Parallel Paths

hung on the wall. Looking up, you would recognize each of the subjects immediately, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. I don't need to tell you how similar these two men were, right, you can put the pieces together yourself. Both served as presidents of the United States, and both were assassinated while in office. They each represented sad moments in American history where great leaders were struck down before their time. For the generations that went through the aftermath

of these tragedies, they were foundational, unforgettable events. But you don't know everything, such as why I might have placed their portraits here in a place where you come to find the unusual and unexplainable. Don't worry, though, what sort of tour guide would I be if I didn't reveal it all to you first, It's helpful to look at

the numbers. Lincoln and Kennedy both served in Congress before ascending to the presidency, and each of them was elected to those roles in years that ended in forty six. When they were elected to the White House, both of them did so in years ending in sixty weird, right, It gets weirder though. Kennedy was killed in the seventh car of his motorcade, while Lincoln was shot in theater box number seven. Both men were shot in the head. Both assassin nations happened on a Friday. Even the killers

were similar. John Wilkes Booth escaped the theater and was found in a barn sort of a nineteenth century warehouse. Lee Harvey Oswald fled from a warehouse and was caught in a theater, and both of them were killed before they could go to trial. When it was all over, each man was succeeded by their vice president, as is the tradition, except both of those men were named Johnson, each were born in years ending oh eight, and each

were from the South. I know, it's easy to look at a lot of that and just shrug coincidences happen, right, especially when they have a century to line up and counting the letters, and a person's name is pretty weak according to some. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I'll leave that up to you. One last thing. It said that Lincoln had a dream about his assassination. In it, he found himself standing in the White House, which was fully decorated for a state funeral. There in the east room,

he could see a body laid out for burial. Who is dead in the White House? Lincoln asked one of the nearby soldiers guarding the body. The president came the soldier's reply, killed by an assassin. Here's the odd thing, though, other than dreaming about a murdered president. Of course, Lincoln told some friends about his dream a short time after it happened, and he told them something else. It turns out the body on display was not him, but another

man that Lincoln did not recognize. Knowing what we do about the deep similarities between Lincoln and Kennedy, it wouldn't hurt to stop and wonder and ask the most obvious question of all the questions. Yet, was Kennedy the man that Lincoln dreamed about when he checked into the hotel on Long Island. He did so under a false name. It was April seventeen night, and the man listed as Albert C. White was very much not who he claimed

to be. He was actually the twenty eight year old nephew of legendary steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, and even shared his name. He was Andrew Carnegie Whitfield. He paid in advance four dollars for a single night if you're curious what hotel rates were like in nineteen thirty eight, and deposited his belongings in the room before taking a card to the nearby Roosevelt Field Airport, where he had a

plane waiting for him. It was silver and red, very flashy and very noticeable, and he planned to take it for just a quick flight. His destination, he claimed, was an airfield in Brentwood, New York, about twenty two miles away. He had plenty of fuel, perfect weather, a heavily populated landscape to fly over, and hundreds of hours of flight

time under his belt. He was happily married, was enjoying success as an executive for a large company, and was even planning to relocate his family to a better home at the end of the month. He had everything going for him on land and in the air, and then he vanished. When they searched his hotel room, they found a lot of things to raise questions. There were records of a phone call to his own home. His clothing was still there in the room too, along with his

monogrammed cuff links. Oddly, he had even brought along to life insurance policies and several stock and bond certificates that had his name on them. But Andrew Whitfield was nowhere to be found. It didn't make sense, and no matter how hard they tried, the authorities couldn't locate him or his red and silver airplane. They had simply vanished into thin air. One other thing, though, remember that phone call he made to his home from the hotel room. Well,

it was unusual for two reasons. First, when no one answered, the operator who was trying to connect their call overheard him mutter, well, I'm going to carry out my plan. Weird, right, Not as weird as the second detail. That call, it seems, took place while his family was out of the house. They were out of the house because they'd gone to join the search party looking for him. The call, you see didn't happen before his flight. It was placed hours

after he vanished. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.