This is an IHeart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people.

And we love to hear stories from you.

Send them to Our American Stories.com.

They're some of our favorites.

When Abraham Lincoln was put into his opulent 117 foot tall tune, he was laid to rest,

but certainly not in peace. Here were to tell the story of Abraham

Lincoln's turbulent post-mortem experience is Louis Picone, author of The President is dead. Take it away,

Lewis. Inside of the tomb, there is a sarcophagus and the coffin was placed inside of that sarcophagus.

It's about a 500 pound coffin.

The tomb is guarded by an iron fence with a lock.

And that's it. That lock and that iron gate was all that protected Abraham

Lincoln. In 1876, there was an attempt to steal Abraham Lincoln's body. A small-time gang

in Illinois and Chicago was led by a guy named Big Jim Canali. And Conali had fallen on hard times when his ace counterfeiter, Benjamin Boyd, had been

arrested in prison.

So his gang was losing lots of money because they couldn't print their own.

This was a time when counterfeiting was a huge problem.

And actually, the Secret Service that was formed under Abraham Lincoln wasn't formed to

protect the president.

It was formed to combat counterfeiters.

It was such a massive problem.

So Canali was on hard times, and he was sitting in this rundown bar called the hub in Chicago.

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