Today is Sunday, April 26, 2020.

On this day in 1865, Union soldiers at a farm in Port Royal Virginia engaged in a deadly standoff

with presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth.

Welcome to today in True Crime, a parcast original. Due to the graphic nature of today's crimes, listener discretion is

advised. Extreme caution is advised for listeners under 13. Today we're covering

assassin John Wilkes Booth's last stand in a barn in Port Royal, Virginia.

Eleven days had passed since he'd murdered the President of the United States, Abraham

Lincoln. Eleven days of sleeping in the mud, nursing a leg injury,

and trying to evade Union soldiers.

But he couldn't get away forever.

Let's go back to just before 3 a.m. April 26,

1865 on a tobacco farm in Virginia owned by Richard Garrett.

Federal Detective Everton Congress. Federal Detective Everton Conger and his unit, the 16th New York Cavalry, descended on Garrett's farm.

Anticipation colored the air, making it taste sharp, dangerous.

Even Conger's commanding officer, Lieutenant Edward P. Doherty, seemed grim and resolute.

For over a week, Conger and countless Union soldiers had been hunting the cowardly traitor, John Wilkes

Booth.

They'd followed false leads and dead ends, all in pursuit of the man who'd done the unthinkable.

He'd killed the President of the United States and afterward honorless Confederate

sympathizers had helped him elude justice.

Now Doherty wasn't taking any chances. His unit had gotten a tip that Booth and another man were hiding out at Garrett's farm.

So when Conger and the others reached their destination, Doordy ordered that the landowner be hauled out for questioning.

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