The Murder of Abraham Lincoln

On April 14, 1865 Abraham Lincoln along with his wife and some guests went to Ford's Theatre in New York to see the play "Our American Cousin" and was shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate who was also an actor. Booth shouted "Sic Semper Tyrannis" or "Thus Always to Tyrants" after leaping from the balcony, breaking his foot in the jump, and escaping. Lincoln died shortly after and a few days later Booth was found and shot by Federal Marshals. That was all I knew of the most famous assassination in 19th century history. What I found out was fascinating. Booth's assassination was part of a larger conspiracy where other members of Lincoln's administration would be murdered that night, such as Andrew Johnson the Vice President (and later of course President) and William Seward, the Secretary of State. The men sent to kill William Seward got in, they only managed to cut the man's face before being hauled off. Seward survived while his assassin fled only to be caught later. The man who was charged with murdering Andrew Johnson lost his nerve and went from bar to bar drinking. Later he too was caught and all the conspirators were hanged. I was amazed at the lack of security given to Lincoln. Nowadays we see Presidents and Heads of State having armies of bodyguards, snipers on rooftops, armed motorcades and choppers. Lincoln was receiving death threats daily and had a single bodyguard! Not only that but on the night of the murder his bodyguard was in the bar drinking instead of guarding the President! I always imagined Booth sneaking into Lincoln's balcony secretly and then shooting him but apparently all Booth had to do was show his ID to Lincoln's PA, a man called Forbes sat on a chair outside the balcony, to say he was an actor at the theatre (which he was) and then wait. Booth chose the moment in the play when a joke is uttered that gets a big laugh and then taking out his single shot Derringer and shooting. It's amazing that after this, he leaps down, breaks his leg, and still manages to get away! The theatre had no security either! Geary also mentions how Booth earlier in the day had ridden right up to General Grant's carriage and stared in, twice, at Grant and his wife, before riding off. Grant had no security either! It's astonishing how at such a turbulent time, such an important figure like Lincoln could be quite so cavalier in his lack of self protection. Geary once again produces a mesmerising book of true crime, written well with a mounting sense of dread and tension despite the reader knowing what is going to happen, and drawn with accuracy and skill. A wonderful addition to his "Treasury of Victorian Murder" series and a fantastic read.

This is the seventh in a very high-quality series that includes Lizzie Borden, Jack the Ripper, H. H. Holmes, and Charles Guiteau. Think of it as "Classics Illustrated" for adults. Geary's black-and-white crow-quill drawing style fits perfectly his carefully narrated history of the sixty-two days between Lincoln's second Inauguration and his entombment in Springfield, by way of the assassination plot, the unsuccessful attacks on Johnson and Seward, Booth's convenient escape, and his death in Garrett's tobacco barn. I've long thought there was more there than meets the eye, with the focus on the peculiar actions of Stanton, both before and after Ford's Theater, and the author mentions those points in passing, but he sticks pretty close to the official train of events. An excellent piece of work.

Once again, Geary takes a complicated crime and presents it in an understandable -- and very enjoyable & redable -- level.