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Stealing Lincoln's Body
by Thomas J. Craughwell
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- See description
- ISBN 10
- 0674024583
- ISBN 13
- 9780674024588
- Seller
-
Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
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.
Thomas Craughwell exhumes a fascinating and bizarre Lincoln tale that you didn't hear in school: The plot hatched by a group of Chicago counterfeiters to steal Honest Abe's remains and ransom them for $200,000 and the release of an imprisoned cohort. Though ultimately unsuccessful, the brazen scheme launched The First Cadaver on a peripatetic 25-year journey to its final, concrete-encased resting place. Along the way, Stealing Lincoln's Body detours into the story of rampant counterfeiting prior to and through the Civil War that nearly bankrupted the U.S. treasury, the scoundrelly origins of the Secret Service, and some of the stranger embalming techniques of 19th-century America. --Jon Foro
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Details
- Bookseller
- Janson Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- Bib2020LJ010093
- Title
- Stealing Lincoln's Body
- Author
- Thomas J. Craughwell
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0674024583
- ISBN 13
- 9780674024588
- Publisher
- Belknap Press; 1st Edition (April 15, 2007)
- Place of Publication
- Cambridge
- Date Published
- April 15, 2007
Terms of Sale
Janson Books
30 day return guarantee, with refund minus original shipping costs for up to 30 days after scheduled delivery date if an item arrives significantly damaged. We use USPS Media Mail to keep our costs as low as possible (All Media Mail includes tracking but no insurance). Please request an additional $5 insurance premium on any shipment that you would like insured against any loss. USPS is highly reliable so insurance is generally not cost effective for low priced books. We use USPS for all of our shipping and offer shipping only within the United States at this time. Shipping to outside of the US can not be provided at this time. For purchases made by non-US customers please specify a US shipping address/contact that could forward the book to you.
About the Seller
Janson Books
Biblio member since 2015
Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania
About Janson Books
Covers a broad range of fiction, biographies, general sciences with some concentration in a variety of biomedical and chemical science titles which reflect the owner's lifetime interests.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Shaken
- A hardcover in which the text block is loose, but still attached to the binding.