By: Zack Solly

How many United States Presidents have been shot ?

5Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Regan and William McKinley

How many U.S. Presidents have been shot at but not actually have been hit?

Andrew Jackson, Harry Truman and Gerald Ford

Who was the first President ever assassinated?

Did you know that ten days before his assassination, President Lincoln had a dream of his own assassination taking place.

Who Killed President Lincoln?

John Wilkes Booth

Booths original plan was to kidnap President Lincoln, not to assassinate him.

Their plan was to take Lincoln to Richmond and hold him for ransom to free confederate POW’s.

Booth was informed on the morning of April 14, 1865 when he was getting his mail at Fords Theater that President Lincoln would be attending the play that evening.

Booth went to the President’s box at Ford’s Theater and carved a mortise in door frame to help aid him in getting in.

Did you know….

Ulysses S Grant was suppose to be Lincoln’s guest the night he was assassinated.

He was able to gain access to the Presidents box because he was an actor at Ford’s Theater

During his escape the spur on Booth’s boot was caught on the bunting and a picture of George Washing ton and caused him to land awkwardly causing him to break his left Fibula.

Booth’s escape route

Hours after President Lincoln was shot, the largest manhunt in United States History was launched.

Did you know?

John Wilkes Booth was 26 years old when he assassinated President Lincoln

Bridges around Washington, D.C. were closed down. Guards were instructed to not let any one cross to keep the assassin in Washington

Did you know…

Lincoln was assassinated on Good Friday, April 14, 1865

He would die April 15, 1865 at 7:22 am

The bed President Lincoln died on across from Fords Theater

After Lincoln passed away, Sec. of War Edwin Stanton said “ Now he belongs to the ages”

Edwin Stanton

During his escape, Booth fled to Dr. Samuel Mudd’s house where he received treatment for his broken leg. Mudd knew Booth, but did not know what he had done earlier.

Samuel Mudd Mudds farm house

Booth would eventually be cornered in a barn at Garrett’s Farm in Virginia, where he was shot and killed

But was Booth really killed at Garrett’s Farm? Or could he have escaped? Since the Union soldiers believed they had killed Booth, no trial ever took place.

He was the most wanted man in the country and caused the largest manhunt in U.S. History.

But no pictures taken of his dead body

Lewis Powell Co-conspirator

The records of the conspiracy to murder President Lincoln were declared classified and never released.

If it was only Booth, Powell and Atzerodt, why are the records not being released to the public?

David Herold, one of Booths co-conspirators, when instructed by the Union Army to come out of the barn, stated that Booth was not in the Barn but another man.

A man named John St. Helen fell deathly ill in Granbury, Texas . Thinking he was going to die, he confessed to being the assassin, John Wilkes Booth to Finis L. Bates

Bates was instructed by St. Helen that if he died to tell his brother Edwin Booth he was dead.

He then explained how he escaped

How was Booth able to escape Washington when all the bridges were close? Historians claim that all the bridges out of Washington were closed to keep Booth in close proximity.

St. Helen told Bates the reason he was able to cross the bridges out of Washington at night was because he knew the password “TB-TB-Road”

He confessed that when he was eluding the man hunt for him, he lost his personal papers. Knowing that the Union soldier’s were hot on his trail, he sent a man who worked at Garrett’s farm named Ruddy to retrieve his papers.

St. Helen claims that when the union soldiers enter Garrett’s farm that they shot Ruddy and because he had Booths papers they assumed it was him.

St. Helen would eventually get better and would leave town shortly after, he would change his name to David E. George, and in 1903 he would committed suicide in Enid, Oklahoma.

David E. George John Wilkes Booth

Finis L Bates would write a book about Booth. Bates also had David E George’s body preserved by mummifying the body

In 1931, 6 Chicago physicians examined the body of David E. George and recorded their findings of a scared right eye brow, crushed right thumb, and broken left leg.

Booth is known to have had all three characteristics

Did you know…

After the assassination of Lincoln, 8 people were investigated for conspiracy for involvement in the Lincoln Assassination

Dr. Samuel Mudd was convicted for aiding a felon by helping Booth. He was sentenced to life in prison

Andrew Johnson would pardon him in 1869

Did you know…

On July 7, 1865 four people, including the first woman ever executed by the United States Government, Mary Surratt, were hanged at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. in connection with the Lincoln assassination

December 2010 the body of John Wilkes Booth was exhumed to have DNA samples taken to see if they match his brothers Edwin Booth.