Lincoln's Grave Robbers by Steve Sheinkin

I've lived in the state of Illinois all my life and I had never heard of this fascinating event associated with our most favorite son and beloved President until I read this engrossing account. Steve Sheinkin writes wonderful narrative nonfiction for middle and high school students. Here, he turns his descriptive talents to one of the strangest crimes in the history of the Land of Lincoln (and we've had our share of crime, weird or run-of-the-mill). The gist: a gang of counterfeiters plot to ransom Abraham Lincoln's body for $200,000 and the release of one of their cohorts, a master engraver who works to produce the "coney" that the gang passes off as real money. Can they snatch the body from its tomb? Can the Secret Service stop them before they do?

Published by Scholastic, 2013, p. 224.

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