Abraham Lincoln's Lock of Hair Sold for $ 81,000

A lock of hair from the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, along with a blood-stained cable about his 1865 assassination, was sold at auction for more than $ 81,000.

The lock of hair and the cable were sold during an auction that ended Saturday, according to RB Auction House in Boston. The auction house did not reveal any information about the identity of the buyer.

The lock of hair, that measures no more than 5 cm, was shaved off Lincoln's head during a post-mortem examination after he was shot dead at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC, by John Wilkes Booth.

The tuft was introduced by Dr. Lyman Beecher Todd, who was the Kentucky Post manager, and the relative of Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's widow, according to the auction house.

The lock of hair was affixed to an official War Department telegram sent to Todd George Kinnear, Todd's assistant at the Lexington, Kentucky Post Office. As for the telegram, it was received in Washington at 11 pm on April 14, 1865.

The BR auction house certified the authenticity of the tress and cable.

James Todd wrote, in a 1945 letter, that a lock of hair "has remained entirely in our family's custody since that time."

The auction house said the tread was last sold in 1999.

"When you're dealing with a sample of Lincoln's hair, authenticity is everything – and in this case, we know this came from a family member who was standing next to the president's bed," Bobby Livingston, CEO of BR Auctions, said in a statement.

The $ 81,250 was slightly higher than the $ 75,000 the auction house had hoped the price would reach.

The importance of the telegram is that it refuted a theory that appeared at the time indicating that Secretary of War Edwin Stanton conspired to kill Lincoln because of their personal and political differences, according to historians.