What Really Happened: The Lincoln Assassination

De: Robert J. Hutchinson

Narrado por: David Marantz

After 150 years, many unsolved mysteries and enduring urban legends still surround the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by the popular stage actor John Wilkes Booth.

In a new look at the case, award-winning author Robert Hutchinson (The Dawn of Christianity) explores what we know, and don’t know, about what really happened at Ford’s Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865. In addition, he argues that the deep-seated political hatreds that roiled Washington, DC, in the final weeks of the Civil War are particularly relevant to our own polarized age.

Among the tantalizing questions Hutchinson explores are:

• Why Abraham Lincoln’s final day on earth was one of the happiest of his life
• Whether desperate Confederate political leaders, fearing for their lives, had a hand in the assassination plot
• How a talented family of actors, poets, and physicians opposed to slavery somehow produced a presidential assassin
• The mystery of Lincoln’s police bodyguard - why he disappeared at Ford’s Theatre when Lincoln had already been the subject of an assassination attempt the previous year
• What led Booth to give up on his original plan to kidnap Lincoln and decide on assassination instead
• Whether Lucy Hale, Booth’s secret fiancée and the daughter of a US senator, who once caught the eye of Lincoln’s son Robert, knew about Booth’s plans to kill Lincoln
• How Booth evaded the largest manhunt in US history for nearly two weeks despite being unable to walk
• Why the government insisted on the death penalty for Mary Surratt, who ran a boarding house where Booth used to visit, but allowed most of the Confederate sympathizers who aided his escape to get off scot-free
• Who gave the order to shoot Booth in the Garrett barn - and what happened to his body
• What became of the Booth and Lincoln families after the assassination
• Much more

©2020 Robert J. Hutchinson (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Great story

Very well structured and sourced. The story is relevant to divisions in the country today. Very good.

The Erratic Behavior of a Murderer

The book is a good account of an infamous event in US history. Details facts as well as unknowns, especially, of John Wilkes Booth's behavior up to and including President Lincoln's murder. Was Booth a tool of the Confederate Secret Service? Did Booth act in concert? From what sources did he receive funds? Was Mary Surrat an active, fully participating conspirator?

Overall, an account worth reading.

Not so good

this piece was a lot of historical information seemingly randomly assembled.
Poor editing, poor arrangement of chapters, and in many cases, repetitive information.
although one of my favorite subjects. this was difficult to finish.