it's midnight
and we're outside of ford's theater
those soldiers
are carrying president abraham lincoln
he's mortally wounded
lincoln will die just a few hours from
now at 7 22 a.m reportedly in the same
bed that his killer john wilkes booth
once took a nap
it's just one more strange detail in the
real story behind lincoln's
assassination
but how did one man develop the means
and the motive to kill the president
at a time when america needed him most
be satisfied oh calm dishonorable
vile submission that's john wilkes booth
and his older brother edward
they grew up on a maryland farm operated
by slave labor sons of a legendary actor
tibbett you rat catcher
years later the siblings gather in
philadelphia at the mother's home have a
very important discussion
about john's future
he's got a map with the mason dixon line
drawn on it he basically drew a line and
told john wilkes that he could act in
any theater below that line south of
that line and that he would take all the
theaters north philadelphia boston new
york
which of course were all the major
theatrical centers of the nation
i think initially he was very angry
about it
once he was there he really
identified with the chivalric nature of
the south and southern audiences
and enjoyed being kind of at the top of
the racial hierarchy
i think it's very important for people
to recognize that john wilkes booth grew
up in a slave state from a family that
owned slaves and so his ideas about the
confederate cause were not born in a
vacuum they were part of who he was
he once wrote that slavery was
essentially a blessing for african
americans
the president and mrs lincoln saw him
perform twice both times in ford's
theater this is the first time in a play
called the marble heart 17 months before
the assassination they live
some onlookers think booth uses the play
to threaten lincoln
but he shall not have them
no
gold
cannot buy
genius
lincoln's sister-in-law leaned over and
said something like well it seems like
he's got it out for you and you know
lincoln responded by saying yeah he's
staring a little hard at me isn't he
whether or not lincoln actually soaked
it in is another question that
historians like to ask because he did
get a lot of hate mail
he showed a journalist a pigeonhole in
his desk where he had filed away more
than 80 letters threatening his life
so even if he knew at some point or
suspected during the marble heart that
perhaps john wilkes was
menacing him in some sort of way
that was an almost daily occurrence
now 10 pm
the president and his wife mary inside
this box with their guests major henry
rathbone and his fiancee clara harris
out here
someone is missing
lincoln's bodyguard
he was last seen tipping a few back next
door at the star saloon during
intermission
notice the bulging boost pocket
that's a 44 derivative small easy to
conceal the perfect assassin's gun
but here's the thing
it only carries one shot
booth will have to get as close as he
possibly can
to the president
booth will use that piece of wood to jam
the door closed from the inside slowing
any attempts to help lincoln
oh mr booth
lincoln's valet doesn't think twice
before letting booth in the box the
actor is famous and this is his home
turf
not to mention
the president is a fan
turn you inside too hotel you stop
apologizing old man
[Applause]
many people in the theater think that
this is all part of the show
they have no idea what's happened until
mary screams
the president's been shot
police
doctors will need to do everything that
they possibly can to save the
president's life
it's midnight and president abraham
lincoln's condition is dire
the bullet has pierced his brain and
come to rest at the front of his skull
a carriage ride on this unpaved road to
the white house one mile away could kill
the president
the soldiers who carry lincoln across
the street to a boarding house happened
to be at ford's theater on a special
pass to washington
never suspected they would end up
carrying a dying president
a doctor named charles leal was one of
those attending lincoln
he'd been in the audience at ford's
theater and had been hoping to meet the
president he was among the first to
reach lincoln's box
they cleared blood clots from the wound
if they had not done that the blood
clotting would have snuffed him out
within an hour of the injury
he survives through the night and
survives until 7 22 a.m
the morning of april 15th
modern medicine could have done much
more
to relieve his suffering but
the nature of that wound was such that
even with modern medical intervention
the president's life was over
you