Presidential Assassins

[RJNorton]

Is something out there? I have received several letters on this topic. Here are a couple of examples:

This one is from July 29, 2002:

Dear Mr. Norton,
I'm 60 years old now. When I was a teenager in high school (about 1957 or so) I read an intriguing article about Abraham Lincoln's exumation in a medical journal (JAMA ?) in my father's medical office. It contained a very clear photograph of Abraham Lincoln in a coffin - very close-up, staight-on, extremely clear full-face shot. The caption or some adjacent text remarked how little physical deterioration was evident at the exhumation. I was amazed at the clarity of the photo, which was printed in approximately 2" tall x 1.5" wide and showed Lincoln clearly lying in a coffin.

I've searched online for a copy of that photo - only to read that no such picture exists. So there is a bit of a mystery here. If you research the popular medical journals that MD's subscribed to in the late 1950's, you should be able to find the picture I'm describing. I'd recommend starting with Journal of the American Medical Association, c. 1954-60. If you cannot find it in JAMA and there were any competiting monthly magazines or journals that were similarly thick (about 3/8 inch or so) they should be checked.

I suppose the photo I saw might be the one recently published in a book. But that book photo was taken soon after the assasination - not at the 1901 exhumation. What struck me about the photo in the my dad's medical journal, was that the text made it clear it was taken at the time of exumation. I was shocked at that, not only because the photo looked so normal, but because the accompanying text was my first knowledge of his exhumation.

------------------------------------------

This one I received on February 14, 2005:

"i just received the 1963 issue of life magazine that has pictures of the Lincoln exhumation. i remember reading about and seeing a picture of his exhumation when in about the late fifties i think. i know i saw a picture that is exactly as described in the life magazine article where it is said that he had mold growing on his suit. i have told people this and no one believes me but i know i saw that picture. it was a side shot of his face and chest from the right side and you could see little mold plants on his suit. i thought that for sure the picture was in the life magazine so i bought it from a site that sells old life magazines but that picture is not in there. have you ever seen such a picture and where is it? i know what i saw but not where to find it."