We're celebrating Operation Assassination, a trivia-laden white paper I first compiled 25 years ago that indirectly spawned this blog.
Operation Assassination began thanks to a coin collection. A few years after inheriting some of the coins owned by my grandmother, someone gifted me the Lincoln-Kennedy Penny. While it may sound impressive, it was only an uncirculated Lincoln head penny with a stamped, or counterstruck, profile reproduction of John F. Kennedy's head looking at Lincoln.
I want to know who had the idea to modify pennies in the first place. I remember wondering why they didn't accompany the penny with a similar Kennedy half-dollar and a tiny Lincoln staring at JFK. Or, even better, counterstrike the close-up profile of Lincoln's nose on the half-dollar since he faces right. Kennedy faces to the left on both coins, and showing the perimeter of Lincoln's face could have been played as a subtle joke with perspective. Or not.
The Lincoln-Kenndy Penny was attached to a beige piece of card stock with what I later called Lincolnisms and Kennedyms, a list of "astonishing coincidences" between the two presidents' lives and deaths. For example:
- "Lincoln" and "Kennedy" each have seven letters.
- Lincoln was elected to the presidency in 1860, and Kennedy was elected in 1960.
- Both presidents were shot in the head on a Friday and in the presence of their wives.
- Both Lincoln and Kennedy were concerned with civil rights.
- Both presidents died in locations beginning with P:
- Lincoln died in the Petersen House
- Kennedy died at Parkland Hospital
- Both of their successors were named Johnson, each born a century apart, with one almost dying a century later:
- Andrew Johnson (1808-75)
- Lyndon Johnson (1908-73)
While little more than noteworthy facts, the information on the card I found through-provoking were those involving opposites occurring over the century:
- Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy who told him not to go to Ford's Theatre, and Kennedy had a secretary named Evelyn Lincoln and she warned him not to go to Dallas.
- Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse, and Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.
I didn't have Wikipedia when I created Operation Assassination, but I do now, and it's interesting to see how many of these "astonishing coincidences" are anything but.
- Although President Kennedy had a secretary named Evelyn Lincoln, President Lincoln did not have a secretary named Kennedy. Lincoln's secretaries were John G. Nicolay and John M. Hay.
- Booth did run from Ford's Theatre, where he shot Lincoln, but was caught in a barn in Virginia, not a warehouse. Oswald fled from the Texas School Book Depository, which was a warehouse where Oswald worked and from where he had shot Kennedy. Oswald was arrested in a movie theater. [1]
One other item in the original Operation Assassination list I compiled was one I wished someone would dredge up a 19th-century equivalent for:
Kenndy was shot in a 1961 Lincoln continental presidential limousine.
The usual opposite was that Lincoln was a division of the Ford Motor Company and died in Ford's Theatre. I guess that fits. But if you can use Wikipedia to debunk previously believed tidbits, maybe you can use it and other online resources to make new connections! Why not? It'll be fun! I'll go first:
Lincoln rode in a carriage supplied by Kennedy's Carryall & Buggy Company.
That sounds cool – right? It's not true, but surely someone can find a Kennedy connection. Let's have another:
A rushing mob helped move Lincoln from the theatre to Peterson House.
A bit on the nose. One more try:
Lincoln ate Fiddle Faddle (or candy-coated popcorn) on his way to Ford's Theatre.
Maybe we don't need new astonishing coincidences.
References
- [1] Wikipedia: Lincoln–Kennedy coincidences urban legend
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