A (0:00)

The 1876 plot to steal the body of Abraham Lincoln is one of the oddest and most audacious attempted crimes in American history. The scheme aimed to ransom the corpse of the assassinated president in exchange for the release of a jailed criminal and a whole bunch of money. Although the attempt totally failed, it triggered years of secrecy, multiple reburials of Lincoln's remains, and the creation of a private guard to protect the tomb. Learn more about the plot to steal the body of Abraham Lincoln on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by Quint's. I've been telling you for a while now how quints works directly with top factories and cuts out the middleman. As such, they can sell top quality merchandise at a fraction of the price of luxury brands. But they aren't just selling products that look just as good. Their products are also made out of the exact same materials. Their cashmere is 100% Mongolian, the same stuff that luxury brands use. The Pima cotton is long staple, which means it stays soft and doesn't pill. The European jersey linen is breathable and lightweight. Everything is built to hold up to regular wear and still look good. I've been wearing my cashmere sweater every other day for months now and it's held up great right now. Go to quince.com daily for free shipping and 365 day returns. That's a full year to build your wardrobe and love it and you will now available in Canada too. Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. Go to q U-I-E.com daily for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quints.com daily this episode is sponsored by Mint Mobile. Spring is finally around the corner, which means spring cleaning and it's also a good time to get rid of your unnecessary subscriptions and expensive mobile contracts. Mint Mobile is here to rescue you with premium wireless plans starting at $15 a month. All plans include high speed data and unlimited talk and text on the nation's largest 5G network. Bring your own phone and number, activate with ESIM in minutes and start saving immediately. No long term contracts and no hassle. That's why I've been telling people to switch to Mint Mobile. If you like your money, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans@mintmobile.com eed that's mintmobile.com eed upfront payment of $45 for 3 month 5GB plan required equivalent to $15 a month new customer offer for first 3 months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees Extra. See Mint Mobile for details. Before I get into the details of the plot to steal the remains of President Lincoln, it's necessary to understand why this was such a big deal and why it was considered more scandalous than if someone had tried to do the same thing with, say, the bodies of Zachary Taylor or William Henry Harrison. When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, it truly shocked the country. He had led the nation through its worst period in history, and just when the conflict was over, his life was taken in one last vindictive act. After the assassination on April 14, 1865, at Ford's Theater, his body began one of the most elaborate funeral processes in American history. Lincoln died the following morning on April 15, in a boarding house across the street from the theater. Within hours, preparations began for a national mourning ceremony that would allow citizens across the country to pay their respects. Lincoln's body was first placed in the East Room of the White House, where a private funeral service was held on April 19, 1865. The ceremony was attended by government officials, military officers, members of the Cabinet, diplomats, and, of course, Lincoln's family. Outside the White House and throughout Washington, tens of thousands of people gathered in mourning. After the service, a solemn funeral procession escorted the coffin to the United States Capitol, where Lincoln lay in state in the Capitol rotunda. During the next day, an estimated 25,000 people filed past the coffin to view the fallen president. Following the Washington ceremonies, Lincoln's body began an extraordinary funeral journey by train. The funeral train retraced much of the route Lincoln had taken when traveling to Washington for his first inauguration in 1861. The train carried both Lincoln's coffin and that of his young son Willie, who had died in 1862 and whose remains were being returned to Illinois. The route stretched nearly 1,700 miles and lasted from April 21 to May 3, stopping in major cities including Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, and Chicago, before finally reaching Springfield. At each stop, Lincoln lay in state in prominent public buildings while massive crowds gathered to pay tribute. The scale of the public mourning was unprecedented in American history. In New York City alone, more than 150,000 people reportedly viewed the body, while the funeral procession through the city drew crowds estimated at over a half a million spectators. There's an interesting fun fact about the funeral procession in New York City. A photograph taken during the procession on April 25 accidentally captured a future president, a young Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was only 6 years old at the time. He was watching the procession from the second floor window of his family's home on Union Square along with his brother. Decades later, historians studying the photograph realized that two small boys leaning out the window matched the Roosevelt residence at the location and corresponded with the Roosevelt family's accounts of watching the funeral across all the cities on the route. Historians estimate that roughly 1 million people viewed Lincoln's body directly as it lay in state. And perhaps 7 million Americans, about 1/3 of the US population at the time, watched the funeral train pass or participated in memorial events along the route. In terms of the total percentage of the American population, the funeral procession of Abraham Lincoln might have been the most attended event in American history. So the public, at least in the north, loved Lincoln, especially after he was assassinated. And soon after his death, he became legendary and a secular saint. At the end of his journey, he was interred at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois, his hometown. Construction of the grand Lincoln tomb began in 1871 and was completed in 1874, at which point Lincoln's coffin was placed inside a marble sarcophagus in a burial chamber behind a locked steel gate. At this time, tomb security was minimal. Visitors were allowed to tour the monument, and the coffin was accessible within the structure. The plot to steal Lincoln's body originated not in politics, but in the world of organized counterfeiting. In the 1870s, counterfeit currency was a major problem in the United States, which is why the United States Secret Service had originally been created. A Chicago based gang led by criminal James Big Jim Kennelly ran a large counterfeiting operation. Their most valuable member was the master engraver, Benjamin Boyd, who produced the plates used to fake print banknotes. When Boyd was arrested in 1875 and sentenced to 10 years in prison at Joliet, the gang's business collapsed. Kennely devised an extraordinary plan to free him. The gang would steal Lincoln's corpse from his tomb and hide it in the sand dunes near Lake Michigan. They would then demand Boyd's release and $200,000 in ransom, a huge sum equivalent to millions of dollars today. To carry out the crime, Kennelly recruited several accomplices, including Terence Mullin and Jack Hughes, and later enlisted the support of a professional body snatcher named Lewis Sweggles. The conspirators, however, made a fatal mistake. Swegles was actually a government informant working with Patrick D. Terrell and head of the Secret Service office in Chicago. When Sweggles reported the plan, Terrell alerted Washington and consulted with Robert Todd Lincoln, the President's only surviving son. Robert Todd Lincoln reluctantly agreed that the authorities should allow the plot to proceed so the criminals could be caught in the Act. Secret Service agents, local police and detectives prepared an ambush at the tomb. And just as an aside, because I don't know when else I'm going to mention it, Robert Todd Lincoln's story is an interesting one. He had a connection with not one, not two, but three presidential assassinations. First, of course, his father was killed and he was at his bedside when he died. Second, he was the Secretary of War and happened to be standing next to James Garfield in 1881 When. When Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau. And third, While serving as U.S. minister to Italy, he was traveling with William McKinley to the Pan American Exposition in 1901, where McKinley was assassinated. The conspirators chose the night of November 7, 1876, election night, as the moment to strike. The date was deliberately chosen. The entire country would be riveted to the unfolding results of the presidential election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden, one of the most contested elections in American history. The city of Springfield would be distracted. The cemetery would be quiet, and any unusual activity might go unnoticed. Amid the general commotion. The Lincoln Monument at Oak Ridge Cemetery housed the President's remains in a marble sarcophagus located in a ground level burial chamber. The plan called for Mullin and Hughes to break open the sarcophagus, stuff the coffin into a wagon and drive north through the night towards the Indiana Dunes where Kennelly would be waiting. Secret Service agents and a contingent of officers from the newly formed Chicago Detectives Unit converged on the cemetery that night and hid in the darkness of the monument, waiting. Swegles accompanied Mullin and Hughes to the tomb. The two men managed to file through the padlock on the burial chamber door and had actually begun to drag Lincoln's 500 pound lead lined coffin towards the entrance when Swaggles slipped away to signal the awaiting agents. What followed was a fumbling, almost farcical confrontation. When the agents rushed into the darkened monument, they collided with each other in the confusion and one agent accidentally discharged his firearm. In the chaos, Mullen and Hughes simply walked out of the cemetery and disappeared into the night. Despite their initial escape, the conspirators were not free for long. Sweggles continued working as an informant, helping agents track Mullen and Hughes back to Chicago. Within two weeks, the men were both arrested at the Hub Saloon. Kennelly, the mastermind, managed to evade capture for longer, but he too was eventually apprehended. The legal proceedings that followed were underwhelming relative to the enormity of what had almost occurred. But there was a problem Illinois had no law specifically prohibiting the the theft of a corpse. Prosecutors were forced to charge the men with the relatively minor offense of conspiracy to commit an unlawful act and attempted larceny of the coffin itself, not the body. Mullin and Hughes were convicted and sentenced to a mere one year each at the Joliet Penitentiary. Kennelly was never successfully prosecuted and largely faded from history. The near success of the plot terrified the custodians of Lincoln's legacy. The Lincoln Monument association, which oversaw the tomb, recognized with horror how vulnerable the President's remains actually were. For years afterwards, Lincoln's coffin was quietly moved around the interior of the monument, hidden in various locations to prevent another attempt. On several occasions the the coffin was simply buried under rubble in the basement of the monument during renovation periods, with only a tiny circle of trusted individuals knowing its precise location. Between 1876 and 1901, Lincoln's body was moved at least 17 times. In 1901, during a major reconstruction of the monument, officials made the decision to permanently secure the coffin. It was placed in a steel cage and buried under 10ft of concrete in a chamber beneath the monument floor. Before the final interment, a small group of witnesses, including Robert Todd Lincoln, insisted on opening the coffin one last time to confirm the body was indeed that of the President. The witnesses, some of whom had known Lincoln personally, confirmed the identification. The lead lined coffin was then welded shut and encased in its concrete vault, where it remains to this day. People can still visit the Lincoln Tomb in Springfield, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mary and three of their sons are all buried. The tomb is located in Oak Ridge Cemetery and is open to the public daily, generally from about 9am to 5pm with free admission, Visitors can walk through the monument and see the burial chamber inside the granite structure. Springfield also preserves several other major Lincoln sites. Visitors can tour the restored Lincoln Home National Historic Site, the only home that Abraham Lincoln ever owned. It's operated by the National Park Service. The ranger led tours show how the Lincoln family lived before he became President. Tickets are free but must be picked up at the visitor center. Nearby is the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, a large museum devoted to his life and legacy, which is generally open from 9am to 5pm daily. If you ever happen to be in Springfield, I highly recommend visiting Lincoln's tomb and his Related Sites. The story of the plot to steal Lincoln's body was largely suppressed for decades, partly out of concern that publicity might inspire imitators. It was not widely known to the general public until the early 20th century when some of the participants and witnesses of finally spoke openly about what had transpired in the Oak Ridge cemetery. Even then, it retained the quality of an improbable legend, the tale of a gang of second rate counterfeiters who came startlingly close to ransoming the president known as the Great Emancipator. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. My big thanks go to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible, and I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord. That's where everything happens that's outside the podcast, and links to those are available in the show notes. As always, if you leave a review on any major podcast app or in the above community groups, you too can have it read on the show.