Mary Todd Lincoln Insanity Case To Be ‘Retried’ This Fall
This is a photograph of an undated daguerreotype of first lady Mary Todd Lincoln. (AP Photo/Library of Congress)
Former First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of Abraham Lincoln, will be “retried” for insanity this fall in Illinois.
According to the Associated Press, the retrial reenactment events will be sponsored by the Illinois Supreme Court Historic Preservation Commission in conjunction with Springfield’s Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
Mrs. Lincoln was initially tried, at the request of her son Robert, on allegations that she was insane in 1875, a decade after her husband’s death, GateHouse News Services reports. Lincoln was declared a “lunatic” and brought to Bellevue Sanitarium in Batavia, Ill. A second jury considering the matter later considered her sane and historians have long disagreed over whether Lincoln would be deemed insane under today’s health laws.
The events will kick off with an April 16 roundtable discussion addressing Lincoln’s life and mental health issues and taking a modern-day look on her insanity trial. Retrials, utilizing modern-day lawyers and judges considering actors playing Robert and Mary Lincoln in period costumes, will be held Sept. 24 at Murphy Auditorium, 50 East Erie St. in Chicago, and Oct. 1 at the Lincoln museum in Springfield.
The audience at the two retrials will act as judges, determining whether, based on the expert testimony, they believe Lincoln was sane.
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Would love to have more info on this subject. Was Mary Todd insane or did the tragedies in her life esp. seeing the brains of her husband in the street, send her off the deep end?
Read an article that bystanders in the street were picking up pieces of his skin and brains as souvenirs. How Horrid!
Anonymous,
Have you read Mary, Mrs. A Lincoln? If not, please check out this link to my review. This book does a great job of bringing her to life and details her insanity!
Enjoy.
https://www.goodbookfairy.com/2012/03/mary-mrs-lincoln.html