September 29, 2023 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, when Lincoln was laid to rest, he certainly didn't do so in peace. Louis Picone tells the story of Lincoln's post-mortem experience.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people,
and we love to hear stories from you. Send them
to our Americanstories dot com. There's some of our favorites.
When Abraham Lincoln was put into his opulent one hundred
and seventeen foot tall tomb, he was laid to rest,
(00:32):
it's certainly not in peace. You here to tell the
story of Abraham Lincoln's turbulent post mortem experience is Lewis
pecone author of the President is Dead, Take it away, Lewis.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Inside of the tomb there is a sarcophagus, and the
coffin was placed inside.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Of that sarcophasis.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
It's about a five hundred pound coffin is guarded by
an iron fence with a lock, and that's it. That
lock in, that iron gate was all that protected Abraham Lincoln.
In eighteen seventy six, there was an attempt to steal
Abraham Lincoln's body. A small time gang in Illinois and
(01:18):
Chicago was led by a guy named Big Jim Conally,
and Canally had fallen on hard times when his ace counterfeitter,
Benjamin Boyd, had been arrested in prison, so his gang
was losing lots of money because they couldn't print their
own This was a time when counterfeiting was a huge problem,
and actually the Secret Service that was formed under Abraham
(01:40):
Lincoln wasn't formed to protect the president.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
It was formed to combat counterfeitters. It was such a
massive problem.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So Canally was on hard times and he was sitting
in this rundown bar.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Called the Hub in Chicago.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Now, coincidentally, this was also a bar that Canally owned
or co owned, So he spent a lot of time
here at the Hub, and he came up with his
idea to steal Abraham Lincoln's body, And he was gonna
steal the body, bring it to the sand dunes in Indiana,
bury it in the sand, and hold it ransom for
the release of Benjamin Boyd and two hundred thousand dollars
(02:22):
to boot. Interestingly, one of the few decorations in the
Hub was a bust of Abraham Lincoln. So I like
to think of Canally sitting there at the bar trying
to figure out how do we bust Benjamin Boyd out
of prison, and looking up at Abraham Lincoln's bust and
(02:42):
getting the idea, Hey, why don't we steal his body? Now,
this sounds like a hair brain scheme. It sounds like
a like some sort of ridiculous scheme that would have
no chance of succeeding. But again, Lincoln's body was only
guarded by this iron gate with a padlock.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Anyone with a sledgehammer can break this lock.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
So he recruited a gang of five people to actually
pull this off, and Canally wasn't on the scene. He'd
kind of kept his hands clean. They also came up
with the date of doing this on election night of
eighteen seventy six.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
This was when Rutherford B.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Hayes was facing off against Samuel Tilden, and they assumed
that the nation would be distracted, they would be more
focused on the election, not worried about Abraham Lincoln's tomb,
and it might give them more cover and give them
more time to get away. It should also be noted
that stealing a body wasn't as unusual as it sounds today,
(03:48):
and grave robbing was not only relatively common compared to today,
but it was also relatively big business because grave robbers
would then sell the cadavers to hospitals and medical facilities.
Which would them use them for experiments, And these medical
facilities didn't really ask many questions of where the bodies
came from. Now that wasn't Canally's plan to sell the body.
(04:12):
But just two years after this attempted grave robbing attempt,
this attempted grave robbing just two years after the body
of another president's father was stolen, and that was Benjamin Harrison.
His remains were stolen in eighteen seventy eight, and luckily
they were found before they were carved up by a
(04:32):
medical facility. So that's like another weird story, but that
just goes to show how this was possible. So Canally
recruits a gang of five people to steal Abraham Lincoln's body.
Little did he know that two of those five people
(04:54):
were also paid informants for the Secret Service. They were
getting five dollars a day from the Secret Service to
inform on criminals like Big Jim Kennelly. So once they
got recruited, they turned to the Secret Service and they
told them.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
About this plant.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So the Secret Service was waiting inside one of the
chambers in the Memorial tomb on November seventh, eighteen seventy six.
The gang easily sawed off the lock and entered the tomb.
They just as easily took the lid off of the sarcophagus,
but then they discovered it wasn't that easy to remove
a five hundred pound leadline coffin, so it took them
(05:37):
a while and they managed to pull it out about
fifteen inches. Now, the Secret Service is hiding in another
room in the tomb, just waiting for that ideal moment
to catch these.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Criminals right hand.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
But before that ideal moment came, one of the Secret
Service agents accidentally fired off his gun. Hearing this bullet,
the criminals ran, but with one of the informant's help,
they pretty easily tracked down the criminals.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Three days later and they were arrested. Now, at the.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Time, stealing a body wasn't a crime, so they couldn't
charge them with stealing a body. Instead, they charged the
criminals with attempting to steal a seventy five dollars casket.
Big Jim Canally was never charged with the scheme, but
instead was arrested for another crime and ended up going
to jail. But the criminals who were actually attempting to
(06:32):
steal the coffin, they each got a year in the
Illinois State Penitentiary.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And what a story you've been listening to. This is
just one of those hair brained schemes that actually could
have worked if the Secret Service had and infiltrated his
little gang of five. Little did Big Jim canally know
that two of his guys were you know, c I's
confidential informants, whether than Nason and new Secret Service, which
(07:01):
job primarily wasn't to guard the presidents of our country,
but to guard our currency and to stop counterfeiting which
was out of control at the time. When we come
back more of Lewis pcone his storytelling about Abraham Lincoln.
Here on Our American Stories, this is Lee Habib, host
(07:31):
of Our American Stories, the show where America is the
star and the American people, and we do it all
from the heart of the South Oxford, Mississippi. But we
truly can't do this show without you. Our shows will
always be free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love what you hear, consider making
a tax deductible donation to Our American Stories. Go to
(07:52):
Our American Stories dot com, give a little, Give a lot,
that's our American Stories dot com and we returned to
(08:20):
our American stories in the story of Abraham Lincoln's brush well,
the ragtag group of grave robbers after his death. When
we last left off, the Secret Service had foiled an
attempted to steal Lincoln's body and bury it for ransom
in the sand dunes of Indiana. After this, security enhancements
that the tomb were needed, and a group of men
(08:42):
took it upon themselves to provide just such measures. Let's
return to the story here again is Lewis pcone.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
So just imagine the horror of Mary Todd Lincoln and
Robert Todd Lincoln when they discovered how close this gang
came to stealing Abraham Lincoln's body, Because if it wasn't
for these two gang members that were also moonlighting for
the Secret Service, there was a real good chance that
(09:16):
they would have gotten away with this plot. It was
so easy to break in there and to remove the sarcophagus.
So Robert Todd Lincoln, really representing the family, was adamant
that the body needed to be better protected, but they
didn't know what to do. There was no other There
(09:37):
was no easy way to make the coffin more secure.
So the caretakers at the oak Ridge Cemetery came up
with the plan, and they decided to gather a group
of men, swear them to secrecy, and secretly remove the
coffin from the sarcophagus and hide it in the basement
(09:58):
of the Lincoln Memorial to.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
This was down in the basement.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
There was no ventilation, It was damp, it stunk down there,
and in the basement it was just ground.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
It wasn't even over concrete. This is now over ground.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
So they dug a hole into the ground and attempted
to bury the coffin. They knew it wasn't secure, but
they figured their advantage was nobody knew that the grave
was their. Everybody thought the coffin was still inside of
the sarcophonist, so they knew that burying the coffin in
(10:37):
the basement under the ground wasn't secure, But their advantage was.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
That nobody knew it was their, so as long as
it was a.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Secret, they felt that Lincoln's coffin was safe. First time
they dug a hole, waters started to steep in, so
they found another spot and instead of burying the coffin,
they hid the coffin covered beneath plywood. Now nobody really
(11:04):
went into the basement except for the caretakers and this
small group of self reclaimed guardians.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
They felt that it was safe down there, and it
was for.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
About another year or so. The next year, in eighteen
seventy seven, there was two bronze sculptured that were placed
by the entrance of the tomb, and construction workers were
at the site and they needed access to the basement.
So the caretakers were forced to bring these construction workers
(11:39):
in on their secret. So they let them know, all right,
we'll let you go down to the basement, but that's
where Lincoln's coffin is hidden. But you can't tell anyone
about this. The construction workers said, yeah, we won't tell
anyone about it, and very.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Quickly all Springfield was buzzing about this rumor.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
That Abraham Lincoln isn't in that sarcophagus, he's in the basement.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Now.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
The caretakers dismissed it at Outland as just an outlandish
conspiracy theory, which it was outlandish, but it wasn't a theory.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
It was true. For another year.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
The coffin remained hidden in the basement still, so still
the public was unaware. They kind of dismissed this wild rumor.
The next year, eighteen seventy eight, about two years after
the attempted grave robbing, there was another shallow grave that
was dug in the corner of the basement. They found
an area where the water table wasn't an issue, and
(12:37):
again they buried themselves. By this point, this group had
now christened themselves the Lincoln Guard of Honor, and it
was a public group. So people knew about the Lincoln
Guard of anr but they thought that they were just
caring and guarding the tomb. They didn't know that they
(12:58):
were actually hiding the bar body of Abraham Lincoln. So
now four years later, Mary Todd Lincoln dies and Robert
is just as concerned about Mary Todd Lincoln's body, So
there's a funeral at the tomb. She is placed inside
of a crypt, but shortly after the funeral the crypt
is open and her coffin is removed down to the
(13:21):
basement as well. For five years, Mary Todd Lincoln and
Abraham Lincoln were buried in the basement in a very
shallow grave until eighteen eighty seven.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
This is when.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Finally there was a more secure attempt to secure the
coffins of Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln. Eleven years Abraham
Lincoln's remains were kept in the basement, they were disinterred,
they were placed beneath eighteen inches of cement and secured
(13:58):
in what was believed to be their final resting places.
Under these eighteen inches of cement, they are now secure
and there will be no need to worry about grave
robbers or anyone moving the coffin again. Now, once again,
when they did this final move and they secured the
coffins of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln beneath this
(14:18):
cement layer.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
The coffins were opened. It was written.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
The body was found to be in a remarkable state
of preservation and easily recognized. But it was also written
that Abraham Lincoln's face was more of a bronze car
For thirteen years, Abraham Lincoln's body was undisturbed until it
was determined that the Lincoln Memorial Tomb was sinking and
(14:44):
they needed to reconstruct the entire thing. So once again,
stonemasons were called, and they needed to chip into those
eighteen inches of cement to get to the coffins to
move that again.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Now it's tough to keep up with.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
How many times that Lincoln's coffin was actually moved. Estimates
range between a dozen times or up to seventeen or
eighteen times. Many of those times the coffin was opened
and the morbidly curious took a look at Abraham Lincoln's features.
But they closed the coffin for one final time September
(15:20):
twenty sixth, nineteen oh one. When you go there today,
you can walk inside, You can walk through the memorial tomb.
You can see the cryps that contain the remains of
Mary of Abraham Lincoln's children, Eddie who died before he
(15:42):
was president, Willie who died in the White House, and
Tad who died at the age of eighteen, and then
Robert Todd.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Lincoln lived a full life. He's not buried at the crypt.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
He's buried in Arlington Cemetery, though, because he was later
Secretary of War under James Garfield.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
And a terrific job by the production editing and storytelling
by our own Monte Montgomery. A special thanks to Lewis Pcone.
His book The President Is Dead covers every presidential death.
Pick it up at Amazon or the usual Suspects. Lewis
also told a terrific story to our American stories about
President Grant's womb. Our Lincoln stories, my goodness, probably more
(16:25):
stories about Lincoln than anybody. The story behind the story
of the Gettysburg Address, with a terrific reenactment by a
Lincoln impersonator. We have the last days of Lincoln's life,
the short, happy life of Abraham Lincoln. We have Robert
Todd Lincoln's story. We have Lincoln on the Verge, his
thirteen day trip from Springfield to Washington, d C. To
(16:49):
become president, and now we avoided multiple assassination plots. We
also have a story about Lincoln the lawyer, Lincoln the wrestler.
He wrestled some bullies, some town bully He's when he
was young, and also Lincoln the first wired president, the
story of Lincoln's not so peaceful rest. Here on our
(17:10):
American stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people,
and we love to hear stories from you. Send them
to our Americanstories dot com. There's some of our favorites.
When Abraham Lincoln was put into his opulent one hundred
and seventeen foot tall tomb, he was laid to rest,
(00:32):
it's certainly not in peace. You here to tell the
story of Abraham Lincoln's turbulent post mortem experience is Lewis
pecone author of the President is Dead, Take it away, Lewis.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Inside of the tomb there is a sarcophagus, and the
coffin was placed inside.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Of that sarcophasis.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
It's about a five hundred pound coffin is guarded by
an iron fence with a lock, and that's it. That
lock in, that iron gate was all that protected Abraham Lincoln.
In eighteen seventy six, there was an attempt to steal
Abraham Lincoln's body. A small time gang in Illinois and
(01:18):
Chicago was led by a guy named Big Jim Conally,
and Canally had fallen on hard times when his ace counterfeitter,
Benjamin Boyd, had been arrested in prison, so his gang
was losing lots of money because they couldn't print their
own This was a time when counterfeiting was a huge problem,
and actually the Secret Service that was formed under Abraham
(01:40):
Lincoln wasn't formed to protect the president.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
It was formed to combat counterfeitters. It was such a
massive problem.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So Canally was on hard times and he was sitting
in this rundown bar.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Called the Hub in Chicago.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Now, coincidentally, this was also a bar that Canally owned
or co owned, So he spent a lot of time
here at the Hub, and he came up with his
idea to steal Abraham Lincoln's body, And he was gonna
steal the body, bring it to the sand dunes in Indiana,
bury it in the sand, and hold it ransom for
the release of Benjamin Boyd and two hundred thousand dollars
(02:22):
to boot. Interestingly, one of the few decorations in the
Hub was a bust of Abraham Lincoln. So I like
to think of Canally sitting there at the bar trying
to figure out how do we bust Benjamin Boyd out
of prison, and looking up at Abraham Lincoln's bust and
(02:42):
getting the idea, Hey, why don't we steal his body? Now,
this sounds like a hair brain scheme. It sounds like
a like some sort of ridiculous scheme that would have
no chance of succeeding. But again, Lincoln's body was only
guarded by this iron gate with a padlock.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Anyone with a sledgehammer can break this lock.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
So he recruited a gang of five people to actually
pull this off, and Canally wasn't on the scene. He'd
kind of kept his hands clean. They also came up
with the date of doing this on election night of
eighteen seventy six.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
This was when Rutherford B.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Hayes was facing off against Samuel Tilden, and they assumed
that the nation would be distracted, they would be more
focused on the election, not worried about Abraham Lincoln's tomb,
and it might give them more cover and give them
more time to get away. It should also be noted
that stealing a body wasn't as unusual as it sounds today,
(03:48):
and grave robbing was not only relatively common compared to today,
but it was also relatively big business because grave robbers
would then sell the cadavers to hospitals and medical facilities.
Which would them use them for experiments, And these medical
facilities didn't really ask many questions of where the bodies
came from. Now that wasn't Canally's plan to sell the body.
(04:12):
But just two years after this attempted grave robbing attempt,
this attempted grave robbing just two years after the body
of another president's father was stolen, and that was Benjamin Harrison.
His remains were stolen in eighteen seventy eight, and luckily
they were found before they were carved up by a
(04:32):
medical facility. So that's like another weird story, but that
just goes to show how this was possible. So Canally
recruits a gang of five people to steal Abraham Lincoln's body.
Little did he know that two of those five people
(04:54):
were also paid informants for the Secret Service. They were
getting five dollars a day from the Secret Service to
inform on criminals like Big Jim Kennelly. So once they
got recruited, they turned to the Secret Service and they
told them.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
About this plant.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So the Secret Service was waiting inside one of the
chambers in the Memorial tomb on November seventh, eighteen seventy six.
The gang easily sawed off the lock and entered the tomb.
They just as easily took the lid off of the sarcophagus,
but then they discovered it wasn't that easy to remove
a five hundred pound leadline coffin, so it took them
(05:37):
a while and they managed to pull it out about
fifteen inches. Now, the Secret Service is hiding in another
room in the tomb, just waiting for that ideal moment
to catch these.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Criminals right hand.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
But before that ideal moment came, one of the Secret
Service agents accidentally fired off his gun. Hearing this bullet,
the criminals ran, but with one of the informant's help,
they pretty easily tracked down the criminals.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Three days later and they were arrested. Now, at the.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Time, stealing a body wasn't a crime, so they couldn't
charge them with stealing a body. Instead, they charged the
criminals with attempting to steal a seventy five dollars casket.
Big Jim Canally was never charged with the scheme, but
instead was arrested for another crime and ended up going
to jail. But the criminals who were actually attempting to
(06:32):
steal the coffin, they each got a year in the
Illinois State Penitentiary.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And what a story you've been listening to. This is
just one of those hair brained schemes that actually could
have worked if the Secret Service had and infiltrated his
little gang of five. Little did Big Jim canally know
that two of his guys were you know, c I's
confidential informants, whether than Nason and new Secret Service, which
(07:01):
job primarily wasn't to guard the presidents of our country,
but to guard our currency and to stop counterfeiting which
was out of control at the time. When we come
back more of Lewis pcone his storytelling about Abraham Lincoln.
Here on Our American Stories, this is Lee Habib, host
(07:31):
of Our American Stories, the show where America is the
star and the American people, and we do it all
from the heart of the South Oxford, Mississippi. But we
truly can't do this show without you. Our shows will
always be free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love what you hear, consider making
a tax deductible donation to Our American Stories. Go to
(07:52):
Our American Stories dot com, give a little, Give a lot,
that's our American Stories dot com and we returned to
(08:20):
our American stories in the story of Abraham Lincoln's brush well,
the ragtag group of grave robbers after his death. When
we last left off, the Secret Service had foiled an
attempted to steal Lincoln's body and bury it for ransom
in the sand dunes of Indiana. After this, security enhancements
that the tomb were needed, and a group of men
(08:42):
took it upon themselves to provide just such measures. Let's
return to the story here again is Lewis pcone.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
So just imagine the horror of Mary Todd Lincoln and
Robert Todd Lincoln when they discovered how close this gang
came to stealing Abraham Lincoln's body, Because if it wasn't
for these two gang members that were also moonlighting for
the Secret Service, there was a real good chance that
(09:16):
they would have gotten away with this plot. It was
so easy to break in there and to remove the sarcophagus.
So Robert Todd Lincoln, really representing the family, was adamant
that the body needed to be better protected, but they
didn't know what to do. There was no other There
(09:37):
was no easy way to make the coffin more secure.
So the caretakers at the oak Ridge Cemetery came up
with the plan, and they decided to gather a group
of men, swear them to secrecy, and secretly remove the
coffin from the sarcophagus and hide it in the basement
(09:58):
of the Lincoln Memorial to.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
This was down in the basement.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
There was no ventilation, It was damp, it stunk down there,
and in the basement it was just ground.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
It wasn't even over concrete. This is now over ground.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
So they dug a hole into the ground and attempted
to bury the coffin. They knew it wasn't secure, but
they figured their advantage was nobody knew that the grave
was their. Everybody thought the coffin was still inside of
the sarcophonist, so they knew that burying the coffin in
(10:37):
the basement under the ground wasn't secure, But their advantage was.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
That nobody knew it was their, so as long as
it was a.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Secret, they felt that Lincoln's coffin was safe. First time
they dug a hole, waters started to steep in, so
they found another spot and instead of burying the coffin,
they hid the coffin covered beneath plywood. Now nobody really
(11:04):
went into the basement except for the caretakers and this
small group of self reclaimed guardians.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
They felt that it was safe down there, and it
was for.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
About another year or so. The next year, in eighteen
seventy seven, there was two bronze sculptured that were placed
by the entrance of the tomb, and construction workers were
at the site and they needed access to the basement.
So the caretakers were forced to bring these construction workers
(11:39):
in on their secret. So they let them know, all right,
we'll let you go down to the basement, but that's
where Lincoln's coffin is hidden. But you can't tell anyone
about this. The construction workers said, yeah, we won't tell
anyone about it, and very.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Quickly all Springfield was buzzing about this rumor.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
That Abraham Lincoln isn't in that sarcophagus, he's in the basement.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Now.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
The caretakers dismissed it at Outland as just an outlandish
conspiracy theory, which it was outlandish, but it wasn't a theory.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
It was true. For another year.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
The coffin remained hidden in the basement still, so still
the public was unaware. They kind of dismissed this wild rumor.
The next year, eighteen seventy eight, about two years after
the attempted grave robbing, there was another shallow grave that
was dug in the corner of the basement. They found
an area where the water table wasn't an issue, and
(12:37):
again they buried themselves. By this point, this group had
now christened themselves the Lincoln Guard of Honor, and it
was a public group. So people knew about the Lincoln
Guard of anr but they thought that they were just
caring and guarding the tomb. They didn't know that they
(12:58):
were actually hiding the bar body of Abraham Lincoln. So
now four years later, Mary Todd Lincoln dies and Robert
is just as concerned about Mary Todd Lincoln's body, So
there's a funeral at the tomb. She is placed inside
of a crypt, but shortly after the funeral the crypt
is open and her coffin is removed down to the
(13:21):
basement as well. For five years, Mary Todd Lincoln and
Abraham Lincoln were buried in the basement in a very
shallow grave until eighteen eighty seven.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
This is when.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Finally there was a more secure attempt to secure the
coffins of Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln. Eleven years Abraham
Lincoln's remains were kept in the basement, they were disinterred,
they were placed beneath eighteen inches of cement and secured
(13:58):
in what was believed to be their final resting places.
Under these eighteen inches of cement, they are now secure
and there will be no need to worry about grave
robbers or anyone moving the coffin again. Now, once again,
when they did this final move and they secured the
coffins of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln beneath this
(14:18):
cement layer.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
The coffins were opened. It was written.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
The body was found to be in a remarkable state
of preservation and easily recognized. But it was also written
that Abraham Lincoln's face was more of a bronze car
For thirteen years, Abraham Lincoln's body was undisturbed until it
was determined that the Lincoln Memorial Tomb was sinking and
(14:44):
they needed to reconstruct the entire thing. So once again,
stonemasons were called, and they needed to chip into those
eighteen inches of cement to get to the coffins to
move that again.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Now it's tough to keep up with.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
How many times that Lincoln's coffin was actually moved. Estimates
range between a dozen times or up to seventeen or
eighteen times. Many of those times the coffin was opened
and the morbidly curious took a look at Abraham Lincoln's features.
But they closed the coffin for one final time September
(15:20):
twenty sixth, nineteen oh one. When you go there today,
you can walk inside, You can walk through the memorial tomb.
You can see the cryps that contain the remains of
Mary of Abraham Lincoln's children, Eddie who died before he
(15:42):
was president, Willie who died in the White House, and
Tad who died at the age of eighteen, and then
Robert Todd.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Lincoln lived a full life. He's not buried at the crypt.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
He's buried in Arlington Cemetery, though, because he was later
Secretary of War under James Garfield.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
And a terrific job by the production editing and storytelling
by our own Monte Montgomery. A special thanks to Lewis Pcone.
His book The President Is Dead covers every presidential death.
Pick it up at Amazon or the usual Suspects. Lewis
also told a terrific story to our American stories about
President Grant's womb. Our Lincoln stories, my goodness, probably more
(16:25):
stories about Lincoln than anybody. The story behind the story
of the Gettysburg Address, with a terrific reenactment by a
Lincoln impersonator. We have the last days of Lincoln's life,
the short, happy life of Abraham Lincoln. We have Robert
Todd Lincoln's story. We have Lincoln on the Verge, his
thirteen day trip from Springfield to Washington, d C. To
(16:49):
become president, and now we avoided multiple assassination plots. We
also have a story about Lincoln the lawyer, Lincoln the wrestler.
He wrestled some bullies, some town bully He's when he
was young, and also Lincoln the first wired president, the
story of Lincoln's not so peaceful rest. Here on our
(17:10):
American stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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