WEBVTT - Lead By Crime Boss James “Big Jim” Kennally 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:05.320 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda land Audio in 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:15.400 partnership with I Heart Radio. The first attempt at snatching 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:19.080 and ransoming Abraham Lincoln's body was in eighteen seventy six 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.360 by a gang called the Logan County Boys. It didn't 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.760 work out as girl see, but it wasn't the only 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:29.560 attempt at snatching Lincoln's remains. Welcome to criminal Lea, I'm 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:34.800 Marian tram Marquis and I'm Holly Fry. The Logan County Boys, 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:39.200 led by crime Boss James Big Jim Kennally, planned to 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:43.279 quote steal Old Lincoln's bones, or at least so. One 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:45.000 of the men told the woman that he had met 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:49.240 in the town shortly before their caper. He even told 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.640 her the details, like exactly when they planned to do it. 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:57.280 That woman reported the information to the authorities, who then 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:00.680 warned the tomb's custodian, that was a man named John 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:05.440 Carroll Power. Power reported it to the Lincoln Monument Association, 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.360 the local group who oversaw the tomb, but nothing was 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:11.920 done about it, and when the gang sobered up and 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:14.880 realized what they had admitted to, they fled the scene. 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:18.119 John Carroll Power went on to write a book about 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:21.679 the attempted crime, and in it says, quote, it seemed 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:25.960 to the authorities so incredible that no attention was given 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:30.200 to it. Power continued quote, Whiskey alone is entitled to 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:34.480 the credit of having thwarted this well laid scheme. There's 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:38.520 an alternate version of that story. There's actually two alternates. 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:42.520 The second version involved a counterfeiter named Thomas Sharp in 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:46.560 his gang instead of the Logan County Boys. In preparation, 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:49.680 Sharp's men moved to Springfield, Illinois, where they opened a 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:53.280 dance hall and a saloon. Unfortunately for the men, though 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:57.760 this part of the story remains the same, Sharp bragged 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:00.520 about their plans to a woman, Bell Bruce, who in 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:05.280 turn informed the police. With their scheme compromised, Sharp and 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:07.480 his men had no other choice but to abort the 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:10.760 plan and return home. The third version here it's it's 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:13.600 basically the same exact premise, but the gang was Ben 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:17.960 Sheridan and four of his men. Canally would need a 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:22.000 new plan to spring his man, Benjamin Boyd from prison. Wait, 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:25.720 who you may be wondering, that's right. This plan wasn't 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:29.440 really about ransoming of presidential corpse. That was just a 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.840 means to an end. Canally was the leader of one 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:37.080 of the nation's largest counterfeiting rings, and Benjamin Boyd was 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:41.279 his engraver. He needed to spring Boyd from behind bars, 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:46.280 so Canally hatched a second scheme, another attempt at stealing 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:49.799 Lincoln's corpse, and it went like this. A new team 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.520 would steal the coffin from the tomb and haulot by 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:56.399 wagon two hundred miles north to the Indiana Dunes. That's 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:58.760 where they'd hold it until the state of Illinois paid 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:01.760 a ransom of two dollars in cash to get it back, 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:06.520 and the gang got a full pardon for Boyd. But 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:10.600 Canally's mistake here in his second round was who he 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.280 allowed to have a role in the caper. So let's 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:16.679 take a look at the players. First, of course, there's 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:20.320 a man at the top, James Connally. Big Jim Connally was, 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:23.320 as we said, a crime boss who led a successful 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:27.600 Midwestern counterfeiting racket. He also was co owner of a 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:31.239 drinking establishment called The Hub, which was located at two 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:35.920 nine West Madison Street in Chicago. It was well known 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:40.160 and friendly to counterfeiters, and it is featured in this story. 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:43.200 Connally was a man once described by a local reporter 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:46.760 as quote a born crook. He may have been a 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.200 wholesaler of counterfeit bills during the time of the Lincoln Caper, 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:54.200 but Connally had spent time in prison. He had served 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.640 a five year sentence in the Illinois State Penitentiary at 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:01.560 Joliet for passing a bogus fifth dollar bill in Peoria. 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:05.760 And then these are his men for the new and 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:10.600 improved Lincoln job. One Benjamin Boyd was the man with 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:13.200 the plates. He was an engraver, and he was at 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:15.400 the time of his story serving a sentence at the 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:20.320 State Penitentiary in Juliet. He is ultimately the reason for 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:25.599 this crime, so he is on this list. Two Terence 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:28.760 Mullin was a counterfeiter, bartender and co owner of the 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:34.200 Hub with James Canally. Three Jack Hughes was a counterfeiter 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:38.280 and a close friend of Terence Mullein. For Lewis Swiegels 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:42.640 was a small time thief, possibly from Wisconsin. He is 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:46.320 the wild card here in this group. One important fact 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:48.840 unknown to the Canally gang is that Lewis was an 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:52.000 informant or what was known as a roper, to the 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:55.400 Chicago Secret Service. I'm also going to note here that 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:58.679 a friend of Swiegel's, a man named Bill Brown, also 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:03.040 known as Bill Neely, is mentioned in some but definitely 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:07.680 not all accounts of this story as a wagon driver. He, 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:12.039 like Swiggles, is also mentioned as with the Secret Service 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:16.000 and pretending to be on Canally's team. Bill is a 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:17.960 man who may or may not have been present at 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:22.479 this caper and five. Patrick Tyrrell was head of the 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:26.160 Secret Service bureau in Chicago. Tyrrell was the agent who 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:29.160 had chased Benjamin Boyd for more than eight months through 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:32.240 five states before he caught him in the small Mississippi 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:35.560 River town of Fulton, Illinois. Tyrrell, at the time of 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:40.400 this story was running Swiggles as an informant. Let's clear 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:44.080 up any confusion about why U. S. Secret Service agent 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:48.560 Patrick Tyrrell would be pursuing a bunch of counterfeiters. It's 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.440 as simple as this. The role of the Secret Service 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:54.720 wasn't the same when it was created in eighteen sixty 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:58.200 five as it is today and since the assassination attempt 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.000 of President McKinley in nineteen o one, and the group 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:04.240 is tasked with the full time protection of the President 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:07.360 of the United States, but a hundred and fifty seven 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:09.880 years ago they were created as a bureau in the 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:15.200 Treasury Department, and task was suppressing widespread counterfeiting, which was 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:19.080 a huge problem throughout the country at the time. Nearly 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:22.919 one third of all US currency and circulation at the 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.720 end of the Civil War was counterfeit. That's an estimate 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:29.200 that we've seen rise up to nearly one half in 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:32.800 some account. The Secret Service Division's goal was to stabilize 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:36.920 the country's financial system. In eighteen sixty seven, the Secret 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:41.159 Services responsibilities grew to include some new things. Here's what 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:46.360 it looked like, according to their website, detecting persons perpetrating 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:51.600 frauds against the government. This appropriation resulted in investigations into 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:57.560 the Ku Klux Klan, non conforming distillers, smugglers, mail robbers, 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:02.400 land frauds, and a number of other infractions against federal laws. 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:06.440 The Canally Gang was a group of counterfeiters operating out 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.159 of the Midwest, and they were doing well for themselves 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:13.160 until their expert bill engraver moneymaker Benjamin Boyd, was arrested 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:17.080 and jailed. It said Boyd may have been the best 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:20.240 in the country and that much of the counterfeit currency 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:24.240 around the country could be traced back to him until 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:27.640 that is, when he was captured in Fulton in eighteen 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:31.080 seventy five. He was convicted on charges of forging a 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:34.480 fifty dollar bill, It's reported, and sentenced to ten years 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:38.600 at Juliet. Making counterfeit money meant your currency had to 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:45.600 look identical, exactly like the real currency. One of Boyd's 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:48.200 five dollar plates was so perfect that more than three 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:50.720 hundred thousand bills were known to have been printed from 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:54.400 it and passed without mishap by their one gang alone. 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:58.600 The U. S. Treasury finally paid him its ultimate tribute. 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:04.880 The department recalled it's genuine fives from circulation without Boyd 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:07.720 and his talent. With those plates, the criminals were suddenly 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:10.480 out of business. Boyd was the one with the skills, 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:13.720 and the way they saw it, ransoming Lincoln's body was 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.160 the only way now to get Boyd out of prison 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:19.440 and then get back to business. I do have to 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:21.960 wonder why they were like, this is the only possible. 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:29.000 It's got to involve Lincoln. Period. We are going to 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:31.560 take a moment for a word from our sponsor, and 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:34.720 when we're back we will talk about which cemetery Abraham 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:49.960 Lincoln is buried in and why welcome back to Criminalia. 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:55.439 Lewis swiggles is quote the boss body snatcher in Chicago. 0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:00.240 We'll see about that. Shortly after ten p a month 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:04.200 April fourteenth, eighteen sixty five, while attending a performance of 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.720 the play Are American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington, 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:12.080 d C. President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth. 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:16.080 He died at seven two am on April fift eighteen 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:19.600 sixty five, and it's estimated his body has moved as 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:25.640 many as seventeen times since its original burial. After his assassination, 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:28.880 it was debated where the president's body would be buried. 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:33.160 The town leaders of Springfield, Illinois, saw the potential of 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:36.440 this tomb for their local economy, and they argued that 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:38.679 he should be buried within the limits of the city 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:42.840 that he had called home. But Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.920 Lincoln's wife, wanted his body to be interred at oak 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:50.440 Ridge Cemetery, just north of Springfield, and according to records, 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.480 that was what he had wanted, and the oak Ridge 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:58.880 Cemetery was selected. Oakridge was located about two miles outside 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:02.160 of town, and it didn't have the kind of security 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:06.640 you might imagine a presidential grave might be given. For instance, 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:09.400 there was no night watchman to patrol the area that 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:13.040 was going to house the president's tomb. At first, the 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:15.800 remains of both Abraham and his son Willie, who had 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:19.319 died of typhoid fever at age eleven during his father's presidency, 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:23.400 were placed in the public receiving bolt from May until 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:27.000 mid December of eighteen sixty five, while the final tomb 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:31.319 was being constructed. From December eighteen sixty five through September 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.679 of eighteen seventy one, the remains of the president and 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:38.160 two of his sons, Willie and also Eddie, who had 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:42.640 died of pulmonary tuberculosis at age four, were moved into 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:46.760 a temporary above ground tomb constructed on the northeast side 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:50.560 of the hill at Oak Ridge. Over the years, his 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:54.880 tomb has undergone several transformations. Lincoln's body was long considered 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:59.400 at high risk from grave robbers, which brings us back 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:03.440 to Canal He's gang. The men converged on Chicago, and 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:05.680 it was at the Hub where they worked out their plan. 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:09.960 Terence Mullen was in He and Kennally were close partners. 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:15.319 Jack Hughes, too was in Hughes was excellent not at 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.800 making phony money, but at passing phony bills. He's described 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:22.840 as an honest looking man, all was well dressed and 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:26.640 with a respectable beard. His days were spent going from 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:30.120 store to store, making one small purchase at each and 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:34.840 paying with a crisp new counterfeit bill. In September of 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:39.080 eighteen seventy four, in Washington Heights, Illinois, Hughes was arrested 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:42.400 by Secret Service agents and he was indicted for passing 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:46.760 five counterfeit bills. Hughes had jumped bail, though, and was 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:50.320 being sought by what seemed to be every policeman in 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:54.120 Chicago when he joined the plot to kidnap Abraham Lincoln's 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:59.280 corpse and free Benjamin Boyd. But Kenneally needed more hands, 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:03.200 rely doable strong men to pull off this heist, so 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:06.760 the guys approached a man named Lewis Swiegel's, a small 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.679 time crook and sometimes horse thief who had become a 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:14.120 frequent customer of the pub. Involving Louis Wiggles was the 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:18.720 beginning of the end really of this plan. Remember Lewis 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:21.679 was a federal informant whose job it was to report 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:26.840 back on any of the gang's criminal activities. So well, 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:30.640 let's just keep going. During his con fab with the group, 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:34.800 when Mullen asked what Swiegel's occupation was, he replied, quote, 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:39.960 I'm the boss body snatcher of Chicago. That might be 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:42.960 a strange statement to make in a job interview today, 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:46.440 but in the late eighteen hundreds it might not have 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:50.160 been so much the oddity, and certainly not among thieves. 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:54.680 Stealing and supplying corpses was, of course a big business 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.440 for those who were getting paid by medical schools to 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:01.560 supply fresh cadavers, but there are no laws to punish 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:06.080 body snatchers, at least not in most of the state. Anyway, 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:08.959 these guys were snatching a body, and if you didn't 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:13.320 have anybody snatching experience, wouldn't you want the boss body 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.760 snatcher of Chicago on your team? Of course you would. 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:20.800 He made the cut. As the counterfeiters created their plan, 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:25.439 Louis shared every detail with the secret Services. Patrick Tyrrell. 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:29.800 Tyrelle in turn told Lincoln's only surviving son, Robert, a 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:33.319 Chicago attorney, but asked that Robert let the plot move 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:35.800 forward so he could catch the kidnappers in the act. 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:38.880 Catching them in the act would likely increase the chance 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:46.240 of conviction, so Robert agreed. On November six, six, Mullen, Hughes, 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:50.760 and Swiegels cut a train from Chicago to Springfield. Connally 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.480 did not join them. Little did they know, though, that 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:58.240 they were being tailed. Tyrrell was in the rear passenger 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:02.200 car with two hired operatives from the Pinkerton National Detective 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:06.520 Agency in Chicago. Those were men named John C. McGinn 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:11.120 and George hay. During the afternoon, two additional men were 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:15.640 also brought in, detectives John McDonald and John English. The 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:19.920 gang was also being tailed by a Chicago Daily Tribune reporter. 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.120 The next night, on the seventh, Mullen and the gang 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:28.320 made their attempt, but things didn't go exactly as planned, 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:32.320 or really they didn't go very well at all. In fact, 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:35.720 things have been described as having gone poorly for both 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:40.280 the cops and the robbers. It was election night. The 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:45.080 presidential contest between Republican Rutherford Behayes and Democrats Samuel Tilden 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:47.680 was heated, and it was a pretty good assumption that 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:51.440 most Springfield residents would be downtown celebrating and waiting for 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:54.800 results to come in. They certainly would not be anywhere 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:59.880 near oak Ridge Cemetery. So to keep the attempted heist 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.400 all together, we're going to take a moment for a 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:05.360 word from our sponsor here, and when we're back, we'll 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.680 talk about how Canally's gang not only did not have 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:11.640 the skills for burglary, they didn't even bring the right 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:28.080 tools for the job. Welcome back to Criminalia. So did 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:32.440 the Canally counterfeiters get Benjamin Boyd out of prison? Let's 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:37.480 find out. We mentioned earlier how oak Ridge Cemetery was 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:42.040 a bit lacking in security measures. To enter the tomb, 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:45.280 the gang would only have to break up padlock to 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:50.600 reach Lincoln's white marble sarcophagus. According to Thomas Crawwell, author 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:54.360 of Stealing Lincoln's Body Quote, there was no night watchman, 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:57.720 and the custodian of the tomb lived in Springfield to 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:02.280 three miles away. The only security, if you call it, that, 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:07.280 was a single padlock. Swiegels later said, as reported in 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:12.360 the Illinois State Journal on November that while Mullin's gang 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:16.960 were capable counterfeiters, they did not have the skills for burglary, 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:22.080 especially when it came to bringing the right tools. Tyrrell 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:26.680 his agents, plus the Pinkerton detectives, arrived at the tomb 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.640 before Canali's gang hid and waited for the counterfeiters to 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:34.040 show up. When Mullin and his men did show, they 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:39.440 quietly sneaked up to the monument, but immediately their problems began. 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:43.880 Mullin brought along a carpet bag containing quote, a can 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:46.840 of blasting powder and a fathom of fuse, a hammer, 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:50.760 steel punch drills, a steel saw, a file, and other 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:55.520 various small tools they needed to saw the metal padlock 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:57.880 off the door to the catacomb, but the saw they 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:00.560 had brought with them was flimsy. In fact, it was 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:04.880 so flimsy it broke in the process. Not a bunch 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:08.200 to runaway and regroup. Instead, they used a three sided 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:12.280 metal file and it worked, but it took them half 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:17.119 an hour just to get the one lock off. Once 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.960 they were inside, they used a crowbar to open the 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:24.760 sarcophagus lid, but then the problems just kept coming. The 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:28.880 inner lid was secured by several copper dowels, which they removed. 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:32.959 They balanced it crosswise across the foot of the sarcophagus, 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:36.760 removed the piece at its head, and then slid lincoln 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:41.080 cedar covered lead coffin part of the way out, but 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:43.359 they were only able to pull it out about a foot. 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:47.440 Lincoln's five pound coffin was simply too heavy for them 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:52.359 to move. Mullins sent Swiegels to find another pair of hands, 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.240 and that is the moment when the informants signaled to 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:58.760 Tyrrell that it was time to start their raid. Why 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:01.000 did it take so long to tip off Tyrell and 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:04.320 his men? The signal from Swiegels was the lighting of 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:08.000 a cigar, but that required Lewis to go outside, and 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:10.800 he hadn't had a chance because he'd been tasked with 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:14.640 holding a lantern while Mullin and Hughes worked. But finally 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:18.800 he had his chance. The agents sprung from their hiding 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.879 places and dashed to the scene of Mullin's men. In 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:26.600 their excitement, one agent accidentally fired his weapon. Startled by 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:30.240 the gunfire, the kidnappers fled. When the agents got to 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:32.720 the sarcophagus, all that was left on the scene were 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:36.680 the crowbar, a broken saw, and a few other scattered 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:41.600 tools not to be Deterred by their own error, the 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:45.320 Secret Service agents and Pinkerton detectives fanned out in an 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:49.640 effort to catch Mullin and his men. Tyrrell, it's reported, 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:52.440 took to the tubs roof where he spied a couple 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:56.760 of men down below. Without any verification. He shot at 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.480 them and they returned fire, and when Tyrell called for backup, 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:03.399 one of the men on the ground called out, quote, Tyrrell, 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:08.840 is that you That's right. Tyrell and the authorities were 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:12.280 shooting at each other and their own people. Tyrrell reported 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.280 to Secret Service headquarters that it was quote one of 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:19.240 the most unfortunate nights I have ever experienced. Yet God 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:24.480 protected us in doing right well. Tyrrell was busy swallowing 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:28.080 his pride on that last act at Lincoln's tomb, Mullen 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.000 and Hughes made their way back to the Hub. It 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:34.640 took a few days, but Tyrell finally arrested them. Also 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:38.560 at the Hub, grave robbing and body snatching laws were, 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.560 like we said, barely in existence, if at all, because 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:45.040 that wasn't a crime, nor were they facing any specific 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:48.800 counterfeiting charges from the attempt at theft. Mullen and Hughes 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:52.240 faced charges of petty theft, which would have been for 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:56.400 trying to steal Lincoln's coffin, which had cost reportedly at 0:19:56.440 --> 0:20:00.399 most seventy five dollars. The two men were tried the 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:04.000 following May and both were convicted. Hughes and Mullen were 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:08.520 sentenced to Juliet Penitentiary for quote one year each, one 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:11.040 day of which is to be in solitary confinement, and 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:14.760 the balance at hard Labor. Prison. Records do show that 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:18.240 each served his full sentence, after which he was disappeared 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:21.639 without a trace. They were, if you didn't recognize it, 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:23.639 sent to the same prison from which they had been 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:27.760 trying to spring their engraver, Benjamin Boyd. When the first 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.520 reports of the attempted body snatching were published, many people, 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:36.000 including other detectives and other newspaper editors, thought the whole 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:39.800 thing was a hoax. Quote. In some cities, the Lincoln 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:42.960 break in didn't get any coverage. That is according again 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:47.560 to Thomas Crawell, and he continued quote. In some cases 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:51.119 newspapers printed the story, but they told their readers it 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:54.439 wasn't true. But once it was verified, it was blamed 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:56.880 on a whole lot of people. None of whom were 0:20:57.000 --> 0:21:01.840 James Cannally, Terence Mullen, or Jack Hughes. Some people blamed 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:05.680 the Democrats, while others pointed fingers at the former Confederates 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:10.199 in Illinois. Rumors in Chicago suggested that it was a 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:12.760 plan by one of the detectives to help him win 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:17.240 election for chief of Police. A few days after Mullin 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:20.479 and his men attempted their theft and ransoming, Lincoln's coffin 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:23.880 was moved to the tomb's earthen floorid basement for safety, 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:29.200 hidden in an unmarked grave, on September one, he was 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:33.840 permanently buried at Robert's request, ten ft beneath the catacomb 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:38.440 and an enclosure of concrete and steel. Today, the Lincoln 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:42.159 Tomb State Historic Site is the final resting place of 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:47.760 Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mary, and three of their four sons, Edward, William, 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:52.000 and Thomas, who was known as Tad. Their eldest son, Robert, 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:55.080 died in ninety six at a j d two, and 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:59.720 he is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. In nineteen sixty, 0:21:59.840 --> 0:22:03.600 the Lincoln Tomb was designated a National Historic Landmark, and 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:06.400 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:10.520 in nineteen sixty six. Today it is operated by the 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:15.000 Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. The president's remains are in a 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:18.919 concrete vault, still ten ft below the marble floor of 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:21.800 the burial chamber, just as Robert had requested back in 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:25.800 nineteen o one. Crypts in the chamber south wall hold 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:29.399 the remains of Abraham's wife Mary, and sons Edward, Willie 0:22:29.440 --> 0:22:33.320 and Tad. Tad, the Lincoln's youngest son, died of heart 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:36.520 failure in July of eighteen seventy one at the age 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:39.399 of eighteen, and it's actually his remains that were the 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:42.560 first to be interred in what is today's Presidential Tomb. 0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:46.080 The remains of his father and his two brothers joined 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:50.440 him on September nineteenth, eighteen seventy one. Mary was laid 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:53.159 to rest there in July of eighteen eighty two, just 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:57.000 a few days after her death. I liked that when 0:22:57.040 --> 0:23:00.960 I was learning about this story, it's often described as 0:23:01.000 --> 0:23:04.480 being one that has been forgotten in history, that Lincoln 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:08.160 went on tour for about two weeks after he'd been assassinated, 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:10.800 and no one then ever talks about the fact that 0:23:11.720 --> 0:23:15.399 his afterlife was not secure. He only had a padlock. 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:25.600 I didn't know that. One thing we do not talk 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:29.399 about in this episode, my dear, is any sort of 0:23:29.440 --> 0:23:31.919 embolming fluid. So I was wondering if perhaps you might 0:23:31.960 --> 0:23:36.120 step into your area here and have a nice cold glass. Yes, 0:23:36.320 --> 0:23:43.399 come have some embolming fluid. I bet anyone who knows 0:23:43.520 --> 0:23:48.560 my mind, even marginally could guess what the most inspirational 0:23:48.640 --> 0:23:54.399 two words of this episode were, and feel free to 0:23:54.520 --> 0:24:01.280 tag that on Twitter. That is non conforming distiller. Oh 0:24:01.320 --> 0:24:03.720 my gosh. So when every single time I had to 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:06.480 read that, I was always like, I want to dive 0:24:06.560 --> 0:24:09.280 deeply into exactly what that means, but I also don't 0:24:09.359 --> 0:24:12.280 want to know at all. I want my assumption of 0:24:12.400 --> 0:24:14.600 what that means. We're going to talk a little about 0:24:14.600 --> 0:24:18.080 a possibility, which is moonshine, because that's, of course what 0:24:18.160 --> 0:24:21.320 I thought of, And moonshine is a fascinating thing and 0:24:21.400 --> 0:24:24.440 has a really fascinating history. It started to be made 0:24:24.440 --> 0:24:27.280 in the US in the late eighteenth century because of 0:24:27.280 --> 0:24:32.000 the whiskey texts. There was a whole whiskey rebellion associated 0:24:32.000 --> 0:24:34.320 with that, but that is very different and much bigger story. 0:24:35.000 --> 0:24:38.520 But the thing is today, right, you can buy moonshine 0:24:38.680 --> 0:24:42.560 at liquor stores and beautiful packaging in a variety of 0:24:42.680 --> 0:24:45.760 tempting and delicious flavors. And you may be like, wait, 0:24:45.880 --> 0:24:47.840 is this really made in a still in the forest 0:24:47.960 --> 0:24:51.760 at night? Probably not. That is, of course, where moonshine 0:24:51.760 --> 0:24:54.240 gets its name, is that people were doing it in 0:24:54.240 --> 0:24:57.400 the dead of night, out in the woods, often under 0:24:57.440 --> 0:24:59.840 the light of the moon. But some of the problem 0:24:59.880 --> 0:25:02.480 with labeling something as moonshine or not is that you 0:25:02.520 --> 0:25:05.359 can kind of label a lot of things moonshine because 0:25:05.600 --> 0:25:09.000 the definition of moonshine is really flexible. It's not like 0:25:09.080 --> 0:25:13.080 other spirits where they're very specific guidelines. It can be 0:25:13.119 --> 0:25:16.160 made with any fermentable starter, and it is now considered 0:25:16.160 --> 0:25:18.040 by a lot of people to be a craft spirit. 0:25:18.080 --> 0:25:20.600 A lot of people are really starting their own moonshine 0:25:20.600 --> 0:25:23.719 distilleries and making some very interesting stuff. But it's a 0:25:23.760 --> 0:25:26.640 really good neutral spirit, and it mixes with a lot 0:25:26.720 --> 0:25:29.200 of stuff. I will tell you I love nothing more 0:25:29.800 --> 0:25:33.399 in the autumn than getting my pumpkin moonshine and using 0:25:33.400 --> 0:25:36.960 it in everything. But today we're just going with your 0:25:37.000 --> 0:25:40.840 standard moonshine. If you really wanted to go with a flavor. 0:25:40.960 --> 0:25:43.160 I would say pick apple here, but here we go. 0:25:43.760 --> 0:25:47.920 This is just called non conforming distiller and it is 0:25:48.080 --> 0:25:52.119 a very simple recipe and really great. If you, like us, 0:25:52.119 --> 0:25:55.400 are in the Northern Hemisphere headed into those hot months, 0:25:55.400 --> 0:25:56.920