That scheme was never carried out, thanks to a prostitute in Springfield who tipped off authorities after one of the ringleaders paid her a visit and began bragging about it.

Another botched attempt was made a few months later. This time, two of the robbers were caught and sentenced to a year in jail.

The story is one of several colorful episodes in the drawn-out saga of establishing Lincoln's final resting place, or places. His body has been moved at least 10 times.

Beginning Saturday, the saga will be presented in elaborate detail in the Illinois Gallery of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. The exhibit, which takes up about 200 feet of wall space, is called "Tales from the Crypt: A History of the Lincoln Tomb." It runs until March 25 and is open to all paid visitors to the museum.

Shortly after Lincoln was assassinated, a group of 13 people, primarily Illinoisans with connections to Lincoln, formed the National Lincoln Monument Association.

"There was this sense that there was going to be an immediate outpouring of support," said state historian Thomas Schwartz, who wrote much of the exhibit's text.

Money did come in, including from Sunday schools and soldiers, particularly black regiments. But donations slowed to a crawl by the end of 1866, when the association had raised only $75,000 of the $250,000 goal it set. Through the following years, it relied on state appropriations and a few prominent donors for the rest.

There were other problems. Lincoln's widow, Mary, wanted him buried in a natural setting, much like the new Oak Ridge Cemetery on the north end of town - the Lincolns probably attended the groundbreaking there in 1860. But association members preferred other tomb sites, such as the site of the current state Capitol. Mary won only after threatening to take Lincoln's body to Chicago or Washington's crypt in the U.S. Capitol.

Incidentally, the exhibit informs us someone once tried to steal Washington's body from its tomb in Mount Vernon, Va. The thief, a physician, actually made off with a skull and some bones. Not Washington's, though.

William Snyder, director of the presidential museum's programs, brought in several documents from the Lincoln Presidential Library, some of which had to be carefully restored by library conservators, to supplement the story.

Monument association memos and votes taken on the 37 suggested tomb designs testify to both the thought and the bickering behind the whole process, which really didn't end until the 1930s, when Gov. Louis Emmerson appropriated $175,000 to fix structural problems.

Want to go?

On Saturday, March 10, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is offering a daylong tour of Lincoln’s death and burial sites, with visits to the Lincoln Tomb, the Museum of Funeral Customs and the new exhibit about the tomb at the presidential museum.

During the tour, Thomas Craughwell, author of the 2007 Harvard Press book “Stealing Lincoln’s Body,” will give a presentation and be available for a book signing. A $25 fee includes the tour, presentation and lunch, but not the book.

Reservations may be made by calling 558-8934. The deadline is March 1.

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Tomb trivia