Presidential Assassinations | Murder for Spoils | 1

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On April 14th, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln died hours later, shocking the war-torn nation and becoming the first President to be assassinated in office. But he would not be the last.

Sixteen years later, no action had been taken to protect the commander-in-chief. When James Garfield became president in March 1881, a disturbed and delusional former lawyer demanded a position in the new administration. Furious over his rejection, he began to stalk Garfield, determined to exact deadly revenge.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:09.0	Imagine it's before dawn on April 26, 1865.
0:22.5	You're inside a tobacco barn in rural Northern Virginia.
0:25.8	You're on the run with the most wanted man in America, John Wilkes Booth.
0:30.6	Twelve days ago Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.
0:34.5	But he didn't do it alone.
0:36.1	You helped him in the plot, and now you're both fleeing ahead of federal troops.
0:40.6	You're pretending to be Confederate soldiers on the way home from the war, and you've
0:44.6	convinced a local farmer to give you shelter.
0:48.0	You wake to the sound of barking.
0:50.7	Booth stirs beside you.
0:52.1	Hey, you awake?
0:53.1	You hear that?
0:54.6	You've gotten the dogs going.
0:57.0	You shoot upright as Booth presses his ear against a crack in the barn wall, listening
1:01.2	to the sounds outside.
1:02.7	I hear hooves.
1:05.5	Your heart starts pounding in your chest.
1:07.4	You sure?
1:08.4	Yeah.
1:09.4	We gotta get out of here.
	...

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