When a Body Becomes a Hostage: Lincoln, Chaplin and the Ransom Market for the Dead
On November 7, 1876, two grave robbers entered Abraham Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield, Illinois. They carried a crowbar, an oil lamp and a horse-drawn wagon. They were not looking for gold. They wanted to pull out the sixteenth president’s coffin, carry the body more than 200 miles to the Indiana dunes and demand a ransom. The gang leader believed the United States government would pay to recover the body and release a jailed counterfeiter.
On November 7, 1876, two grave robbers entered Abraham Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield, Illinois. They carried a crowbar, an oil lamp and a horse-drawn wagon. They were not looking for gold. They wanted to pull out the sixteenth president’s coffin, carry the body more than 200 miles to the Indiana dunes and demand a ransom. The gang leader believed the United States government would pay to recover the body and release a jailed counterfeiter.
On November 7, 1876, two grave robbers entered Abraham Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield, Illinois. They carried a crowbar, an oil lamp and a horse-drawn wagon. They were not looking for gold. They wanted to pull out the sixteenth president’s coffin, carry the body more than 200 miles to the Indiana dunes and demand a ransom. The gang leader believed the United States government would pay to recover the body and release a jailed counterfeiter.
On November 7, 1876, two grave robbers entered Abraham Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield, Illinois. They carried a crowbar, an oil lamp and a horse-drawn wagon. They were not looking for gold. They wanted to pull out the sixteenth president’s coffin, carry the body more than 200 miles to the Indiana dunes and demand a ransom. The gang leader believed the United States government would pay to recover the body and release a jailed counterfeiter.
On November 7, 1876, two grave robbers entered Abraham Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield, Illinois. They carried a crowbar, an oil lamp and a horse-drawn wagon. They were not looking for gold. They wanted to pull out the sixteenth president’s coffin, carry the body more than 200 miles to the Indiana dunes and demand a ransom. The gang leader believed the United States government would pay to recover the body and release a jailed counterfeiter.
On November 7, 1876, two grave robbers entered Abraham Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield, Illinois. They carried a crowbar, an oil lamp and a horse-drawn wagon. They were not looking for gold. They wanted to pull out the sixteenth president’s coffin, carry the body more than 200 miles to the Indiana dunes and demand a ransom. The gang leader believed the United States government would pay to recover the body and release a jailed counterfeiter.