As millions celebrate the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln this year, HISTORY™ presents perhaps the last unknown story of our 16th president – the shocking plot to steal his body.

Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865 plunged the nation into mourning.  After lying in state at the White House and at the Capitol (the nation’s first presidential state funeral), Lincoln’s body was carried by train in a grand funeral procession through several states and nearly two thousand miles, arriving in his hometown of Springfield, Illinois on May 4.  However, his final burial would not take place until 1901, thirty six years later.

Before Lincoln finally came to rest in a steel-and-concrete-reinforced underground vault in Springfield, the President’s body was repeatedly exhumed and moved, his coffin frequently opened. An astonishing and macabre series of events also included a diabolical bodysnatching-for-ransom scheme.  This remarkable final chapter is the subject of the gripping two-hour special STEALING LINCOLN’S BODY on HISTORY™ on Monday, February 16 at 9pm ET.