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Monday, July 6, 9-10 pm ET
A gun that may have belonged to a member of Al Capone’s gang; a letter allegedly written by John Wilkes Booth’s father; and a device meant to guard against grave robbers.
St. Valentine's Day Massacre - HISTORY DETECTIVES stares down the
barrel of a shotgun for clues that one of Al Capone's men fired it
in a Chicago gang massacre that shocked the nation. The gun came to
the contributor's family after it was handed down through two
generations of prominent Chicago families. It's a Western Field
single-barreled repeating action 12-guage shotgun. The barrel and
the stock were once shortened just the way the Capone gang liked
its guns: easy to conceal and with greater destructive force.
HISTORY DETECTIVES host Elyse Luray tests the gun's firepower,
consults with ballistics experts and combs through physical
evidence to see if she can place this gun at the scene of the
crime.
Booth Letter - A contributor gave HISTORY DETECTIVES a letter
indicating that, 30 years before John Wilkes Booth assassinated
Abraham Lincoln, Booth's father threatened to kill another sitting
president, Andrew Jackson. Signed "Junius Brutus Booth," the letter
to Jackson reads, "You damn'd old scoundrel … I will cut
your throat whilst you are sleeping." The writer insists that
Jackson pardon two men who were sentenced to death. Why did the
fate of these two men incite such fury? HISTORY DETECTIVES host
Tukufu Zuberi travels to Nashville to consult historians at The
Hermitage, the ancestral home of President Andrew Jackson, and to
Washington, DC, to talk with a Booth biographer. Was the letter a
hoax? Or did assassination run in the Booth blood?
Cemetery Alarm - A Midland, Michigan, man who collects war
munitions snapped up an item at an estate auction that looked like
a Civil War-era weapon. On closer inspection, after consulting with
other collectors, he decided he had a grave alarm: an explosive
device meant to guard against grave robbers. Is this truly a grave
alarm? HISTORY DETECTIVES host Wes Cowan's investigation winds
through tales of body snatching and cadaver dissecting, unusual
crimes and the most unlikely suspects.