Lincoln: The First Presidential Assassination

American History Hit

History Hit

History, America

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today we're delving into the archives and revisiting Don and Michael Kauffman's conversation on the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln...

On the evening of 14th April, 1865, the Union was celebrating victory in the civil war, won 5 days earlier with General Lee's surrender at Appomattox. President Abraham Lincoln was watching a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC. But some Southern sympathisers still thought the Confederacy could be restored. Among them was the actor John Wilkes Booth. He entered the theatre, made his way to Lincoln's box and carried out the first assassination of a US president. Michael Kauffman takes Don through the conspiracy to murder Lincoln and the act itself, after which Booth fled on horseback, into the night.

Produced by Benjie Guy. Mixed by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer: Charlotte Long.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	April 14, 1865.
0:11.5	Ford's Theater is crowded tonight, an audience in high spirits laughing abhoriously,
0:17.2	all caught up in the relief and excitement of the union's recent victory.
0:21.7	Thrilled to be sharing the evening with the President and First Lady who've come along to enjoy the comedy.
0:28.3	But one chair, right outside the door to the President's box, sits empty.
0:33.8	It should be occupied by a police officer, one John Frederick Parker, a member of Washington's early force,
0:40.9	but a man with a long record of misconduct. Drunkenness, sleeping on duty, even visiting brothels while in uniform.
0:48.8	Tonight he's again derelict. Instead of guarding Lincoln's door, Parker has wandered off to watch the play from the gallery.
0:57.0	At intermission, he joins the president's coachman and footman for a drink at the nearby
1:01.3	Star Saloon. The laps won't cost him his badge, but it will earn him a grim place in history,
1:08.4	as the guard who abandoned his post, the fateful night of Lincoln's murder.
1:13.3	Worse still, while Parker drinks, the assassin himself, John Wilkes Booth, is sitting just a few
1:19.3	stools away, finishing his whiskey before stepping next door to commit his terrible act.
1:39.7	The to commit his terrible act. Hey, everyone. Welcome to American History Hit. I'm Don Wildman.
1:43.2	Given the pinnacle that Abraham Lincoln had reached in April 1865 as president and savior of the United States,
1:52.0	it's near impossible to imagine how low the nation must have fallen upon news of his murder.
1:57.9	This was the first time an American president had been assassinated. Never mind,
2:02.0	he was the visionary leader who'd carried the country through the slog of civil war. Now,
2:07.3	with a great man martyred, Americans were on their own, faced with the daunting task of binding
2:12.4	the nation's wounds. Sadly, shockingly, the first step in that process would be rooting out a nasty infection,
2:20.1	tracking down the president's killer and his nest of conspirators so that the healing could even
2:25.0	begin. Today we have Michael Kaufman, author of American Brutus, a detailed account of the
	...

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