Fact Check: Controversial Photo of Abraham Lincoln in Deathbed Said to Be "99% Genuine"

After two years of studying forensic evidence, the deathbed photo that shows U.S. President Lincoln after he was assassinated is said to be 99% real, an investigator claims.

The claim is made in a new Discovery Channel documentary, "The Lost Lincoln," which sees specialists aiming to establish the authenticity of the controversial photo.

Lincoln's picture

The photo has been the subject of debate, with some experts convinced that it shows the body of the 16th president of the U.S., while others have stated that the claim was "rubbish."

Abraham Lincoln was killed on April 14, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth, an actor, and spy of the Confederate States. The president had been watching the stage play "Our American Cousin" with his wife, Mary Todd, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., before he was fatally shot in the head.

Lincoln was taken to a boardinghouse across the street where doctors battled to save the president's life after he slipped into a coma for eight hours. He died the next morning.

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The documentary "The Lost Lincoln" aims to determine whether the body seen in the picture was indeed that of Lincoln's. The picture shows a man with a narrow face and a beard laying down and staring lifelessly into the distance.

Whitney Braun, an investigator, embarked on a mission for two years to verify whether the man in the picture was in fact the president. She said that in the world of authenticating, it is like finding the Holy Grail.

Braun said that she is 99% certain that the man in the picture is the former president. According to her and Archie Grips, the producer of the documentary, all logic points to the authenticity of the photo.

Critics' take on the photo

Some critics have dismissed the claims insisting that the body in the photo can not be that of the president. According to Harold Holzer, he had seen enough of these types of pictures to know that the man in the photo is not Lincoln.

Holzer's book was published in 1984 titled "The Lincoln Image: Abraham Lincoln and the Popular Print," and it examines all the 130 known pictures taken of Lincoln.

Those who believe in the validity of the picture said that it was taken by Henry Ulke, a professional photographer, who lived in the boardinghouse where the president was taken after he was shot. It is believed that he secretly took the picture before the president's body was transferred to the White House.

Braun admitted that she first doubted the authenticity of the picture, but she was convinced when she consulted a facial recognition expert, a medical expert, and a ballistic expert.

According to the facial recognition expert, a slight scar under the lip of the man in the picture was the same as Lincoln's, while the ballistic expert said that there was no possibility of an exit wound from the bullet.

However, Hozer said that the man's beard is full, while the beard of the former president had become a goatee as seen in his last pictures, according to The Daily Beast.

Jerry Spolar, the dentist who showed Braun the image had asked a judge to block the airing of the documentary because it profits off of his property. He also sued Braun for breaking a non-disclosure agreement.

Braun has insisted that the picture does not belong to an individual, and that is should be in a museum because she said that it "belongs to the American people."