# Killing Lincoln #
Harry Ford:
Hello, John.
John Wilkes Booth:
[humming].
Murcott: I am
harmless except to myself.
Florence Trenchard:
I hear you.
Mrs. Mountchessington:
You will please recollect
you are addressing
my daughter.
And in my presence.
Asa Trenchard: Yes.
I'm offering her
my heart and
hand just as
she wants them,
with nothing in 'em.
Mrs. Mountchessington:
Dear, to your room.
Augusta: Yes, ma.
The nasty beast!
Mrs. Mountchessington:
I am aware.
[gun cocks].
Mrs. Mountchessington:
Mr. Trenchard, you are
not used to the manners
of good society and that,
alone, will excuse
the impertinence of
which you have
been guilty.
Asa Trenchard:
Don't know the manners
of good society, eh?
Well, I guess I know
enough to turn you inside out,
old woman; you
sockdologizing old man-trap!
Tom Hanks: On the evening
of April 13th, 1865,
John Wilkes Booth
initiates his plan
not only to kill
Abraham Lincoln,
but to decapitate
the government of
the United States.
A Civil War that has
lasted four years is
drawing to an end.
While Washington City
celebrates the surrender
of Robert E. Lee's
Confederate Army,
Booth and his
co-conspirators plot
a carefully
coordinated triple murder.
John Wilkes Booth:
And?
Mister Powell?
Lewis Powell:
The Secretary of State
ain't going
nowhere soon.
Confined to his bed
and slow to recover.
Got his-self a nurse.
A little slip of a man.
And there's a
nigger butler.
John Wilkes Booth:
Mister Atzerodt,
you will check into the
Kirkwood tomorrow morning.
Vice President
Johnson's suite is
on the first floor.
George Atzerodt: No.
John Wilkes Booth: No?
George Atzerodt: No.
I do not wish.
I cannot.
John Wilkes Booth:
It is too late, George.
We have, all of us,
conspired together.
George Atzerodt:
To capture, ya.
To kidnap one man.
Not to murder.
John Wilkes Booth:
This is an act of war.
And you are
stuck to it.
It is a tar pit from
which you cannot pull away.
And when tomorrow
night is through and
our deed is done,
we will, all of us,
be known as its authors.
I have seen to it.
And we will be
hailed as heroes!
We will meet back
here tomorrow night
at nine o'clock.
And Powell and Herold
will pay a visit
to the
Secretary of State.
Mr. Atzerodt will go to
see the Vice President.
And I will go to
Grover's Theater
for a performance of
"Aladdin" or "His
Wonderful Lamp."
And there I
will kill a tyrant.
[small explosion sound]
Tom Hanks: This is the
true story of the killing
of Abraham Lincoln,
the first assassination of
an American president,
and what might be the most
resonant crime in the
history of the nation.
John Wilkes Booth's
plan to kill Lincoln isn't
the first Black Flag
operation to target
the 16th president of
the United States.
At least five
kidnapping or assassination
schemes are hatched,
although none
are attempted.
None, save
perhaps one.
Abraham Lincoln
is riding alone,
as is his custom,
from the War Department
to the soldier's home where
the family stays during
the hot summer months.
[loud rifle shot]
Abraham Lincoln:
Whoa, whoa!
[grunts].
Help me, son!
Private Nichols:
Whoa, whoa!
[horse neighs].
Private Nichols:
Steady, steady now.
Steady.
[horse neighs].
Private Nichols: I, uh,
I heard a rifle shot.
Abraham Lincoln: Yes.
Down by the bottom
of the hill.
That is what
frightened him so.
And, uh, he bucked and
separated me from my,
my $8 pug hat.
Private Nichols, I am
much obliged to you.
Private Nichols:
Your hat, sir.
I found it at the
bottom of the hill.
Abraham Lincoln: It is
properly ventilated for
these hot summer months.
Likely some fellow
returning from a day's
hunt discharged his gun in
a precautionary measure of
safety before
bringing it into his home.
I assure you I am in
greater danger from a
rumor of snipers
than I am from your
silence in this affair.
I would ask that you tell
no one of this adventure.
Private Nichols:
Sir, I.
Abraham Lincoln: I will
be doubly obliged to you.
Private Nichols:
Yes, sir.
Tom Hanks: That
is Abraham Lincoln.
The self-educated
statesman who has
abolished slavery
and will go on to
end the war and
save the Union.
Yet, during his 4
years and 41 days in office,
the intensity of the
hatred leveled toward him,
even by members of his
own party, is extreme,
even by
today's standards.
But while the killing
of Abraham Lincoln
serves to sanctify him,
to transform a
controversial
president into a
dearly beloved martyr,
it also serves to
pervert the truth
about his killer.
John Wilkes Booth,
a passionate and
well-admired man on
the path to become one
of the greatest
actors of his time,
is reduced by history
to a two-dimensional
scoundrel and
dismissed as a madman.
John Wilkes Booth:
Harder!
Faster!
Come on!
[laughs].
[audience screams].
[audience gasping].
James McCollom:
Good God, I've.
John Wilkes Booth:
It's all right, old man.
Come on hard, for God's
sake and save the fight.
[audience applause]
John Wilkes Booth:
[screams]
[audience gasps]
[audience applause]
Man: Curtain!
Bring the curtain down.
James McCollom:
Mr. Booth.
John Wilkes Booth:
Why, Mr. McCollom!
James McCollom:
Mr. Booth, I,
I am so very sorry.
John Wilkes Booth:
Come, come, old fellow.
You look as if you
had lost the blood.
Not another word.
Now, if you'd had
gotten my eye,
that would have been bad.
But you didn't.
And it was, well,
it was splendid!
James McCollom:
Thank you, sir.
Tom Hanks: That is
John Wilkes Booth.
Born and raised
in Maryland,
a border state,
a slave state that did
not secede from the Union.
John Wilkes Booth is
also a Southern zealot,
whose hatred of
Abraham Lincoln is
nothing less
than fanatical.
In October of 1864,
Booth makes contact
with the Confederate
Secret Service.
And shortly after
Lincoln's reelection,
he determines to
kidnap the President.
He stops in Philadelphia
to visit his sister, Asia.
And there he
writes a letter.
John Wilkes Booth:
To whom it may concern.
Right or wrong,
God judge me, not man.
My love is for
the South alone.
Nor do I deem it a
dishonor in attempting
to make for her a
prisoner of this man
to whom she owes
so much misery.
Edwin.
Our brother
voted for him?
Asia Booth Clarke: Yes.
John Wilkes Booth:
For a false President?
A tool of the North
who means to crush out
slavery by robbery,
rapine and slaughter?
Oh, God, grant that
I may see the end!
This country was
formed for the white man
and not for the black.
Asia.
Lock this in
your safe for me.
I may come back for it.
But if anything
should happen to me,
open it alone and send
the letters as directed
for brother Junius
and sister Rosalie.
And one other, to
whom it may concern.
A Confederate
doing duty upon
his own
responsibility,
J. Wilkes Booth.
Abraham Lincoln: Hmm.
I will fix that
for you, son.
We'll put a fine
point on it.
Tom Hanks: On
February 5th, 1865,
Abraham Lincoln visits
Alexander Gardner's
photographic studio.
Abraham Lincoln: Are
we ready, Mr. Gardner?
Alexander Gardner:
Aye, that I am,
Mister President.
Now, if you wouldn't
me mind moving to the
other side of the table.
That angle favors you.
Tom Hanks: After four
years and more casualties
than in any conflict in
the nation's history,
the Civil War
is almost over.
But the image made on
this day will be the
last official portrait
ever taken of the
the United States.
Abraham Lincoln
has six weeks to live.
Abraham Lincoln: Taddy.
With malice toward none;
with charity for all;
with firmness in the
right as God gives
us to see the right,
let us strive on to
finish the work we are in;
to bind up the
nation's wounds;
to do all which may
achieve and cherish a just
and a lasting peace
among ourselves and
with all nations.
Tom Hanks:
Booth is there.
A face in the crowd on the
steps of the east portico.
On March 17th, 1865,
Booth and two
boyhood friends,
along with Confederate
agent Lewis Powell and
smuggler George Atzerodt,
lay in wait along the
President's route
to visit the
Campbell Military Hospital.
But Lincoln cancels
the hospital visit.
Booth then travels
to New York,
where he learns of a
Confederate plot to
kill Lincoln by
planting explosives
in the White House.
[faint crying]
Abraham Lincoln:
Who is dead in
the White House?
Honor Guard Soldier:
The President.
He was killed
by an assassin.
[crying becomes louder]
[music builds dramaticly]
Tom Hanks: Lincoln
awakens from a dream
of his own death.
According to
one account,
it is in the early
morning hours of April 2nd
and Lincoln is aboard the
steamship River Queen.
He has left Washington
to visit the warfront
where General
Ulysses S. Grant
is poised to capture
the Confederate capital
of Richmond, Virginia.
[cannon fire]
Abraham Lincoln has
[female singing]
Tom Hanks: On
April 3nd, 1865,
Confederate forces set
fire to their own capital
of Richmond, Virginia
before evacuating ahead of
advancing Union troops.
Confederate president
Jefferson Davis
escapes by train.
Abandons his White
House of the Confederacy.
And Abraham Lincoln
lands in Richmond to
view the devastated ruins
of this American city.
Soldier: Form up!
Abraham Lincoln: Do
any of you know the
way to General
Weitzel's headquarters?
Freed Slave:
Yas-suh, Master Lincoln.
I know the way!
Admiral Porter:
Fix bayonets!
[train whistles].
Abraham Lincoln: Look.
[whistle].
Crook: Window.
Abraham Lincoln:
Thank God I have
lived to see
this day.
On we go.
Tad Lincoln: Papa-day.
Old Slave: May de
good Lord bless and
keep you safe,
Massa Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln:
You are a free citizen
of this republic.
Kneel to God only.
And thank him for the
liberty that is yours.
Tom Hanks: It's one of
the most unforgettable
scenes in
American history.
An American President
walking the streets of a
fallen rebel capital in
the midst of a Civil War.
Scarcely 36 hours
after Jefferson Davis
has fled his capital,
Abraham Lincoln
arrives at the
surrendered home of the
Confederate president.
Crook: I am informed
that General Weitzel
is on his way, sir.
And this is Mrs. O'Melia,
the housekeeper.
Abraham Lincoln: Ma'am,
might you direct me to
President Davis' desk?
So this must have been
President Davis' chair.
Tom Hanks:
Jefferson Davis will soon
be captured in Georgia.
He will die 24
years later,
at the age of 81.
Abraham Lincoln:
This is whence
Mr. Jefferson Davis has
conducted his war, Tad.
Tom Hanks: But
Abraham Lincoln has
less than 11
days to live.
Abraham Lincoln: Might I
have a glass of water?
Tom Hanks: Ironically,
on this day,
Tad's 12th birthday,
April 4th, 1865,
the immediate danger
to the President
is not in Richmond.
It's on its way
to Washington.
Sergeant Thomas Harney,
an explosives expert
with the Confederate
Torpedo Bureau,
has already been
dispatched on a secret
mission to blow up
the White House and
Lincoln in it.
And there is sound evidence
that John Wilkes Booth
learns of the plot
while in New York,
at the same time that
Abraham Lincoln is
walking the streets
of Richmond.
Southern Gentleman:
Sergeant Harney is with
Colonel Mosby in
Virginia as we speak,
seeking to infiltrate
Washington at the
earliest convenience.
John Wilkes Booth:
And Jefferson Davis has
sanctioned this
harebrained incendiary scheme?
I see.
And it is true that
President Davis escaped
intact from Richmond?
Southern Gentleman: Yes.
Thank heaven he is
safely bound for Danville.
You seem troubled.
John Wilkes Booth:
Troubled?
I?
For four years I have
lived not daring to
express my thoughts
or sentiments,
even in my own home,
constantly hearing every
principle dear to my heart
denounced as treasonable.
And I have cursed
my willful idleness,
begun to deem
myself a coward.
And to despise
my own existence.
Richmond has fallen,
in a war against
the Constitution,
against states' rights,
against Southern rights
and institutions.
And a malignant tyrant,
a half-breed,
low-mannered, country
buffoon is threatening
to proclaim himself king.
I should have killed
him on Inauguration Day.
I could have.
I was that close.
And now, if the South
is to be aided at all
it must be done quickly.
And it may already
be too late.
Troubled, gentlemen?
When Caesar conquered
the enemies of Rome and
the power that was
his menaced the
liberties of the people,
Brutus arose and slew him.
Troubled?
Not at all.
I stand with Brutus.
Tom Hanks: Lincoln
might have remained
in Virginia, on the
battlefront with
General Grant.
He might even have been
present to witness
Robert E. Lee's
surrender on April 9th.
But, as fate
would have it,
Secretary of State
William Seward
and his son, Frederick,
are victims of a carriage
accident in Washington.
[door creaks].
Abraham Lincoln:
William?
William Bell:
Mr. President.
Frederick Seward:
Mr. Lincoln, sir.
Abraham Lincoln:
Frederick!
Is your father able
to tolerate a friend?
Frederick Seward:
This way.
Tom Hanks: Seward's jaw
is broken in two places
and his right
arm is fractured.
So on April 9th,
unaware of Lee's surrender,
Lincoln returns to
Washington to visit
his injured
Secretary of State.
Abraham Lincoln: I think
we near the end at last.
Richmond is back in
the arms of the Union.
I walked her streets.
I sat in Jeff Davis'
own chair.
[laughs]
Miss Fanny.
Fanny Seward:
Thank you for coming,
Mister President.
Abraham Lincoln: How
could I stay away when
my Secretary of State
is rendered in such
a way as he
cannot but listen?
[laughs]
I have worked my own hand
as hard as at sawing wood,
so many others'
hands have I shaken.
I've been to Libby Prison.
General Weitzel asked
me point blank how
to treat the defeated
Confederate soldiers.
I told him to
let them up easy.
My old friend.
Tom Hanks: It is
close to 10 PM when
Secretary of War Stanton
delivers to Lincoln
the telegram reporting
that Robert E. Lee
has surrendered.
The next day,
Washington City
is in full celebration.
A crowd gathers in front
of the White House to
serenade Lincoln and to
call for him to speak.
He politely promises a
speech the next night
and requests that
the band play the
Confederate anthem.
He asks them to
play "Dixie."
[gunshot]
[hits target]
James Powell: A fine
shot with a parlor pistol.
John Wilkes Booth:
Thank you, Mr. Powell.
James Powell: Payne.
It's Payne.
Not Powell.
I ain't goin' by
Powell no more.
Abraham Lincoln: Let
us all join in doing
the acts necessary.
Tom Hanks: On
Tuesday, April 11th,
faithful to his promise,
Lincoln speaks from
the north portico
of the White House.
Booth is there.
Abraham Lincoln: It is
also unsatisfactory to
some that the elective
franchise is not
given to the colored man.
I would myself prefer.
John Wilkes Booth: That
means nigger citizenship.
Abraham Lincoln: On the
very intelligent and
on those who serve
our cause as soldiers.
Some 12,000 voters.
John Wilkes Booth:
Shoot him.
Draw your revolver
and shoot him now.
James Powell:
There's people.
John Wilkes Booth:
There are always people.
I wonder,
Mr. Powell or Mr. Payne,
in spite of your
reputation,
if you have
what it takes.
I already suspect that
Mr. Herold here does not.
David Herold: Oh, no,
there's no call for that.
James Powell: I
got what it takes.
John Wilkes Booth:
Now, by God,
I will put him through.
That is the last speech
he will ever make.
Tom Hanks: Abraham
Lincoln has less than
four days to live.
[fireworks]
Tom Hanks:
Washington City celebrates
Robert E. Lee's surrender
with a grand illumination.
Candles burn in
every window,
public and private.
Fireworks and cannon
volleys proclaim victory.
On April 13th, Booth
visits Grover's Theater
and learns that
a production of
"Aladdin! or His
Wonderful Lamp"
is planned for
the next night,
April 14th.
Good Friday.
And that the president
has been invited to attend.
Booth arranges for
a ticket to the box
adjoining the President's
and informs his
co-conspirators that the
plan has changed from
kidnapping to murder.
That on April 14th,
Lewis Powell will kill
Secretary of
State Seward.
David Herold will
accompany Powell and
lead him across the
Navy Yard Bridge
and into Maryland.
George Atzerodt will kill
Vice President Johnson
in his room at the
Kirkwood House Hotel.
And Booth will kill
Lincoln during the
performance
of "Aladdin"
at Grover's Theater.
[watch ticking].
Tom Hanks: With
little more than
Abraham Lincoln
rises at 7:00 AM
and writes four
brief messages,
including one
instructing acting
Secretary of State
Frederick Seward
to call a cabinet
meeting for 11:00 AM,
then joins his family
at breakfast to find his
eldest son, Robert,
just returned
from witnessing
the surrender
at Appomattox.
Robert Todd Lincoln:
General Lee,
stately, elegant.
His uniform spotless.
With a jeweled sword
and shining spurs.
And General Grant,
so shabby in a
muddy blue uniform,
borrowed
from a private.
Abraham Lincoln:
[laughs]
Robert Todd Lincoln:
It, it was great.
Oh and here is Lee.
Tad Lincoln:
Papa-day, let me see!
Can I see it?
Can I have it?
Mary Todd Lincoln:
Wait a moment, Tad.
Abraham Lincoln:
Now that is the face
of a noble man.
And brave.
Listen to me, Robert.
You must lay aside
your uniform.
Return to college.
Read law for three years.
And at the end of that
time I hope that we will
be able to tell
whether you will
make a lawyer or not.
Robert Todd Lincoln:
Yes, sir.
And I will, sir.
Tom Hanks:
Shortly before 11 AM,
Lincoln sees Secretary
of War Edwin Stanton
at the War Department.
Abraham Lincoln:
Mr. Stanton!
Mrs. Lincoln has invited
General and Mrs. Grant
to join us at the
theater this evening.
And General Grant already
hints that they will
decline in favor of
taking a train to
New Jersey to visit
with their children.
I trust that you have had
no occasion to encourage
this desertion in the
face of entertainment.
Edwin Stanton:
Had I the occasion,
I would have seized it.
I am sorry, sir, but it
is a fact that rumors of
assassination schemes
are everywhere now.
It remains a constant
subject of concern
between myself
and Mr. Seward,
even in the face
of his recovery.
Abraham Lincoln: The
doors to the White House
stand open to
one and all,
day and night,
Stanton.
My life is within reach
of anyone, sane or mad.
By the hand of a
murderer I can die but once,
but to, to go
continually in fear,
why that is to die over
and over and over again.
John Wilkes Booth:
Will you be attending
the theater tonight?
"Aladdin" is
playing at Grover's.
Barber: No, sir.
I'm afraid not, sir.
John Wilkes Booth: Pity.
There will be some fine
acting there tonight.
Ulysses S. Grant:
The officers could keep
their side-arms.
Abraham Lincoln: And
what terms did you make
for the common soldiers?
Ulysses S. Grant:
I told them to go
back to their
homes and families
with a promise to not
again take up arms
against the United
States of America.
Abraham Lincoln:
Quite simple.
And quite right.
Which brings to mind how
very providential it is
that this rebellion
was crushed just as
Congress has adjourned.
There are men in Congress
who harbor feelings of
hate and vindictiveness
toward the South.
But there will be no
persecution when this
war is over.
No bloody work.
We must bend every effort
to reanimate the South,
to put her state
governments in order
and to reestablish
the Union before
Congress reconvenes.
Still no word from
General Sherman?
Ulysses S. Grant: We
are hourly expecting it.
Abraham Lincoln: It
will be good news.
General Sherman
will have secured
Johnston's surrender.
I, I know this
because I have had
the dream last night.
I've had it before.
It's always
the same and
invariably followed
by favorable news.
As Secretary
of the Navy,
it has to do with
your element,
Mr. Welles.
Water.
I am in some
kind of vessel,
in the dream.
And always moving
with rapidity toward
an indefinite shore.
Tom Hanks: In an aside,
General Grant informs the
president that his wife
insists upon them leaving
on the afternoon train.
They will not be
attending the theater.
Shortly before noon,
John Wilkes Booth stops
at Ford's Theater,
as is his daily custom,
to pick up his mail.
Harry Ford: Well,
here's the man who
don't like General Lee.
Here for his mail.
John Wilkes Booth:
I told you, Harry,
I don't like the
way he surrendered.
Given his sword by
the Senate in Richmond
and swearing an oath
never to give it up,
he should have died on
the battlefield before
rendering his
Southern manhood
to the butcher, Grant.
[chuckles].
That's what I said, Harry
and it's what I meant.
Now let's just hope he's
not paraded through the
streets as the Romans
did their captives, huh?
Thank you, Raybold.
Harry Ford: Well, I'll
be sure to ask the
President his plan
in that regard.
John Wilkes Booth:
The President?
You mean the buffoon who
walked into Jeff Davis'
house in Richmond, threw
his legs over the chair
and spit tobacco juice
all over the place?
[men laughing].
Harry Ford: He
don't chew tobacco,
John or I woulda put
a spittoon in the
Presidential
Box tonight.
A messenger for Mr.
Lincoln called this
morning for tickets.
For them and General
and Mrs. Grant.
Maybe we'll have
Robert E. Lee
and old Jefferson
Davis himself in
another box, both
of them in chains.
John Wilkes Booth:
I thought he was
attending
Grover's tonight.
[singing "Honor
to Our Soldiers"].
Tom Hanks: Booth goes
to Pumphrey's stable
to reserve a horse,
then to write a letter,
a confession,
an explanation,
a manifesto,
signed by him on
behalf of himself,
Lewis Powell, David Herold
and George Atzerodt.
Meanwhile, Mr. and
Mrs. Lincoln take a
carriage ride, alone.
According to
Mary Todd Lincoln,
she has never
seen her husband so
supremely cheerful.
They talk about
the past,
about the death
of their son,
Willie, three
years before,
about the future,
traveling abroad and
Lincoln's plan to
return to his
law practice.
Lincoln tells Mary that
on this particular day
he feels that the war
has come to a close.
They end up at the
Washington Navy Yard,
where Lincoln summons
a young naval officer,
William H. Flood.
William H. Flood:
Mrs. Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln: Mother,
the last time we saw
young Flood here, we
were in Springfield.
I was a lawyer and
he was but knee-high
to a grasshopper.
His mother was kin
with Governor Carlin.
Mary Todd Lincoln: Oh, I
remember Priscilla Flood.
Abraham Lincoln: And his
father served with me
in the Illinois
State Legislature.
A Democrat, but, uh, a
friend and a good man,
despite his fervent
support of my opponent
for the presidency.
William H. Flood:
Sins of the father, sir.
Abraham Lincoln:
Never a sin to stand up
for what you believe.
Now, Flood, tell me,
which is the vessel
with the history?
William H. Flood:
Well, Mr. Lincoln,
they've all been
mussing around
under fire quite a lot,
but I guess you mean
the Montauk over there.
She's got the
hardest hitting.
Been in the
tightest spots.
Abraham Lincoln:
The very one, Flood.
Show her to me.
Mother?
Tom Hanks: At 4:30, a
group of Confederate
prisoners of war is
being escorted from the
Navy Yard and up
Pennsylvania Avenue
when Booth encounters
his friend,
the actor John Mathews.
John Wilkes Booth:
Great God,
I have no longer
a country!
John Mathews: What's
the matter, John?
John Wilkes Booth:
Mathews,
I have a favor to ask you.
Will you grant it?
I may have to leave
town tonight and
I have a letter here,
which I desire to
be published in
the National
Intelligencer.
Please attend to it for
me unless I see you
before 10 o'clock tomorrow.
John Mathews: Why, there
goes General Grant.
John Wilkes Booth: Where?
Come on!
Tom Hanks: General and
Mrs. Grant will later
recall the horseman
who peered into their
carriage twice on its way
to the train station.
The actor John Mathews
will be on stage
that evening at
Ford's Theater.
The next day he will
burn the letter.
The signed confession
given to him by
John Wilkes Booth.
Abraham Lincoln has
less than 15 hours to live.
[audience laughter].
Lord Dundreary: You see,
I gave her a draught
that cured the
effect of the draught.
And that draught was a
draft that didn't pay
the doctor's bill.
Florence Trenchard:
Good gracious!
What a number
of draughts.
Florence Trenchard:
You have almost a
game of draughts.
[audience laughter].
Florence Trenchard:
What's the matter?
Lord Dundreary: That
was a joke, that was.
Florence Trenchard:
Where's the joke?
Lord Dundreary:
She don't see it.
[audience laughter].
Florence Trenchard: Why,
anybody can see that.
[audience applauding].
[orchestra plays
"Hail to the Chief"].
[applause continues].
Tom Hanks: At
roughly 8:30 PM,
the Lincolns arrive
at Ford's Theater,
driven by coachman
Francis Burke and
footman Charles Forbes.
Abraham Lincoln:
Mr. Forbes, Mr. Parker,
I hope that you both
might enjoy the play.
Tom Hanks: Since
November of 1864,
four officers of the
Metropolitan Police
have been detailed to
protect the President.
On this night,
John Parker is on duty.
As last-minute
replacements for
General and Mrs. Grant,
Mrs. Lincoln invites her
dear friend,
Clara Harris,
in the company
of her fianc,
Major Henry
Reed Rathbone.
[audience applause].
Tom Hanks: The famously
self-educated Lincoln
is an enthusiastic
lover of theater.
But during the war
he is drawn to comedy,
telling Noah Brooks that
"a farce, or comedy,
is best played;
a tragedy is best
read at home."
A last-minute meeting
with Lewis Powell,
David Herold
and George Atzerodt
has just concluded.
The coordinated attack
that Booth outlined on
April 13th is to go
into effect immediately.
At 10:15 Lewis Powell
is to kill
Secretary of State Seward
in his home on
Lafayette Square.
David Herold will
guide Powell out of
the city via
the Navy Yard Bridge.
George Atzerodt is
to kill
Vice President Johnson
at the
Kirkwood House Hotel.
The only change in the
plan is that Booth
will not be attending
"Aladdin" at Grover's!
Harry Ford:
Hello, John.
Tom Hanks: He will kill
Lincoln at Ford's Theater.
Murcott: I am harmless
except to myself.
Florence Trenchard:
Speak on, sir.
I hear you.
Tom Hanks: It is
still early in act two.
Booth has calculated that
the appointed time of
beginning of act three of
"Our American Cousin"
and there will be an
intermission
between the acts.
Booth retrieves his horse
from Pumphrey's stable.
[knock at door].
John Wilkes Booth:
Mister Spangler,
hold this mare for
me 10 or 15 minutes.
Mind you, she's a
bad little bitch.
Edman Spangler:
I can't, Mr. Booth.
It's almost intermission.
I gotta shift scenery.
John Wilkes Booth:
May I cross backstage?
Edman Spangler: You're
gonna have to cross under.
And I can't
keep the horse.
Just go with him,
DeBonay and tell Peanuts
to come here and
hold this damned horse.
Florence Trenchard:
Mr. Asa Trenchard,
our American cousin.
This young gentleman has
carried off the prize by
three successive
shots in the bull's eye.
Actress: I
congratulate you sir
and am happy
to see you.
Why have you left the
archery, Florence?
Florence Trenchard:
Because after Mr. Asa's
display, I felt in no
humor for shooting.
[footsteps].
Tom Hanks: Booth
heads next door to
Peter Taltavul's
Star Saloon.
Whether or not
Francis Burke,
the man who drove the
Lincoln carriage and
John Parker,
the man detailed
to protect the President,
are drinking at
the Star Saloon
when Booth enters,
will never be known
with any certainty.
John Wilkes Booth:
Mr. Taltavul.
Tom Hanks: But the urge
somehow to be a part of or
witness to the killing
of Abraham Lincoln will
prompt many to
make claims that are
impossible
to substantiate.
The remark allegedly
overheard during
intermission by
orchestra conductor
William Withers
is a prime example.
Peter Taltavul: You're
a fine tragedian, John,
but you'll never be as
great as your father.
John Wilkes Booth: When I
leave the stage for good,
I'll be the most talked
about man in America.
Tom Hanks: And the
stage is set for the most
dramatic and resonant
crime in American history.
Asa Trenchard: Nary red,
it all comes to their
barkin' up the
wrong tree about
the old man's property.
William Bell:
Yes, sir?
James Powell: I have here
medicine for Mr. Seward
from his surgeon,
Dr. Verdi.
William Bell:
I don't know that
we are expecting any
such thing, but,
but I'll see to it
that he gets it.
James Powell: No,
I gotta take it to
him myself personal.
[audience laughter].
William Bell:
Please, sir.
Uh, the house is
mostly asleep now and,
and you don't want
to be wakin' 'em.
Asa Trenchard: Oh, no.
Which he meant
to leave to me,
and left it to
his granddaughter,
Miss Mary Meredith.
[audience laughter].
Frederick Seward:
Who is this, Bell?
William Bell:
Mr. Frederick,
this man says he's
from Dr. Verdi.
James Powell: I have
a medicine here for
Mr. Seward with
instructions on how he
must take it.
Frederick Seward:
I'm sorry,
but you cannot
see him now.
My sister and his
nurse are endeavoring
to compose
my father to sleep now.
James Powell:
But I must.
Dr. Verdi's orders.
Frederick Seward:
Wait, wait.
[audience laughter].
Frederick Seward: As I
thought and as I said,
it is not worthwhile to
talk about this any further.
[audience laughter].
Mrs. Mountchessington:
Miss Mary Meredith!
Oh, I'm delighted.
Mary Todd Lincoln:
What will Miss Harris
think of my
hanging on to you so?
Asa Trenchard:
And mothers would go away
from a fellow when
they found that out,
but you don't valley
fortune, Miss Gusty?
Abraham Lincoln: She won't
think anything about it.
Mrs. Mountchessington: My
love, you had better go.
Asa Trenchard: You crave
affection, you do.
Frederick Seward: Go back
and tell the doctor that
Mr. Seward's son refused
to let you see him,
if you think I cannot be
trusted with the medicine.
James Powell:
Very well then.
[gun cocks].
[gun cocks].
James Powell:
You son of a bitch!
[gun clicks].
[audience laughter].
Mrs. Mountchessington:
Mr. Trenchard,
you will please
recollect you are
addressing my daughter.
Asa Trenchard: I'm
offering her my heart and
hand, just as she wants
them, with nothing in 'em.
[audience laughter].
Fanny Seward:
[screams, crying].
Augusta: The nasty beast!
[audience laughter].
Mrs. Mountchessington: I
am aware, Mr. Trenchard.
[audience laughter].
Mrs. Mountchessington:
You are not used to the
manners of good society
and that, alone,
will excuse the
impertinence of which you
have been guilty.
Asa Trenchard:
Don't know the manners of
good society, eh?
Well, I guess I know
enough to turn you
inside out, old woman;
you damned old
sockdologizing.
[gunshot].
John Wilkes Booth:
Sic semper tyrannis!
Sic semper tyrannis!
Maj. Rathbone:
Stop that man!
Clara Harris: Stop him!
John Wilkes Booth:
Let me pass!
Let me pass!
Fanny Seward: Murder!
Help!
Murder!
John Wilkes Booth:
Give me that horse, boy!
[horse neighs]
John Wilkes Booth: Go.
William Bell: Murder!
Stop that man!
Murderer!
Tom Hanks:
John Wilkes Booth
has less than
[clock ticking].
[gun clicks].
Mary Todd Lincoln:
[sobbing and screaming].
Man: What's happening?
Clara Harris: The
President is, is shot!
Mary Todd Lincoln:
[screams].
[crowd screams].
[pounding on the door].
Maj. Rathbone:
Back away!
I've been stabbed, please.
Clara Harris:
Help us!
Someone please,
please help us!
Dr. Charles Leale: You're
in no immediate danger.
Mrs. Lincoln,
Mrs. Lincoln,
I'm Dr. Leale,
a United States
Army surgeon.
Mary Todd Lincoln:
Oh, Doctor!
Oh, Doctor!
[sobbing]
Help him!
Help him!
Dr. Charles Leale: Water!
Bring water!
And Brandy!
On the floor.
I want him recumbent.
Mary Todd Lincoln:
[sobbing].
Men: One, two, three.
Man: Watch his head.
Watch his head.
He might have
been stabbed.
Dr. Charles Leale:
We need to cut the shirt
and coat away from
the neck to the elbow.
Man: Charlie.
Dr. Charles Taft:
Dr. Charles Taft.
Mary Todd Lincoln:
You help him!
Is he dead?
Someone answer me!
Help him!
Oh, God.
Dr. Charles Leale:
I'm checking for
hemorrhage of the
subclavial artery.
Wait.
I found it.
A hole.
And there's a clot.
[audience screaming].
Mary Todd Lincoln:
[sobbing].
Dr. Charles Leale:
It's a bullet wound.
Occipital bone here.
Removal of a clot
has relieved pressure
on the brain.
Mary Todd Lincoln:
[sobbing].
Lieutenant Bolton:
Ladies!
Gentleman!
The President is being
attended by physicians!
Please make your way
in orderly fashion
to the street!
Dr. Charles Leale: I'm
opening up his larynx for
a free passage of air.
I need you and you
to lift his arms and
manipulate them
back and forth.
Up and down to
expand his thorax.
Mary Todd Lincoln:
[sobbing].
Dr. Charles Leale:
Feeble.
Respiration not
satisfactory.
Mary Todd Lincoln:
[sobbing].
Maj. Rathbone:
Here, here's brandy!
Keene: May I
hold his head?
Mary Todd Lincoln:
[sobbing]
Tell me!
[sobbing]
Tell me, is he alive?
Tom Hanks: At 10:35,
shooting the President,
Booth arrives at the
Navy Yard Bridge,
his escape route
into Maryland.
Sgt. Silas T. Cobb
of the 13th Regiment
Massachusetts
Heavy Artillery
is on sentry duty.
Sgt. Silas Cobb: Halt!
Who goes?
John Wilkes Booth:
A friend.
Sgt. Silas Cobb:
Name?
John Wilkes Booth:
My name is Booth.
Sgt. Silas Cobb:
Where from?
John Wilkes Booth:
I'm from the city.
Sgt. Silas Cobb:
Where are you headed?
John Wilkes Booth:
Down home, Charles County.
Sgt. Silas Cobb:
What town?
John Wilkes Booth: I
don't live in a town.
I live near Beantown.
Sgt. Silas Cobb:
I don't know where
that place is, friend.
But do you know it's
against the law to cross
here after nine o'clock?
What is your object to be
in town so late when you
got so far to travel?
John Wilkes Booth:
It is a dark road.
I thought if I waited
'til now I should have the
light of this moon to
help me see my way.
Sgt. Silas Cobb: Well,
I will let you pass,
but I don't know
as I ought to.
John Wilkes Booth:
Hell, there'll be no
trouble about that.
Man: Make way.
Make way!
To the White House.
We must take him
to the White House.
Dr. Charles Leale: No,
he will die on the way.
Dr. Charles Taft:
The saloon.
Here, next door.
Peter Taltavul: No!
No, it should
not be said the
President of
the United States
died in a saloon.
Not even my own.
Lieutenant Bolton: Doctor,
give me your commands and
I will see to it that
they will be carried out.
Dr. Charles Leale: As I
said, across the street,
to the nearest house.
Lieutenant Bolton:
Make a path!
Let us pass!
Dr. Charles Leale:
Stop, stop!
[grunts].
Abraham Lincoln:
[gasping breath].
Dr. Charles Leale:
[grunts].
William H. Flood: The
house opposite is closed.
Henry S. Stafford:
Here, here!
Bring him here.
Dr. Charles Leale:
Go, go, go.
Man: Clear the way, please.
Out of the way, please.
Tom Hanks: Lincoln is
taken to a boarding house
directly across the
street from the theater and,
due to his 6'4" height,
laid diagonally on the bed
of absent boarder,
William Clark.
Shorty after 11:00
PM, Secretary of War
Edwin Stanton sets up
a headquarters in the
back parlor of the house
and establishes relays
between there and
the War Department
telegraph operators.
He alerts General Grant
and calls him back to
Washington, issues
emergency directives to
police and military
authorities,
orders the National
Detective Police,
to initiate a manhunt
for the as-yet unknown
assassin and notifies
Vice President Johnson
that the
President is dying.
And shortly
before midnight,
Chief Justice David
Kellogg Cartter begins to
hear eyewitness
testimony of the crime.
But the appointed
stenographer cannot
write fast enough.
General Christopher Augur:
Is there anyone here who
knows the practice of
shorthand writing?
Albert Daggett: Here!
There's a boarder
here who does!
General Christopher Augur:
Tell him that his services
are required here.
Immediately.
Albert Daggett: Jim,
it's General Augur.
They want you next door.
Corporal James Tanner:
Tell him I'll be right there.
[clock ticking].
[gun clicks].
Tom Hanks: Minutes after
John Wilkes Booth crosses
the Navy Yard Bridge,
Sergeant Cobb stops
David Herold,
riding a gray roan horse.
Herold asks if a rider
has passed here and
Cobb tells him,
"Yes," and lets him pass.
David Herold's job on
April 14th is to guide
Lewis Powell out of
Washington after killing
Secretary of State Seward.
But hearing the
cries of "Murder"
from Seward's house.
Fanny Seward: Murder!
He's killing my father!
Tom Hanks: Herold
flees the scene,
not waiting for Powell.
He catches up with
Booth at Soper's Hill,
eight miles from
Washington.
And it's a little after
midnight when they arrive
at a safe house for
Confederate spies.
[banging on door]
David Herold: For
God's sake, Lloyd,
make haste and
get the things!
Tom Hanks: A tavern where
weapons have been stored.
David Herold:
Lloyd, the things!
Tom Hanks: A tavern
owned by the mother of
Confederate courier
John Surratt.
John Wilkes Booth: I
cannot carry a carbine.
This little
bitch fell on me.
Stumbled while jumping.
I broke my damned leg.
I need a surgeon.
We'll go to Sam Mudd's.
David Herold: But, no.
Hadn't we
oughta get down south,
cross to the river,
cross into Virginia.
John Wilkes Booth:
I cannot go on
without a doctor.
Lloyd?
Lloyd?
John Lloyd: Huh?
John Wilkes Booth: I am
fairly certain we have
assassinated the
President and Secretary Seward.
Mind your damn
horse, Davey.
Let's go.
Tom Hanks: Meanwhile at
the Petersen boarding house,
Corporal James Tanner,
who has lost both legs
at the Second
Battle of Bull Run
and is just 10 days
past his 21st birthday,
is about to take the
first eyewitness testimony
in the assassination
of Abraham Lincoln.
Mary Todd Lincoln:
[sobbing].
Dr. Ezra Abbott:
Pulse 48, rising.
Dr. King:
Respiration 21.
Dr. Barnes:
Ecchymosis is setting in.
Edwin Stanton:
Who are you?
Corporal James Tanner: Uh,
Corporal James Tanner, sir.
Uh, you're in need
of a phonologist?
Edwin Stanton: What?
Corporal James Tanner:
Shorthand, sir.
Edwin Stanton:
Yes, come here.
Mr. Hill will be asking
questions of the witnesses
before Chief
Justice Cartter.
Mary Todd Lincoln:
[sobbing].
Tom Hanks: The
assassination of
Abraham Lincoln
is witnessed by
more than 1,500 people,
yet no two
accounts match.
Lieutenant Crawford:
A.M.S. Crawford.
Henry Hawk: Uh,
William Henry Hawk.
James P. Ferguson:
Uh, James P. Ferguson.
Lieutenant Crawford:
I thought at first
he was intoxicated.
There was a
glare in his eye.
I turned to
Captain McGowan,
intending to say
something in reference
to this man's manner.
James P. Ferguson:
I was looking with
an opera glass to see,
uh, which citizen it was,
with the President.
Lieutenant Crawford:
The next instant,
the shot was fired.
[gunshot].
Lieutenant Crawford: I
said at once it was the
president's box and
jumped to the door.
Henry Hawk: I was on stage
at the time of the firing.
[gunshot].
James P. Ferguson:
And he put his hands
on the cushion
of the box and
he threw his
feet right over.
And he pulled part
of a state flag off.
Henry Hawk: And as I
looked towards him,
he came in the direction
in which I was standing.
B.A. Hill:
Can you describe the
man's form that
jumped from the box?
Lieutenant Crawford:
Yes, sir.
I saw him as he ran
across the stage.
James P. Ferguson:
As he ran across,
he looked right
up in my face.
I, I pulled the lady
down behind the banister.
Lieutenant Crawford: As he
went through the scene he
threw his hand behind
him and the knife
was up in sight.
Henry Hawk: He made
some expression when
he came on the stage.
John Wilkes Booth:
The south shall be free!
Henry Hawk: But I
did not understand what.
James P. Ferguson:
He stopped as he said.
John Wilkes Booth:
I have done it!
James P. Ferguson:
Shook the knife.
Lieutenant Crawford:
His face was towards me.
He did not say a
word that I heard,
but very strongly
resembled the Booths.
Henry Hawk: I, I believe
to the best of my
knowledge that it was
John Wilkes Booth.
Still, uh, I'm
not positive, uh.
Abraham Lincoln:
[gasping breath].
Tom Hanks: At 4:30
AM April 15th,
Booth and Herold
arrive at the home of
Dr. Samuel Mudd.
Either during
his jump from the
presidential box
to the stage,
or as the result of
his horse falling,
Booth has sustained a
clean break of his fibula,
two inches above the
instep of his left foot.
John Wilkes Booth:
[grunts in pain]
Tom Hanks: At the same
time that Dr. Samuel Mudd
is tending to
John Wilkes Booth,
Abraham Lincoln is dying.
Dr. Barnes: I am
inserting a Nlaton probe.
Dr. Ezra Abbott:
Pulse 60.
Dr. King:
Respiration 24.
Dr. Barnes:
At three inches,
following the
track of the ball,
there's the bone plug.
Driven in from the skull.
I can feel the ball
at, at five inches.
And two inches
further, fragments.
Dr. Charles Leale:
The orbital plate?
Dr. Barnes:
Undoubtedly.
Dr. Charles Leale:
Perhaps we should summon
Mrs. Lincoln.
Dr. Barnes:
Barely perceptible.
Mary Todd Lincoln:
[sobbing]
[clock ticking]
[gun clicks]
Mary Todd Lincoln:
[whimpering]
It's your Mary.
Mother.
It's your Molly.
I'm here little Puss.
[sobbing].
Your child-wife.
[crying].
Oh, my love.
Live but one moment
to speak to me once.
To speak to our children.
You'd speak to little Tad,
wouldn't you, Father?
You love him so well.
Abraham Lincoln:
[gasping breath].
Tom Hanks: Mary Lincoln
screams and faints.
And Secretary of War
Stanton orders that she is
to be removed
from the room.
As she is led away,
Corporal Tanner,
transcribing his shorthand
in the back parlor,
overhears her to say,
"Oh, my God and
I have given my
husband to die."
Dr. Charles
Augustus Leale,
the 23-year-old surgeon
who has been by the
president's side
for nine hours,
has scarcely let go
of Lincoln's hand,
for no other reason than,
"To let him in his
blindness know that he
was in touch with
humanity and had a friend."
At 21 minutes and 55
seconds past 7 AM on
Saturday, April
Abraham Lincoln draws
his last breath.
his heart stops.
Robert Todd Lincoln:
[sobbing].
Tom Hanks: The Reverend
Phineas Gurley will recall
that those present remain
motionless and silent for
several minutes after
Surgeon General Barnes
says, simply.
Robert Todd Lincoln:
[sobbing].
Tom Hanks:
"He is gone."
[clock ticking]
Edwin Stanton: Now he
belongs to the ages.
Robert Todd Lincoln:
[sobbing].
Tom Hanks: Angels.
According to Corporal
Tanner, Stanton said,
"He belongs to
the angels now."
But Tanner was unable
to record the moment.
His pencil had broken.
[rooster crows]
His leg splinted and
with the aid of a crutch,
Booth leaves Dr.
Samuel Mudd's home
late on the afternoon of
Saturday, April 15th.
Already, members of the
been ordered to southern
Maryland in search of
Lincoln's killer.
What will soon become
the largest manhunt in
American history at that
time begins with troops
searching scarcely
four miles from
Dr. Mudd's farmhouse.
Lost in the dark and on the
edge of the Zekiah swamp,
Booth and Herold
have promised to pay
tobacco farmer
Oswell Swann $12 to
lead them to the
home of Samuel Cox,
a leader in the
Confederate underground.
John Wilkes Booth:
How is it that you
know Captain Cox?
Oswell Swann: Oh, we all
know Captain Cox, sir.
He a true man
of the South.
He a hard man.
Beat a nigger to
death hisself.
Mmm-hm.
David Herold: You,
you a free nigger?
Oswell Swann: Oh, we
all's free now, sir,
thanks to Marse Lincoln.
Lawd rest his soul.
But I ain't no nigger.
I's a we-sort.
David Herold: What?
Oswell Swann: A we-sort.
You know.
"We-sorta-folk."
Nigger, injun, white man,
all mixed up, you know.
John Wilkes Booth: You
have heard about Lincoln?
Oswell Swann: Yas suh.
He in the arms
of the Lawd.
[pounds on door]
David Herold: Um,
my friend and I,
we're in need of
some shelter, food.
Not the nigger.
Samuel Cox: Name?
David Herold: Um, my
friend, he's hurt his leg.
Samuel Cox: You're
John Wilkes Booth.
I think I know
what you have done.
Tom Hanks: They have
arrived at about 1:00 AM
on Easter Sunday.
After talking until dawn,
Cox is sympathetic,
but no fool.
He will put Booth and
Herold in touch with a
Confederate smuggler who
will get them across the
Potomac and into Virginia.
But Cox will not allow
Lincoln's assassin to stay
in his home.
So Booth and Herold are
directed to wait in a pine
thicket just across
Cox's property line.
They don't know it yet,
but they will wait there
for the next five
days and four nights.
John Wilkes Booth: Davey!
Don't you know
I can't get on?
David Herold: Help
him on his horse.
John Wilkes Booth:
[groans in pain].
$12?
Oswell Swann: Yas suh.
John Wilkes Booth: Thought
you said Captain Cox was a
man of Southern feeling.
David Herold: You say
anything about this,
and you won't live long.
Tom Hanks:
John Wilkes Booth
has 10 days to live.
[clock ticking].
[gun clicks].
Tom Hanks: On April 17th
Colonel Lafayette Baker,
the head of the National
Detective Police,
asks Alexander Gardner
to make copies
of three pictures.
It is the first time in
history that photographs
have been used on
a wanted poster.
Thanks in part to papers
found in Booth's room at
the National Hotel,
Lewis Powell and Mary Surratt
are jailed in Washington
and George Atzerodt,
who simply got drunk and
wandered away from the
Kirkwood Hotel,
rather than attempt to kill
Vice President
Andrew Johnson,
is discovered hiding-out
in his cousin's home in
Germantown, Maryland.
Elements of the
and the U.S. 22nd
Colored Troops join the
in southern Maryland.
And two members of the
National Detective Police,
Lieutenant
Luther Baker and
Colonel Everton Conger,
accompany 26 members of
the 16th New York Cavalry
under the command of
Lieutenant Edward Doherty.
John Wilkes Booth: Our
cause being almost lost,
something decisive and
great must be done.
I struck boldly and
not as the papers say.
I shouted "sic semper"
before I fired.
In jumping,
broke my leg.
This night,
before the deed,
I wrote a long article and
left it for one of the
Editors of the National
Intelligencer in which I
fully set forth the
reasons for our proceedings.
He or the government.
Tom Hanks: The first
of Booth's two journal
entries ends there.
He is interrupted
by Thomas Jones,
Samuel Cox's
foster brother.
Cox has asked Jones to
see to it that Booth gets
across the Potomac
to Virginia.
In spite of the $100,000
bounty being offered,
Jones keeps Booth and
Herold hidden and fed
while government
troops occupy and
sweep through the region.
Later, Jones will claim
that Booth's singular
desire was for newspapers.
So it is here, in
the pine thicket,
that Booth reads the
horrific accounts,
the lurid details,
and bloody result of
Lewis Powell's attack
on Secretary of State
William Seward.
Fanny Seward:
[screams].
Murder!
He's killing my father!
Murder!
Help!
[screams].
[sobbing].
James Powell: I'm mad.
I'm mad, I'm mad!
Emerick Hansell:
[screams].
William Bell: Murder!
Stop that man!
Murderer!
Tom Hanks:
Miraculously,
Secretary of State
William Seward
is still alive,
as are all of the victims
of Lewis Powell's
savage attack.
And George Atzerodt's
intended victim,
Vice President
Andrew Johnson,
has been sworn in as
the 17th President
of the United States.
But as Abraham Lincoln's
body lies in state
in the East Room
of the White House,
John Wilkes Booth lies on
a bed of dirt and pine
needles and reads the
worst reviews of his life.
A man who was raised
on Shakespeare is brought
to his knees by
his own hubris.
In one fell swoop,
with one grand gesture,
he has changed the course
of American history
and dramatically
jeopardized the fate
of the South that
he loved so dearly.
[horse neighs]
[search party passes]
Tom Hanks: Booth's
tragedy is nearly complete.
On the night
of April 20th,
Thomas Jones leads Booth
and Herold to a boat.
The current is strong.
There are naval
patrols searching the
Potomac for the fugitives.
John Wilkes Booth has
less than six days to live.
[clock ticking].
[gun clicks].
Tom Hanks: On April 18th,
Abraham Lincoln's dream of
an assassinated
president lying in state in the
East Room of the White
House is fully realized.
On April 21st, Lincoln's
body leaves Washington by
train to travel 1,654
miles to Oak Ridge Cemetery
in Springfield, Illinois.
After one failed attempt,
it's in the early morning
hours of April 23rd that
John Wilkes Booth and
David Herold finally
cross the Potomac and
land in Virginia.
As he writes in his diary,
"With every man's hand
against me, for doing what
Brutus was honored for,
looked upon as a
common cutthroat.
Abandoned, with the
curse of Cain upon me."
And on April 24th Booth
and Herold arrive at the
farm of Richard Garrett.
Booth presents himself
as James W. Boyd,
a Confederate soldier
wounded at the
Battle of Petersburg and
the family takes them in.
But the very next day,
Booth is writing in his
diary when word comes
that Union cavalry are
heading toward
the Garrett farm.
Booth tells Herold
to get his pistols and
the two men flee to
hide in the woods.
When they return,
Garrett's suspicions
have been aroused.
Tonight they will
not be welcome to
sleep in the house.
Tonight they will sleep
in the tobacco barn.
John Wilkes Booth:
Tonight I try to escape
these bloodhounds
once more.
I have too great a
soul to die a criminal.
David Herold: I don't
want to die, Booth.
I don't want
to kill no one.
John Wilkes Booth:
I do not wish to
shed a drop of blood.
But I must fight
the course.
'Tis all that's
left to me.
Tom Hanks: At 2:30 AM on
the morning of April 26th,
the tobacco barn at
Garrett's farm is
surrounded by 26
members of the
Lafayette Baker: We
know who you are!
John Wilkes Booth:
Who are you?
What do you want?
Lafayette Baker:
We want you!
And we know
who you are!
Give up your arms and
come out directly!
John Wilkes Booth:
Well, my boy?
David Herold:
We have no choice.
John Wilkes Booth:
You God damn coward.
You would leave me now?
Go, go on.
I would not have
you stay with me.
This is a hard case!
It may be that I am to
be taken by my friends!
Lafayette Baker:
Be assured,
we are not your friends!
John Wilkes Booth:
You have the sound
of a brave man,
an honorable man.
I am a cripple.
I've got but one leg.
If you will withdraw your
men in line 100 yards from
the door, I will come
out and fight you.
Lafayette Baker: We did
not come here to fight!
We came to make
you a prisoner!
John Wilkes Booth: You put
any more kindling there;
I'll put a ball
through you.
I could have picked off
three or four of your men
by now if I
wished to do so.
Draw off your
men 50 yards.
Lafayette Baker:
I will not!
John Wilkes Booth:
Well, my brave boys!
You can prepare a
stretcher for me!
Go, go out.
Save yourself
if you can.
Captain!
There is a man in
here who wishes to
surrender awful bad!
Lafayette Baker: Let
him hand out his arms!
You carry a carbine and
you must hand it out!
John Wilkes Booth:
I declare before my
maker that this man is
innocent of any crime.
Upon the word and
honor of a gentleman,
he has no arms.
The arms are mine
and I've got them!
Doherty: Show your hands!
Put out your hands!
David Herold: Booth.
John Wilkes Booth: Go!
One more stain on
the old banner!
[laughs].
Make quick work
of it, Captain.
Shoot me through
the heart!
[gunshot].
[door creaks].
Conger: He's shot himself!
Lafayette Baker:
No, he did not.
Doherty: Quick,
get him out!
Get him out of here!
Private Parody!
Man: Pick him up!
Conger: Speak, speak!
John Wilkes Booth:
Tell my mother that I
die for my country.
Conger: For your country?
Is that what you say?
John Wilkes Booth: Yes.
Conger: Here, get him
away from the fire.
Let's go.
Man: Let's go.
Let's move!
Come on!
Go!
Man 2: Got him?
Set him against
the wall, soldiers.
Prop him up.
Get him up!
Doherty: Where's he shot?
Conger: In the neck.
I told you, he
shot himself.
Doherty: Nah,
Corbett did.
Give me that.
I saw him through
the barn planks.
He claimed he was raising
his rifle against us.
Sergeant Boston
Corbett shot him.
Tom Hanks:
In Washington,
Lewis Powell
and George Atzerodt
will soon be joined
by David Herold,
and all of them will be
held in custody aboard the
ironclad monitors USS
Saugus and USS Montauk.
And tomorrow, their
photographs will be taken
and the public will see,
for the first time,
the faces of the men who
conspired to decapitate
the government of
the United States.
Now, it is the
morning of April 26th.
And John Wilkes Booth
has only hours to live.
[clock ticking].
[gun clicks].
Conger: There's
nothing in your throat.
No blood.
Tom Hanks: The ball that
passes through Booth's
neck severs his spinal
cord between the 4th and
paralyzing him
from the neck down.
John Wilkes Booth:
K, kill m, kill me.
Conger: We don't
want to kill you.
We want you to get well.
John Wilkes Booth:
[gurgling, gasping]
Ha, hands.
Let me, lift them.
Let me see my hands.
Doherty: He asked
to see his hands.
John Wilkes Booth:
Useless, useless.
[slow, rasping breath].
Tom Hanks: Shortly after
dawn on Wednesday,
April 26th, 1865,
John Wilkes Booth
draws his last breath.
His belongings are
wrapped in paper.
His body is sewn
into a saddle blanket
and loaded onto wagon,
then a steamer,
then a tugboat bound for
the Washington Navy Yard.
Alexander Gardner and
Timothy O'Sullivan board
the ironclad monitors USS
Saugus and Montauk to make
collodion glass plate
photographs of the men who
conspired first to
kidnap and then to
kill Abraham Lincoln.
George Atzerodt,
who lost his nerve
and got drunk rather
than attempt to kill
Vice President Johnson,
is condemned to die.
Alexander Gardner:
Mr. Lewis Powell.
Have a seat.
Tom Hanks: After his
savage but failed attempt
on the life of
Secretary of State Seward,
Lewis Powell hides in
Washington for three days
before wandering
into Mary Surratt's
boarding house and into
the arms of the police.
Alexander Gardner: And
don't you move now, laddie!
Tom Hanks: Powell is
sentenced to death.
On April 27th,
David Herold is brought
aboard the USS Montauk.
The young man who
followed John Wilkes Booth
to the bitter end
is condemned to die.
And at the request of
Secretary of State Stanton,
Alexander Gardner
takes one more picture
on April 27th.
Lafayette Baker:
Dr. Frederick May,
can you positively
identify the body?
Dr. May: Is there a scar
upon the back of its neck?
Lafayette Baker:
There is.
Dr. Barnes: Let me
describe it before it's
seen by me.
It's on the left side and
has the appearance more
like the cicatrix of
a burn than that of a
surgical operation.
It was occasioned
when I removed a fibroid
tumor from his neck.
It is exactly as you
have described it.
Dr. May: Yes, that is he.
That is John Wilkes Booth.
Alexander Gardner:
Gentlemen,
please stand where you
are and perfectly still.
One, two, three.
Tom Hanks:
James Wardell,
one of Lafayette
Baker's detectives,
takes the single
glass plate and
delivers it to
Lafayette Baker.
It is presumed that
Baker gives it to
Secretary of War Stanton.
But no one knows.
Alexander Gardner's
photograph of the autopsy
of John Wilkes Booth
has never been found.
The trial of the
conspirators is a
military tribunal.
And all of the
defendants are found guilty.
And in attempting to
create a definitive record
of the people and
events surrounding the
assassination of
Abraham Lincoln,
Alexander Gardner and
Timothy O'Sullivan are
given extraordinary
and exclusive access.
On July 7th, 1865, the
sentences are carried out
for the first
assassination of a
president in the
history of the nation.
And Mary Surratt becomes
the first woman ever to be
executed by the United
States Federal Government
when she joins Powell,
Atzerodt and Herold on a
scaffold at the old
Arsenal Penitentiary.
In an interview
the former President
of the Confederacy,
Jefferson Davis,
states simply,
"Next to the destruction
of the Confederacy,
the death of
Abraham Lincoln was the
darkest day the
South has ever known."
Tad Lincoln learned of
his father's assassination
while attending "Aladdin"
at Grover's Theater.
He died of heart
failure six years later.
Briefly committed to
an asylum by her only
surviving son, Robert,
Mary Todd Lincoln died in
Springfield, 17 years
after the assassination
of her husband.
John Wilkes Booth's
body was buried in a
storage room at the
old Arsenal Penitentiary,
then in a warehouse
and finally interred in
Green Mount Cemetery in
Baltimore, Maryland,
four years after the
killing of Abraham Lincoln.
President's death,
the Civil War was over.
And Lincoln's Gettysburg
declaration was realized.
That, "Government of the
people, by the people,
"for the people, shall not
perish from the Earth."