Fred Petersen "sold" relics

[Lincoln Wonk]

There's also a much-later report from Charles "Carley" Petersen saying someone offered him $10 for a very small piece of towel stained with the president's blood, but he said his father thought it unseemly to sell it.
It's much more likely that the towel carried the president's blood, because the doctors used towels and napkins in the death room. It's less likely that the blood Fred blotted up from the hallway is the president's, because multiple witnesses reported Mr. Lincoln did not bleed much until he was lying in the bed. But Rathbone bleed profusely before and after he fainted in the front hallway. In fact, his future wife, Clara Harris, probably saved his life when she wrapped a handkerchief around his wound to stay the flow of blood.