Like many major historical events, Abraham Lincoln’s assassination had an official story and a back story.
On April 14, 1865, the President was shot by actor John Wilkes Booth, a Southern Sympathizer, at Ford’s Theatre in Washington. Simultaneously, a Booth accomplice, Lewis Powell, attempted to stab to death William Seward, the Secretary of State, at his home. Though not expected to live, Seward survived his wounds. Booth and another accomplice, David Herold, rode south. On April 26, Union cavalry tracked the pair to a Virginia barn. Herold surrendered; Booth refused. Despite orders to bring him back alive, Booth was mortally wounded by a soldier who fired through an opening in the barn. Afterwards, a military court tried eight alleged Booth accomplices. Four were hanged—including Mary Surratt, the first woman executed by the United States—and four sentenced to prison at hard labor.
So ends the official story in a nutshell, which is all most people know, due to media control plus removal of critical documents from government archives. James Perloff dismantles that story in his new book, thanks to the digitization of handwritten 19th century documents, and with help from two intrepid predecessors—one alive, the other dead for more than 60 years. Readers may be surprised at how much 1860s America resembled today’s America, with a Deep State behind the scenes, controlled information, suppression of civil liberties, and secret agendas.
Among the book’s questions—some answering, some just asking:
● Why, on a dishonest pretext, did Secretary of War Edwin Stanton deny Lincoln the protection he requested at Ford’s Theatre?
● Why was Lincoln assigned a disreputable bodyguard who deserted his post before the assassination, yet was never punished?
● How did John Wilkes Booth know he only needed a one-shot derringer to kill the President?
● Why were the only actual assassination attempts, by Booth and accomplices, against the only 2 prominent men in the administration—Lincoln and Seward—who opposed the brutal Reconstruction plan devised for the South?
● How was the Ford’s Theatre Presidential box modified to facilitate the murder?
● Why did Washington telegraph wires shut down after the assassination?
● Why did War Secretary Stanton take charge of the investigation instead of the Attorney General?
● Why was Booth’s escape road the only road left unpatrolled?
● What did Booth tell Southerners was his real reason for leaving a card at Vice President Johnson’s residence on the day of the assassination?
● Secretary Seward’s attempted assassin, Lewis Powell, gained access to the home by pretending to deliver medicine—how did he know the doctor’s name and the house’s exact layout?
● Why were soldiers closest to capturing Booth replaced by a select Washington detachment, including 2 commanders who were trusted associates of Stanton right-hand man Lafayette Baker?
● Why was the court-martial of the sergeant—who, against orders, allegedly shot Booth—cancelled?
● Why was Booth’s diary, recovered from his body, never entered in evidence at the conspiracy trial, kept secret for two years—and when finally exposed, were 43 sheets (86 pages) missing?
● Why were Booth’s alleged accomplices denied a jury trial and prompt defense counsel?
● Why were they continuously shackled, heads hooded, before being either hanged or sent to a remote island prison west of Key West?
● What close friend of Booth was also old friends with Stanton’s intelligence chief William Wood?
● Why (more questions)?
