Shrunken Head

and painting outside the box. And if his mustache is any testament to his temperament, you can assume just by looking at him that he was quite the interesting character

to have a conversation with. Counted among his lack of convention was his undying quest to upset the status quo, to do something a little different, and he received just such an opportunity when U S Department of Corrections Commissioner Anna moscowits Cross approached Dolly's manager and invited the artist to give an art lesson to inmates at Rikers Island Prison in New York. The manager must have pinched himself, of course his client would want to take the commissioner

up on this. He was, after all, Salvador Dolly, and true to form, he did intend to give the lesson, but unfortunately became sick before his visit and had to cancel. A shame too, as he had planned on bringing Baboo his pet acelot. But Dolly wasn't just going to call it quits. No, he decided to paint an original work, especially for the prison, to be displayed proudly. Inside it was a black blot representing Christ's head with the crown

of thorns from which red and black splatter fell. Dolly even signed it for the dining room of the prisoners Rikers Island, s d and from nineteen sixty five to one. That was where it was, right in the middle of the prison dining room. It didn't take long though, before food fights became a problem. The painting got caught in the crossfire or perhaps became the target of all manner

of flying entrees and tableware. One such projectile even cracked the glass and left coffee splotches on the paper itself. Seeing no other option, the prison decided to invest in better protection, and while they were doing that, they had it appraised, stunned by a valuation of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. They soon locked it safely inside a perspect's box, where no food fights could further tarnish it. It remained there for another two decades, the subject of

many conversations, I'm sure. But then things changed on March one of two thousand three. That was when a fire alarm went off inside the prison. Now, according to standard operating procedure, all officers gathered at a predetermined location. However, four officers didn't show up. You see, they were too

busy with a more artistic endeavor. As the all clear was given and the prisoners and guards went back about their business, folks noticed that something had changed between the time the fire alarm had gone off and the return of the inmates and guards. The painting had shrunk by about twelve inches in height and width. Worse, it was now oil on canvas instead of water color and charcoal on paper. It had also found itself a new frame, which had been stapled directly to the wall rather than hung.

This new painting obviously was a fake, and not a very good one either, And yet through it all, the perspective box had remained locked. While there have been many art heists that defy investigators. This one was easy enough to solve, almost right from first glance. It took just a few days for one of the guilty guards to confess everything. A short time later, the other three had

been brought in as well. There was a trial, of course, but despite the evidence of the new fake painting and the four guards absence from the place of meeting during the fire alarm, that trial was complicated and frustrating. In the end, they walked free. Which leads to the biggest mystery of all, and the one that's still not been

solved to this day. The painting, that original valuable work by Salvador Dolly is still missing, and no one, not even the man accused of stealing it, knows where it is. The job of a United States president is one fraught with difficult tasks and hard choices. They must be aware of the threats to their country and way, the consequences of their actions on the rest of the world, and on top of all of that, they have to be

careful whenever they interact with the public. Even with twenty four hour secret service, a president's life is in constant jeopardy. The most famous incident of this was, of course, the assassination of A. Braham Lincoln On April fourteenth of eighteen sixty five, John Wilkes Booth shot the sixteenth President while he was watching a performance at Ford's Theater in Washington, d c. But Lincoln's life was actually in grave danger before that, and his savior was someone no one saw coming.

It started five years earlier. In Springfield, Illinois. Word of Lincoln's victory was received around two am the day after election day, on November six of eighteen sixty It was a joyous occasion, at least to the newly elected president and his supporters. Meanwhile, in the South, what had started as idle rumblings quickly snowballed into a full blown movement. Pretty soon, Lincoln was receiving hateful letters on his desk from people who saw his opposition to slavery's expansion as

a threat. Lincoln, however, didn't believe that he was in much danger. He didn't think that anyone would go so far as to come after a president of the United States, despite the warnings he'd received from friends, and so he began to prepare for his in our curation in March of eighteen sixty one, without the protection of a military escort. Little did he know, secessionists were also making plans to

greet him. Lincoln's journey by rail would take him from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, d C. By way of Maryland, one of the more dangerous states at the time as the secessionist movement gained steam. Maryland was a border state caught between the North and the South. It was a hotbed of pro slavery activity and was liable to join the South

at any moment. There were talks of plans to damage the rail line in Maryland in advance of Lincoln's arrival in order to prevent his swearing in, plans that quickly turned to something more sinister assassination. Meanwhile, Lincoln released a list of the stops he would make on his way to Washington, where he would meet and shake hands with

his constituents along the way. At one of those stops, on February three, which was a Saturday, his train would stop at Calvert Street Station in Baltimore around twelve thirty in the afternoon. Lincoln would then leave at three pm from nearby Camden Street Station for the last leg of his trip. Members of the movement gossiped and strategized on how to get someone close enough to the president to kill him. The man behind it all was one Captain

Cipriano Ferandini. He was a barber from Corsica, Italy, who had organized a group of extremists to assassinate the president elect once he had reached Baltimore. And the plan was simple, create a disturbance that distracted the police at the station. While they were attending to the commotion, One of Ferandini's men would step forward and stab Mr. Lincoln to death. But word got back to Lincoln's team and they thought

of ways to avoid the murderous plot. One idea was to have his train passed through Baltimore earlier than expected and catch the secessionists off guard. Through a combination of ruses and slight of hand, Lincoln was whisked from one train to the next late in the nights. He was forced to ride on passenger rails as news of his private train showing up in Baltimore might read to Ferandini

and his crew. He arrived in Philadelphia on February just before eleven pm, where a Baltimore bound train was waiting for him. But how was he supposed to make it on board safely among all the other travelers, with help from his sister, of course, who helped usher him into the sleeping car through a rear door. Lincoln wore a hat and a shawl to disguise himself during the transfer. From there, it was smooth sailing to Baltimore, where the President elect arrived at three thirty a m. Nine hours

before he was scheduled to appear. He was hurried to another train and whisked off to Washington to be sworn in as the sixteenth President of the United States. And that sister who had helped him she was a woman named Kate Warren, the first female detective in the United States. She worked for the Pinkerton Detective Agency, which had been contracted by the president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore

Railroad to aid in Lincoln's safe passage. Along the way, Warren had to bribe the conductors to secure the sleeping car for him, while Alan Pinkerton himself orchestrated the cutting of telegraph lines, hoping to stop communication between Ferrandini and his followers. Warren went on to serve as a spy for the Union during the Civil War, gathering intelligence for

the North by going undercover in the South. After the war, she helped solve numerous high profile cases involving grand larceny, poisoning, and even murder, and she wasn't ever afraid to get her hands dirty or use a disguise when necessary. Her involvement in Lincoln's inauguration was key to saving the life of a man who, unbeknownst to anyone at the time, would go on to change the future of the country. And they couldn't have done it all without help from

Kate Warren, detective spy an American hero. 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 asked 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. Yeah,