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Almost immediately after his death, rumors began to circulate that Taylor had been poisoned by pro-slavery Southerners or Catholics, and similar theories persisted into the 21st century.[164] A few weeks after Taylor's death, President Fillmore received a letter alleging that Taylor had been poisoned by a Jesuit lay official.[165] In 1978, Hamilton Smith based his assassination theory on the timing of drugs, the lack of confirmed cholera outbreaks, and other material.[138] Theories that Taylor had been murdered grew after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. In 1881, John Bingham, well known for serving as the Judge Advocate General at the Lincoln assassination trial, wrote an editorial in The New York Times alleging that Jefferson Davis had poisoned Taylor.[165] In the late 1980s, Clara Rising, a former professor at the University of Florida, persuaded Taylor's closest living relative to agree to an exhumation so that his remains could be tested.[166] The remains were exhumed and transported to the Office of the Kentucky Chief Medical Examiner on June 17, 1991. Samples of hair, fingernail, and other tissues were removed, and radiological studies were conducted. 