AS THE NATION observes Abraham Lincoln's birthday next week, the body of the 16th president rests peacefully beneath a massive monument in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Ill. This monument was erected in 1900 to securely house Lincoln's earthly remains. But this was not always the case. The monument that exists today was constructed as the result of a series of strange events that began shortly after President Lincoln's death.
Lincoln's coffin was moved a total of 17 times because of numerous reconstructions of his tomb and concerns for the safety of his remains before it was permanently sealed in its present location. The coffin was opened five times: Dec. 21, 1865, Sept. 19, 1871, Oct. 9, 1874, April 14, 1887, and, for the final time on Sept. 26, 1901.
The most dramatic incident occurred in 1876 when "Big Jim" Kinealy, Terrence Mullen and John Hughes attempted to steal Lincoln's body and hold it for a ransom of $200,000 in gold and the release of their counterfeiting ringleader, Ben Boyd, from prison. Their dastardly plot began in Springfield, but one of the conspirators drank too much one night and shared their plans with a woman at the bar. She spread the rumors around town and the would-be grave robbers were forced to flee to Chicago.
"Big Jim" ran a saloon in Chicago and, soon, one of his frequent customers joined his gang. Unbeknownst to him, this new member, Lewis G. Swegles, was actually a Secret Service agent.
Their plan was to steal the body, stuff it into a long sack and transport it to the sand dunes of northern Indiana by horse-drawn wagon. The date was set for Nov.7, 1876, which was Election Day. The gang felt that this would be a good time as people would be distracted by the results of the election and the cemetery would be practically deserted.
The gang went to the tomb, sawed off the lock on its iron door, pried off the lid of the marble sarcophagus and began to remove the casket within. Swegles was told to bring the wagon around. He alerted detectives who were in hiding and they rushed the site. The robbers, however, had been waiting away from the tomb, in the shadows, and were able to escape. They were captured 10 days later in Chicago.
Robert Lincoln, the president's son, hired the best attorneys available to prosecute the conspirators. After an eight-month delay, the trial began. The grave robbers were convicted and sentenced to one year each at Joliet State Prison. They began their terms on June 22, 1867.
For many years after this event, the coffin containing the president's remains was hidden away in the leaky labyrinth between the walls of his tomb, while the public paid homage to an empty sarcophagus.
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