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00:04Tonight, the conspiracy that led to the first assassination of an American president.
00:10A single gunshot rings out through the theater, followed by screaming.
00:15A man in black lands on the stage, and before they know it, he's ridden off into the night.
00:22By the next morning, John Wilkes Booth is a wanted man.
00:25He's a national fugitive.
00:27But it's soon apparent that this assassination is more than just the act of a lone gunman.
00:33There are some basic facts that are absolutely known.
00:36Booth was the gunman that killed Lincoln.
00:38There was also a conspirator who attempted to kill the Secretary of State, William Seward.
00:43And this starts not only the largest manhunt in American history, but also sparks off one of the largest conspiracies.
00:50Now, we explore the top theories surrounding the plot to kill Abraham Lincoln.
00:56Now, many people believe that someone more powerful than Booth was giving the orders.
01:01She believed that Johnson was in on it because he had the most to gain by her husband's death.
01:06They saw Lincoln as enemy number one.
01:09Was there a mastermind or secret organization behind the plan to kill Abraham Lincoln?
01:15And if so, who was it?
01:32It's a pleasant 70-degree spring day in the nation's capital.
01:37Good Friday, the start of Easter weekend.
01:39Good Friday, Washington, D.C. is a jubilant place.
01:46First, they get news that Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, has fallen to U.S. troops.
01:53Then, as Lee makes his way south, he surrenders to Grant at Appomattox on April 9th.
02:03Even though the war isn't technically completely over, everybody knows it's just a matter of time now.
02:10The Confederacy is defeated.
02:12There's peace ahead.
02:18On April 14th, 1865, it's said that Lincoln awakens in probably one of the best moods he's ever been in.
02:26That evening, he's going to be going to a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. called Our American
02:32Cousin.
02:32There's just a moment of national release that's playing out in microcosm in the theater there.
02:38This is Lincoln's highest moment in some ways in terms of joy of celebration.
02:44It sort of peaks.
02:46But the spirit of celebration will be short-lived.
02:51Around 10 p.m., an audience member looks up at the president's box and notices a man with dark hair
02:57and a nicely groomed mustache making his way towards the president's box.
03:03There was a funny line on the stage, a big swelling of laughter, and in the middle of it all,
03:10there's this very loud popping sound.
03:13The First Lady lets out a terrible scream.
03:16Something bad has happened to the president.
03:18He's clearly unconscious.
03:19But nobody at first can tell how he has been injured.
03:23According to Harry Hawk, a stage actor who's performing that night, he hears the assailant yell,
03:28Six Semper Tyrannus, which in Latin stands for Thus Always to Tyrants.
03:32The assailant then jumps from the president's box onto the stage.
03:37But as he's jumping, he catches his foot on a bunting, and he lands a bit awkwardly on stage.
03:43He then shouts that the South shall be free before running off the stage, out a side exit, and disappearing
03:49from the theater.
03:51A doctor rushes to the booth, and initially, he believes that the president's been stabbed.
03:56But then the doctor is able to find a small wound in the back of his head.
04:00Then they know that this is a gunshot wound.
04:03People notice the moment that this assassin jumps onto the stage who he is.
04:08And they realize he's an actor.
04:09He's a very well-known actor.
04:12That is none other than John Wilkes Booth.
04:16While the stunned audience tries to make sense of what just happened, there's more chaos less than a mile away.
04:24Across town, you have a man knock at the secretary of state, William Seward's house.
04:28And when he gets close to Seward's room, he pulls out a knife and he starts slashing.
04:32He stabs and slashes Seward multiple times, and then runs out of the house himself.
04:37Remarkably, Seward survives the attack because he's wearing a metal neck brace, which stops the assailant from outright killing him.
04:46The president is carried across the street to a boarding house, and he's brought there so that physicians can provide
04:52care for him.
04:53The bullet has passed through his brain and lodged itself at the back of his right eye.
04:57Lincoln never regains consciousness.
05:01And at 7.22 a.m. on April 15th, the president is declared dead.
05:08Secretary of War Edwin Stanton swings into action very quickly, and he orders that the city is sealed off.
05:13He also orders the arrest of any man, woman, or child attempting to cross a bridge to escape from the
05:19city.
05:19The news of Lincoln's assassination spreads across the country by both newspaper and telegraph, and millions in the country are
05:28reeling.
05:28What is absolutely clear is that John Wilkes Booth was the man responsible, and that there was another attack taking
05:38place at the exact same time, and that could not be a coincidence.
06:01In the aftermath of the attack on Lincoln, they discover that Booth had frequented a local boarding house that was
06:11owned and operated in the city.
06:12It was operated by Mary Surratt, and Mary Surratt was a Confederate sympathizing woman from Maryland.
06:18So as authorities are interviewing Mary Surratt, she's saying she doesn't know anyone, she doesn't know anything about this.
06:25There's a knock on the door, and when they open the door, there's a man standing there with a pickaxe
06:30in his hand, a man by the name of Lewis Powell.
06:33Powell also matches the physical description for the man who violently attacked Seward a few days earlier.
06:39So the big question is who's responsible for this conspiracy, and a good place to start is with the man
06:44who fired a shot that night, and who is also still on the run.
06:53Booth is a major Confederate sympathizer.
06:57On top of that, Booth is a staunch advocate for slavery, and believes that all abolitionists are treasonous individuals.
07:04What makes Booth different is he uses his platform from the stage to eventually denounce everything that Lincoln stands for,
07:14basically calls for the death of abolitionists.
07:17He does all of this from the stage.
07:20Booth comes from a famous acting family, and over the last decade, he's become a star.
07:26He's toured extensively, even during the war, almost always to critical acclaim.
07:32As the alleged conspirators are rounded up, they start to talk, of course.
07:36All of them start to point the finger at Booth.
07:40Given all of Booth's actions, his words up to this point, he almost surely appears to be the ringleader.
07:45John Wilkes Booth told people, when he was trying to enlist their help in this plot, he said, we're just
07:53going to capture the president.
07:57Shortly thereafter, Booth attends a speech of Lincoln's, where Lincoln's really espousing these notions of the future of free black
08:04people in America and all the rights that they should have.
08:08That sort of keyed into Booth's mind, and he said, that's the last speech he will ever make.
08:14It is often said that that's the turning point.
08:18From that moment on, there is no doubt in Booth's mind that he's not going to capture the president.
08:26He's going to kill him.
08:29So as Booth decides he needs to kill Lincoln, the plot turns to not just killing Lincoln, but also to
08:35killing Lincoln's main cabinet.
08:37So he wants to kill Lincoln's vice president, Andrew Johnson, his secretary of state, William Seward, and one of his
08:44major generals, General Grant.
08:46Vice President Johnson is spared that night, and that's simply because of the man who was assigned to carry out
08:52his assassination, gets cold feet at the last minute, and abandons the plot.
08:58If the effort had not been abandoned, the idea of decapitating the U.S. government so that the Confederacy would
09:05have a chance to resurrect itself, that might have actually become a reality.
09:10Federal officials offer a $100,000 reward, but 10 days after the assassination, there's still no sign of John Wilkes
09:20Booth.
09:20After Booth jumps from the president's box, he's still able to escape the theater and then ride out of D
09:26.C. on horseback that night.
09:28Shortly thereafter, he rendezvous with another co-conspirator named David Herold.
09:32They met a few years earlier after his show.
09:35He's swept into the web of Booth.
09:3712 days after the assassination, a detachment from the 16th New York Cavalry finally caught up with Booth and Harold
09:46at a farm just outside of Port Royal, Virginia.
09:52When the soldiers and detectives arrive at the barn and tell the men that they've got them surrounded, Harold gives
09:59up and walks right out of the barn.
10:02But Booth refuses and stays in the barn.
10:05The barn is then lit on fire, but within all of the commotion, a soldier fires his weapon and shoots
10:10Booth in the neck.
10:12He died about the same time of day that Lincoln had died, 12 days earlier, and that was the end
10:19of John Wilkes Booth.
10:22Investigators must now piece together the conspiracy puzzle without the most prominent suspect.
10:28The man who shot Lincoln is now dead, but this hydra of conspirators is still alive and in captivity.
10:38By the end of April 1865, eight people had been publicly identified and were preparing to stand trial as co
10:48-conspirators to the Lincoln assassination.
10:52Unlike most crimes committed by civilians, these conspirators would not be tried in front of a civilian court.
10:58This would be a military tribunal.
11:00This includes people like Sam Arnold, Lewis Powell, Mary Surratt, David Harreld, Dr. Samuel Mudd.
11:08You also have a man by the name of George Atzerrod.
11:10George Atzerrod was the man who was tasked to kill the vice president, Andrew Johnson, that night.
11:16At this point in time, all of the evidence points to John Wilkes Booth.
11:21One of Booth's friends, Sam Arnold, who was part of the plot to kidnap Lincoln, fingered Booth as the leader
11:30of the party.
11:30The key point about this conspiracy is that the prosecution set forth the idea that John Wilkes Booth put all
11:39these people together.
11:40He's the one who managed to rally their support.
11:43But there was always speculation as to whether or not he really was the mastermind or was he merely the
11:51puppet.
11:55On May 12th, 1865, testimony begins in the trial of eight defendants accused of conspiring to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln.
12:06In the coming weeks, over 300 witnesses will take the stand and the stakes are high.
12:12Guilty verdicts could mean the gallows.
12:16Prosecutors start laying out their case for each person one at a time.
12:20When it comes to Lewis Powell, the argument made by his lawyer is not that he's not guilty,
12:27but it's that he's so passionate and so moved by the idea of a confederacy that it literally drove him
12:36to insanity.
12:38George Atzerrod, who was assigned to assassinate Vice President Johnson,
12:42he eventually abandons the mission, gets drunk and stumbles around the streets of the city.
12:46And his argument is that he was too cowardly to carry out the crime.
12:51David Harreld, the man who assisted Booth's escape,
12:54he stands very little chance in trial considering that he was found in the barn with John Wilkes Booth.
13:00Mary Surratt is presented as being a ringleader by providing a place for the co-conspirators to assemble.
13:08She denies her guilt in the conspiracy throughout all of this.
13:13Her son, John Surratt, is one of the co-conspirators,
13:16but the only one who manages to escape the country after the crime is committed.
13:22David Harreld, Lewis Powell, George Atzerrod, and Mary Surratt are all found guilty and hanged.
13:30Three other conspirators are sentenced to life in prison, including Dr. Samuel Mudd and Sam Arnold.
13:37But Arnold is pardoned in 1869.
13:41All told, we have ten total conspirators who are civilians.
13:44You have the eight who have been tried.
13:45You have John Wilkes Booth, who of course is dead.
13:47And then you have John Surratt, who at this point is on the lam in Canada,
13:51soon to make his way to Europe.
13:52But federal authorities and northern newspapers have their eye on a bigger target.
13:59The conspirators who are on trial are asked about not only just their role in the conspiracy,
14:04but whether or not it went all the way up to the heights of the Confederate government.
14:09April 2nd, 1865, Jefferson Davis flees the city of Richmond.
14:14The city falls the next day to the Union Army.
14:18He makes his way down into North Carolina with part of the Confederate government.
14:24Unlike Robert E. Lee, who told his soldiers just to go home and be citizens,
14:28Jefferson Davis is one to keep this fight alive.
14:33After Lincoln's assassination, the pressure on the Confederate leadership increases.
14:37In fact, President Johnson offers a $100,000 reward for the capture of Jefferson Davis.
14:44So while Booth was a trigger man, you have members of the media, members of the government,
14:48and American citizens firmly believing that the mastermind behind the plot
14:53was none other than the Confederate president.
15:01By the summer of 1864, nearly a year before the Lincoln assassination,
15:07the Confederate government is in dire straits, both militarily and financially.
15:12A lot of people think that in Jefferson Davis' mind by this point,
15:16especially after Lee surrenders, is if he's going to win this, he's got to make a huge swing.
15:21He has to take out the head of the Union government.
15:25Author and researcher John C. Fazio argues that if one follows Booth's movements
15:31in the months leading up to the assassination, the trail leads directly to Jefferson Davis.
15:37John C. Fazio maintains that Booth was actually a part of the Confederate Secret Service,
15:46that he was a spy.
15:48And Fazio talks about Booth making trips to places to drum up support for the Confederacy,
15:54including places like Montreal, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. as well.
16:02He makes this trip to Montreal in late 1864, which on the surface, okay.
16:06But when he returns to Washington, D.C., he deposits $1,500 in the bank,
16:11which would be $30,000 today, and there's no really accounting for where he got this.
16:15Fazio claims that the movement of money and meetings with all of these high-ranking Confederate officials
16:20indicates that there was an operation that was known about,
16:25and that was also approved by the heads of the Confederacy.
16:29According to Fazio's research, Booth's co-conspirator, John Surratt,
16:35went to Richmond, the Confederate capital,
16:37and met with top leaders in March 1865, perhaps even with Davis himself.
16:44Fazio finds evidence of John Surratt returning to Mary Surratt's boarding house
16:49with a large quantity of money,
16:51and he believes that what this indicates is that Surratt had gone to Richmond.
16:56He came back to Washington, D.C., to the boarding house
16:59with instructions to carry out the assassinations
17:02and the money to get the job done.
17:05We know that Lincoln was killed in 1865,
17:08but what starts to come out is that the death of Lincoln,
17:10the attack on Lincoln, could have been a part of a larger plot
17:13to take out the Union government.
17:17In early 1865, before the trial,
17:22President Andrew Johnson himself issues a proclamation
17:25claiming the crimes of April 14th were incited
17:28and procured by Jefferson Davis.
17:32Union forces finally captured Jefferson Davis on May 10th,
17:36just a couple days before they're going to try these conspirators.
17:41Although some people at trial indicate that Jefferson Davis
17:45was the ultimate authority for this operation,
17:47the government's case against him fizzles
17:50when some of the details that these witnesses provide
17:53prove to go nowhere,
17:54and they're contradicted by other evidence.
17:58None of Davis's closest associates
18:00believe he would have ordered Lincoln's assassination.
18:04On the surface, it may be very easy to believe
18:07that Jefferson Davis would have wanted Lincoln killed.
18:11But when you look at their personalities,
18:13you see that there's a good deal of mutual respect between them.
18:19But there's also the hard fact that if Lincoln dies,
18:22his vice president, Andrew Johnson, is going to come in.
18:25And it's well known that Jefferson Davis
18:27and so many other Southerners cannot stand Andrew Johnson
18:30because Andrew Johnson is a Southern Unionist.
18:32They see him as a traitor.
18:34They don't want him to be their new president.
18:35But there are still those who believe
18:38that Davis and his men are responsible.
18:42Given Booth and Surratt's suspicious activities,
18:45a lot of people continue to speculate
18:47and point the fingers at Jefferson Davis.
18:5419th century newspaper editor Horace Greeley
18:57once estimated that Abraham Lincoln received
19:00more than 10,000 death threats
19:03over his four years as president.
19:04For Lincoln, the specter of assassination was always present.
19:10The hate for Lincoln ran deep in the South.
19:13You have Southerners taking out newspaper ads
19:15where they're offering money to kill Lincoln.
19:18You have Southerners actually sending candied fruit
19:20to the White House.
19:21They're poisoned.
19:23Assassination attempts begin almost immediately
19:25immediately after Lincoln's victory in the election of 1860.
19:30These include a plot to kill him as he travels from Illinois to Washington for his inauguration.
19:37This trip requires changing trains in a city rife with Confederate sympathizers.
19:42Baltimore, Maryland.
19:43At that time in our nation's past, we did not have a deep security apparatus around the president.
19:51His allies and his advisors are so worried about Lincoln.
19:55They bring in this guy named Alan Pinkerton.
19:57They bring him in to really watch out for Lincoln
19:59and try to root out any attempts on Lincoln's life.
20:03Pinkerton finds out that there's a group of conspirators in Baltimore
20:07who are planning to assassinate Lincoln when he makes it to the city.
20:11But his operatives infiltrate the group,
20:15including a young woman by the name of Kate Warren,
20:17who's considered to be the first female private detective in U.S. history.
20:23Pinkerton and Warren learn that the assassins,
20:25who are using Lincoln's published schedule,
20:28plan to form a mob to ambush him when he changes trains in Baltimore.
20:32The ruse becomes that Lincoln is posing as a sick and older person
20:38who's dependent on a caretaker, and that's Kate Warren.
20:41Kate Warren has him abandon his characteristic hat in favor of a beaver hat,
20:46and they change to a different train station.
20:49The disguised Lincoln arrives in Baltimore at 3.30 a.m.
20:53and makes the mile-long trip across town to his connecting train.
20:58He arrives safely in Washington at 6 a.m.
21:01The group that was supposedly going to carry out this assassination attempt are now foiled.
21:06However, there are some researchers who do suggest
21:09that this same group will try to take Lincoln out once again.
21:13An even deeper current of this is these conspirators
21:17were supposedly a part of this much larger organization
21:22that had deep roots throughout the South and the North.
21:26And some people argue that Booth was actually a part of their ranks
21:30and that when he fired that bullet in the Lincoln's head,
21:33he was doing so under their orders.
21:40In the 1850s, the idea of a secret society was all the rage.
21:47And there was a man named George Washington Lafayette Bickley.
21:51He hit upon the idea of creating an organization
21:55that he would call the Knights of the Golden Circle.
21:59These folks were absolutely dedicated to two things.
22:03Preservation of slavery and the establishment of a perpetual slave society
22:08that would unite Mexico, the Caribbean, and the American South.
22:12Their plan was to invade Mexico and make Mexico
22:15a part of the Confederate States of America
22:18and continue to push forward.
22:19And then they would align with the Caribbean nations
22:21that had not yet abolished slavery
22:23and together they would create a superpower.
22:26Bickley is quite successful.
22:28Thousands of young men sign up and are recruited by him
22:30to join the Knights of the Golden Circle.
22:33It's easy to just assume groups like this were relegated to the South.
22:37That wasn't the case.
22:38People in the North felt this way too.
22:39In his 2013 book, The Knights of the Golden Circle,
22:44researcher David Keene describes this secret society,
22:48also known as the KGC.
22:51In 1859, a group of actors in Richmond, Virginia
22:55is captivated by this clandestine organization.
22:58One of them is 20-year-old John Wilkes Booth.
23:03It's not beyond the pale to wonder
23:05whether he was one of these conspirators
23:07who were actually helped with this 1861 attempt
23:09in Baltimore, Maryland, his home state.
23:12But once the Civil War starts,
23:14the mission of the KGC changes.
23:16It's no longer about invading a foreign nation.
23:19It's now about protecting Southern secession
23:22and the right to own slaves.
23:24At the end of the war, they imprisoned Bickley
23:27because they had found evidence that the KGC members knew about this plot to kill Lincoln
23:32before it even happened.
23:34Judge Henry Burnett, who presides over the trial of the co-conspirators,
23:38he'll go on to say that the footprints of the Knights of the Golden Circle
23:41is all over the trial.
23:42It's believed that before 1865,
23:45the KGC actually incorporates its intent to assassinate the president
23:51and his cabinet into the oath sworn by its members.
23:55But whether or not this secret society was the driving force
23:59behind Lincoln's assassination remains an open question.
24:02If Booth is actually receiving instructions from the Knights of the Golden Circle,
24:07it would suggest that the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln
24:10is not just some wanton act of revenge,
24:13but it's part of a coherent plot
24:16to secure the interests of the Knights of the Golden Circle
24:18and the future of the South.
24:20Given their secrecy,
24:22it's really hard to truly know all of the KGC's activities in the spring of 1865
24:27and their true size, for that matter.
24:30While it is tantalizing to want to pin the assassination plot on a group like this
24:35without proper and true evidence to prove it,
24:39it's all circumstantial at best.
24:45November 1864.
24:47A meeting allegedly takes place in New York City
24:50at the opulent Fifth Avenue mansion
24:52of super-rich financier August Belmont.
24:56In his 2004 book Murdering Mr. Lincoln,
25:00biographer Charles Chaim argues
25:03that the main agenda of the meeting
25:05is to plot the assassination of the president.
25:08And among those in attendance is John Wilkes Booth.
25:13While the majority of hatred towards Lincoln
25:17comes primarily from Southerners,
25:19in places like New York,
25:22you have groups of people that are called
25:25Peace Democrats.
25:27They're nicknamed Copperheads after the snake
25:30because many on the Union side
25:32consider them to be treacherous snakes.
25:36They didn't think Lincoln was doing things right.
25:39They thought that the war needed to end.
25:41And if that meant that the South should be able to secede,
25:44so be it.
25:46Others argue that they're racist
25:49because part of this secession
25:51is to keep slavery.
25:54And so there's dual arguments
25:57as to who were these peace, quote, Democrats.
26:01Another massive problem
26:03that these Northern Peace Democrats
26:06have with Lincoln is a financial one.
26:09And this is where we get into August Belmont.
26:13August Belmont is a fascinating individual.
26:16He was born Aaron Schaumburg
26:18in what is today Germany.
26:20He becomes the agent
26:22of the Rothschild International Banking Operation
26:25and then eventually immigrates to the United States
26:28before the American Civil War
26:29and becomes a member of the Democratic Party.
26:33When Belmont moved to America,
26:35he remained aligned with the Rothschilds.
26:37And some suggest that that's where
26:39his anti-Lincoln sentiment begins.
26:42Because apparently,
26:43when the Rothschilds offer up
26:45these high-interest loans
26:46as a way to fund the war,
26:48Lincoln said no.
26:50There are also people that are affiliated
26:52with the cotton industry
26:53that have it out for Lincoln as well
26:54because they believe
26:55that he is messing with their finances.
27:00Historian Charles Higgum has argued
27:01that there was this meeting
27:03that Belmont held in 1864 at his home.
27:05And at this meeting,
27:07a lot of wealthy men in the North
27:08had a real axe to grind.
27:10The meeting is described in a letter
27:12that's sent to the Secretary of War,
27:14Edwin Stanton,
27:15six months after it takes place.
27:17The letter points to the idea
27:18that the plot to assassinate Lincoln
27:21doesn't come from a Confederate sympathizer
27:23or even the Confederate side
27:24that comes from the Union side.
27:31According to this letter,
27:33the meeting is attended
27:34by some of America's richest
27:36and most influential power players.
27:39August Belmont's one of the richest people
27:41in the United States.
27:43He's a racehorse owner.
27:45He is the namesake for the Belmont Stakes,
27:49which is run at Belmont Park in New York.
27:52Allegedly, George McClellan
27:54was at the same meeting.
27:55Now, George McClellan definitely
27:56has an axe to grind with Lincoln,
27:58but for different reasons.
28:00After the Battle of Antietam in 1862,
28:02Lincoln had stripped him
28:04of his leadership of the Union Army.
28:07Other prominent men at the meeting
28:08allegedly include
28:09the pro-South former mayor of New York
28:12and now U.S. Congressman Fernando Wood.
28:15Wood, when he was mayor of New York,
28:17believed that New York City
28:18should have also seceded from the Union.
28:20You also have Charles Haswell,
28:22who is a wealthy ship designer.
28:24They're all coming together.
28:25They're meeting in this room.
28:26But most importantly,
28:28allegedly, John Wilkes Booth
28:30might have joined their group as well.
28:33Belmont actually was someone
28:35who raised large sums of money
28:37for McClellan's presidential campaign
28:38in an attempt to unseat Lincoln from power.
28:41He also launched a campaign
28:43to disseminate anti-Lincoln
28:45and anti-emancipation proclamation propaganda.
28:48The meeting is not the only evidence
28:50of a plot allegedly involving
28:52Belmont and McClellan.
28:55McClellan's secretary writes in his diary
28:58about a month before
28:59the meeting of the Copperheads
29:01about an encounter he has
29:03with Alan Pinkerton.
29:05Pinkerton comes and interviews
29:07McClellan's secretary,
29:09and he asks McClellan's secretary
29:11if he knows anything.
29:12The secretary says he doesn't.
29:14Pinkerton then tells him,
29:15well, I think it's McClellan and his friends.
29:18So your boss is up to something,
29:20and we've got an eye on you.
29:23The Democratic Convention of 1864
29:25was very volatile,
29:27very violent in rhetoric at least,
29:29talking about the need
29:31to not re-elect Lincoln,
29:32the need to get him out of office,
29:34and if we cannot do it by the ballot,
29:38then it's going to happen by the bullet.
29:41Given the level of anti-Lincoln sentiment
29:44in the North,
29:45it's not surprising that Belmont and others
29:48might have made menacing statements.
29:50But for some historians,
29:52it's Booth's surprise attendance
29:54at the alleged November meeting
29:56that signifies their talk
29:58may have turned to action.
30:00George Atzerodt made a confession
30:03which was lost
30:03and then later discovered in 1977
30:05that while in New York,
30:07he saw Booth giving
30:08a secret hand signal to two people.
30:11George Atzerodt confesses
30:12that Booth met with a
30:14quote-unquote party in New York
30:16and that they were going to get
30:18the president for sure.
30:19This was a plot to blow up the White House
30:21with Lincoln in it
30:22as well as his captain.
30:24Now, it isn't that much of a leap
30:25for this group of people
30:26to turn to Booth
30:27to come up with a more direct
30:29and less messy method.
30:31Rumors about August Belmont's
30:33supposed connection
30:34to Lincoln's assassination
30:35run wild in 1865.
30:39Biographer David Black
30:40has argued that Belmont
30:41did indeed have something
30:42to do with this,
30:43but Belmont always vehemently
30:45denied this,
30:46and there's no real hard evidence
30:47to this.
30:48Booth told people
30:50that there were far more people
30:51involved in the plot,
30:53maybe 50 to 100.
30:54It's possible that Booth
30:56created this in his own mind
30:58to make himself feel bigger.
30:59Many of the people
31:00who eventually were tried
31:02do allude to the fact
31:03that they felt
31:04they didn't know
31:04all the pieces
31:05of what was going on,
31:08even in the plot
31:09they were part of.
31:12The investigation
31:14of Abraham Lincoln's
31:15assassination
31:16at Ford's Theater
31:17doesn't end
31:18with the trial
31:19of his conspirators.
31:20The monumental nature
31:22of the crime
31:23and the many questions
31:24remaining
31:25lead to decade
31:26after decade
31:27of Lincoln conspiracy
31:28research and speculation,
31:31including a controversial book
31:33that 72 years
31:35after the fact
31:35makes a startling claim.
31:39In 1937,
31:40a book is released
31:41called
31:41Why Was Lincoln Murdered?
31:43This book is written
31:44by Civil War historian
31:46Otto Eisenschimmel.
31:47Now, Eisenschimmel
31:48is a chemist
31:49by trade,
31:50but he's fascinated
31:52by the Civil War era,
31:53and through his research,
31:55he comes to the conclusion
31:57in his book
31:58that it wasn't
31:59John Wilkes Booth
32:00that led the plot
32:01to kill Lincoln.
32:02It was, in fact,
32:03Lincoln's own
32:04Secretary of War,
32:06Edwin Stanton.
32:12Eisenschimmel's case
32:13is entirely circumstantial.
32:15He doesn't have
32:15a smoking gun,
32:16but he nevertheless
32:17points to evidence
32:18like Grant's failure
32:20to attend Ford's theater
32:21the night
32:22of the assassination attempt.
32:24Grant is originally set
32:25to accompany the Lincolns
32:26to Ford's theater
32:27that night,
32:28but drops out
32:29at the last minute.
32:30The author claims
32:32that Secretary of War,
32:34Stanton,
32:35convinced Grant
32:35to refuse Lincoln's invitation,
32:37Stanton argued
32:38that having
32:39the victorious commander
32:40and the president
32:41together at the same
32:42public function
32:43would present
32:44a security risk.
32:45When Grant
32:46decides to go
32:47to New Jersey,
32:48Stanton seems
32:49a bit more lax
32:50about Lincoln's
32:52security detail
32:52that night.
32:53Eisenschimmel
32:54also alleges
32:55that Lincoln
32:56personally requests
32:57to have one
32:58of his best bodyguards,
32:59Eckert be with him
33:00the night of the play.
33:02Eckert is a very
33:03strong guy.
33:04It's even rumored
33:04they can break fire pokers,
33:06you know,
33:06with just his bare hands.
33:07And Stanton says,
33:08no, he can't go
33:09to the theater.
33:10Why can't he go
33:11to the theater?
33:12He has very important
33:13work to do that night.
33:16With Lincoln's preferred
33:17bodyguard unavailable,
33:19Washington police patrolman
33:20John Frederick Parker,
33:22one of four officers
33:24assigned to White House
33:25details,
33:25steps in.
33:27Allegedly,
33:28Parker had a
33:28checkered history,
33:30allegations of activity
33:31unbecoming of an officer.
33:32One point,
33:33allegedly in 1864,
33:35he got himself
33:35mixed up in a brothel
33:36and fired his pistol
33:37through a window.
33:39Parker is mysteriously
33:41not there
33:42to protect Lincoln
33:43on that evening.
33:45What had actually happened
33:46was that John Frederick
33:46Parker had gone
33:47across the street
33:48to the bar
33:49with Lincoln's valet,
33:50his coach driver.
33:51A bar,
33:52coincidentally,
33:53which is where
33:54John Wilkes Booth
33:55is also physically
33:56present,
33:56tying on a few drinks
33:57to give him
33:58some liquid courage
33:58to go and carry
33:59out the assassination.
34:03Eisenschimmel believes
34:04that Stanton's denying
34:05the president's request
34:06about Eckhart
34:07and giving him Parker
34:08instead was paving
34:10the way for
34:11and making it easier
34:12for Booth
34:13to carry out the crime.
34:14If you wanted to go
34:15with Eisenschimmel's theory,
34:17you could look at
34:17what Stanton does afterwards.
34:19Parker has a slap
34:20on the wrist.
34:21He's never even officially
34:22noted in the assassination
34:24report and then he's still
34:26on White House detail
34:27after this.
34:28Some believe this all points
34:30to Stanton orchestrating
34:32an assassination plot
34:33and there's even more
34:35suspicious behavior
34:36after the murder.
34:38Booth and David Harrell
34:39were both somehow
34:40able to make an escape.
34:43The bridges were supposed
34:44to be secured
34:44by the Union Army.
34:46How they managed
34:46to get through
34:47that night across the bridges
34:49was of real concern
34:50to Eisenschimmel
34:50and so he believed
34:51that somehow
34:52this pointed
34:52to a larger conspiracy.
34:55The author also questions
34:57the handling
34:58of the standoff
34:59between Booth
35:00and Union soldiers
35:01in Virginia.
35:03Stanton had ordered
35:05that Booth
35:05be taken alive.
35:07His death then,
35:08at least to Eisenschimmel,
35:10proves that
35:11this assassination plot
35:12inside Job
35:13has been carried out
35:14perfectly
35:14because now
35:15Booth can't possibly
35:17provide any testimony
35:19in any trial.
35:20So if you follow
35:21this theory,
35:21this is Stanton
35:22just tying up loose ends
35:23and he continues
35:24to do so
35:24by pushing for
35:25the military trial
35:26of the co-conspirators.
35:28When published
35:29in 1937,
35:30Why Was Lincoln Murdered
35:32causes an uproar.
35:34Critics ask,
35:35why would Stanton do this?
35:37Now when it comes
35:38to Lincoln
35:39and Stanton's
35:40actual relationship,
35:41this has always been
35:42a matter of debate.
35:43For starters,
35:44Stanton was not a supporter
35:45of Lincoln in 1860
35:46in the election.
35:47He was actually
35:47a supporter
35:48of his opponent,
35:48John Breckinridge.
35:49The authors suggest
35:51Stanton was worried
35:52Lincoln would fire him
35:53once the war ended.
35:55If he could cause chaos
35:56and confusion
35:57with an assassination,
35:58then perhaps he could
36:00maintain control
36:01of the army
36:01and consolidate power.
36:03But skeptics see a problem
36:05with this theory.
36:07The two men
36:08had buried
36:08all their differences
36:09during the war
36:10and following
36:11Lincoln's assassination,
36:12it was said to have
36:13deeply, deeply
36:14affected Stanton
36:15for quite some time.
36:21Approximately seven hours
36:22before the assassination
36:24of Abraham Lincoln,
36:26John Wilkes Booth
36:27pays a visit
36:28to the Kirkwood House Hotel.
36:30It's not just
36:32any Washington Inn.
36:33It happens to be
36:34the residence
36:35of Vice President
36:37Andrew Johnson.
36:39John Wilkes Booth
36:40asks whether or not
36:41the Vice President
36:42is there.
36:43The clerk at the desk
36:45says,
36:46I'll check.
36:46And he says,
36:47oh, wait a minute.
36:48Don't bother.
36:49And he takes out
36:50a piece of paper
36:51and he writes,
36:52don't wish to disturb you.
36:54Are you at home?
36:56J. Wilkes Booth.
36:57This cryptic note
36:59never gets to Johnson
37:00that day,
37:01but it fuels
37:02two questions
37:03that remain unanswered.
37:05Why was Booth
37:06reaching out
37:06to the Vice President?
37:08And why would they
37:09appear to know each other?
37:11George Atzeroth,
37:12the man
37:12who was apparently
37:13tasked with killing
37:14Vice President
37:16Andrew Johnson,
37:16was also staying
37:17at the same hotel
37:18as Johnson,
37:19but he ends up
37:20not going through
37:20the assassination
37:21because he ends up
37:21getting cold feet.
37:22Some people believe
37:23that Booth
37:24was doing this
37:25simply because
37:26he was concerned
37:27that Atzeroth
37:27might not carry out
37:28the crime
37:28and he was laying
37:29a framework for him
37:30to do the job
37:31later on if necessary.
37:33But there's also
37:34then a belief
37:34that it could be
37:35just Booth
37:36leaving this little
37:37piece of evidence
37:38that would suggest
37:40a conspiracy
37:41that also involves
37:42the U.S. Vice President.
37:48Some historians wonder
37:49whether John Wilkes Booth
37:51and Andrew Johnson
37:52had met.
37:53Well, there's some
37:54circumstantial evidence
37:55there that suggests
37:56that maybe they had
37:56because Johnson
37:58is from Tennessee
37:59and we know
38:00that John Wilkes Booth
38:02performed at the
38:03newly opened Woods
38:04Theater in 1864 there.
38:07Now, at the time
38:08of the assassination,
38:09plenty of people
38:10think that Johnson
38:10is involved,
38:11including Abraham Lincoln's
38:13widow, Mary Todd Lincoln.
38:14In fact,
38:15in a letter
38:15that she wrote
38:16in 1866,
38:17she writes,
38:18that miserable,
38:19inebriate Johnson
38:20had cognizance
38:21of my husband's death.
38:23She goes on to say,
38:24as sure as you and I live,
38:26Johnson had some hand
38:27in all of this.
38:28In 1867,
38:30Missouri Representative
38:31Benjamin Lone
38:32publicly accuses Johnson
38:34of conspiring
38:35with the Confederacy
38:37to assassinate Lincoln.
38:39Benjamin Lone says
38:40that Andrew Johnson
38:40only became president
38:41as a result
38:42of an assassination
38:43that was paid for
38:44by Confederate gold.
38:45And the price
38:46that Johnson paid
38:47for his promotion
38:48was treachery.
38:52These suspicions
38:53are so serious
38:53that they eventually
38:54establish a body
38:55to investigate
38:56the extent to which
38:58Andrew Johnson
38:58may have been involved
38:59in the plot
39:00to assassinate
39:01Abraham Lincoln.
39:02What they find
39:03is that there is
39:04no concrete,
39:04direct evidence
39:05that Andrew Johnson
39:06was involved with Booth
39:08or any of the planning
39:09related to the assassination.
39:10Even with the
39:11close investigation,
39:13for some people,
39:13it's hard to get past
39:14that that night,
39:15of all three people
39:16who had anything to gain
39:17from Lincoln's assassination,
39:20Andrew Johnson
39:20had the most
39:21because he'd be
39:22the next president.
39:23You could also argue
39:24that Booth leaves
39:25this note at the hotel
39:27because he actually
39:27does want to talk
39:28to Johnson
39:29because Johnson
39:30actually was
39:30the mastermind
39:31of the plan.
39:32There are a number
39:33of areas where
39:35Andrew Johnson's
39:36policy and decisions
39:37after the Lincoln
39:38assassination
39:39do make him
39:40look more suspect.
39:42One was his
39:43May 1865
39:44proclamation
39:45where he gives
39:47amnesty
39:47to most confederate
39:49people involved
39:50in the American
39:50Civil War.
39:51That didn't do
39:52anything to help
39:53his public reputation
39:54in terms of
39:55Lincoln assassination.
39:56Had it not occurred,
39:58there's all kinds
39:59of speculation
40:00of what kind
40:01of president
40:02would Lincoln
40:03have been
40:04given his full
40:04second term.
40:06And we'll never know.
40:08That was stripped
40:08away from this
40:09by the conspirators.
40:12Johnson's one-term
40:13presidency
40:14is just filled
40:16with all these
40:16terrible political
40:17battles.
40:18Case in point,
40:19he tried to fire
40:20a member of his
40:20cabinet,
40:21and because of that
40:22he was brought up
40:22on impeachment charges,
40:23and he was saved
40:25from being convicted
40:25of impeachment
40:26by one vote.
40:28Many historians
40:29today regard
40:30President Andrew
40:31Johnson as one of
40:31the worst presidents
40:32in U.S. history.
40:33The president
40:34who started off
40:35Reconstruction
40:35and tried to veto
40:37any kind of
40:38Reconstruction
40:38legislation that
40:40would have had
40:40a positive effect
40:41on black Americans.
40:43The Congressional
40:44Committee designed
40:45to investigate Johnson
40:46as to whether he
40:47had to hand the
40:47assassination doesn't
40:49come up with any
40:49real hard evidence
40:51to prove that he
40:53had a part of it
40:53outside of the note
40:54that Booth left
40:55in the mailbox.
40:56But even after that,
40:58many Americans,
40:59including Mary Todd
41:00Lincoln, still firmly
41:02believe that Johnson
41:03was a part of the plan.
41:08Abraham Lincoln
41:09was the first
41:10U.S. president
41:11to be assassinated
41:12and the shock
41:13continues to reverberate.
41:15More than a century
41:16and a half later,
41:17new books are being
41:18written about his
41:19life and death.
41:20The turmoil of
41:22Lincoln's time
41:22in some ways
41:23is still with us
41:24and so is the desire
41:26to know the truth
41:27about a conspiracy
41:28that left us
41:30forever changed
41:31as a nation.
41:33I'm Lawrence Fishburne.
41:35Thank you for watching
41:36History's Greatest Mysteries.
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