The Plot To Steal Lincoln's Remains

Above, Abraham Lincoln's tomb in 2016. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Did you know that the mortal remains of President Abraham Lincoln are sealed in a steel cage covered in concrete ten feet down?

Yes, this is true. There was a plot to steal Lincoln's coffin and hold it for ransom. The plot was foiled and Robert Lincoln, the eldest son of the president, ordered that the coffin be reburied ten feet down inside a steel cage and covered in concrete.

Above, Abraham Lincoln was re-buried ten feet below and a
 few feet behind the sarcophagus. Photo by Armand Vaquer. 

The Lincoln Tomb in Springfield, Illinois at Oak Ridge Cemetery is free to the public to visit. I went there in 2016 when I went to Metropolis, Illinois to attend Noel Neill's memorial service. 

The National Park Service posted the story of the foiled plot and it begins with:

In the fall of 1876, just 11 years after his assassination, there was a plot to steal President Lincoln’s remains from Oak Ridge Cemetery and hold them ransom in the Indiana Dunes.

That October, a prominent engraver for Chicago counterfeiters named Benjamin Boyd was jailed at the nearby Joliet penitentiary. An Irish-American crime boss by the name of Jame "Big Jim" Kinealy relied on Boyd for his business and devised a plan for his release. Kinealy's scheme called for Lincoln’s body to be stolen from his tomb in Springfield, Illinois. The thieves would then take the President's remains over 200 miles to Indiana’s sand dune country. There, Lincoln’s remains would be hidden while the shifting sands would cover the grave-robbers' tracks. After the remains were hidden away, Boyd, the imprisoned engraver, would ransom them for his release, full pardon, and $200,000 (over $5.5 million today).

Above, yours truly at Lincoln's tomb in 2016.

American Heritage posted a detailed account of the attempted theft of Lincoln's coffin. To read it, go here.

To read the NPS story of the plot, go here.