1 00:00:00,961 --> 00:00:10,957 This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. 2 00:00:10,957 --> 00:00:20,953 The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily the only ones to the mysteries we will examine. 3 00:00:21,953 --> 00:00:29,949 America's 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in 1865. 4 00:00:29,949 --> 00:00:36,947 Nine people were brought to trial. Five were imprisoned. Four were hanged. 5 00:00:39,945 --> 00:00:45,943 Only circumstantial evidence convicted for conspirators was justice done. 6 00:00:51,941 --> 00:00:56,939 Lincoln assassination historian, Professor William Hatchett. 7 00:00:56,939 --> 00:01:08,934 Lincoln has been our most beloved president, and that means that we don't fully appreciate that at the time during the Civil War, he was also our most hated president. 8 00:01:08,934 --> 00:01:17,930 And he was hated for two things. He was hated, first of all, for one of the things that he's most honored now, for freeing the slaves. 9 00:01:18,930 --> 00:01:25,927 But pro-slavery people, and Booth was certainly pro-slavery, thought that this was a terrible thing for the United States. 10 00:01:25,927 --> 00:01:32,924 The second thing for which Lincoln was hated by many people was his suppression of civil liberty. 11 00:01:32,924 --> 00:01:42,920 So when Booth called Emperor Taranus after he shot Lincoln and jumped to the stage at Ford's Theater, he really believed that he was killing a tyrant. 12 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:51,916 And killing a tyrant is no crime or no sin. During World War II, we would have respected somebody who killed Adolf Hitler. 13 00:01:51,916 --> 00:01:58,914 And many people, Booth among them, thought of Lincoln as we thought of Hitler. 14 00:01:58,914 --> 00:02:04,911 John Wilkes Booth, a renowned actor in the South, sought worldwide fame that would last throughout history. 15 00:02:04,911 --> 00:02:12,908 An opportunity arose during the Civil War to serve both his ego and his beloved Confederacy with one dramatic act. 16 00:02:12,908 --> 00:02:16,906 September 1864, the plot was born. 17 00:02:16,906 --> 00:02:20,905 It wasn't a conspiracy to assassinate from the beginning. 18 00:02:20,905 --> 00:02:32,900 Sometime late in the summer of 1864, Booth got the idea of kidnapping Lincoln and holding him ransom for the Confederate prisoners. 19 00:02:32,900 --> 00:02:35,899 In the United States, Christmas or camp. 20 00:02:35,899 --> 00:02:41,896 And he approached two of his boyhood friends, Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Loughlin, about it. 21 00:02:41,896 --> 00:02:47,894 They thought it was a feasible thing to do. Lincoln frequently drove around Washington without an escort. 22 00:02:47,894 --> 00:02:55,891 Lincoln Historian and Author of Murder at Ford's Theater, Mr. James O. Hall. 23 00:02:55,891 --> 00:03:10,885 Now, I rather think that Booth was handed the kidnap plot in Boston about the end of July, 1864, because he met there with three Confederate agents. 24 00:03:10,885 --> 00:03:12,884 What they talked about, no one knows. 25 00:03:12,884 --> 00:03:20,881 But immediately after that, he started gathering together the people who would help him kidnap the president. 26 00:03:20,881 --> 00:03:27,878 And they had a meeting on the night of the 15th of March in which they were going to discuss this. 27 00:03:27,878 --> 00:03:32,876 They had this meeting at Gaudier's Restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue. 28 00:03:32,876 --> 00:03:40,873 Booth, being in the theater, concluded that the kidnapping of Lincoln just had to be sensational. 29 00:03:40,873 --> 00:03:46,870 So he was going to kidnap him in Ford's Theater. 30 00:03:46,870 --> 00:03:54,867 They all gathered together and got a little drunk and got into an argument about how they were going to kidnap Lincoln. 31 00:03:54,867 --> 00:03:59,865 Arnold said he'd have no part of kidnapping a man at Ford's Theater. 32 00:03:59,865 --> 00:04:09,861 And O'Loughlin said it was suicide. But Booth insisted. The thing never came off in Ford's Theater. 33 00:04:10,861 --> 00:04:14,859 March 17th, 1865, a kidnap attempt was made. 34 00:04:14,859 --> 00:04:24,855 Booth learned that Lincoln was going to attend a matinee performance of Still Waters Run Deep at the soldier's home on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. 35 00:04:24,855 --> 00:04:28,854 Historical reports are mixed on what really happened. 36 00:04:28,854 --> 00:04:33,852 This version is based on lectures given by John Surratt, one of the conspiracies. 37 00:04:33,852 --> 00:04:37,850 Booth led two of his men out of the city toward the hospital. 38 00:04:37,850 --> 00:04:43,848 They were armed and prepared to confront Lincoln's carriage during his return to Washington. 39 00:04:55,843 --> 00:05:02,840 Choosing a secluded spot on a deserted stretch of road, Booth left his men with instructions to await his signal for ambush. 40 00:05:02,840 --> 00:05:05,839 Then rode out to track the carriage. 41 00:05:07,838 --> 00:05:27,830 Music 42 00:05:27,830 --> 00:05:35,827 As he prepared to give the signal, Booth discovered that the occupant of the carriage was not Lincoln, but Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. 43 00:05:38,825 --> 00:05:41,824 Booth rode off and raged at his failure. 44 00:05:45,823 --> 00:05:53,819 Later he was to learn that Lincoln had stayed in Washington and delivered a battle flag to the Governor of Indiana from a balcony of the National Hotel. 45 00:05:53,819 --> 00:05:57,818 It was the hotel where Booth lived. 46 00:05:57,818 --> 00:06:04,815 Then there was a change in Booth's plans. And I think it's probably fair to date it on April 11th. 47 00:06:05,815 --> 00:06:15,811 When Booth, in company with David Harreld, who was one of the members of his group, and Louis Payne, another member, attended a lecture at the White House. 48 00:06:15,811 --> 00:06:22,808 During this speech, Lincoln said that he was going to urge that some black men be given the vote. 49 00:06:22,808 --> 00:06:28,805 Booth was outraged at this suggestion and he turned to Payne right then and said, shoot him. 50 00:06:29,805 --> 00:06:32,804 And of course Payne refused to do that. 51 00:06:32,804 --> 00:06:39,801 But then he turned to David Harreld, the other companion, and said, that's the last speech he'll ever make. 52 00:06:39,801 --> 00:06:47,798 So it's possible that then Booth did decide if opportunity arose that he would kill Lincoln. 53 00:06:47,798 --> 00:07:00,793 So you see, whether the kidnapping plot just came over into a plot to murder, whether it was one conspiracy or two, you have to remember this. 54 00:07:00,793 --> 00:07:07,790 That anytime anyone plans to kidnap a President of the United States, they must be prepared to kill. 55 00:07:07,790 --> 00:07:12,788 And they had armaments in the kidnapping plot. 56 00:07:12,788 --> 00:07:24,783 So it could be that this plan to kidnap Lincoln just drifted naturally in Booth's fanatical mind into a plot to murder. 57 00:07:24,783 --> 00:07:30,781 April 14th, Booth knew that Lincoln would attend Ford's Theater that evening. 58 00:07:30,781 --> 00:07:33,779 He met with members of his group still in Washington. 59 00:07:33,779 --> 00:07:38,777 It was only at this meeting that he told them that he was going to assassinate the President. 60 00:07:38,777 --> 00:07:42,776 And he gave Payne the assignment of killing Seward. 61 00:07:42,776 --> 00:07:45,775 He told Absorba to get Andrew Johnson. 62 00:07:45,775 --> 00:07:51,772 You see, Booth's plan was a massive conspiracy against the leadership of the government of the United States. 63 00:07:51,772 --> 00:07:57,770 The President, the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and the General-in-Chief. 64 00:07:57,770 --> 00:08:05,767 He may have believed that by killing the leaders of the United States, the Confederacy could still win its independence. 65 00:08:05,767 --> 00:08:09,765 On April 13th, 1865, Booth wrote in his journal, 66 00:08:09,765 --> 00:08:16,762 For six months we had worked to capture, but our cause being almost lost, something decisive and great, must be done. 67 00:08:16,762 --> 00:08:21,760 Though only a few of Booth's co-conspirators would now be involved in this plot to murder, 68 00:08:21,760 --> 00:08:25,759 everyone he had touched in the previous months would be tainted with guilt. 69 00:08:25,759 --> 00:08:29,757 John Wilkes Booth, self-appointed leader. 70 00:08:29,757 --> 00:08:33,755 Louis Payne Powell, held prisoner by the Union. 71 00:08:33,755 --> 00:08:37,754 George Atserot, ferrying contraband across the Potomac. 72 00:08:37,754 --> 00:08:41,752 David Herald, a rather dull youth who followed Booth blindly. 73 00:08:41,752 --> 00:08:46,750 Michael Oloflin, Confederate deserter and boyhood friend of Booth. 74 00:08:46,750 --> 00:08:49,749 Edmund Spangler, stagehand at Ford's Theatre. 75 00:08:49,749 --> 00:08:54,747 Samuel Arnold, Booth's schoolmate, former Confederate soldier. 76 00:08:54,747 --> 00:08:59,745 8.30 p.m. April 14th, Lincoln is seated in his box at Ford's Theatre. 77 00:08:59,745 --> 00:09:07,742 9.30 p.m. Booth rides up Baptist Alley behind Ford's Theatre, dismounts and calls for Spangler to hold his horse. 78 00:09:07,742 --> 00:09:11,740 Instead, a boy, peanut John Burrow, responds. 79 00:09:11,740 --> 00:09:16,738 Booth enters backstage and crosses to the adjoining star saloon. 80 00:09:20,736 --> 00:09:27,734 There, he orders whiskey and waits, as the rest of the plot unfolds throughout the city. 81 00:09:30,732 --> 00:09:35,730 10.03 p.m. 82 00:09:35,730 --> 00:09:40,728 Payne gains access to Secretary of State Seward's home. 83 00:09:40,728 --> 00:09:44,727 Seward was severely wounded, but would live. 84 00:09:44,727 --> 00:09:49,725 Payne had failed. Booth was determined to succeed. 85 00:09:54,723 --> 00:09:58,721 Booth enters the theatre from the front, climbs to the balcony. 86 00:09:58,721 --> 00:10:02,720 Crosses to the president's box. 87 00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:08,717 Being familiar with the play, he knows at exactly what point there will be sustained laughter and applause. 88 00:10:17,714 --> 00:10:22,712 Dr. John Latimer, historian, physician and ballistics expert. 89 00:10:23,711 --> 00:10:31,708 The actual pistol that Booth used to shoot President Lincoln was one like this, called a derringer. 90 00:10:31,708 --> 00:10:40,704 A derringer is a short barrel gun firing a very large ball, and the velocity and the energy are very fatal if fired directly into the head. 91 00:10:40,704 --> 00:10:49,701 Being a single-shot pistol, of course, was useless after this fired-shot, and Booth then threw it down and pulled out his hunting knife. 92 00:10:49,701 --> 00:10:56,698 When the major wrath bone that was in the box with him grappled with him, he stabbed him badly in the arm. 93 00:10:56,698 --> 00:11:11,692 The major staggered back, and Booth went over to the edge of the box and vaulted over onto the stage, fell feet below a flamboyant, dangerous type of action that did indeed result in his breaking one of the small bones in his leg just above the ankle. 94 00:11:11,692 --> 00:11:16,690 Booth ran from the theatre and began his desperate, rive Booth's freedom. 95 00:11:20,688 --> 00:11:30,684 He exited the alley with members of the audience in pursuit, rode down F Street, and across the Navy Yard Bridge into the Maryland countryside. 96 00:11:33,683 --> 00:11:37,682 Booth went to Soppers Hill to await David Harold. 97 00:11:38,681 --> 00:11:47,678 Harold was to leave pain out of the city, but for reasons never explained, he arrived alone. 98 00:11:47,678 --> 00:11:58,673 From Soppers Hill, they went to Saratville, arriving at the Sarat Tavern around midnight. Here they would pick up carbines, whiskey, and a pair of spy glasses. 99 00:11:58,673 --> 00:12:06,670 Mary Sarat, one of the accused conspirators, allegedly delivered these glasses for Booth on the morning of the assassination. 100 00:12:07,670 --> 00:12:13,667 4 a.m. April 15th, Booth and Harold arrive at the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd. 101 00:12:14,667 --> 00:12:21,664 It is known that Mudd was acquainted with Booth, for that he knew of Booth's deed remains a question. 102 00:12:21,664 --> 00:12:28,661 The broken leg was set and the Booth was left behind. It was to become a damning piece of evidence. 103 00:12:28,661 --> 00:12:36,658 April 26th, federal troops captured Harold and cornered Booth at Garrett's farm. They set fire to the barn to smoke him out. 104 00:12:37,657 --> 00:12:42,655 The barn was brilliantly illuminated. They could all see Booth very clearly. 105 00:12:42,655 --> 00:12:57,649 Booth came back first towards the corner of the barn and Booth then decided that he couldn't fight the blaze and started towards the front door with his crutch and a very heavy Spencer carbine fully loaded in one hand. 106 00:12:57,649 --> 00:13:06,646 As he went towards the front of the barn, he pulled out one of his revolvers from his belt and almost immediately a pistol shot rang out. 107 00:13:06,646 --> 00:13:17,641 And down went Booth, shot through the neck. Then they dragged him out and up to the back porch of the farmhouse and he died within about two hours. 108 00:13:17,641 --> 00:13:27,637 The cry then went up, who shot him? Because they certainly wanted to capture him and have him for testimony and here he was dead. 109 00:13:28,637 --> 00:13:39,633 And the man that stepped forward was Boston Corbett. One of the great questions is whether Boston Corbett actually shot John Wilkes Booth or whether Booth committed suicide. 110 00:13:39,633 --> 00:13:49,629 We know that the bullet hole through John Wilkes Booth's neck went slightly downhill and we knew the bullet came in from his right and went downhill going to the left. 111 00:13:49,629 --> 00:14:03,623 Now this enormous pistol, if you try to shoot yourself that way in the neck, you find that your arm isn't long enough to make it easy to do in this manner and they surely would have seen him do it. 112 00:14:03,623 --> 00:14:15,618 You have to switch it around and you have to use your thumb if you're going to do this in order to press the trigger in order to make it and create the kind of wound that Booth had. 113 00:14:15,618 --> 00:14:26,614 So it seems very unlikely just on that basis alone that he shot himself and if you're going to shoot yourself, you're going to shoot yourself in the side of the neck would be the last place you would want to do it because you might miss. 114 00:14:26,614 --> 00:14:30,612 The question was asked, was it really Booth who had been shot? 115 00:14:31,612 --> 00:14:36,610 At the autopsy, Dr. Woodward took some pains to be sure who he was autopsying. 116 00:14:36,610 --> 00:14:54,603 He had witnesses in who identified Booth and he then described on Booth's hand his initials which Booth himself had tattooed on them as a child in a scraggly childish scrawl but which were undoubtedly his. 117 00:14:54,603 --> 00:15:01,600 Booth was buried in the old penitentiary. Another Booth was publicly dumped in the Potomac. Why? 118 00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:11,596 Secretary of War Edwin Stanton may have ordered this charade to dissuade grave robbers. He was to be questioned for many of his policies following the assassination. 119 00:15:11,596 --> 00:15:23,591 He had taken the reins of a crippled government, ordered hasty arrests of seemingly innocent people, rapidly convened a military trial and ordered the prisoners to be held under tortuous conditions. 120 00:15:23,591 --> 00:15:34,587 Nobody ever accused Stanton of involvement in the assassination until Otto Eisenschimmel published that preposterous book, Why Was Lincoln Murdered in 1937. 121 00:15:34,587 --> 00:15:49,580 It's almost a criminal case of loading the dice against Stanton, taking every circumstance in the most innocent ones and giving them sinister implications. 122 00:15:50,580 --> 00:16:02,575 For example, it's frequently said that because Stanton ordered the men prisoners to be hooded so that they couldn't talk, that he was afraid that they would implicate him in the assassination. 123 00:16:02,575 --> 00:16:09,572 And this has been repeated time after time as one of the best indications that Stanton had something to hide. 124 00:16:09,572 --> 00:16:17,569 But it's ridiculous. The Stanton's and the Lincoln's were close to each other. Lincoln and Stanton respected each other. 125 00:16:17,569 --> 00:16:25,566 And you see that the misfortune is that in recent years since 1937, it's just the exact opposite which has become known. 126 00:16:25,566 --> 00:16:41,560 Atzerot arrested April 14th. Michael O'Loughlin, Edward Spangler, and Samuel Arnold arrested April 17th. Trial historian Edward Steers. 127 00:16:41,560 --> 00:16:55,554 The trial was hampered by very serious legal questions, principle of which was due process. Military tribunals and commissions unfortunately didn't really represent defendant's peers. 128 00:16:55,554 --> 00:17:01,552 And the rules of evidence were markedly changed during military tribunal and commission. 129 00:17:01,552 --> 00:17:09,548 It's not to say that the outcome would have been any different than it was had they even tried in a civil court in the District of Columbia. 130 00:17:09,548 --> 00:17:15,546 But needless to say, it caused a great deal of difficulty. 131 00:17:15,546 --> 00:17:21,544 Mary Serrat may have been convicted only to serve as bait for her son, John, a primary suspect. 132 00:17:21,544 --> 00:17:27,541 The Serrat Society was formed to preserve her memory, Society President Joan Chaconis. 133 00:17:27,541 --> 00:17:35,538 There were actually three things that convicted Mrs. Serrat, I suppose, in the trial. One was the fact that she knew Booth. 134 00:17:35,538 --> 00:17:44,534 Her son introduced his mother to the actor John Lux Booth. He would come to the house to visit the son. If the son wasn't there, then he'd stop and chat with the ladies. 135 00:17:44,534 --> 00:17:54,530 And of course, this was all brought out during the trial that Booth was there. And if he didn't talk with the son, John, then he was talking to Mrs. Serrat. And what did they talk about? 136 00:17:54,530 --> 00:18:08,525 Whether she knew exactly what he was doing is questionable. However, if you're a mother today with a teenage son, you might have a suspicion that he's doing something that possibly he shouldn't be doing. 137 00:18:08,525 --> 00:18:13,523 But you probably don't think it's going to come to any evil or any harm. 138 00:18:13,523 --> 00:18:20,520 The second thing was Louis Thornton Powell, the fellow who was told by Booth to go and kill the Secretary of State, Seward. 139 00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:29,516 Well, unfortunately for Mrs. Serrat, just as the soldiers are at her house downtown questioning her about the whereabouts of her son, John Jr. and John Lux Booth, 140 00:18:29,516 --> 00:18:39,512 we should come knocking at the door with Louis Thornton Powell and the soldier in the house, the detectives, they enter the door and wonder, who is he? What's he doing here? 141 00:18:39,512 --> 00:18:45,510 And he says, well, he came here because Mrs. Serrat wanted him to dig a ditch for him, for her the next morning. 142 00:18:45,510 --> 00:18:52,507 This seemed very strange and Mrs. Serrat was called to come out here and identify this man and she said she didn't know who he was. 143 00:18:52,507 --> 00:18:57,505 The most damning evidence came from John Lloyd, keeper of the Serrat Tavern. 144 00:18:57,505 --> 00:19:06,501 The evidence that John Lloyd gave was that Mrs. Serrat gave him a message to have some shooting irons ready. Some people were coming by later to pick him up. 145 00:19:06,501 --> 00:19:17,497 And she gave him a package to deliver to those same people. Whether she knew what was in the package, this supposedly contained Booth's five glasses. 146 00:19:17,497 --> 00:19:31,491 She didn't know what was in that package. These are all things that are based on circumstances and there's nothing really, no concrete evidence to show that she really had anything to do or any knowledge that Booth was planning to kill the President. 147 00:19:31,491 --> 00:19:40,488 Five members of the Commission met and signed a clemency plea on behalf of Mary Serrat asking Johnson to commuter sentence to life imprisonment. 148 00:19:40,488 --> 00:19:51,483 Holt maintains that on July 5th when he presented the findings to Johnson, he also showed him the clemency plea and that Johnson ignored it or turned it down. 149 00:19:51,483 --> 00:20:00,480 Johnson maintains that he never saw the clemency plea and was totally unaware of it and upheld the final sentences as recommended by the Commission. 150 00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:02,479 July 7th, 1865. 151 00:20:02,479 --> 00:20:14,474 The hangman was getting tired of taking this very stiff rope and making eight turns on every one of the men's knots and by the time he got to Mrs. Serrat since he didn't think it would be used, he only put five turns on her knot. 152 00:20:14,474 --> 00:20:19,472 And then to his horror, the knot was indeed used to hang her. 153 00:20:19,472 --> 00:20:25,470 Mary Serrat became the first woman to be hanged by the federal government. 154 00:20:25,470 --> 00:20:33,467 Did Booth go to Dr. Mudd's only for medical assistance? Some say Mudd also gave provisions. This could not be proven. 155 00:20:33,467 --> 00:20:43,463 Mudd was sentenced to life in prison on evidence that Booth's knee-high boot was found at his home. How many others were convicted on circumstantial evidence? 156 00:20:43,463 --> 00:20:53,459 It was the government's position that all of these individuals participated in the conspiracy to varying degrees, but all of them shared equally in the guilt of the murder of President Lincoln. 157 00:20:53,459 --> 00:21:06,453 Stanton, when he issued his order on May 6th, charging the formation of the Military Commission, had used the phrase that the Commission was to remove the stain of innocent blood from the land. 158 00:21:06,453 --> 00:21:12,451 And I think in fact that's what the final sentencing was doing. 159 00:21:12,451 --> 00:21:21,447 Were the right people brought to trial? Could others have conspired to kill Abraham Lincoln? 160 00:21:22,447 --> 00:21:29,444 John Wilkes Booth pulled the trigger in the assassination of Lincoln. There was a conspiracy involved. 161 00:21:29,444 --> 00:21:36,441 Some of the details of that conspiracy may for all time remain cloaked in mystery. 162 00:21:37,441 --> 00:21:49,436 Coming up next in search of continues with a probe into evidence that there may have been two Lee Harvey Oz walls. 163 00:21:49,436 --> 00:21:58,433 Then 20th century with Mike Wallace reports on great rescues, including the dramatic daylight rescue of a U.S. Air Force pilot shot down in Bosnia. 164 00:21:58,433 --> 00:22:04,430 And later tonight, Histories Mysteries looks for 21 tons of gold bullion with high-tech treasure hunters. 165 00:22:04,430 --> 00:22:08,429 At 8, here on the History Channel, where the past comes alive.