Encore: Presidential Assassinations | Murder for Spoils | 2

American History Tellers

Wondery

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

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2024

⏱️ 46 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.

Order your copy of the new American History Tellers book, The Hidden History of the White House, for behind-the-scenes stories of some of the most dramatic events in American history—set right inside the house where it happened.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wunderry Plus subscribers can binge new seasons of American history tellers early and
0:05.1	ad free right now. Join Wundery Plus in the Wundery app or on Apple Podcasts. Imagine it's before dawn on April 26th, 1865.
0:25.0	You're inside a tobacco barn in rural Northern Virginia.
0:28.0	You're on the run with a most wanted man in America, John Wilkes Booth. Twelve days ago Booth assassinated President
0:35.7	Abraham Lincoln, but he didn't do it alone. You helped him in the plot, and now you're
0:40.7	both fleeing ahead of federal troops.
0:43.0	You're pretending to be Confederate soldiers on the way home from the war,
0:47.0	and you've convinced a local farmer to give you shelter.
0:50.0	You wake to the sound of barking.
0:53.0	Booth stirs beside you.
0:55.0	Hey, you awake?
0:56.0	You hear that?
0:57.0	Something's got the dogs going.
0:59.0	You shoot upright as Booth presses his ear against a crack in the barn wall listening to the sounds
1:04.4	outside.
1:05.4	I hear hooves.
1:08.2	Your heart starts pounding in your chest.
1:10.3	You sure?
1:11.3	Yeah, we got to get out of here.
1:13.0	Grab the revolvers.
1:14.0	I'll take the carmine.
1:16.0	You snatch up the weapons and rush to the front of the barn.
	...

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