"Stealing Lincoln's Body"

This is a fascinating, albeit admittedly macabre, special on The History Channel, and I found it extremely interesting (although I think it might be better shown on Halloween!) It's the true story of how a group of counterfeiters hatched, and nearly successfully carried out, a plot to steal President Lincoln's body and hold it for ransom in 1876.

There were a couple of things in the special that I took note of. Harold Holzer, a Lincoln biographer, refers to Mary Lincoln often writing and speaking of her expectation of being reunited with her husband in eternity, and he adds the curious comment, "Of course, that was what they believed back then." (I'm paraphrasing because I can't remember the exact wording of his comment.) I find that interesting because he makes it sound like nobody today believes in an afterlife or eternity or being reunited with loved ones in eternity. Perhaps that is not what he meant, but it sounded like it. I think that most people, unless they are atheists, have some kind of expectation of an afterlife, and of seeing our loved ones in eternity when we die (I know I do), and I don't think that is a belief that was held only in Mary Lincoln's time. If he was referring to Mary's fascination with spiritualism, that is also a belief that is still held in our time today (hence the appeal of people such as mediums James Van Praagh or John Edward, who claim to be able to communicate with the dead.) These beliefs have never gone out of vogue.

Thomas Craughwell, who authored the book upon which this special is based, and who gives extensive commentary throughout the special, stated that Abraham Lincoln II, known as "Jack," who was Robert Lincoln's son, was interred with the rest of the family at the tomb in Illinois, and he calls him "their one and only grandchild." I hope he misspoke, because that's not true. Robert Lincoln had two other children, both daughters. Perhaps Mr. Craughwell meant to say "their one and only grandson" and it came out wrong. (I have also read that "Jack" Lincoln was disinterred and reburied at Arlington, where Robert Lincoln and his wife are buried, and the special doesn't point this detail out either.)

I wonder if I am the only one who noticed something very ironic. After the unsuccessful attempt to steal the body, the coffin was partially out of its sarcophagus, so the caretaker and some other men took it down to the basement area of the tomb to hide it so tourists wouldn't see the broken sarcophagus with the coffin protruding. Then, to further hide it, they covered it with lumber. To me, the irony was this - Lincoln, known as the "Great Railsplitter," often pictured as a young man with an ax in his hand, splitting logs, was, during several years after the unsuccessful attempt to steal his body, lying in his coffin, hidden underneath a pile of lumber. (Why do I think that Mr. Lincoln, who had a noted sense of humor, would have somehow found this funny and gotten a good leg-slapping laugh out of it?)

They also didn't really mention the fact that Lincoln and Mary were not alone when they attended "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre that fateful night. No mention was made, in this special at least, of Major Rathbone and his fiancee Clara also being present in the President's box that night. (I visited Washington D.C. some years ago and got to tour Ford's Theatre as well as the Petersen House across the street where they carried Lincoln and where he died the following morning. Incidentally, the illustrations, some used in this special, showing enormous groups of people around the President's deathbed, are erroneous. That room at the back of the Petersen House is so small, you couldn't fit that many people around that bed all at once.)

I always enjoy the History Channel. You learn things there that you never learn anywhere else, even rather ghoulish pieces of history such as this. (Macabre though it may be, it's still very interesting, in a weird way, and I plan to look for Mr. Craughwell's book and read more about it.) The two channels I find myself watching the most, to the exclusion of almost anything and everything else, are the History Channel and, due to my great fondness for stories set against the backdrop of the American West, I watch Encore Westerns. I almost don't need any other channels except those two!

As a P.S., I wonder whatever happened to the plan to make a motion picture out of an excellent book about the Lincoln assassination and the chase after Booth and his cohorts, called "Manhunt?" (Get that book and read it if this is a topic that interests you - it is VERY good.) And while he's technically too old for the role, I think Johnny Depp absolutely HAS to play John Wilkes Booth in something - with a mustache, he looks strikingly like Booth and could play the role probably as well as any current actor I can think of.