Gettysburg drops Booth bobblehead

The toy of Lincoln's killer was only on sale a week.

Associated Press
Posted: March 14, 2012

GETTYSBURG - Bobblehead dolls of the man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln have been pulled from sale at the Gettysburg National Military Park visitor center bookstore, officials said Tuesday.

The dolls of John Wilkes Booth with a handgun were removed from shelves Saturday, a day after a reporter for Hanover's Evening Sun newspaper asked about them.

"On rare occasions, there's an item that might cause concern, and obviously the bobbleheads appeared to be doing that," Gettysburg Foundation spokeswoman Dru Anne Neil said Tuesday.

The Booth dolls were available for only about a week before the park superintendent, the foundation president, and the bookstore manager decided they should not be sold, Neil said.

She declined to state the reason for the decision, and messages left Tuesday for the park and the company that operates the bookstore were not immediately returned.

The Booth dolls, which are about seven inches tall and come in boxes that look like the inside of the theater where Lincoln was killed, sell online for about $20 each. They have proved to be popular, as more than 150 of the original run of 250 have been sold, and more are being made, according to manufacturer BobbleHead L.L.C. in Kansas City, Mo.

"There's a market there," sales manager Matt Powers said. "We like to let the customer decide if it's a good item or not."

Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, shot and killed Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington in April 1865, as the Civil War was ending. He fled and was tracked into Virginia, where he was killed.

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