Missing Presidential Pardons of James K. Polk
11th President of the United States, 1845-1849
The following pardons were stolen from the National Archives-Philadelphia by Shawn Aubitz in 2002. They were signed by the President of the United States, then docketed and filed by a U.S. District Court in the mid-Atlantic Region. These are not the Presidential Authority to the Secretary of State to Affix the Seal to a Warrant for Pardon.
Pardoned: Abram Johnson on July 14, 1848
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland
Johnson was convicted of manslaughter on the high seas. Signed by President James K. Polk and Secretary of State James Buchanan.
Pardoned: John Jones (alias John Green), John Poulson, and John Johnson on October 26, 1848
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland
Jones, Poulson, and Johnson were severally convicted of endeavouring[sic] to make a revolt on board of the bargue[sic] Welhamet in the port of St. Jago de Cuba in the Island of Cuba. Signed by President James K. Polk and Secretary of State James Buchanan.