# The Baltimore plot

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The Baltimore plot," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-baltimore-plot/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The 1861 conspiracy to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln as his train passed through Baltimore, uncovered by Pinkerton detectives — and the overnight passage in a soft felt hat and shawl that got him to his inauguration and made the press call him a coward.*

- **Year:** 1861 — March, in Kiriakou's dating
- **Uncovered by:** Pinkerton detectives
- **Target:** President-elect Abraham Lincoln
- **Where:** Baltimore, Maryland
- **The disguise:** A soft felt hat and a shawl
- **The cover story:** Detective Kate Warne posing as Lincoln's sister
- **Outcome:** Lincoln reached Washington and took the oath of office

**The Baltimore plot** was a conspiracy to kill president-elect Abraham Lincoln as his train passed through Baltimore on the way to Washington, where he was to take the oath of office. [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou), who raises it as the first and favourite of his historical parallels to [the catering truck transfer](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-catering-truck-transfer), calls it a legitimate plot — uncovered, he says, by Pinkerton detectives, and dated by him to March 1861.[1][2]

Baltimore was hostile ground. Maryland was a southern state, but it did not secede and did not join the Confederacy; it wanted, in Kiriakou's phrase, to stay out of it. Marylanders nonetheless hated Lincoln, who had taken two per cent of the vote in the city.[2]

The telegraph wires were cut and the future president slipped through Baltimore overnight wearing a soft felt hat and a shawl, hidden in a sleeping car, while the detective Kate Warne travelled as his sister. He reached Washington safely and was sworn in — and was then, Kiriakou says, roasted by the press, which universally called him a coward for refusing to face his assassins like a man.[3][4]

## See also

- [The catering truck transfer](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-catering-truck-transfer)
- [The Clinton Pakistan Plane Switch](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-clinton-pakistan-plane-switch)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. They used WHAT to hide the President? | Ep. 10 (2026-08-13), at 12:27. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T7J-jzEo9Q&t=747s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-13-na-they-used-what-to-hide-the-president-ep-10/
2. They used WHAT to hide the President? | Ep. 10 (2026-08-13), at 12:57. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T7J-jzEo9Q&t=777s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-13-na-they-used-what-to-hide-the-president-ep-10/
3. They used WHAT to hide the President? | Ep. 10 (2026-08-13), at 13:28. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T7J-jzEo9Q&t=808s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-13-na-they-used-what-to-hide-the-president-ep-10/
4. They used WHAT to hide the President? | Ep. 10 (2026-08-13), at 13:58. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T7J-jzEo9Q&t=838s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-13-na-they-used-what-to-hide-the-president-ep-10/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-baltimore-plot/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt