Lincoln's Grave Robbers: Chapters 5–8

“Suddenly the bullet dropped out through my fingers and fell, breaking the solemn silence of the room with its clatter, into an empty basin that was standing beneath.”

When the autopsy was finished, an undertaker named Charles Brown and his best embalmer, Henry Cattell, were shown into the room.

When the autopsy was finished, an undertaker named Charles Brown and his best embalmer, Henry Cattell, were shown into the room.

Cattell drained the blood from Lincoln’s body and pumped in embalming fluid, a mix of chemicals that preserved the body and hardened it, making the face appear more like marble than skin.

“I called at a neighborhood drugstore,” he explained, “and procured a rouge chalk and amber, with such brushes as I needed, and returned to the room.”

“I called at a neighborhood drugstore,” he explained, “and procured a rouge chalk and amber, with such brushes as I needed, and returned to the room.”

When Thomas Sharp and his gang came to check out the Lincoln Monument, the first thing they saw was a tall obelisk—a needle-shaped tower of gray granite.

There were letters from Lincoln, photos, a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, even surveying tools Lincoln had used as a young man.

There were letters from Lincoln, photos, a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, even surveying tools Lincoln had used as a young man.

He explained that on the other side of the building, about 150 feet from Memorial Hall, was a second, smaller room—the tomb chamber, or “catacomb,” as Power called it.

Through the doors, guests could dimly see to the far wall of the catacomb, where there were five closet-sized crypts. The bodies of Lincoln’s dead sons rested in three of the crypts; the empty ones were for Lincoln’s one living son, Robert, and his wife, Mary.

In the middle of the floor sat a large marble sarcophagus, or casket. Inside the sarcophagus was a coffin made of red cedar.

One night Thomas Sharp got drunk and started crowing about a big deal he had in the works.

“Whisky alone is entitled to the credit of having thwarted this well-laid scheme to steal the remains of President Lincoln,” recalled John Carroll Power.

This was shaping up to be the most hotly contested election since the Civil War, and by late summer the nasty campaigning was well underway.

Sure, he was stewing with fury at the Logan County Gang for their boneheaded blunder.

He kept his pet, a snake, in a box on the bar. Not poisonous, he assured patrons.

He walked around with a pistol tucked in his belt, and was considered dangerous by the Chicago police. “Will shoot without a very extraordinary amount of provocation,” warned one official report.

Nelson told the others he’d gladly help out in small ways, but wanted no part of the actual heist.

Tyrrell said he was intrigued.

Swegles always made sure to casually weave in the names of criminals he’d worked with or befriended behind bars.

Competing papers aggressively promoted competing political parties and politicians. And the partisan attacks were every bit as savage as they are today.

They spoke of the horrors of the Civil War and reminded readers that it had been Democratic leaders who had seceded from the Union and fired on the American flag—and Republicans, under Lincoln, who had held the country together.

Tilden hadn’t served in the war, papers pointed out, and was probably still a rebel sympathizer and supporter of slavery.

What’s more, claimed one paper, Tilden was “a drunkard, a liar, a cheat, a counterfeiter, a perjurer, and a swindler.”

What’s more, claimed one paper, Tilden was “a drunkard, a liar, a cheat, a counterfeiter, a perjurer, and a swindler.”

Swett explained that he wasn’t sure how serious the threat really was, but added: “Perhaps the slightest intimation of danger ought to induce proper safeguards—if the body is in a position where it could possibly be exposed to such a scheme.”

Swett explained that he wasn’t sure how serious the threat really was, but added: “Perhaps the slightest intimation of danger ought to induce proper safeguards—if the body is in a position where it could possibly be exposed to such a scheme.”

“Deeming the matter of national importance if they commit such a damnable act without detection, I thought best to telegraph the facts as I did this evening to you.”

Mary finally relented, allowing Robert to join the army in early 1865.