Lincoln's Assassination
John Wilkes Booth was shot for assassinating the 16th President of the United States, Mr. Abraham Lincoln. Three men and one woman were hanged as his conspirators. Four other men were sentenced to prison terms for the same. Were they really guilty as judged, or were they scapegoats to appease the public in its cry for vengeance? Did Stanton say "ages" or "angels" at Lincoln's death bed? Did Boston Corbett shoot Booth, or did Booth commit suicide? These (and many other) questions will probably never be answered. Mismanaged by Edwin Stanton, the follow-up investigation was bungled so badly that we're left with more questions than answers.
Where's the Stuff?
Ever wonder what a President carries in his pockets? When President Lincoln attended Laura Keene's performance in "Our American Cousin", at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865, his coat pockets contained: two pairs of spectacles and a lens polisher, a pocketknife, a watch fob, a linen handkerchief, and a brown leather wallet containing a five-dollar Confederate note and nine newspaper clippings. (The Library of Congress has them, now.) Stanton had the chair in which Lincoln was shot removed from the theater (for courtroom evidence), but Henry Ford bought it from Ford's widow in 1929 for $2,400. (You can see it in the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan.) The derringer used by Booth is on display in the basement museum at Ford's Theater.
For More In-Depth Study
BOOKS
Twenty Days (Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt &
Philip B. Kunhardt Jr.)
The Day Lincoln was Shot: An Illustrated Chronicle (Richard Bak)
Right or Wrong, God Judge Me (John
Wilkes Booth)
The Day Lincoln was Shot (Jim
Bishop)
MOVIE
Prince of Players (1955, Richard Burton)
Twenty Days (Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt & Philip B. Kunhardt Jr.)
The Day Lincoln was Shot: An Illustrated Chronicle (Richard Bak)
Right or Wrong, God Judge Me (John Wilkes Booth)
The Day Lincoln was Shot (Jim Bishop)
Prince of Players (1955, Richard Burton)