Threaded Mode | Linear Mode

LincolnMan · 11-08-2012, 05:11 PM

Who was the famous inventor who tried to invent a device to save President Gardfield's life?

Gene C · (This post was last modified: 11-08-2012 07:22 PM by Gene C.)

Alexander Graham Bell...It was a metal detector. Because Garfield was laying on a new mattress with metal coil springs, the detector couldn't find the bullet. If they had taken him off that bed, it would have worked. Bell thought his invention was a failure, so he put it away. It was not known for several years afterword that it actually worked.

LincolnMan · 11-08-2012, 07:25 PM

Wow. So is Bell credited for inventing the metal detector?

Jim Garrett · 11-13-2012, 07:46 PM

(10-30-2012 08:13 AM)L Verge Wrote: Just a sidebar: Was James Starrs, the forensic scientist who testified at the Booth exhumation hearings in the 1990s and also dug up Jesse James, part of the Zachary Taylor investigation? Surratt House will be doing a special Booth Tour for him and a group of fellow forensic scientists in February of 2013, during the group's convention.

If you let me know when you are doing the tour, I will meet you all at Ford's.

Ashley Norman · (This post was last modified: 11-20-2012 11:48 PM by Ashley Norman.)

I remember reading an article that Robert Lincoln was there or neae all the assassanation's execpt for Kennedy's.
Robert died in 1926 so thus excluding Kennedy's assanation due to Robert dieng before hand but here is what I read about Robert's being near most of the assanation or near them so here is what I read:
Robert Lincoln was coincidentally either present or nearby when three presidential assassinations occurred.

Lincoln was not present at his father's assassination. But he was nearby and arrived at Ford's Theater shortly after his father was shot.
At President James A. Garfield's invitation, Lincoln was at the Sixth Street Train Station in Washington, D.C., where the President was shot by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2, 1881, and was an eyewitness to the event. Lincoln was serving as Garfield's Secretary of War at the time.
At President William McKinley's invitation, Lincoln was at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, where the President was shot by Leon Czolgosz on September 6, 1901, though he was not an eyewitness to the event.
Lincoln himself recognized the frequency of these coincidences. He is said to have refused a later presidential invitation with the comment "No, I'm not going, and they'd better not ask me, because there is a certain fatality about presidential functions when I am present." He did attend the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial, in 1922, in the presence of both President Warren G. Harding and former President William Howard Taft, however. Warren G. Harding later died in office..

Im not sure how accurate this is but im sure someone in the group will be able to assist me to help idenify what is true or false with in the statement.
Thanks
a

RJNorton · 11-21-2012, 04:56 AM

Hi Ashley. Jason Emerson, a member here who has written numerous books, put a lot of research into this. Robert was in the White House when his dad was shot. With respect to the Garfield assassination Jason found that Robert was "about forty feet away."

Regarding the McKinley assassination, Jason found that Robert Lincoln's secretary in Chicago had sent a telegram with the news to the train station in Buffalo. An employee of the train station handed the telegram to Robert as he stepped off the train. So when the actual shooting took place earlier in the day Robert was on the train to Buffalo.

It was interesting to see all the stories Jason came across as he researched the exact location of Robert when the shots were fired in Buffalo. He found all of these accounts:

1. He was on the train.
2. He was just off the train at the Buffalo station.
3. He had just entered the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition.
4. He was in the crowd in front of the Temple of Music.
5. He was inside the Temple of Music.
6. He was within hearing of the shots.
7. He was standing near the president.
8. He was within sight of the shooting.
9. He was simply nearby.

Like you I have come across Robert's quote about "presidential functions," and I do believe it's accurate and not apocryphal.

Jim Garrett · 11-21-2012, 05:19 AM

Maybe RTL's ghost was in Dealy Plaza

Gene C · (This post was last modified: 11-21-2012 06:37 AM by Gene C.)

Weren't they riding in a Lincoln?

http://www.remarkablecars.com/main/linco...n-001.html

Jim Garrett · 11-21-2012, 07:07 AM

Why YES, they were in a Lincoln!

Ashley Norman · 11-21-2012, 10:53 AM

(11-21-2012 04:56 AM)RJNorton Wrote: Hi Ashley. Jason Emerson, a member here who has written numerous books, put a lot of research into this. Robert was in the White House when his dad was shot. With respect to the Garfield assassination Jason found that Robert was "about forty feet away."

Regarding the McKinley assassination, Jason found that Robert Lincoln's secretary in Chicago had sent a telegram with the news to the train station in Buffalo. An employee of the train station handed the telegram to Robert as he stepped off the train. So when the actual shooting took place earlier in the day Robert was on the train to Buffalo.

It was interesting to see all the stories Jason came across as he researched the exact location of Robert when the shots were fired in Buffalo. He found all of these accounts:

1. He was on the train.
2. He was just off the train at the Buffalo station.
3. He had just entered the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition.
4. He was in the crowd in front of the Temple of Music.
5. He was inside the Temple of Music.
6. He was within hearing of the shots.
7. He was standing near the president.
8. He was within sight of the shooting.
9. He was simply nearby.

Like you I have come across Robert's quote about "presidential functions," and I do believe it's accurate and not apocryphal.

Thank you for the infromation Roger.
I will look into Mr. Emerson's book to see more but the information you gave me is very helpful.

LincolnMan · 11-21-2012, 05:39 PM

That Lincoln car is in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Interestingly enough, it wasn't pulled out of the presidential service fleet until-I think 1973 or so.

J. Beckert · 11-21-2012, 05:55 PM

I think it was last used during the Carter administration, Bill.

Jim Garrett · 11-21-2012, 06:14 PM

To digress back to the Garfield assassination......There is a gruesome account in`"The Last Lincolns" by Charles Lachman on page 269, "After the other members of the medical team team took his turn probing the path Bliss had made, what had been a three-inch entrey wound had become a twenty-inch gouge. One doctor had actually reached into the wound up to his wrist trying to reach the bullet."

LincolnMan · 12-09-2012, 06:06 PM

After Lincoln's assassination, was there increased security instituted for the president? Did Johnson have guards with him to prevent another assassination?

Gene C · 12-10-2012, 10:31 AM

Yes, but his "secret service" was more to spy, than to protect.
An interesting but older book (written 50 years ago) is "Death to Traitors" by Jacob Mogelever - about Lafayette Baker.