A Shot in the Dark: Investigating Lincoln's Assassination and the Chilling Conspiracy | Part 2

Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan

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True Crime

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In part one of this two-part series on Body Bags hosts Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave Mack take listeners through the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and its aftermath. They describe the chaos at Ford's Theater, the attending physicians' struggles as they assessed Lincoln's condition with limited medical knowledge and tools, the removal of Lincoln's body, and the irony of increased security after the assassination. They also delve into the autopsy process, highlighting the physicians' extensive experience and the challenges they faced.

Time-codes:

00:20 - Start of show.

01:35 - John Wilkes Booth's actions in the theater.

02:00 - Immediate response to the shooting.

02:35 - Lincoln's condition when the surgeon arrived.

03:15 - Initial confusion among the audience.

04:00 - Booth's calculated timing for the shooting.

05:30 - Surgeon realizes Lincoln's gunshot wound location.

05:55 - Limitations of medical knowledge and tools.

07:40 - Lincoln stops breathing and has dilated pupils.

08:10 - Surgeon removes clot, Lincoln breathes again.

09:20 - Difficulty transporting Lincoln to the White House.

09:55 - Physicians try to locate the lead ball in Lincoln's head.

11:30 - Attempt to drain blood and reduce intracranial pressure.

12:00 - Lincoln's death at 7:30 a.m.

13:50 - Lincoln remains unconscious throughout the ordeal.

16:40 - Removal of Lincoln's body from the boarding house.

17:15 - Absence of security and irony of increased security.

18:00 - Lincoln's tendency to dismiss security.

18:40 - Lincoln's body conveyed to White House for autopsy.

19:55 - Handsaw used to open Lincoln's skull.

21:10 - Delicate nature of dissecting the brain.

22:15 - Autopsy challenges: lack of electricity, reliance on touch.

23:00 - Physicians' extensive experience in dealing with trauma.

29:40 - Modern gunshot wound examination process.

30:30 - Role of x-rays in understanding bullet trajectories.

31:15 - Autopsy confirms nothing could have saved Lincoln.

32:55 - Limitations of 1800s medical treatments.

33:30 - John Wilkes Booth's autopsy.

34:50 - Physician's anger and resentment towards Booth.

35:30 - Booth's body relocation before returning to family.

36:05 - Outro.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan
0:20.0	How many times in movies over the years have we heard somebody say, is there a doctor
0:23.7	in the house?
0:25.4	I've often wondered about the origin of that comment because you know it's used theatrically
0:30.6	many times. I know that obviously that has occurred in real life. Is there a doctor in the house?
0:35.8	Is there a doctor present? That night, in Ford's Theatre, a call was put out to the audience.
0:43.3	Is there a surgeon? Is there a surgeon? Today, we're going to talk about the assassination
0:50.3	and autopsy of our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and this is Body Bags.
1:02.6	Dave Mack, we've got so much information here. Let's continue on with part two.
1:07.3	As we look at what has taken place, this is the part that like millions of other people,
1:15.7	I can't understand what happened next. We've got John Wilkes Booth in the theatre where
1:22.1	he obviously had access because people knew who he was. Now Booth's standing there, he pulls the
1:27.2	trigger, he shoots the president in the head and then proceeds to slash Major Rathbone and then
1:35.8	leaps from the presidential booth to the stage. That's the story and that Rathbone tried to grab
1:42.6	his jacket, causing Booth to land awkwardly, possibly breaking his leg as he landed and then
1:49.0	the hunt was on. Everybody else, as you mentioned, is there a surgeon in the house? The president
1:54.8	has been shot in the head. They have to immediately get him out of where he is and get him into the
2:01.3	care of doctors. I'm sure they just don't grab him up like a child and run out of there.
2:05.8	No, when he was initially, when the first assessment was made by a surgeon that rolled into the
2:11.7	box, he noted that the president was still seated in his chair, in the presidential chair there in
2:17.8	the booth and he was leaning to his right. So the defect or where the injury is is going to be on the
2:26.2	left rear or posterior aspect of the president's skull. And Mary Todd Lincoln was kind of
	...

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