You know how it goes. You’re out having drinks with your frat brothers and one thing leads to another. The next thing you know, you’re waking up with a killer hangover and the corpse of Abraham Lincoln in your dorm room. “All right, guys. Who put the Great Emancipator in my room, again.”

Okay. Maybe not.

BUT, the History Channel has put together a very fascinating documentary about some men who did in fact plan and almost succeed at “Stealing Lincoln’s Body” in 1876.

The idea for the caper was conceived by a Chicago counterfeiter and bar owner. The goal was to ransom the body back to the government in exchange for the release of his top engraver and $200,000. It was an audacious scheme made very realistic by the absolute lack of security around Lincoln’s tomb.

What is almost as remarkable is that after the attempt was spoiled mid-theft, Lincoln’s body was hidden by the authorities under junk piles and in shallow graves for another 25 years. That is when it was finally buried under 10 feet of steel and concrete in its current tomb in Springfield, Ill.

As with most History Channel programs, you get plenty of interviews with expert historians, rare photographs, illustrations and some re-enactments. One particularly interesting feature is a CGI reanimation of President Lincoln based on the photo record of his life. His movements look a little awkward, but the sepia images are convincing enough to spark the imagination and look a little like old motion picture footage.

For as much as I read about the Civil War and Lincoln’s assassination as a kid, I had never heard about the attempt to steal his body. The fact that grave robbers had not only succeeded in breaking into his tomb, cutting open his sarcophagus and half removing his coffin before the Secret Service started moving in to catch them is amazing.

“Stealing Lincoln’s Body” is a very interesting look at a very little known facet of American history. I recommend it for anyone interested in U.S. history or true stories of the bizarre and macabre.