 ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice or placed by third-party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. Following an anonymous tip, police enter a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, an exclusive suburb of San Diego, California, and discover 39 victims of a mass suicide. The deceased, 21 women and 18 men of varying ages, were all found lying peaceably and matching dark clothes and Nike sneakers and had no noticeable signs of blood or trauma. It was later revealed that the men and women were members of the Heaven's Gate religious cult, whose leaders preached that suicide would allow them to leave their bodily containers and enter an alien spacecraft hidden behind the hail-bop comet. I'm Darren Marlar, and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome, Weirdos! I'm Darren Marlar, and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved, and unexplained. Coming up in this episode... Two men were caught trying to steal the body of the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. But that is by no means the end of this story full of twists, turns, myths, and conspiracies. After their mass suicide made headlines across the world, Heaven's Gate is still one of the most notorious cults of the 20th century, not to mention one of the most recognizable. In March 1997, America was shook by the streamed story that included mass suicide, wild public access style videos, an obsession with UFOs, and, in true late 90s fashion, rack suits and matching Nikes. They also had a new recruitment tool, the Internet. We begin with that story. If you're new here, welcome to the show. While you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, my newsletter, to enter contests, to connect with me on social media. Plus, you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you're struggling with depression or dark thoughts. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. The cult was led by Marshall Applewhite, a music professor who, after surviving a near-death experience in 1972, was recruited into the cult by one of his nurses, Bonnie Lou Nettles. In 1975, Applewhite and Nettles persuaded a group of 20 people from Oregon to abandon their families and possessions and move to Eastern Colorado, where they promised that an extraterrestrial spacecraft would take them to the Kingdom of Heaven. Nettles, who called herself Tee, and Applewhite, who took the name of Doe, explained that human bodies were merely containers that could be abandoned in favor of a higher physical existence. As the spacecraft never arrived, membership in Heaven's Gate diminished, and in 1985, Bonnie Lou Nettles, Applewhite's sexless partner, died. During the early 1990s, the cult resurfaced as Applewhite began recruiting new members. Soon after the 1995 discovery of the Comet Healbop, the Heaven's Gate members became convinced that an alien spacecraft was on its way to Earth, hidden from human detection behind the Comet. In October 1996, Applewhite rented a large home in Rancho Santa Fe, explaining to the owner that his group was made up of Christian-based angels. Applewhite advocated sexual abstinence, and several male cult members followed his example by undergoing castration operations. In 1997, as part of its 4,000-year orbit of the Sun, the Comet Healbop passed near Earth and one of the most impressive astronomical events of the 20th century. In late March 1997, as Healbop reached its closest distance to Earth, Applewhite and 38 of his followers drank a lethal mixture of phenobarbital and vodka, and then laid down to die, hoping to leave their bodily containers, enter the alien spacecraft, and pass through Heaven's Gate into a higher existence. Heaven's Gate has the distinction of being the first well-known American cult of the Internet era, using the new technology to share their beliefs with a wider audience and also to make a living. They derived a large portion of their income from designing webpages. Formed in the 70s, they had become reclusive by the start of the 1990s and started attempting to recruit members online, using the organizational name Hire Source for their website. Though the web would eventually become central in the organization, the group's origins were much more grassroots. In the early 1970s, founders Marshall Applewhite and Body Nettles, renaming themselves Beau and Peep, took a six-month-long road trip across the United States. Around 1974 they assembled a group called The Crew, and for the next two decades they lived all around Southern California. Though Nettles died in 1985, Applewhite kept the group together, and when the Internet was introduced to consumers in the early 1990s, they began using this new technology to share their beliefs with a wider audience. The cult's philosophy took its roots from Applewhite's Presbyterian upbringing. His father was a minister and essentially grafted belief in extraterrestrials on to Christian theology. Applewhite told his acolytes that he was the second coming of Jesus Christ, that God was an alien and that they were living in the end times. They read the Bible, especially Revelation chapter 11 in the New Testament, a section about two witnesses that would prophesy. At the end of their prophecy, they would have to battle demons, which Applewhite and Nettles called the Luciferians. But in late March 1997, 39 members, including Applewhite, wearing black track suits and sneakers, ate applesauce laced with barbiturates and washed it down with vodka. They then put bags over their heads, purple shrouds over their bodies, and laid down to leave their earthly vehicles behind. They weren't killing themselves, they thought, but freeing their souls from them so they could ascend to a spacecraft flying in the wake of the hail-bop comet, which at that point was passing by Earth and were going to be taken to their new home in space. Instead, police found their bodies on March 26 and the images of the white and black Nikes poking out from under a purple cloth would be burned into the eyes of a generation. When we return, we'll look at what life was like inside the cult as a member of Heaven's Gate. Our next Weirdo Watch Party is Saturday, April 13. Are all the men gathered? All the fools. We'll be treated to a Roger Corman crapfest from 1958. Teenage Caveman starring Robert Vaughan. There are shadows there deep and cold and dirt that eats men. Did he just say dirt that eats men? There are shadows there deep and cold and dirt that eats men. Yep, I guess so. Mistress Malicious and her Mistress Peace Theater will keep us entertained throughout the film as we watch this caveman teenager with great hair go into the jungle to fight prehistoric monsters like, um, dogs and an armadillo. Whatever, they're prehistoric creatures. An animal is far more terrible than any you've seen. Our Weirdo Watch Party is always free to watch online, so grab your popcorn, candy and soda and jump into the fun and even get involved in the live chat as we watch the movie. We could make a place to lie down on. Plus, during this Weirdo Watch Party, I'll be giving away a creepy crate to one lucky winner, full of scary surprises like horror collectibles, true crime-themed accessories, books, terrifying trinkets and more, with some weird darkness swag added in. You won't know what's in the creepy crate until you open it. Strengthening his courage, his daring, his dreams. And I'll be giving instructions on how to win the creepy crate inside the chat during the movie, so you have to tune in to win. It's Teenage Caveman, Saturday, April 13th, hosted by Mistress Peace Theater. The show begins at 10pm Eastern, 9pm Central, 8pm Mountain and 7pm Pacific. You can watch a trailer for the film and watch horror hosts and schlocky B movies anytime, day or night on the Monster Channel page at WeirdDarkness.com. Hope to see you on Saturday, April 13th. Today, what you'll come to find out about the day-to-day life of the members of Heaven's Gate is to keep members around so the leader can siphon their pocketbooks and so those same people can bring in new members who are fresh forms of income. While the Heaven's Gate cult was one of the most pure cults that the media has focused on, they still tore families apart and Apple White's teachings brought 39 people to death over the course of three days. What you'll come to find out about the day-to-day life of the members of Heaven's Gate is they were focused on preparing their souls for what they thought was the next stage of spiritual evolution and Apple White, like most cult leaders, had a very specific way that he wanted that preparation accomplished. The leader of Heaven's Gate controlled the members down to the clothes they wore and the haircuts they received. He even convinced many of the men to receive a group castration in order to curb their sexual appetites. The Heaven's Gate cult is one of the darkest and most misunderstood cults of the 20th century. There are so many strange things about the Heaven's Gate cult, but one thing that's worth a few eyebrow raises is the fact that the members of Heaven's Gate knew they were in a cult. Most cult leaders, whether it be Jim Jones Town or Joseph DiMombro of the Order of the Solar Temple, deny their organizations are cults and pretend it's a new religious movement or something to that effect. But on Inside Story's episode about Heaven's Gate, former member Leanne Wolfe, who was in the cult from 1975 to 1991, says that the members would joke about how they were the cult of cults and how they were in Heaven's Gate to beg to be brainwashed. No matter how peaceful your doomsday cult is, the leader is always going to be paranoid, and that was definitely the case with Marshall Applewhite. From as early on as the late 70s, Applewhite tried to shy away from the press that sniffed around the cult and forced the members to sleep in campgrounds in good energy states like Colorado and California. According to the Heaven's Gate documentary on History TV, some of the parents of cult members had created a newsletter that kept outsiders up on happenings inside the group. And when Applewhite found out about this, he labeled them meddlers and said that the people putting the newsletters together were agents of the lower forces who were out to get them. When new members were indoctrinated into the cult, one of the first things that would happen is they would ditch their names and have them changed. Usually, they would add the suffix od to their adoptive first name in order to define them as children of the next level. Marshall Applewhite, the group's leader, was the first member of the group to change his name. He went by dough, as in dough a deer, which may have been a reference to his past life as a college music professor in Texas. Although the odiation of followers doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule, one of Applewhite's followers who was not with the group when they committed suicide, Richard Ford, was renamed Rio de Angelo. Ford is most famous for filming the post-mortem footage of the Heaven's Gate cult and selling the rights to their story to a production company. One of the most important parts about being in Heaven's Gate was the desire to leave everything about humanity behind. In order to do this, they gave up their possessions, stopped having sex, became androgynous, and tried to keep their minds off weird human thoughts like why does cheese taste like that or iguana is a weird word. One activity that helped cult members train their minds was called the tone. Members would keep themselves focused on a tone produced from a tuning fork at all times while doing other activities and supposedly this kept them from thinking normal human thoughts. One of the pieces of the ever-changing mythology of Heaven's Gate is that Applewhite may have been a reincarnation of Jesus. Members of the cult believed that human bodies are nothing but shells that disappear when we die because of soul transference or something like that. Honestly, for all of their hours of home video footage it seems like they were actually pretty light on letting people in on their doctrine. Anyway, in an interview with Inside Story, an ex-member who goes by the name Sawyer believes that Applewhite is a 20th century Jesus. Whether he was the exact same soul that was incarnate 2,000 years ago or not is not relevant because he felt that it was the information that was more important. Like most cults, Heaven's Gate forced its members to give up their earthly possessions and turn their money over to the cause. They believed to be eligible for membership in the next level humans would have to shed every attachment to the planet. But of course, Applewhite knew that to live in a palatial home on planet Earth, you had to have money, which is why he took as much cash from his new followers as he could. And he had those who had already given everything up take on jobs in order to continue funding the cult's lifestyle. One of the most important rules of Heaven's Gate is that there was no sex allowed between any of the members. In interviews filmed for the Inside Story documentary on the Heaven's Gate cult, multiple former members discuss Marshall Applewhite's fear of his own homosexuality and how he forced members to cut sex out of their lives as a way to make sure that he wasn't tempted to have sex with any of the men who joined. As the days of Heaven's Gate waned, many of the members opted to be castrated rather than fight their sexual urges. One thing that separated members of the Heaven's Gate cult from groups like Jonestown or the Manson family was that at no time did members of the Heaven's Gate away team seem like they were having a bad time. There are hours of footage from inside the cult's home and in every video, members of the group seem happy. Who knows what psychological stress the members of the team were under, but all the cult members were smiles as they waited for their swiftly approaching doom. One way that cult leaders control their members is by regulating everything they do, down to what they wear and how they eat. Marshall Applewhite was no different when it came to Heaven's Gate. In order to get to the next level, Applewhite demanded strict obedience from his followers. Even when they were making breakfast, ex-Heaven's Gate member Michael Conyers, who was in the cult from 1975 to 1988, said that in the cult there was a mixture, a size, how long you cooked it, how much the burner was on, everything. There was even a regulation for how the men were supposed to shave. Out of all the cults across the world, there is no cult that was as nerdy as Heaven's Gate either. Sure, Om Shinrikyo had anime, but they also tried to kill a bunch of people. Heaven's Gate just watched a bunch of Star Trek the next generation and made themselves patches for their jumpsuits that read Heaven's Gate Away Team. Aside from their love of going where no one had gone before, the Away Team made most of their money from building websites for various companies in the mid to late 90s. That is a nerd alert if there ever was one. For as weird and creepy as Marshall Applewhite was, he wasn't dumb, and he knew that having a house full of androgynous nerds would quickly draw attention to his suicide cult. In order to make life look normal from the outside, only a few select members were actually allowed to leave the house. Everyone else had to stay inside. According to an interview with ex-Heaven's Gate member Michael Conyers, the cult would live 15 people to a house and there were designated people who could go outside, so it appeared as though there was just a few people living in the house. One of the most important facets of the Heaven's Gate doctrine didn't have anything to do with faith, religion or even UFOs. One of Marshall Applewhite's biggest requirements of his cult members was something he called Breaking Away, which was pseudo-religious jargon for disconnecting someone from their family forever. In his video titled, Last Chance to Evacuate Earth Before It Is Recycled, Applewhite notes that breaking away is more than moving in with this little cult. It's the act of becoming something new. He continues, It means that even the mind that you had as a human is aborted and the soul that was given to you is filled with next level information, next level mind and a new creature is born, one that is not human. Ex-member Michael Conyers notes that anyone in the cult who thought about leaving or who had a difference of opinion with Applewhite faced idle threats of missing the boat, which he now knew meant committing suicide in order to hop on a spaceship. Conyers goes on to say that if a younger member were caught thinking something that hadn't come from an older member's mind, they were subject to Applewhite's punishments. This goes back to the fact that cults need to control everything about a person in order to make sure they have them under control, and what better way to test this than by making all of the members give themselves an enema. On the episode of Inside Story that deals with the Heaven's Gate cult, it is suggested that they saw their bodies as machines or hardware that needed regular maintenance. Cult members took something called the Master Cleanser, which was simply lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup, and infused it into an enema. Former members who are still living can say that this was done in order to keep themselves healthy all they like, but these forced enemas were nothing more than a way for members to prove that they were loyal to Applewhite. Thanks to the cult's online marketing through the 90s, they were able to bring in people who were simply looking for content on Web 1.0. Unfortunately, some of those people had children whom they had to get rid of in order to join the cult. Yvonne and Steven Hill joined six months before the mass suicide, and left their four children, including a set of one-month-old twins, to live with their grandparents while the Hills moved to California in order to live in a house with 30 other people. Steven, who left the cult after he realized what he had done, told an interviewer, We lost our perception of what to do. Looking back, it's ridiculous what we had done. One of the things about the Heaven's Gate cult that a lot of people don't realize is that they were heavily invested in Christianity. Applewhite and his former partner, Bonnie Nettles, grew up in Texas in the 50s and 60s, which was heavily steeped in evangelicalism, which bled into their belief in extraterrestrials and Jesus as an alien soul who visited Earth over 2,000 years ago. The cult catered to people who felt like they had received the short end of the stick from standard religions, or who thought normal Christianity wasn't leaning hard enough on its fantasy elements. When Weird Darkness returns, two men were caught trying to steal the body of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, but that is by no means the end of this story full of twists, turns, myths and conspiracies. Are you a member of the Darkness Syndicate? The Darkness Syndicate is a private membership where you receive commercial-free episodes of the Weird Darkness podcast and radio show. Behind the scenes, video updates about future projects and events I'm working on. You can share your own opinions on ideas to help me decide upon Weird Darkness Contests and events. You can hear audiobooks I'm narrating before even the publishers or authors get to hear them. You also receive bonus audio of other projects I'm working on outside of Weird Darkness. You get all of these benefits and more, starting at only $5 per month. Join the Weird Darkness Syndicate at WeirdDarkness.com slash syndicate. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash syndicate. After President Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated on November 20, 1865, his body traveled west from Washington, spending several weeks visiting towns and cities along a circuitous route. His funeral service in Springfield did not take place until May 4, almost six months later, and it followed a parade route from the former Lincoln Home to Oak Ridge Cemetery on the far edge of the city. Oak Ridge Cemetery had been started in Springfield around 1860 and mostly consisted of woods and unbroken forest. In fact, not until after Lincoln was buried there was much done in the way of improvement, adding roads, iron gates, and a caretaker's residence. Lincoln himself had chosen the rural graveyard as his final resting place, a fact that city leaders initially balked at. However, pressure from his high strong widow eventually forced them to go along with his wishes. Lincoln was placed in a temporary receiving vault in the cemetery with his son's Willie, who had died during his presidency, and Eddie, who had died many years before. Willie's body had accompanied his fathers from Washington while Eddie's had been exhumed and brought over from another cemetery. A short time later, a temporary vault was built for Lincoln, and on December 21st he was placed inside. Six of Lincoln's friends wanted to be sure the body was safe, so a plumber's assistant named Leon P. Hopkins made an opening in the lead box for them to peer inside. All was well, and Lincoln and his sons were allowed a temporary rest. Hopkins stated in a newspaper story of the time, I was the last man to look upon the face of Abraham Lincoln. Of course he had no idea at the time just how many others would look upon the president's face in the years to come. Construction on a permanent tomb for Lincoln lasted more than five years, and on September 19th, 1871, the caskets of Lincoln and his sons were removed from the hillside crypt and taken to the catacomb of the new tomb. The plumber, Leon P. Hopkins, opened the coffin once more, and the same six friends peered again at the president's face. There were several crypts waiting for Lincoln and his sons, although one of them had already been filled. Tad Lincoln had died in Chicago a short time before, and his body had already been placed in the nearly finished monument. On October 9th, 1874, Lincoln was moved again. This time his body was placed inside a marble sarcophagus which had been placed in the center of the semi-circular catacomb. A few days later the monument was finally dedicated. The citizens of Springfield seemed content with the final resting place of their beloved Abraham Lincoln, but then a threat arose from a direction that no one could have ever predicted, a plot to steal the body and hold it for ransom. This event became one of the strangest stories in the annals of Illinois crime. The events began with the arrest of Benjamin Boyd, a petty criminal who had, by 1875, established himself as one of the most skilled engravers of counterfeit currency plates in the country. Boyd had been doggedly pursued by Captain Patrick D. Tyrell of the Chicago Office of the U.S. Secret Service for eight months before he was finally captured in Fulton, Illinois, on October 20th. Following his trial, Boyd was sentenced to a term of 10 years at the Joliet Penitentiary. Shortly after Boyd's arrest, the strange events concerning the body of Abraham Lincoln began in Lincoln, Illinois. The city was a staging point for a successful gang of counterfeiters run by James Big Jim Neely. The place was an ideal refuge for Neely's shovers, peasant-looking fellows who traveled around the country and passed or shoved bogus money to merchants. Following Boyd's arrest in the spring of 1876, business took a downturn for the Neely Gang. With their master engraver in prison, the gang's supply of money was dwindling fast. Things were looking desperate when Neely seized on a gruesome plan. He would have his men kidnap a famous person and, for a ransom, negotiate for the release of Benjamin Boyd from Joliet Prison. Neely found the perfect candidate as his kidnapping victim, Abraham Lincoln, or at least his famous corpse. Neely placed Thomas J. Sharp in charge of assembling the gang and leading the operation. Sharp was the editor of the local Sharp's Daily Statesman newspaper and a valued member of the counterfeiting gang. Meanwhile, Neely returned to St. Louis, where he owned a legitimate library business so that he could be far away from suspicion as events unfolded and have an airtight alibi. In June, the plan was hammered together at Robert Splain's Saloon in Lincoln. Five of the gang members were sent to Springfield to open a saloon that could be used as a base of operations. This new place was soon established as a tavern and dance hall on Jefferson Street, the site of Springfield's infamous Levy District. A lawless section of town were all manner of vice flourished. Splain served as the bartender while the rest of the gang loitered there as customers. They made frequent visits to the Lincoln Tomb at Oak Ridge, where they found the custodian, John C. Power, more than happy to answer questions about the building. On one occasion, he innocently let slip that there was no guard at the tomb during the night. This clinched the last details of the plan, which involved stealing the body and spiriting it away out of town. It would be buried about two miles north of the city under a Sangamon River Bridge, and then the men would scatter and wait for nearly to negotiate the ransom. They chose the night of July 3rd, 1876, to carry out their plan. The Springfield Saloon was up and running by the middle of June, leaving the men with several weeks with to do nothing but just sit around the tavern, drink, and wait. One night, one of the men got very drunk and spilled the details of the plan to a prostitute who worked at a nearby parlor house. He told her to look for a little extra excitement in the city on Independence Day. He and his companions planned to be stealing Lincoln's body while the rest of the city was celebrating the holiday. The story was too good to keep secret, and the woman passed it along to several other people, including the city's chief of police, Abner Wilkinson, although no record exists how these two knew one another. The story spread rapidly, and Neely's men disappeared. Neely didn't give up on the plan, though. He simply went looking for more competent help. He moved his base of operations to a tavern called The Hub at 294 West Madison Street in Chicago. Neely's man there was named Terrence Mullen, and he operated a secret headquarters for the gang in the back room of the tavern. One of Neely's operatives, Jack Hughes, came into the hub in August and learned that a big job was in the works. Neely was anxious to carry out his plan, but balking at stealing a corpse, Hughes and Mullen brought another man into the mix. His name was Jim Morrissey, and he had a reputation for being one of the most skilled grave robbers in Chicago. They decided he would be perfect for the job. Unknown to the gang, Morrissey was actually a secret service operative named Lewis Swiggles. He was an undercover agent for Captain Patrick Tyrell, and he began posing as a grave robber, claiming to have obtained dozens of cadavers for medical schools. Swiggles, pretending to be Jim Morrissey, came into the hub and discussed the methods of grave robbery with the other two men. The three of them quickly devised a plan. They would approach the Lincoln Monument under the cover of night and pry open the marble sarcophagus. They would then place the casket in a wagon and drive northward to the Indiana sand dunes. This area was still remote enough to provide a suitable hiding place for however long was needed. Swiggles, being the most experienced of the group, agreed to everything about the plan except for the number of men needed. He believed the actual theft would be harder than they thought and wanted to bring in a famous criminal friend of his to help them. The man's name was Billy Brown, and he could handle the wagon while the others pillaged the tomb. The other two men readily agreed. On November 5th, Mullins and Hughes met with Swiggles in his Chicago home for a final conference. They agreed the perfect night for the robbery would be the night of the upcoming presidential election. The city would be packed with people, and they would be in downtown Springfield, very late, waiting near the telegraph and political offices for news. Oak Ridge Cemetery, over two miles away and out in the woods, would be deserted and the men could work for hours and not be disturbed. It would also be a perfect night to carry the body away, as the roads would be crowded with wagons and people returning home from election celebrations. One more wagon would not be noticed. The men agreed and decided to leave for Springfield on the next evening's train. Swiggles promised to have Billy Brown meet them at the train, but felt it was best if he didn't sit with them. He thought that four men might attract too much attention. Hughes and Mullins conceded that this was a good idea but wanted to at least get a look at Brown. Swiggles instructed them to stay in their seats, and he would have Brown walk past them to the rear car. As the train was pulling away from the station, a man passed by the two of them and casually nodded his head at them. This was the mysterious fourth man. Brown, after examination, disappeared into the back coach. Hughes and Mullins agreed that he looked fit for the job. While they were discussing his merits, Billy Brown was hanging onto the back steps of the train and waiting for it to slow down at a crossing on the outskirts of Chicago. At that point, he slipped off the train and headed back into the city. Billy Brown was actually Agent Neely of the United States Secret Service. As Neely was slipping off the train, more agents were taking his place. At the same time, the conspirators were steaming toward Springfield, Tyrell, and half a dozen operatives were riding in a coach just one car ahead of them. They were also joined on the train by a contingent of Pinkerton detectives, who had been hired by Robert Lincoln after he got word of the plot to steal his father's body. The detectives were led by Elmer Washburn, one of Robert Lincoln's law partners. A plan was formed between Washburn and Tyrell. Swiggles would accompany the grave robbers to Springfield and while assisting in the robbery would signal the detectives, who would be hiding in another part of the monument. They would then capture Mullin and Hughes in the act. When they arrived in Springfield, Tyrell contacted John Todd Stewart, Robert's cousin and the head of the new Lincoln National Monument Association, which cared for the tomb. He advised Stewart of the plan and together they contacted the custodian of the site. The detectives would hide in the museum side of the monument with the custodian. This area was called Memorial Hall and it was located on the opposite side of the structure from the catacomb. They would wait there for the signal from Swiggles and then they would rush forward and capture the robbers. The first Pinkerton agent arrived just after nightfall. He carried with him a note for John Power, the custodian, which instructed him to put out the lights and wait for the others to arrive. The two men crouched in the darkness until the other men came inside. Tyrell and his men explored the place with their flashlights. Behind the Memorial Hall was a damp, dark labyrinth that wound through the foundations of the monument to a rear wall of the catacomb, where Lincoln was entombed. Against this wall, in the blackness, Tyrell stationed a detective to wait and listen for sounds of the grave robbers. Tyrell then returned to the museum room to wait with the others. Their wait was over as darkness fell outside. A lantern flashed outside the door and sounds could be heard as the grave robbers worked at the lock. Almost immediately, Mullen broke the saw blade that he was using on the lock and so they settled in while he resorted to the long and tedious task of filing the lock away. After some time, Mullen finally removed the lock and opened the door to the burial chamber. Before them, in the dim light, they saw the marble sarcophagus of President Lincoln. Now all they had to do was to remove the lid and carry away the coffin, which turned out to be much harder than they had anticipated. The stone was too heavy to move, so, using an axe, they broke open the top, then removed the lid aside and looked into it. Swiggles was given the lantern and was stationed nearby to illuminate the work area. Left with no other option, he complied, although he was supposed to light a match at the door to alert the Secret Service agents that it was time to act. Meanwhile, Mullen and Hughes lifted out the heavy casket. Once this was completed, Mullen told Swiggles to go and have the wagon moved around. He had assured Mullen and Hughes that Billy Brown had it waiting in a ravine below the hill. Swiggles raced around to the memorial hall, gave the signal to the detectives, and then ran outside. Tyrell whispered to his men, and with drawn revolvers, they rushed out and around the monument to the catacomb. When they arrived, they found the lid to the sarcophagus was moved aside and Lincoln's casket was on the floor, but the grave robbers were gone. The detectives scattered outside to search the place. Tyrell ran outside and around the base of the monument where he saw two men near one of the statues. He whipped up his pistol and fired at them. A shot answered, and they fought it out in a hail of gunfire, dodging around the monument. Suddenly, one of the men at whom he was shooting called out Tyrell's name. He was firing at his own agents. Mullen and Hughes had casually walked away from the tomb to await the return of Swiggles, Brown and the wagon. They never suspected the whole thing had been a trap. They had only wanted to get some air and moved into the shadows where they wouldn't be seen in case someone wandered by. After a few minutes, they saw movement at the door to the tomb and had started back, thinking that Swiggles had returned. They heard the pistol shots and saw a number of men around the monument. They took off running past the ravine and vanished into the night. Assuming that Swiggles had been captured, they fled back to Chicago, only to be elated when they found him waiting for them at the hub tavern. He had returned with the horses, he told them, but found the gang gone. He had come back to Chicago, not knowing what else to do, to await word of what had happened. Thrilled with their good fortune, the would-be grave robbers spent the night in drunken celebration. The story of the attempted grave robbery appeared in the newspaper following the presidential election, but it was greeted with stunned disbelief. In fact, only one newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, would even print the story because every other newspaper in the state was sure that it was not true. To the general public, the story had to be false and most believed that it had been hoaxed for some bizarre political agenda. Most people would not believe that the Secret Service and Pinkerton agents would be stupid enough to have gathered all in one room where they could see and hear nothing and then wait for the criminals to act. The Democrats in Congress charged that the Republicans had hoaxed the whole thing so that it would look like the Democrats had violated the grave of a Republican hero and in this way sway the results of the election. To put it bluntly, no one believed that Lincoln's grave had been or ever could be robbed. The doubters became believers on November 18th when Mullen and Hughes were captured. The newspapers printed the story the following day and America realized the story that had appeared a short time before had actually been true. This belief turned into horror. Letters poured into the papers laying the guilt at the feet of everyone from the Democrats to Southern sympathizers to the mysterious John Wilkes Booth Fund. The people of Illinois were especially outraged and punishment for the two men would have been severe if the law had allowed it. Mullen and Hughes were charged with two minor crimes. The public was aghast at the idea that these men would get off so lightly, even though the grand jury had returned a quick indictment. Continuances and changes of venue dragged the case along to May 1877 when it finally came to trial. The jury was asked by the prosecution to sentence the men to the maximum term allowed, which was only five years in prison. On the first ballot, two jurors wanted the maximum, two of them wanted a two-year sentence, four others asked for varying sentences, and four others even voted for acquittal. After a few more ballots, Mullen and Hughes were incarcerated for a one-year stay in Joliet. And Abraham Lincoln was once more left to rest peacefully in his grave, at least for a while. It was not long before the story of the Lincoln grave robbery became a hotly denied rumor or at best a fading legend. The custodians of the site simply decided that it was something they did not wish to talk about. Of course, as the story began to be denied, the people who had some recollection of the tale created their own truth in myths and conspiracies. The problem in this case, however, was that many of these conspiracies happened to be grounded in the truth. There is a lot more to this story, so keep listening. Nothing goes better with chocolate than vanilla, and nothing goes better with the darkness than vampires. So we have combined all of them into a new blend of weird dark roast coffee called Very Vampilla. This bloody good blend combines a medium dark roast coffee with hints of chocolate, vanilla, and just a tad bit of dried cherry, too. So good, you'll want to sink your fangs into the fresh roasted bag itself. Weird dark roast Very Vampilla, the only thing at stake, sorry, not sorry, bad pun, is your dissatisfaction with your old coffee. Sip it while the sun is down if you're one of the undead. Or when the sun is up if you just feel dead and need a bit of a boost, get your Weird Dark Roast Very Vampilla at WeirdDarkness.com slash coffee. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash coffee. Hundreds of people came to see the Lincoln burial site, and many of them were not afraid to ask about the stories that were being spread about the tomb and the robbery. From 1876 to 1878, custodian John C. Power gave rather evasive answers to anyone who prodded him for details about the grave robbery. He was terrified of one question in particular, and it seemed to be the one most often asked. Was he sure that Lincoln's body had been returned safely to the sarcophagus after the grave robbers took it out? Power was terrified of that question for one reason, because at that time, Lincoln's grave was completely empty. On the morning of November 1876, when John T. Stewart of the Lincoln National Monument Association learned what had occurred in the tomb with the would-be robbers, he rushed out to the site. He was not able to rest after the incident, fearing that the grave robbers who had not been caught at that time would return and try to finish their ghoulish handiwork. So he made a decision. He contacted the custodian and told him that they must take the body from the crypt and hide it elsewhere in the building. Together, they decided the best place to store it would be in the cavern of passages which lay between the memorial hall and the catacomb. That afternoon, Adam Johnson, a Springfield marble worker, took some of his men and they lifted Lincoln's casket from the sarcophagus. They covered it over with a blanket and then cemented the lid back into place. Later that night, Johnson, Power and three members of the memorial association stole out to the monument and carried the 500-pound coffin around the base of the obelisk through a memorial hall and into the dark labyrinth. They placed the coffin near some boards that had been left behind in the construction. The following day, Johnson built a new outer coffin while Power set to work digging a grave below the dirt floor. It was slow work because it had to be done between visitors to the site and he also had a problem with water seeping into the hole. Finally, he gave up and simply covered the coffin with the leftover boards and wood. For the next two years, Lincoln lay beneath a pile of debris in the labyrinth, while visitors from all over the world wept and mourned over the sarcophagus at the other end of the monument, the empty sarcophagus. More and more of these visitors asked questions about the theft, questions full of suspicion as if they knew something they really had no way of knowing. In the summer and fall of 1877, the legend took another turn. Workmen arrived at the monument to erect the naval and infantry groups of statuary on the corners of the upper deck. Their work would take them into the labyrinth where Powers feared they would discover the coffin. The scandal would be incredible so Power made a quick decision. He called the workmen together and, swearing them to secrecy, showed them the coffin. They promised to keep the secret, but within days everyone in Springfield seemed to know that Lincoln's body was not where it was supposed to be. Soon, the story was spreading all over the country. Power was now in a panic. The body had to be more securely hidden and in order to do that, he needed more help. Power contacted two of his friends, Major Gustavus Dana and General Jasper Rees, and explained the situation. These men brought three others, Edward Johnson, Joseph Lindley and James McNeil, to meet with Power. On the night of November 18th, the six men began digging a grave for Lincoln at the far end of the labyrinth. Cramped and cold and stifled by stale air, they gave up around midnight with the coffin just barely covered and traces of their activity very evident. Power promised to finish the work the next day. These six men, sobered by the responsibility that faced them, decided to form a brotherhood to guard the secret of the tomb. They brought in three younger men, Noble Wiggins, Horace Chapin and Clinton Conkling, to help in the task. They called themselves the Lincoln Guard of Honor and had badges made for their lapels. After the funeral of Mary Lincoln, John T. Stewart told the Guard of Honor that Robert Lincoln wanted to have his mother's body hidden away with his father's. So, late on the night of July 21st, the men slipped into the monument and moved Mary's double-legged casket, burying it in the labyrinth next to Lincoln's. Visitors to the tomb increased as the years went by, all of them paying their respects to the two empty crypts. Years later, Power would complain that questions about Lincoln's empty grave were asked of him nearly every day. Finally, in 1886, the Lincoln National Monument Association decided that it was time to provide a new tomb for Lincoln in the catacomb. A new and stronger crypt of brick and mortar was designed and made ready. The press was kept outside as the Guard of Honor and others who shared the secret of the tomb brought the Lincoln caskets out of the labyrinth. Eighteen persons who had known Lincoln in life filed past the casket, looking into a square hole that had been cut into the lead coffin. Strangely, Lincoln had changed very little. His face was darker after 22 years, but they were still the same features, the sad features, that people had always known of him. The last man to identify the corpse was Leon P. Hopkins, the same man who had closed the casket years before. He soldered the square back over the hole, thinking once again that he would be the last person to ever look upon the face of Abraham Lincoln. The Guard of Honor lifted Lincoln's casket and placed it next to Mary's smaller one. The two of them were taken into the catacomb and lowered into the new brick and mortar vault. Here they would sleep for all time. All time, however, lasted for only about 13 years. In 1899, Illinois legislators decided the monument was to be torn down and a new one built from the foundations. It seemed that the present structure was settling unevenly, cracking around the eternal vault of the president. There was once again the question of what to do with the bodies of the Lincoln family. The Guard of Honor came up with a clever plan. During the 15 months needed for construction, the Lincolns would be secretly buried in a multiple grave a few feet away from the foundations of the tomb. As the old structure was torn down, tons of stone and dirt would be heaped onto the grave site both to disguise and protect it. When the new monument was finished, the grave would be uncovered again. When the new building was completed, the bodies were exhumed once more. In the top section of the grave were the coffins belonging to the Lincoln's sons and to a grandson also named Abraham. The former president and Mary were buried on the bottom level and so safely hidden that one side of the temporary vault had to be battered away to reach them. Lincoln's coffin was the last to be moved and it was close to sunset when a steam engine finally hoisted it up out of the ground. The protective outer box was removed and six construction workers lifted the coffin onto their shoulders and took it into the catacomb. The other members of the family had been placed in their crypts and Lincoln's casket was placed into a white marble sarcophagus. The group dispersed after switching on the new electric burglar alarm. This device connected the monument to the caretaker's house, which was a few hundred feet away. As up to date as this device was, it still did not satisfy the fears of Robert Lincoln who was sure that his father's body would be snatched again if care were not taken. He stayed in constant contact with the Guard of Honor who were still working to ensure the safety of the Lincoln remains and made a trip to Springfield every month or so after the new monument was completed. Something just wasn't right. Even though the alarm worked perfectly, he could not give up the idea that the robbery might be repeated. He journeyed to Springfield and brought with him his own set of security plans. He met with the officials and gave them explicit directions on what he wanted done. The construction company was to break a hole in the tile floor of the monument and place his father's casket at a depth of 10 feet. The coffin would then be encased in a cage of steel bars and the hole would be filled with concrete, making the President's final resting place into a solid block of stone. On September 26th, 1901, a group assembled to make the final arrangements for Lincoln's last burial. A discussion quickly turned into a heated debate. The question that concerned them was whether or not Lincoln's coffin should be opened and the body viewed one last time. Most felt this would be a wise precaution, especially in light of the continuing stories about Lincoln not being in the tomb. The men of the Guard of Honor were all four laying the tails to rest at last, but Robert was decidedly against opening the casket again, feeling that there was no need to further invade his father's privacy. In the end, practicality won out and Leon P. Hopkins was sent for to chisel out an opening in the lead coffin. The casket was placed on two saw horses in the still unfinished memorial hall. The room was described as hot and poorly lit, as newspapers had been pasted over the windows to keep out the stairs of the curious. A piece of the coffin was cut out and lifted away. According to diaries, a strong and reeking odor filled the room, but the group pressed close to the opening anyway. The face of the President was covered with a fine powder made from white chalk. It had been applied in 1865 before the last burial service. It seemed that Lincoln's face had turned inexplicably black in Pennsylvania and after that a constant covering of chalk was kept on his face. Lincoln's features were said to be completely recognizable though. The casket's headrest had fallen away and his head was thrown back slightly, revealing his still perfectly trimmed beard. His small black tie and dark hair were still as they were in life, although his eyebrows had vanished. The broad cloth suit that he had worn to his second inauguration was covered with small patches of yellow mold and the American flag that was clutched in his lifeless hands was now in tatters. There was no question, according to those present, that this was Abraham Lincoln and that he was placed in the underground vault. The casket was sealed back up again by Leon Hopkins, making his claim of years ago true. Hopkins was the last person to look upon the face of Lincoln. The casket was then lowered down into the cage of steel and two tons of cement were poured over it, forever encasing the President's body in stone. This should have been the end of the story, but as with all lingering mysteries, a few questions still remain. The strangest are perhaps these. Does the body of Abraham Lincoln really lie beneath the concrete in the catacomb? Or was the last visit from Robert Lincoln part of some elaborate ruse to throw off any further attempts to steal the President's body? And did, as some rumors have suggested, Robert arranged with the Guard of Honor to have his father's body hidden in a different location entirely. Most historians would agree that Lincoln's body is safely encased in the concrete of the crypt, but rumors persist. Some might ask whose word we have for the fact that Lincoln's body is where it is said to be. We only have the statement of Lincoln's son Robert, his friends, and of course the Guard of Honor. But weren't these the same individuals who allowed visitors to the monument to grieve before an empty sarcophagus while the President's body was actually hidden in the labyrinth beneath a few inches of dirt? I don't think we will ever really know for sure. Thanks for listening! If you like the show, please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do. You can email me anytime with your questions or comments at darron at WeirdDarkness.com. Darron is D-A-R-R-E-N. WeirdDarkness.com is also where you can find all of my social media, listen to free audiobooks I've narrated, visit the store for Weird Darkness t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, phone cases, and more merchandise, sign up for monthly contests, find other podcasts that I host, and find the hope in the darkness page if you or someone you know is struggling with depression or dark thoughts. Also on the website, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, you can click on Tell Your Story. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes. Heaven's Gate was compiled by Darron Marlar using articles from Rolling Stone, Ranker, and History.com. Stealing Lincoln's Bones was written by Troy Taylor for American Haunting's Inc. Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14. Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many, for the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life. And those who find it are few. And a final thought. Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friend? I'm Darron Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.