Manhunt (59 page)

Henry Clay Ford's suggestion to James Ferguson, and Ferguson's response, appear in Poore,
The Conspiracy Trial
, volume 1, page 190. Also see Pitman,
The Assassination of President Lincoln
, at page 76.

Henry Clay Ford witnessed Booth's laughter at noon, April 14: “He sat on the steps while reading his letter, every now and then looking up and laughing.” Pitman,
The Assassination of President Lincoln
, at page 101.

No one admitted to telling Booth that the president was coming to the theatre. Henry Clay Ford, testifying at the conspiracy trial, tried to blur the issue by saying he did not know, and that it could have been anyone: “It was while Booth was there I suppose he learned of the President's visit to the Theatre that evening. There were several around Booth, talking to him.” Pitman,
The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
, at page 100.

All quotations attributed to Dr. Charles Leale come from one source, his firsthand account of the night of April 14 and the morning of April 15, 1865, not published until many years after the assassination. See Charles A. Leale,
Address Delivered Before the Commandery of the State of N.Y. Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the U.S
., February, 1909.

Ferguson's account of how Booth boasted about his rented horse, and the presence of Maddox, comes from Poore,
The Conspiracy Trial
, volume 1, page 190. Also see Pitman,
The Assassination of President Lincoln
, page 76.

Booth's conversation with Henry Merrick at the National Hotel, published in the April 17, 1865,
New York Tribune
, is reproduced in Rhodehamel and Taper,
“
Right or Wrong
” page 150.

Booth's comment about “splendid acting” is reprinted in Kauffman,
American Brutus
, page 222.

John Matthews left behind at least two accounts of his conversation with Booth. See Rhodehamel and Taper, “
Right or Wrong
” pages 151–153.

For an account of Julia Dent Grant's sighting of Booth, see Steers,
Blood on the Moon
, page 112.

Booth's note to Vice President Johnson appears in Rhodehamel and Taper “
Right or Wrong
,” page 146. There is some disagreement about whether Booth intended this note to be placed in Johnson's mailbox, or in the one next to it, which belonged to Johnson's private secretary, William A. Browning. For further discussion, see footnotes 1 and 2 on page 146 of Rhode-hamel and Taper, “
Right or Wrong
.”

Spangler described his occupation as “stage carpenter” during his interrogation by the authorities after the assassination. He also recounted his conversation with Booth.

For more on Booth's pistol, see John E. Parsons,
Henry Deringer's Pocket Pistol
(New York: William Morrow, 1952).

Mary Surratt's comments about the “shooting irons” appear in Lloyd's testimony in Poore,
The Conspiracy Trial
, volume 1, pages 117, 118, 121, 122, 123, and 125. Also see Pitman,
The Assassination of President Lincoln
, pages 85–87. Lloyd's account of his intoxication appears in Poore, volume 1, at page 132. Also see Pitman, page 87.

For background on the kidnapping conspiracy, see Edward Steers Jr.,
Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001), pages 71–78.

The alleged content of Booth's letter to the
National Intelligencer
is highly controversial. Years after the assassination, Matthews claimed to have reconstructed the text from memory. It is more likely that he based his so-called recollections upon the text of Booth's political manifesto discovered in the safe of the assassin's sister. Despite the confusion about what Booth's letter to the newspaper actually said, I am confident that Matthews was correct in remembering that Booth signed his coconspirators' names to the incriminating document. For more on this, see Rhodehamel and Taper, “
Right or Wrong
,” pages 147–153.

Lincoln's note to General Grant appears in Basler,
Collected Works
, volume 8, page 411.

For more on Booth's conspirators, see the following essays collected in Edward Steers Jr., ed.,
The Trial: The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators
: Laurie Verge, “Mary Elizabeth Surratt,” at pages lii-lix; Joan L. Chaconas, “John H. Surratt Jr.,” at pages lx-lxv; Edward Steers Jr., “George Atzerodt,” at pages lxvi-lxxi; Betty Ownsbey, “Lewis Thornton Powell, alias Payne,” at pages lxxi-lxxvii; Edward Steers Jr., “Samuel Alexander Mudd,” pages lxxxvi-lxxxix; Percy E. Martin, “Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlen,” pages lxxxviii-xcvi.

For more on Lewis Powell, see Betty J. Ownsbey,
Alias “Paine”: Lewis Thornton Powell, the Mystery Man of the Lincoln Conspiracy
(Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1993). For more on John Harrison Surratt Jr., see Alfred Isacsson,
The Travels, Arrest and Trial of John H. Surratt
(Middletown, New York: Vestigium Press, 2003); and Mark Wilson Seymour,
The Pursuit & Arrest of John H. Surratt
(Austin, Texas: Civil War Library, 2000).

For more on the kidnapping plot, see Steers,
Blood on the Moon
, at pages 71–78.

Mary Lincoln's account of the carriage ride comes from her November 15, 1865, letter to the artist Francis Bicknell Carpenter, published in Justin G. Turner and Linda Levitt Turner,
Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters
(New York: Knopf, 1972), at page 283. Carpenter's heroic oil painting of Lincoln reading the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet was the source for Ritchie's famous engraving, one of the most beloved images in the Lincoln iconography. For the most recent use of Carpenter's tableaux, see the dust jacket of Goodwin's
Team of Rivals
. An account of the carriage ride also appeared in Francis B. Carpenter,
Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln
(New York: Hurd & Houghton, 1866), at pages 292–293.

Clara Harris's memory of the carriage ride, and her comment on the arrival at Ford's Theatre, come from her letter of April 29, 1865, describing the assassination. It can be found in Timothy S. Good,
We Saw Lincoln Shot: One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1995), at pages 69–71.

Ferguson's comments appear in Poore,
The Conspiracy Trial
, volume 1, pages 189–194. Also see Pitman,
The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
, at page 76.

Clara Harris's letter appears in Good,
We Saw Lincoln Shot
, at pages 69–71.

For Booth's Baptist Alley conversation with Ned Spangler, see Spangler's statement after he was taken into custody. See John Debonay's testimony in Pitman,
The Assassination of President Lincoln
, pages 105–106, and the statement of John Burroughs in Poore,
The Conspiracy Trial
, volume 1, pages 225–228. Also see Pitman, page 75. There is some confusion about the proper spelling of Burroughs's last name, and whether his nickname was “Peanut John” or “John Peanut.” Burroughs used the latter in his April 1865
statement to the authorities. Later, at the conspiracy trial, he said on May 16 that his nickname was “John Peanuts.” Poore,
The Conspiracy Trial
, volume 1, page 230.

Booth's visit to the Star Saloon, and his choice of beverage, appear in the testimony of Peter Taltavul in Poore,
The Conspiracy Trial
, volume 1, at pages 179–180. Also see Pitman,
Assassination of the President
, at page 72, and
Trial of John H. Surratt
, volume 1, pages 157–158.

Ferguson's statement about Booth's approach to the president's box appears in Poore,
The Conspiracy Trial
, volume 1, page 190. Also see Pitman,
The Assassination of President Lincoln
, pages 76–77.

Mary Jane Anderson's “right wishful” alley sighting of Booth on the afternoon of April 14 is in Poore,
The Conspiracy Trial
, volume 1, page 236. Also see Pitman,
The Assassination of the President
, page 75.

Assassination buffs will have surely noticed by now that, while I mention Lincoln's valet or messenger Charles Forbes, I have omitted from the narrative one John Parker, the president's so-called bodyguard. For three reasons, Parker does not appear in the narrative. First, he was not a “bodyguard” in the modern sense of the word. He was a police officer detailed to guard the Executive Mansion, as the White House was known during Lincoln's administration, from theft and vandalism. Second, the Parker controversy detracts from the immediacy of the story. Many books on the assassination have concocted moments of high—and I argue false—drama by suggesting that if only Parker, who was at Ford's Theatre, had not “abandoned” his post to get a drink, Booth would not have gained entry to the state box, and Lincoln would not have been murdered. Finally, the Parker issue is a red herring. Parker or no Parker, John Wilkes Booth would have been admitted to the box. Forbes admitted at least two people to Lincoln's box that night, a messenger bearing military documents, and Booth. Had Parker been sitting near the entry to the box with Forbes, Parker would have done the same. For more on the Parker controversy, see Steers,
Blood on the Moon
, pages 103, 104, 116.

Ferguson's observation of Booth entering the box appears in Poore,
The Conspiracy Trial
, volume 1, pages 190–191. Also see Pitman,
The Assassination of President Lincoln
, page 76.

The last words that passed between Mary and Abraham Lincoln were preserved by Dr. Anson Henry, in a letter to his wife dated April 19, 1865, the same day as Lincoln's White House funeral. The Henrys were old Illinois
friends of the Lincolns living in Washington, and Mary Lincoln confided in a private conversation with the doctor the last words spoken by the president. Henry's letter appears in Milton H. Shutes,
Lincoln and the Doctors
(New York: The Pioneer Press, 1933), page 132.

For the complete dialogue from act 3, scene 2, see Taylor,
Our American Cousin
, pages 80–85.

The exact time of Booth's shot cannot be fixed, in part because no one knows the precise time that the performance began. Ford's, like many theatres at the time, was somewhat casual about curtain time. Witnesses could not agree, and surviving testimony, letters, and oral history support multiple conclusions. Booth may have shot Lincoln as early as 10:13 or as late as 10:30 P.M. I suspect that the time was close to 10:15 P.M., but as late as 10:20 P.M. For a fuller discussion of this, and for a number of recollections from those at Ford's Theatre, see Timothy S. Good,
We Saw Lincoln Shot
:
One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1995). Good believes that Booth fired close to 10:30 P.M.

David Donald describes the tough, Clary's Grove boys in
Lincoln
, at pages 40–41, and Donald confirms, on page 568, that in the spring of 1865 Lincoln “continued to be a physically powerful man.”

Ferguson's description of Lincoln's position at the moment he was shot appears in Poore,
The Conspiracy Trial
, volume 1, pages 190–191.

Major Rathbone reported that Booth shouted “Freedom.” Rathbone's account of the assassination and knife attack appears in Poore,
The Conspiracy Trial
, volume 1, pages 195–198. Also see Pitman,
The Assassination of the President
, at pages 78–79. Clara Harris also described the stabbing in her April 29, 1865, letter. See Good,
We Saw Lincoln Shot
, at pages 69–71.

Witnesses disagreed about what Booth said, and where he said it. Booth later claimed that he cried “Sic semper” while standing in the box before he shot Lincoln, but Rathbone remembered only the word “Freedom.” During the manhunt Booth wrote in his makeshift diary: “I shouted Sic semper
before
I fired.” See Rhodehamel and Taper, “
Right or Wrong
,” at page 154. Based on the available evidence, I believe that Booth said in the box and onstage the words I attribute to him in the narrative. For an extensive discussion, see Good,
We Saw Lincoln Shot
.

Rathbone's testimony on the barred door is in Poore,
The Conspiracy Trial
, volume 1, at page 195.

Ferguson described Booth's exultation to Stanton at the Petersen house on the
night of the assassination, and James Tanner recorded his statement that Booth said “I have done it.” See Good,
We Saw Lincoln Shot
, at page 32. Later, at the trial, Ferguson neglected to mention “I have done it” in his testimony as published in Poore,
The Conspiracy Trial
, volume 1, page 197. The first words of Rathbone appear in Poore,
The Conspiracy Trial
, volume 1, page 197.

Booth's broken bone has become the subject of minor controversy. A handful of assassination buffs insist that Booth was not injured when he fell to the stage at Ford's Theatre. Instead, they argue, not long after he crossed the Navy Yard Bridge, his horse slipped and fell on the roads outside Washington, breaking a bone in the actor's left leg. Although a fascinating diversion, the issue of where Booth was injured, onstage at Ford's between 10:15 and 10:30 P.M., or on the roads between the Navy Yard Bridge and Surrattsville sometime before midnight, is a tempest in a teapot in the story of the manhunt. However it happened, Booth's broken leg made a visit to Dr. Mudd essential. I agree with Edward Steers that in this matter we should accept, along with other evidence, Booth's own account of his injury, when he wrote: “In jumping broke my leg.” Rhodehamel and Taper, “
Right or Wrong
,” at page 154.

Seward's carriage accident is covered in Glyndon G. Van Deusen,
William Henry Seward
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), at page 411.