Side of Late 19th Century America
American history is literally packed with oddball characters and bizarre storylines so strange that no one would ever believe them -- if it weren't for the documentary proof. "Stealing Lincoln's Body" is another excellent example of this genre we...
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5.00/5 |
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