This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we continue with our American stories.

A.C. Richards was the chief of police for Washington, D.C. in 1865.

He attended a play called Our American Cousin at the Ford's Theater on Good Friday.

But the chief wasn't there for the performance.

He was there to see the President of the United States,

Abraham Lincoln, who the papers had announced would be there that night. But Richard saw

more than just the president. He witnessed the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The chief story

is told by Mike Robinson, a reenactor who inhabits Chief Richard's experience

to share with audiences the memories of that fateful night.

Here is Mike Robinson as the character of the chief to tell the story of the assassination

of America's greatest president.

My name is A.C. Richards. I was a superintendent of Metropolitan Police from 1864 until

1878. You may address me as chief. And I was in the audience that night of Friday, April 14, 1865, would you be

at all interested in what I recall from that evening?

Well, the Washington you see today is much different than the Washington of my time.

In fact, Charles Dickens came here in the 1840s and he said, Washington is a city of magnificent

intentions.

It has Grand Boulevard that started nothing and go nowhere.

Indeed, we had not a single paved road.

In fact, the avenue just down here, which was intended to connect the executive branch with

legislative branch, was unpaved.

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