Lincoln's Ransom: A Western Story (Five Star First Edition Western Series)

It was the crime of the century. On July 4, 1876 President Abraham Lincoln's corpse was stolen from its mausoleum by a group calling themselves "The Coney Men." Their demand? The release of Ben Boyd, an engraver of counterfeit money plates, from prison, and a two hundred thousand dollars ransom. The crime should have been subverted by a Secret Service agent who had infiltrated the gang of counterfeiters, but it didn't work out that way. Based on actual historical occurrence, Lincoln's Ransom is a great story of intrigue, suspense and romance.

Veteran western author Champlin's latest effort is based on a real-life event. In 1876, a gang of counterfeiters led by one James Kinealy stole Abe Lincoln's remains from a Springfield, Illinois, mausoleum, hoping to trade the dead president for cash and a live engraver doing time in Joliet. One of Kinealy's fellow grave robbers is Sterling Packard, a secret-service agent planted to foil the audacious plot. Packard's trap fails, and a bizarre adventure ensues. In the course of moving the body, the baddies get involved with everyone from Thomas "Boston" Corbett, the itinerant preacher who shot and killed John Wilkes Booth, to Jesse James' gang. This is an entertaining romp for western fans young and old. Budd Arthur