Booth bobbleheads pulled in Gettysburg

GETTYSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK, Pa., March 14 (UPI) -- The Gettysburg Museum & Visitor Center in Pennsylvania has pulled bobble-head dolls of John Wilkes Booth from its bookstore following complaints from visitors.

The bobbleheads of President Abraham Lincoln's assassin, which depict Booth holding a gun, went on sale at the museum's bookstore about two weeks ago and were pulled from the shelves during the weekend after complaints from visitors and Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer, The (Hanover) Evening Sun reported Wednesday.

"One could say wiser bobbleheads prevailed," Holzer said. "It's inappropriate to celebrate a criminal who took the life of a great American whose memory and words are celebrated at Gettysburg."

Rick Lynn, who sculpted the Booth bobblehead, said it was not intended to make light of Lincoln's assassination.

"I use these bobbleheads as teaching tools," he said. "It's hard to get young people interested in history. But if you make an interactive figure, it becomes tactile and more accessible for them."

"History is filled with unsavory characters and I'm not trying to glorify them," Lynn said. "This guy's not a hero. He's a monster. However, it's nothing to be swept under the rug."