Only a few short hours after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, amateur detectives and conspiracy theorists, questioned and debated the proven fact that the sixteenth president of the United States, was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865. Booth’s plans for the assassination were detailed, his co-conspirators followed-through on their parts of the plot and the escape route was all mapped out. The successful assassination of President Lincoln and escape of John Wilkes Booth, seemed a sure thing, until Booth was trapped in a barn on Garrett’s farm and ultimately shot dead by a Union soldier.
Lincoln’s killer, John Wilkes Booth, had several reasons to murder the President on the night of April 14, 1865. According to Historynet: …show more content…
This gave him an advantage because no one would see him smuggle the gun into the theater. However, when he went to kill Lincoln, he only had one shot, and wouldn’t have enough time to reload if he missed, so he would need to get very close to the President in order to succeed. The author states that meanwhile, Mary Surratt was arriving in Surrattsville to deliver the note Booth wrote to John Lloyd. As part of the plan, Lloyd was to also have the weapons ready, and he was responsible for holding them until the men came to pick them up later that night. The next step was to assemble the team and assign jobs for each of the conspirators to carry out. There was a detailed plan to not only kill President Lincoln, but also the Vice President, Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward. (Swanson 27) This part of the plan did not succeed. The author reveals that "George Atzerodt's assignment was to assassinate the vice president in his room at the Kirkwood House...Lewis Powell would murder Secretary of State Seward. Additionally, David Herold, an experienced outdoorsman, hunter, and tracker, would accompany Lewis Powell, take him to Seward's home, and guide the assassin, unfamiliar with the capital's streets, out of the city where he would meet up with Booth. Booth claimed the most notorious part in the plot for himself. He would slip into Ford's Theatre and assassinate the president during the play." (Swanson, 27) …show more content…
After everything had been thought of, Booth still had to assassinate Lincoln himself, which would be no easy feat. According to Swanson, “Booth entered the theater lobby…climbed the curving staircase to the balcony, following the same path the Lincoln’s took to their box…the door was unguarded…seated near the door, was Lincoln’s servant, Charles Forbes. Booth showed Forbes something. To this day, no one knows what words they exchanged or what Booth showed him…Forbes did not attempt to stop him.” (36) According to this source, Lincoln’s servant Charles Forbes let Booth pass right by him into the President’s Box where Lincoln himself sat. The question is, why did he let him pass without any objection? Was it because he was out to get Lincoln himself and he wanted someone to do the deed for him? Was it because he felt oppressed by Lincoln and thought he would be better off without him? Or was he afraid of Booth and instead of doing something about it, just let him pass in fear for his own life? No one knows, but it could have had something to do with the fact that Booth was also a successful actor, and he was well known in the