The story of the attempt to steal the body of Abraham Lincoln (6 photos)

Friendship and partnership feelings are wonderful. But sometimes the desire to help your friends out of trouble takes on such absurd forms that it reaches the heights or, more precisely, the depths of madness.





On November 7, 1876, Americans voted for Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden in the election of the 19th President of the United States. That night, while officials focused on counting votes and the country anxiously awaited the results, a gang of counterfeiters in Chicago planned to steal the body of Abraham Lincoln. All in order to help his boss, Ben Boyd, get out of prison. He had just been caught and sentenced to 10 years in prison.



Abraham Lincoln

What is noteworthy is that the scammers could well have succeeded in their aspirations if not for the people from the secret service who acted on a tip. Not without the notorious Cherchez la femme. One of the counterfeiters was trying to impress a lady he liked at a local saloon. And he secretly told the woman that he would soon become rich, since together with his comrades he would receive a tidy sum of $200,000 for a nonsense business.





After drinking too much, the guy continued to brag and eventually blurted out the whole plan. The woman reported this to the police chief. When the news reached the Secret Service, Lincoln's eldest son, Robert, also became aware of the plot. Instead of preventing the assassination attempt, he wanted the gang to be allowed to operate and caught red-handed. Just before the greedy paws of grave robbers touch his late father. No sooner said than done: that’s what they did.



Secret Service agents at Lincoln's Tomb notice flashes of light from grave robbers' flashlights.

Secret Service agents stationed at Lincoln's Tomb noticed flashes of light from the grave robbers' flashlights.

The gang managed to quietly and unnoticed remove Lincoln's coffin from the stone crypt. But as the crooks were about to remove the body, one of the Secret Service officers accidentally discharged his gun. This caused confusion among the others and there was a commotion in the tomb.



Abraham Lincoln Memorial at Oak Ridge Cemetery

“I called upon all within to surrender,” wrote Captain Patrick D. Tyrrell, reporting the event in 1905. “There was no answer. I called again, then listened. Not even the sound of breathing could be heard. Then I struck a match. The tools used by the ghouls were scattered on the floor, and the sarcophagus was broken into pieces so that the coffin could be pushed lengthwise towards the door. The vandals fled."

Two gang members were caught ten days later and sentenced to a year in prison for desecrating a grave.



grave

Lincoln's body was hidden elsewhere in the tomb by the National Lincoln Monument Association. The president's wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, was buried there after her death in 1882. Closer to the 1890s, the tomb began to collapse. And in 1901, its reconstruction began at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield. Robert demanded that his father's remains be placed in a steel and concrete crypt located three meters below the floor of the burial chamber. Just in case other creative criminals got the idea to try the body snatching attempt again.