American Notes Presidents

The first U.S. President to be assassinated was Abraham Lincoln -- or was it Zachary Taylor? Last week the coroner in Louisville exhumed the body of the 12th President, who died on July 9, 1850, five days after consuming a large amount of iced cherries and milk at a sweltering Independence Day celebration at the Washington Monument. Back then, Taylor's sudden death was attributed to gastroenteritis. But Clara Rising, a Florida writer who is researching a book about Taylor, believes he may have been murdered.

Samples of Taylor's hair, bones and fingernails will be tested for traces of arsenic poisoning. If any are found, they would strengthen Rising's theory that Taylor was killed by proslavery Southerners angered by his support for the admission of California and New Mexico into the Union as free states. Said Dabney Taylor, the President's great-great-great grandson: "Rumors have been running through the family for years. I'm just glad somebody is finally going to do something about it." The prime suspects: Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, Vice President Millard Fillmore and two unnamed Georgia politicians.