50 Fun Facts About Chasing Lincoln's Killer

Why was the dying Abraham Lincoln laid diagonally across a boardinghouse bed on the night he was shot?

He was too tall for the small bed in the back bedroom, so Lincoln lay corner to corner through the night and died there the next morning.

In which Roman tragedy by Shakespeare did John Wilkes Booth share a stage with his two actor brothers?

Julius Caesar brought the three Booth brothers together just once, in November 1864, and John Wilkes played Mark Antony rather than one of the assassins.

On which Christian holy day in April 1865 was Abraham Lincoln shot while watching a comedy?

Good Friday gave the mourning a religious cast: Lincoln died the next morning, and Easter Sunday sermons a day later praised him from the pulpit.

Which territory did the Secretary of State stabbed on the night Lincoln was shot later buy for the United States?

Alaska cost the United States $7.2 million in 1867, a deal struck by a man who still carried the knife scars from that night.

Which comedy by the English playwright Tom Taylor was Abraham Lincoln watching when he was shot?

Our American Cousin was a farce about a rough-mannered Yankee claiming an English estate, and Booth knew it well enough to fire during a sure laugh.

Which cavalry sergeant, a hatter by trade, shot John Wilkes Booth through a crack in a burning barn wall?

Boston Corbett stepped forward and admitted firing the shot himself, was hailed as a hero, and received about $1,650 of the reward money.

Which Washington boardinghouse keeper became the first woman executed by the United States federal government?

Mary Surratt went to her death despite a plea for mercy signed by five of the nine men who had just convicted her.

Which Union general was advertised as Abraham Lincoln's guest in the theater box but turned the invitation down?

Ulysses S. Grant stayed away partly because his wife, Julia, was on poor terms with Mary Lincoln, and Booth had meant to stab him after firing.

What did John Wilkes Booth first plot to do to Abraham Lincoln in the months before the shooting?

Kidnap him and trade him for Confederate prisoners was the plan, but on the day Booth's men lay in wait on a country road, Lincoln never came.

Which Maryland doctor treated the fugitive John Wilkes Booth hours after the shooting and was later imprisoned?

Samuel Mudd had met Booth the year before, a link that helped convict him, and he escaped execution by the narrowest possible margin.

At which Washington playhouse, where John Wilkes Booth had starred himself, was Abraham Lincoln shot?

Ford's Theatre was familiar ground to the killer, who had been one of the first leading men to appear there after it opened.

Which Secretary of War ran the search for John Wilkes Booth, then the largest in American history?

Edwin Stanton personally directed thousands of troops and put $50,000 on Booth's head, with $25,000 more for each of two accomplices.

Which river did John Wilkes Booth cross in a small boat at night to flee Maryland for the South?

The Potomac crossing had to wait days for a safe night, and Booth set out in a boat supplied by a local Confederate agent.

Which kind of pocket pistol, named after a Philadelphia gunsmith, did John Wilkes Booth fire at Abraham Lincoln?

A derringer held a single bullet, so Booth had one chance and carried a knife for anyone who tried to stop him.

Which injury, splinted by a country doctor, slowed John Wilkes Booth throughout his days on the run?

A broken leg, the left fibula, left Booth hobbling on homemade crutches, unable to move fast or far without help.

Which vice president escaped harm at a Washington hotel when the man sent to kill him lost his nerve?

Andrew Johnson was woken at his hotel with news of the shooting, and by the next morning the man marked for death was president.

Which Secretary of State was stabbed in his sickbed by one of Booth's men on the night Lincoln was shot?

William Seward survived because a splint fitted to his injured jaw kept the blade from reaching a vein in his throat.

Which historian, born on Abraham Lincoln's own birthday, wrote the young-adult history Chasing Lincoln's Killer?

James L. Swanson was born on February 12, 1959, exactly 150 years after Lincoln, and made the assassination his main field of research.

To which Illinois city did a funeral train carry Abraham Lincoln's body after crossing seven states?

Springfield lay at the end of a 1,700-mile route lined by millions of mourners, with bonfires, bands and hymns beside the tracks.

Where did Robert E. Lee surrender his army just five days before Abraham Lincoln was shot?

Appomattox seemed to settle the war, and Booth, who had spent months scheming to help the South, turned to a far more desperate plan.

Which pharmacist's assistant rode with John Wilkes Booth for twelve days and gave himself up at the barn?

David Herold was an avid hunter who knew the back country, and earlier that night he had guided another attacker to the Secretary of State's door.

Which Confederate veteran, wounded at Gettysburg, forced his way into the Secretary of State's home with a knife?

Lewis Powell's revolver misfired, so he clubbed his target's son senseless with it and went on with a blade.

Which German-born conspirator was sent to kill the vice president but drank in a hotel bar instead?

George Atzerodt had asked the hotel bartender where his target was staying, a question that raised suspicion the next day and put police on his trail.

Which Army major, slashed by Booth's knife in the presidential box, went on to kill his own wife years later?

Henry Rathbone married Clara Harris, the fiancée who sat beside him that night, and in 1883 he killed her and was declared insane.

Which star of the play reached the presidential box and cradled the wounded Abraham Lincoln's head in her lap?

Laura Keene had been the first powerful female theater manager in New York, and Lincoln's blood stained the cuff of her dress that night.

To which building across Tenth Street was the wounded Abraham Lincoln carried from the theater to die?

Petersen House belonged to a German tailor who let out rooms, and one of his lodgers waved the men carrying the president inside.

Which Confederate river agent fed the hidden John Wilkes Booth for days and finally led him to a boat?

Thomas Jones heard a detective offer $100,000 for word of the fugitives while they lay hidden nearby, kept silent, and told the story in a book in 1893.

Which remote island fortress in the Gulf of Mexico held the four Lincoln conspirators who were spared execution?

Fort Jefferson, a vast brick stronghold 68 miles west of Key West, released three of the four with pardons in 1869; the fourth had died there.

Chasing Lincoln's Killer is a young readers' version of which bestselling adult history by the same author?

Manhunt won an Edgar Award for crime writing, and in 2024 it became a television miniseries with the Secretary of War as its hero.

Which state's Latin motto is John Wilkes Booth said to have shouted after shooting Abraham Lincoln?

Virginia's motto means "thus always to tyrants", and Booth wrote in his diary that he cried it out, casting himself as a liberator.

Which disease swept a Florida prison fort in 1867 and helped the doctor who treated John Wilkes Booth win a pardon?

Yellow fever killed the prison's own doctor, so the convicted physician took over his post, and soldiers at the fort petitioned the president on his behalf.

Which disaster at the old theater where Abraham Lincoln was shot killed 22 government clerks in 1893?

A floor collapse brought down the front of all three storeys when workers digging in the cellar undermined a supporting pillar.

Which post was Abraham Lincoln's secretary of war confirmed for just four days before he died in 1869?

Supreme Court justice was a seat he never took: nominated and confirmed on a single December day, he died before he could serve.

Which item were most of the men accused in the Lincoln plot forced to wear while held aboard ironclad warships?

Canvas hoods, padded and slit only at the mouth and nostrils, were stifling in the summer heat, and one prisoner wept when his was put on.

In which city was John Wilkes Booth finally buried in his family's cemetery plot, four years after he died?

Baltimore received the remains only in 1869; until then the government had kept them in a secret, unmarked grave so that no shrine could grow up around it.

Which Army surgeon, six weeks out of medical school, was first to reach Abraham Lincoln in the theater box?

Charles Leale could not find the bullet, but he cleared a blood clot from the wound and the president's breathing improved.

What kind of court tried the accused Lincoln conspirators in 1865, a choice criticised inside the cabinet?

A military commission of army officers needed only a simple majority to convict and two-thirds to impose death, with no jury at all.

Which proposal in Abraham Lincoln's speech of April 11, 1865, made John Wilkes Booth vow it would be his last?

Votes for freed slaves was more than Booth could bear as he stood in the crowd below the White House window; three days later he acted.

What did John Wilkes Booth's riding spur catch on as he jumped from the presidential box to the stage?

A flag of the Treasury Guard, hung to decorate the box for the president's visit, snagged the spur in the middle of a twelve-foot drop.

What did the hidden John Wilkes Booth ask the man who brought his food to bring him as well?

Newspapers came each day with his food, and Booth was surprised to find little sympathy even in those that had attacked Lincoln in life.

Where did John Wilkes Booth lie hidden for days in southern Maryland while cavalry patrols searched nearby?

A pine thicket hid him so well that the man who brought his food made seven visits without once meeting another person on the way.

What had left the Secretary of State bedridden with a fractured jaw nine days before he was attacked with a knife?

A carriage accident on April 5 had thrown him from his seat, and the splint that doctors fitted afterwards turned the blade aside.

Which tool did the Secretary of State's attacker carry as a labourer's disguise on the night he was arrested?

A pickaxe did not fool the detectives he walked into at a boardinghouse: it looked unused, and his hands were soft and well manicured.

What did the Secretary of State's attacker claim to be delivering in order to get past the servant at the door?

Medicine from the family doctor was the story, but the servant grew suspicious because that doctor had left only an hour earlier.

Which Lincoln son was watching Aladdin at another Washington playhouse when his father was shot?

Tad was twelve, and he learned what had happened when the manager announced the news from the stage to the whole audience.

On whose farm near Port Royal did Union cavalry finally corner John Wilkes Booth in a barn?

Richard Garrett had been told his guest was a wounded Confederate soldier, and Booth died on the family's porch hours after the barn was surrounded.

Which photographer was cleared to photograph the captured Lincoln conspirators while reporters were kept away?

Alexander Gardner went on to photograph the executions as well, and he had pictured Lincoln himself on seven occasions.

By which crossing out of Washington did John Wilkes Booth talk his way past a sentry despite a nine o'clock curfew?

Navy Yard Bridge was closed to civilians after 9 pm, yet the sentry let Booth pass, and his young guide crossed the same way within the hour.

Which March 1865 ceremony did John Wilkes Booth attend as the guest of his secret fiancée, a senator's daughter?

The second inauguration put Booth within sight of the president six weeks before the shooting, on a ticket obtained through his fiancée's father.

Which errand took John Wilkes Booth to the theater at noon, where he learned Abraham Lincoln was coming that night?

Collecting his mail gave Booth about ten hours to plan, and by evening he had assigned each of his men a target.