It was a half-baked plan from the start. Dig up Lincoln’s body and ransom it for an imprisoned career criminal and $200,000. But it is a true story!
The U.S. Secret Service was organized in 1965 to go after the rampant counterfeiting rings that were flooding the country with bad paper bills after the Civil War. At that time, an astounding fifty percent of the paper money in circulation was bogus!
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On October 20, 1875, a squad of Secret Service agents gathered in Fulton, Illinois, and raided the workshop of master counterfeiter Benjamin Boyd—one of the worst career criminals in the nation. The raid succeeded and Boyd quickly found himself securely incarcerated.
Shortly after, members of Boyd’s gang gathered in a smoky Chicago saloon. They had to spring their ringleader—and the convoluted
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