On the History Channel: The Hunt for John Wilkes Booth

[CatWoman]

it's pretty good.

Booth was a cowardly POS.

He thought he would be heralded a hero.

Nothing was further from the truth.

Even southern whites wouldn't help him when he was on the run -- he was reduced to sleeping in the woods and in slave cabins.

On now.....

[GOPisEvil]

1. I recommend the book "Manhunt" by James Swanson.

It's a really detailed book on the before, during and after of Booth and the assassination. :hi:

[CatWoman]

4. thank you very much David

:hi:

I just got an online coupon from Abe's Books.

I'll see if they have it :)

[JenniferJuniper]

7. "Manhunt" is an amazingly good book.

I thought I knew a lot about the Lincoln assassination and Booth's flight. How wrong I was.

[Postman]

30. I read the inner cover of this book...

One thing I've often wondered is if these authors make up the conversations they atribute their subjects to having with each other....I mean these authors weren't around in 1865, how do they know what the dialogue was between people?

[JenniferJuniper]

31. I had the exact same reservations - until I read it.

Somehow it all works here.

[Lex]

32. I thought that in the Preface he said nothing is in quotes unless

it was an actual quote supported by records. His Index is quite extensive.

[Postman]

33. I remember reading that but thinking....

entire conversations were recorded? Where?

I haven't read the book so maybe I'm wrong.

[Lex]

34. People wrote their accounts/remembrances down. There are letters, diaries, etc.

The book is an account of who was where and who did what over the 12 days, not told through conversations, but written accounts from hundreds of sources of people's accounts.

Even one of the main men who helped Booth and Herold told what happened during the several days he helped them after the bloodlust for the accomplices had died down.

[jobycom]

2. I've seen that. It's pretty good. Today he'd be a Freeper, in denial, with delusions of grandeur.

[nc4bo]

5. It does look interesting. nt

[CatWoman]

6. and DEMANDING to see Lincoln's death certificate!!

:rofl:

[Neecy]

11. lol

[nc4bo]

3. John Wilkes Booth!!! After Obama's Lincolnesque Inaugaration theme?

:wtf:

Creepy History Channel, thanks so much for the PSA.

[CatWoman]

8. you should really tune in

as I said above, it's pretty good.

the scumbag even kept a journal. He was pissed with the newspaper accounts of his act, and the calls for his head.

so he wanted to "set things right".

cowardly bastard.

[nc4bo]

9. Yea, I'm checking it out as I type.

A real sleaze bag.

[1Hippiechick]

35. I thought the very same thing, but watched it - LOVE history and discovery channels. eom

[Lex]

10. This book I recently read is excellent, "Manhunt: The 12 Day Chase for John Wilkes Booth"

I really enjoyed it. Got it from the library.

Check it out: http://www.jameslswanson.com/

[CatWoman]

18. ROFL

Look upthread. GOPisEvil beat ya to it.

I'm ordering it right now :)

:hi:

[Lex]

20. Ha! I just saw that! What a 'moran' I am.

It's a really good read. Got me all involved in reading Lincoln stuff.

It's Lincoln's 200th birthday next month. :)

[rusty quoin]

12. It's been decades since I read about it. It was sad how seemingly innocent

people got crucified, for example, the doctor who mended his leg.

[Lex]

13. He wasn't innocent. He knew Booth had killed Lincoln and hid him

and covered for him and got him safely on his way from the authorities, and then lied about it later.

The fact he set his leg, I have no problem with because he was a doctor. All the rest is what pisses me off.

[HooptieWagon]

25. I'm not sure about that

My understanding was that he didn't know. And didn't Roger Mudd (newsanchor - a descendant of Dr Samuel Mudd)recently petition for a pardon that was granted?

[JenniferJuniper]

27. Hard to believe he didn't recognize him.

He'd met him more than once before. And Booth was hardly an average looking fellow. Even those old photos can't disguise how stunningly handsome he was.

[Lex]

29. He clearly DID know Booth. Booth had been to his house several times

before. Even Mudd didn't deny knowing Booth, just that he didn't know he shot Lincoln--which was probably a lie since Booth thought he was a real hero to Southern sympathizers and Mudd was one.

[JenniferJuniper]

14. Dr. Mudd was likely more guilty than was Mary Surratt and she was hanged.

The good doctor only did a few years.

[Lex]

15. Here's a good book on Mary Surratt

if you haven't read it: http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Accomplice-Surratt-Abraham-Lincoln/dp/0465038158/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232595799&sr=8-1

[rusty quoin]

22. Thanks.

[rusty quoin]

16. The book I read was written in something like the 30's. Mary S. hanging was wrong.

[Lex]

17. Yeah, you should probably read how guilty she was

in the book I linked above.

About the author of that book: "While having started out believing in her subject's innocence, she ends up convinced that Surratt was guilty of joining John Wilkes Booth's plot to kill the president."

[JenniferJuniper]

19. The evidence against her was pretty thin

Too thin to justify a hanging, IMO. They were really after her son, John, one of the conspirators who got away. They did get him eventually, but the public's thirst for revenge was waning at the time and he got off of a technicality.

[CatWoman]

21. did you know that Roger Mudd, journalist

is a direct descendant of Dr. Mudd?

[Lex]

I didn't know that. "Your name is mud" pre-dates the assassination

as a phrase, though.

[Lex]

23. While I'm spouting off about Lincoln's assassination books, this one

is very interesting too: http://www.amazon.com/We-Saw-Lincoln-Shot-Eyewitness/dp/087805779X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232596260&sr=8-1

100 eyewitness accounts from people who were in Ford's Theater that night.

The last eyewitness that night died in 1954! (He was 5 when he was there.)

[CatWoman]

24. wow!!

1954???

thanks, Lex :)

[JenniferJuniper]

26. A fascinating book, and not just because of the historic nature of the accounts.

It's amazing to see how so many people watching the same event can recall it so differently. And it demonstrates how fluid and fluctuating the human memory is.

[Lex]

28. Esp. about what Booth yelled, when he yelled it, and if he broke his leg

that night on the jump or not. Some people even said Tad was there in the booth. And that Lincoln stood up after being shot. All kinds of stuff. Very interesting.

[1Hippiechick]

36. And this one by Booth includes diary he kept while on the run:

http://www.amazon.com/Right-Wrong-God-Judge-Me/dp/0252069676/ref=pd_sim_b_6

[kskiska]

37. "American Brutus" is good, too

by Michael W. Kauffman, Random House, 2004.

I have a VHS tape of an old "I've Got a Secret" TV show from the '50s. An old man came on as a contestant and his secret was, "I witnessed Abraham Lincoln's Assassination in Ford's Theatre." He had been taken to the theatre that night as a child and saw Booth leap onstage. He said that at first he felt concern for Booth because he seemed to have been injured. Makes me feel really old that at a time when I was maybe 10 years old there was still a living person who'd witnessed Lincoln's assassination.

[Hannah Bell]

38. So the show explains the murder as a plot hatched by Booth for personal motives?

[Lex]

39. Did you see it?

[Hannah Bell]

40. no, that's why i'm asking.

[Lex]

43. Oh, I just wondered why you thought it might've presented Booth's motives

as personal? Personal how? It presented the way Booth described in his diaries and in his conversations with others.

[Hannah Bell]

44. because the OP says he thought he'd be heralded as a hero.

sounded like part of a motive.

people who kill political figures usually have a motive. i wondered if this kind of thing was presented as a motive in the show.

[gulfcoastliberal]

41. I want to know what was in all those missing diary pages.

That's what jumped out at me, but it was also interesting to see what a comedy of errors his getaway was.

[serrano2008]

42. Mudd's great-great-great-?-grandson on American Idol tonight

He was this really creepy guy and was named Mudd. Being a Lincoln Assassination buff I instantly thought of Samuel Mudd, and they mentioned a few seconds later he was the great-great-great---grandson (don't remember how many greats) of him. Funny stuff.

I also recommend the 100 Eyewitness Accounts book. Very interesting perspectives from the actors on stage, to the Lincoln's guests in the Presidential Box, the doctors that climbed up to help him. Really interesting stuff.

Ha, and don't forget to search on Ebay for "Lincoln hair" and you can get like 2 millimeters of Lincoln's hair, removed after the assassination for $495. I am a Lincoln Assassination nerd (buff) but even I haven't bought one of those. (yet)

[RFKJrNews]

45. "Sic semper tyrannis"

Booth's famous words always bring George W. Bush to mind...

(Thus always to tyrants)

And it just makes me wonder why some lone nut didn't at least attempt to do more than throw a shoe at him during the past 8 years.

I would NEVER advocate violence against another human being, but I'm just sayin'...Bush was even more despised than Lincoln was in his day. Even during the Civil War, Lincoln at least had the support of HALF the country. Bush is hated by the entire WORLD.