Documentary tries to prove existence of dead Lincoln photo

Investigator believes photo said to be of Abraham Lincoln taken hours after he was shot dead is ‘99% genuine’ in new Discovery Channel documentary that tries to prove its authenticity

  • New Discovery Channel documentary ‘The Lost Lincoln’ shows experts examining a controversial photo for its authenticity
  • Lincoln was shot in the head on April 14 1865 at Ford’s Theater in Washington DC 
  • He was taken to the boardinghouse across the street where he died
  • The show airing Sunday explores whether a photo rumored to depict the dead president is a genuine or a fake
  • Image was said to be taken secretly by Henry Ulke, a photographer living in the boardinghouse, before Lincoln’s body was taken to the White House 
  • California investigator Whitny Braun spent two years examining the photo, with the help of facial recognition experts, medical experts and ballistics experts
  • Braun says she is 99 percent convinced the photo is the real deal 
  • She says she was convinced after ballistics showed the man’s injuries match those Lincoln would have sustained in the shooting
  • Facial recognition experts said the man and Lincoln shared similar scars 
  • Skeptics say the photo doesn’t look like the president did just before he died and that the type of photography was no longer widely used at the time
  • Its current owner is suing Discovery to try to stop the show airing Sunday

An investigator has said she is ’99 percent convinced’ that a mystery photo taken of a dead man shows Abraham Lincoln hours after he was assassinated in 1865. 

A new Discovery Channel documentary ‘The Lost Lincoln’, scheduled to air Sunday, shows experts examining a controversial photograph that has long divided opinion on its authenticity. 

The 16th president of the US was shot in the head on April 14 1865 by actor John Wilkes Booth in a box at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C, while he was watching the play ‘Our American Cousin’.

Lincoln was taken to the boardinghouse across the street from the theater where he died early the following morning, with his death sending shockwaves around the world. 

An investigator has said she is ’99 percent convinced’ that a mystery photo (part of it pictured) taken of a dead man shows Abraham Lincoln hours after he was assassinated in 1865

A new Discovery Channel documentary ‘The Lost Lincoln’, scheduled to air Sunday, shows experts examining a controversial photograph that has long divided opinion on its authenticity. Pictured the photo above 

‘The Lost Lincoln’ explores whether a photo rumored to depict the dead president is a genuine or a fake.

The photo shows a gaunt-faced man with a beard, staring ahead lifelessly. 

His right eye is bulging and appears to be disfigured from an unseen wound. 

The show follows California investigator Whitny Braun as she spent two years examining the photo, including the help of facial recognition experts, medical experts, a ballistics expert, Lincoln scholars and descendants of the man said to have taken the photo.

There are only 130 known photos ever taken of the president.  

In a trailer for the special, Braun says she is 99 percent convinced the photo is the real deal and that it is the 131st image of the president. 

‘In the world of authenticating, this is like finding the Holy Grail,’ she says.

The special’s producer, Archie Gips, agrees it makes too much sense for it not to be real.

The image was said to be taken by Henry Ulke, a professional photographer who lived in the boardinghouse where Lincoln was brought after being shot. 

Ulke supposedly took the picture in secret after the president died and before his body was taken to the White House. 

It was kept secret because Lincoln’s secretary of war Edwin Stanton was strongly opposed to any images of the dead president.  

Only one fuzzy photo is known to exist, taken from a distance when Lincoln’s body was lying in state in New York.

The 16th president of the US was shot in the head on April 14 1865 by actor John Wilkes Booth in a box at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C, while he was watching the play ‘Our American Cousin’. A sketch of the murder above 

Lincoln was taken to the boardinghouse across the street from the theater where he died early the following morning, with his death sending shockwaves around the world

The photo was quietly given to the descendants of Lincoln’s mother Nancy Hanks in Illinois and in the 1980s was in the possession of Margaret Hanks, a second cousin once removed of the former president. 

Before she died in 1986, she sold a collection of artifacts to Larry Davis, an Illinois auctioneer, including the controversial photo, which Gips said had a Post-it note saying ‘Cousin Abe’ stuck on it.  

If the photo is genuine this would mark only the 131st image ever taken of the president. 

Braun said she was convinced after ballistics showed the man’s injuries match those Lincoln would have sustained in the shooting and after facial recognition found the man and Lincoln shared similar scars. 

The ballistics expert – who is the investigator’s father – showed how it was unlikely there would be an exit wound from the bullet fired into Lincoln’s head. 

The facial recognition experts said the man in the image had a slight scar under the lip consistent with one Lincoln had.  

Ulke’s descendants also explained how Henry Ulke specialized in ‘death photos,’ particularly ones with the eyes left open.

‘It’s a really important piece of history that’s incredible,’ Gips said. 

‘It’s not what you’d expect. You’d expect to see blood pouring out of his eye. But you get a sense of eeriness. You don’t get a shock value or disgust.’ 

Dr. Stanley Burns and Dr. Whitny Braun (right) looking at the photo in ‘The Lost Lincoln’

The show follows California investigator Whitny Braun as she spent two years examining the photo, including the help of facial recognition experts, medical experts, a ballistics expert, Lincoln scholars and descendants of the man said to have taken the photo

Braun in the show. The image was said to be taken by Henry Ulke, a professional photographer who lived in the boardinghouse where Lincoln was brought after being shot

However there has been much debate over the image with other Lincoln experts unconvinced by its authenticity.

Skeptics say the photo doesn’t look like the president did just before he died and that the type of photography was no longer widely used at the time.   

Harold Holzer, whose 1984 book ‘The Lincoln Image: Abraham Lincoln and the Popular Print’ traced the 130 known photographs of the former president, is convinced the photo is a fraud.

‘I’ve seen enough of these things to know that this is a whole lot of hysteria about something that is not Lincoln,’ he said.  

‘It’s not credible.’ 

Holzer said the photo does not match the last known photos of Lincoln.

In one of the last photographs of Lincoln taken alive, his once-full beard was wispy, almost a goatee whereas the man in the photo has a full beard. 

Braun has defended this difference saying there is evidence the photo was retouched to add more facial hair and to color the cheeks.

Holzer also said Lincoln was stripped of his clothes to check for other wounds when he was brought to the boardinghouse, yet the man in the picture is wearing a shirt.  

‘Not every man with a beard photographed after 1861 was Abraham Lincoln,’ he said. 

‘It’s going to take a lot for me to take this seriously. It doesn’t scan.’

He also said very few used the photography style used.  

Skeptics say the photo doesn’t look like the president did just before he died and that the type of photography was no longer widely used at the time. Lincoln in one of the known 130 pictures of him 

The photo is an ambrotype – a process where a photo is created by using a glass negative on a dark background – something that was largely out of style by the mid-1860s.

Aside from debate around its authenticity, the photo and the documentary itself is also plagued by controversy.   

The former owner of the photo Davis, who would not comment when reached by The Associated Press, has alleged in court papers that his ex-wife stole the ambrotype and sold it to an Illinois dentist Jerald Spolar.  

Spolar’s lawyer denied he bought stolen property and said he has spent several years trying to prove the photo is genuine. 

Spolar is also suing Discovery to try to stop the show airing Sunday.

The dentist, who Braun said cold-called her two years ago to tell her about the image, is also suing the investigator saying she violated a non-disclosure agreement made when he showed her a copy of the image, and is attempting to profit off somebody else’s property. 

Braun said the image ‘belongs to the American people’ and should be in a museum.  

‘The Lost Lincoln’ premieres Sunday October 4 at 9pm ET/PT on Discovery as part of the network’s Undiscovered documentary series.   

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