„Lincoln’s Last Trial“ by Dan Abrams

[Angela]

I just finished „Lincoln’s last trial” by Dan Abrams; it is a mix of a biography and novel concerning Lincoln’s last big murder court case before his election to the presidency.

The advantage to many other criminal cases that were recorded is that for this one a stenographer was present, whose papers have been found in 1988. After extensive research, his writings were put into the book mentioned and it was done in a wonderful way.

Wonderful writing with great research, lovely anecdotes added to the overall story and tons of information.
Every question that arose was answered immediately, as if the author could detect what readers would be curious to learn more about.

Apart from the joy of just sitting down with this book, I am once again on the research path to learn more about various stories mentioned. Thanks to online resources, I’m already knee deep into collecting more reading material.

[RJNorton]

Thanks, Angela. (I have the book but have not started it yet.)

[Susan Higginbotham]

Thanks! Another one for the TBR pile.

[ELCore]

I read this book last week. Indeed, very enjoyable.

[davg2000]

Very good read!

[Anita]

Thanks Angela. Looking forward to this read. Just found this taken from the book.

The Grisly Murder Trial That Helped Raise Abraham Lincoln's National Profile
Dan Abrams & David Fisher
https://www.history.com/news/abraham-lin...urder-case

[Gene C]

I agree with Angela's opening comment about this book.
It has about 290 pages, with a few nice illustrations, copyright 2018.

One of the things that made this book so interesting is that it is based upon the actual court transcripts of this trial, and a copy of that transcript was found in 1989 in the home of a deceased relative of the defendant, Quinn Harrison.
This type of record is extremely rare, almost unique in the study of Abraham Lincoln.

Unfortunately, the closing remarks by the defense and prosecution were not recorded, as that was not a part of the trial testimony. Newspaper accounts of the trial do have a part of their closing statements.
One of the details that also made this interesting is that almost all the parties involved, the accused and the victim, the prosecutor and the defense attorneys, and the jury, knew each other to some extent. The murder victim had even studied law in Lincoln's office.

In this book Lincoln is prominent, but there are several key participants in the story. The court stenographer, Robert Hitt seems to gather as much attention as Lincoln receives in this book.
"At some point, Hitt's original transcript of the trial was bound with a ribbon and put aside, only to be discovered in 1989 in a shoe box stored in a garage of the Fresno, California, home once owned by Quinn Harrison's great-grandson. And from that meticulous transcript, so perfectly stored over the years, we are left with the final direct link to the last gear trial of Abram Lincoln's legal career, an event that helped propel him to the presidency"

I found the last few chapters the most interesting. This link will give you some background information that I found helpful.
https://www.azattorneymag-digital.com/az...eId1452976

It's available through Amazon, or many other bookstores. It's recent enough that it is not hard to find. It is an affordable book.