On a clear November day in 1915, the Hulett Hotel on Lake George caught fire and burned to the ground. However, after the rebuilding, a mysterious figure claimed that the hotel’s owner, William H. Wyatt, had paid him to start the fire.

Almost a century later, an illustration of Abraham Lincoln has been discovered, with pictures taped to its back that vividly capture the events surrounding the fire and the hotel’s reconstruction.

George Kapusinski investigates these strange dealings in detail, including the sensational arson trial, new photographic evidence and a 1912 Wyatt hotel fire that occurred in a nearby Vermont town.