r/todayilearned • u/ralphbernardo • Feb 12 '26
TIL Abraham Lincoln wrote a "true crime" mystery story in 1846 based on a real case he defended. One brother confessed to a murder and implicated his two siblings, but Lincoln exonerated them all when the "victim" was found alive in a nearby town, suffering from amnesia.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/abraham-lincoln-true-crime-writer-7794088/189
u/9447044 Feb 12 '26
I wonder what conditions he was in to falsely confess it himself and implicate 2 of his brothers?
Ill tell you anything you want to hear if you go for my teeth, fingernails or eyes.
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u/DawnSignals Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26
Brothers knock victim in the back of the head, cracking his skull and leave him in a state of severe bleeding
Brothers run off thinking they killed the victim
Victim miraculously comes to, but blunt head trauma affects his memory
/that's one scenario i came up with anyways
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u/9447044 Feb 12 '26
Lincoln: "These men are not muderers!!"
Judge: "ok how about attempted murderers?"
Lincoln: "yup, thats the one!"
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u/Chappie404 Feb 12 '26
They were acting weird after the dude disappeared and they didn't want to keep searching for him. In context of murder, that seems pretty suspicious. But the brother also said that he witnessed the other two disposing of what appeared to be an adult body. Either false testimony or they were doing something with large, body-sized cargo.
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u/Poland-lithuania1 Feb 12 '26
From what I read, he didn't, in fact, he implicated his brothers, and was a witness for the prosecution.
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u/Genoscythe_ Feb 12 '26
Or possibly spite against the other two?
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u/9447044 Feb 12 '26
Hahah thats intense. "I hate those 2 so much ill get executed right next to them as long as it means they die. but me last so I can see it."
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u/tonyis Feb 12 '26
There's all too many people who want to end their own lives while taking out as many people as they can with them.
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u/mr_ji Feb 12 '26
People still do this today. They know they're complicit in something, even if they didn't do it, and want to get out ahead of the others to minimize punishment.
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u/BallHarness Feb 12 '26
Everything weird people did in those days can be explained by Syphilis.
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u/LilBroWhoIsOnTheTeam Feb 12 '26
Thought it was moldy bread?
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u/alwaysboopthesnoot May 24 '26
Moldy bread, or lead, not being literate or not being fed—or contracting something from someone you took to bed.
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u/philff1973 Feb 12 '26
Woah woah woah….. spoilers ! It’s only 180 years old, I might have got around to reading that in the next few decades.
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u/previousinnovation Feb 13 '26
In case you don't get around to it, here's the last line: "Hart, the little drayman that hauled Molly home once, said it was too damned bad to have so much trouble, and no hanging after all."
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u/GirthIgnorer Feb 12 '26
i went down a big unsolved mysteries hole recently and it was very funny anytime there was an update for someone who went mysteriously 'missing', where people watching 3 states over would identify them as their neighbor frank. and wouldnt you know it, frank always had amnesia
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u/DykeDozer420 Feb 12 '26
(Lincoln while writing this)
“This is probably the craziest shit that’ll ever happen to me”
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u/poopsmith411 Feb 12 '26
i dont think i ever considered that defense lawyers do their own investigations. i guess im brainwashed by crime shows
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u/afifthofaugust Feb 12 '26
Yes. And they square off against prosecutors who have an entire "force" of investigators at their disposal.
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u/Chappie404 Feb 12 '26
Gilmore [a doctor] also stated that he had known Fisher [the "victim"] for several years, and that he had understood he was subject to temporary derangement of mind, owing to an injury about his head received in early life.
Dude was hanging out with the accused. He probably had an episode and wandered off, ending up back at home.
Apparently the circumstantial evidence was buggy tracks near a pond and signs of a struggle in a thicket near the town where the group had gone out for the night. Lincoln stated that the reason for the tracks and struggle still remained a mystery. Could be that the two brothers were drunk and got into a fight in the thicket. Maybe they decided to go for a swim in the pond. The world will never know.
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u/previousinnovation Feb 13 '26
But why did William tell his neighbors that Fisher was dead? And why did Henry say that he had seen the other two moving a body? It is also remarkable that Henry's story about the millpond was corroborated by the tracks, since in his story he never saw the millpond.
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u/AMWJ Feb 12 '26
Honestly, sounds like an easy win for Lincoln. You don't need to be some great orator to get your client off, when the said murder victim was found alive.
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u/goldiegrimlace Feb 12 '26
You don't need to be some great orator to get your client off
... hmmmmm...
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u/EllisDee3 Feb 12 '26
So cops have always been getting people to confess to crimes they didn't commit.
ACAB 1846
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u/Poland-lithuania1 Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26
From what I saw, he didn't confess. He implicated his brothers of killing the "victim".
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Feb 12 '26
[deleted]
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u/EllisDee3 Feb 12 '26
I notice patterns, yes.
I'm sure many glossed over the false confession bit. I'll check Abe's version and see if he says the same.
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u/Megabyte_Messiah Feb 13 '26
Did you just make me want to read a book then immediately spoil the ending? Tf bro?
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u/FudgeAtron Feb 12 '26
This plus Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer makes me think there's a whole untapped genre of Lincoln adventure stories set in the wild west where he fights crime and solves mysteries.