Robert Lincoln had his mother declared insane the day after detectives saw $56,000 in bonds sewn into her petticoats

Robert Todd Lincoln, 31, petitioned in Cook County to have his mother, Mary Lincoln, declared insane and to be named conservator of her estate. He cited her spending: $450 for three watches, $600 for lace curtains. On 18 May 1875 his detectives saw her carrying $56,000 in government securities sewn into her petticoat pockets, and his lawyer Leonard Swett urged immediate action. The trial opened the next day before Judge Marion R. M. Wallace and lasted about three hours. Five doctors testified; none had examined her. Her lawyer, Isaac Arnold, called no witnesses and cross-examined no one. The jury found her insane in minutes. She was committed to Bellevue Place, a private sanitarium in Batavia, and a month later Robert was appointed conservator of her estate for one year. She smuggled a letter to the lawyer Myra Bradwell, who threatened to sue the sanitarium. After four months she was released to her sister Elizabeth Edwards in Springfield. On 15 June 1876 a jury found her "restored to reason and is capable to manage and control her estate." She lived in France from 1876 to 1880 and died in Springfield in 1882. Robert believed until his death that she was insane. His widow, Mary Harlan Lincoln, later paid $22,500 for a compiled set of Mary's letters on condition they never be published. Mary Lincoln is buried beside her husband in the Lincoln Tomb.