Made far from it. Fell dead Holding Without affect on the audience. But given the time to make deeds of his words it might have been one of more far reaching. Tragically he was not to be granted that time. As has been noted there was one in the audience that night who would use lincolns words as the catalyst for one of most heinous and destructive acts in our nations history. From childhood we are taught to know John Wilkes Booth is to hate him. Hes demonized as the embodiment of evil and yet few of us really know very much about him other than the fact that he was a handsome and popular member of the nations leading thespian family until he jumped the track. His own brother described him as a good hearted harmless though wild brained boy. What has been wanting in the pantheon of lincoln scholarship is a highly readable biography of booth until now. After spending a quarter century in the most pain staking research dr. Terry alfred has written fortunes fool. A book that will long define his subject for laymen and scholar alike. Hes also the author of the book prince among slaves a true story of an africanamerican princed into slavery in america. The story was shot as a documentary by pbs attracting more than three million viewers. Dr. Alfred has appeared on 20 20, abc news, History Channel and discovery network. Campus of Northern VirginiaCommunity College and in 2010 he was one of only a handful of teachers to receive the outstanding faculty award, the highest honor bestowed among educators in the commonwealth of virginia. Here are just a few of the online comments by nearly 300 of his former students. If you dont like this guy you have to be a moron. [ laughter ] quote, hes the best professor ive ever had. I mean, the guy wrote his own book. [ laughter ] quote, i hate history, all caps five exclamation points but he made it so interesting, who would have guessed history can be fun . Quote, god of history, im impressed. Quote, this class is really helpful, an i liked it so much, no homework, no papers, no stress. The final paper is so easy. I got a low grade in this class. [ laughter ] but i believe you will do a really good job. [ laughter ] quote, the funniest old guy i have ever met. [ laughter ] i had such a good time finding these. [ laughter ] quote, i as yoht can see, theres over, like what 200 comments on this. Hes so adorable, he makes you want to pinch his cheeks. [ laughter ] quote, the best teacher very cute. Quote, do not read any reviews besides this one. This is all you will need. This man right here is thee closest comparison to god as is humanly possible. [ laughter ] quote, alfred was awesome. I had him fall semester and i failed his class. Yes, i failed it not because he was bad, but because i didnt come to class. Dont expect to fail. That was just me being stupid. Hes cool. [ laughter ] quote, alfred manages to be wet your pants funny at 8 00 a. M. In the morning. Quote, it is as if you were watching a movie but its just him weaving the tapestry of American History. And finally, my favorite stop reading these reviews and sign up for his class before all the seats are taken. Please welcome my friend and fellow board member dr. Terry alfred. [ applause ] thank you, thank you, ron, for the great invitation, and for this great occasion. Its nice so such a large audience here, reminded of the story of the poet published a first book very excited and got invited to read his poems at 7 00 friday night at community center, so he was, of course, delighted, and he showed up at 6 30 nobody was there yet. 6 35 no one was there. 7 00, no one was there. Not even the person who invited him. [ laughter ] so, you know yeah finally at 7 05, one person walked in. They salt all the way back, and, of course, our good poet was mortified, and he thought of leaving, but said i cant leave one person here right . So the poet got up and said ill get started, come down front here and the man in the back said, no no ill sit here, i have to slip out a little early. [ laughter ] so im glad well see such a great crowd here. [ laughter ] my biography of booth started years ago as i taught a class on great crimes. Each week, we took a separate crime, the lindberg kidnapping, kennedy and lincoln assassinations, and hands down, the lincoln assassination was the favorite. I dont know if we were close to fords or what it was, but next thing i knew, it was expanded into an entire semester on the lincoln assassination, and i assigned students, youre booth find out everything you can about booth, your lincoln, youre mrs. Lincoln, and then, you know they would report during the semester on what they were reading and finding out, and then our final exam would be a trial. We put every one of these people, even lincoln, oddly enough, lincoln went on the stand to explain what he was up to. At the end of the Spring Semester semester, i was ready for commencement, and i put the gown on like judge dread like . Sat up front for the whole thing, and the process a wonderful friend of mine, james hal, dedicate fortunes to mr. Hall for all the encouragement he gave me over the years, loved coming to class, took us on the escape root following booths past, and it was amusing. Mr. Hall couldnt go in the home of dr. Mud. Thats because he was very hard on dr. Mud in the writings and so the muds did not want mr. Hall coming in. He was banned from the house. [ laughter ] i said wait, booth can go in there . You cant go . He said thats right, i have to stay out here, so you know we would go in, and he would hang out in the cars until we finished the tour, and one of the granddaughters was always gracious. She welcomed us, gave a tour but looked out the window at the parking lot, you know and finally, she drew me aside saying, is that James Otis Hall out there . [ laughter ] which she used the middle name. That was not a good sign. I didnt want us to get kicked out. So, yes, your eyes are better than mine. I dont see anyone out there, but at any rate. [ laughter ] god bless the memory of the people, and i will say for the mud grandchildren, if im in trouble, i want grand kids like that, right . [ laughter ] i want grandchildren that defend me as hard as they did their grandfather. The booth family in america begins in 1821 when a young couple arrives from london, and they settled in an area north of baltimore, and Everybody Knows 95 going there baltimore, wilmington, philadelphia and not in belleair itself, but the country, the booth family built a cabin, a log house actually and then in 1851 built a more substantial home known as tudor hall, and this is where they would live and John Wilkes Booth would grow up there part there and another in a townhouse in baltimore. The townhouse in baltimore is gone now. Its not there. It was just east of the citys commercial core. It was substantial home in a middle class neighborhood. The father, im sure some of us know the father, junius booth in the Andrew Jackson era, the great actor of the 20s and and 30s. When he was on an exceptional actor, and when he was off, he was very very challenging. He could insult audiences walk out on them or simply sometimes refuse to show up. I think alcohol was the main thing in his life but there seemed to be ogranic problems there too. He was challenging as a parent. Maybe i knew that, maybe i didnt, but as i got into it, i realized this, yes, this is a really difficult dad. He could be violent with the kids. Hes not a violent person 24 7 because he had great periods too, but he could be like, be physically bad, and then he would punish his kids with silence. Everyone in here dealt with someone, right who would shut up, clam up, freeze you out, and, you know that was intimidating for his kids because he had actor eyes that could bore a hole in you, and that shunning was another method that he used. Thank goodness, i guess you know, the mother maryann holmes, johns mother, was a good counter weight, loving, open tried to be cheerful and very good as a parent, very indulgent as a parentment i think what happened with her was her hands were so full with her husband and big brute of kids that, you know as long as they were content, she was content. Every parent in here knows that feeling, right . If its good enough leave it alone, right . And so she got through. Never, of course, able to change her husband. I mean, how can you change a person like that right . You tidy up after them. John and his siblings were taught to regard their father with sympathy. You know when he had mad fits. John wilkes booth had three brothers. Im reminded of the story of the minister who preached a funeral sermon, and than after the eulogy he said would anyone want to say anything about the dear departed, and someone in the congregation said, his brother was even worse. [ laughter ] i dont think John Wilkes Booth brothers will hear that. Two actors one was not, one the famous edmond booth, and two older sisters and he was particularly close to the oldest sister. Her name was rosalee booth. We know less about her than any other siblings but she was very sympathetic person, a saint, and he follow her around like a puppy, and he was always very close and was fond of her. Seems to me when you write a book, you can do you can and really have to do two things. You either have to find new things, new materials, or come up with fresh interpretations of old things and i believe that i was able to do a little both in this book. One of the people who lived at tudor hall longer than the booths was ellen. She came there as a bride at 20 in the 1870s, and she, you know died there in the 1940 s. She spent 60 years around the booth house. One of the things that happened to her was in the 1930s showed up and he would write a book, and i dont know whether kimmel was not up front about her what he wanted to do or if she was too elderly to appreciate and read the signs. The signs that he wanted to write a booth book, because she had one in mind herself, and she was greatly upset when he published the title. Mad booths of maryland, she resented the title. She met a young woman interested in the booths, and they visited her, and so she and hellen began to work together, and they did quite a bit of work on a script, titled the house that booth built, and then world war ii came along hellen got married. They moved. Got ill, passed away and hellen just disappeared, and for years, it was not known where all the research that hellen did, the writing, drafts, things they did together was. When i came on the research scene years ago was there was a multipage outline of the book but no selfincriminate, and, certainly, none of the collateral papers we hoped to see. I just made it a Little Mission of mine to see if i couldnt find what happened, and i didnt know if she was alive and if she was, she would be elderly. She disappeared from the nabtd in the ear 40s. When i saw that name, i was reluctant to call up or drop a line, and one day, there she was. Living in rural virginia. She had great memories, fond of her, and brought out boxes of work that they had done together, the mother load, just boxes. Just handed it over to me. And there was the lost script, the lost house script, which was wonderful, and i was able to use it i hope to some good effect in the book. The childhood i drew from there. The disturbing things about childhood was a cruelty to cats. I had read this in a source and i thought, well it was just one sentence. I dont know if i believe this or not. I found an indepth second account for someone who was an absolute associate and comrade of his. And he was abusive to cats and cruel to them. This must have been at 12 or 13 years old. Oddly enough, and, of course, everybody in here knows that can be a bad sign right . And i mentioned john locke, the philosopher in a comment he made in the 17th century about this, and what it might tell you about a personality. Oddly enough, though, and there was a complication with booth, he was notably kind to other animals. He was fond of dogs. He went out of his way to avoid injurying Lightning Bugs and butterflies, and his sister had an insect collection, and he rescued a bug and took it back and fut input it in the tree. Booth liked horses better than he did most people. I remember an incident in his 20s. He saw a teen beating a horse who couldnt pull a wagon and booth grabbed the whip punched him, punched the guy, and said, see how you like to be hit. Something to that effect. Thats an interesting complicated element in his personality. He did practice childhood thee theater. They were doing william tell, and he was to shoot an arrow after his characters sons head, an apple, and the apple was on the head of a kid named martin, who was just like that, right and John Wilkes Booth, 12yearold, aiming an arrow at you, and martin was just standing there trembling, but that went successfully and those childhood theaters were fun for everyone involved. Johns education carried him through, as i interpreted, on a modern frame early high school. He went to a good school in bellair, maryland, wecht to a school in sparks maryland run by a quaker elder and then he went to a military school a military middle and high school in maryland run by a priest. These were good schools but he was not it was difficult for him. His his sister said his older brothers were more intuitive, but for john he had to really, really force himself to learn things. It was not easy. But i see all sorts of clues he was a good auditory learner. He would listen to people he republiced, and, you know we know this, right, you can pay attention, and learn a lot with your ears. People made a fortune with their ears and he was good about listening to other people. He became an actor in his late teens, at richmond for two years, very popular there and i was able to discover the role he played more than any other role was lord in our american custom. It was known he was in the play but not known what role he had until very, very recently. I was good to see that in the source. He knew that play backwards and forwards, obviously. While he was at richmond, october took place, and the Militia Companies were sent up there, and booth joined them. If you want to see how good an author is on the subject, see what they say about booth joining the grays. Booth was actually an intruder with them by any means, b an enrolled soldier a sergeant with the 1st virginia regimen, and we found the payvoucher in rich jrich richmond. I dont think it had been unfolded in hundredplus years. He a some official role. Also in the book i hope you see the illustrations, the flag of the richmond grays. That was the Militia Company he mash muched with and, you know this shows virginias seal and in big dramatic letters, and again, booth marched under that flag in 1859 in the john brown raid. When the civil war came around and booth was acting in albany when the attack took place, and when albany paper said the fort demanded everyone show their colors, you know what side are you on here . Booth had early during the crisis been opposed to succession. He was down in montgomery when lincoln was elected, and he got in trouble there because he did not want to see the union broke up. He didnt think it was necessary. In that way, he shared the feelings of many northern midatlantic people virginia maryland, the upper south people that his position fits in with theirs, but then of course, once the shooting started, thats a mute point. Booth came to baltimore and to his hometown up in maryland and filled in with a company that was organizing to go down south. According to the officer in the company, herman stump, they were going to with booths assistants, destroy the bridge over the river that leads to philadelphia. Part of the scheme to blow the bridges leading out of maryland to prevent northern troops can from coming down here but booth did not enter the Confederate Army, as everyone knows. He stayed out. I speculate on a number of reasons why. I have not mentioned he suffered from home phobia. He had an adverse reaction to seeing blood and could not stand to see a dead faes. Ce. Theres references to blood in the writings, referring to the stripes on the flag to bloody gashes and things like that. I have a speculation in the book about why that is. I think that would give anybody pause who had such a physical reaction to bloodshed, but also the promise he made his mother, who was a widow, and he was very very fond of her. She had shielded him from his dad from time to time and promised her as a child he would always see that she was happy. Ii and that was a promise he made, a promise he kept, but it against against his instincts and believes i think and had bad consequences for the country. I did put in the book but there was a flag 11 star confederate flag, and thats in the museum at richmond. He essentially during the war that was breaking out, he gave that to a friend in harvard county and turned his back on the war and became an actor. He his career as an actor seems to kick off big time going to st. Louis. There was a theater there run by a fellow named ben bar and bens theater had a reputation for being unhealthy, cold, drafty a rat hole, one of booths friends said but ben was willing to give him a shot on stage and did. Ben was a supportive manager, but could vex you. I remember the complaint was made one time, your company is loaded with scrubs. They are not good. And they said, hey, they got to work somewhere, right . Put them here. They would not pay them, and one time the actors had it with him, mobbed down to the restaurant found a bar dining on quail, and they demanded their salary and they mocked surprised said, what, demand salary when black blackberryies are . Season . Eat those right . But booth was very interested in his profession very determined. Very ambitious. There was a definition of ambition and determination. Some of you remember the name of joe, a great lineman for the washington red skins in their hay day, and he said, you know, to win the super bowl, i would run over my own mother. His teammate said, i would too, i would run over joes mother also. Booth had that type of determination. Now, whether booth dont let anyone tell you he was not a fine actor. He was exceptional, not perfect, not finished, but edward forest everyone agrees is a huge actor from this time said an actor was great if he could play three leads better than anyone in the country. Booth had no troubles doing that. His richard iii was without parallel. He played the heart here in fords theater. I particularly like mentioning richard iii and marble heart together because richard iii is a complete feeling. Theres sincerity thats necessary to achieve the role the fact that booth could be the best in the country at two such opposed personalities show a little about his abilities as an actor. Booth was not really raved about in the south. He was not down in the south very much. Very briefly in the secession crisis and then in richmond playing support. Its not true they loathed him in the deep south, but because of that, that sparked a love of the south in him. He was most popular in boston. That was the place he was best known and most liked. One last thing i dont think any actor of the time put more blood, suite, and tears in a performance. His style was very, very physical, and, particularly, you know the plays including with the sword fight would be protracted, sometimes dangerous. He got knicks gave knicks, and curtain hits the floor, and he lays on the floor for five or ten minutes without moving. He was prostate from the effort he put out in the play. Booth had a number of alluring and affairs during the civil war years, and you know, all the people if i could got back and find people to meet from the period of my work, i think i would definitely want to meet maggie mitchell, a singer, dancer, beautiful creature. Very energetic. They said maggie was still in her 20s when she died at the age of 81. [ laughter ] you know, during world war i and there was a story in the ford family the ford family was that john and maggie were engage engaged. Theres stories about booth being engaged to other women as well. Im reminded in fact john, the thing about johns allures affair, et cetera, reminded of the story of madam vest when she decided to get married, she told her three best friends, you know im going to tell my husband to be everything about my past. Everything. Her friends said, everything . Youre going to tell him everything . She said, everything. Everything . She said yes. One friend said what courage. What courage. Another friend said, what honesty. What honesty. Another friend said what a memory. [ laughter ] the lengthiest political thing booth wrote was a speech, never had occasion to deliver it, right after lincolns election, thousands of words many, many pages, after the election, and i noticed something, that lincolns name is not mentioned in the document. The whole thing. Lincoln is the most discussed man in the United States right . The most public and vizle man of the u. S. And hes not even hit booths radar yet, but of course, as the war went on, he certainly did. In august of 64, he recruited people to abduct lincoln. John ford of fords theater said it was not a crazy a plan as it sounded given the way lincoln traveled, sometimes, you know, just almost without escort, and lincoln was fairly regular about going to the soldiers homes, for example, that you might could have done it ford said and ford thought it would be a fair stroke in war. There was always a danger, of course, Something Like that, that an unfortunate thing would happen to lincoln. What if he resisted what if there was a melee or shootout or lincoln was hurt or killed in an abduction attempt, but booths feeling was, and i think pretty sincere at that time, but if they struck a blow sufficiency daring and sufficient, they could pull this thing off. Booth gathered around him, some young marylanders, people from the d. C. Area, some of the people looking back looked pretty common and pretty low order to their contemporaries. One of the people he recruited was david, who ultimately, of course, traveled on the escape route with booth and was hanged. Ive never been my research does not suggest that he was a dummy. A federal detective who chased him said he was quick, smart, and clever as a person. Now, hes not a genius. You remember joe, the redskins quarterback from the golden age. He said, you know, not everybodys that smart. Not everybodys a genius. He said, a genius is someone like Norman Einstein someone like that, you know . [ laughter ] im not saying that he was a Norman Einstein by any means you know, but, you know when the Confederate Army surrendered, richmond was capture, virginia surrendered, you know, booths love turned to murder. I think it was always a possibility in his mind as early as 1863. He had been thinking about that. In fact, at the very time lincoln was signing the emancipation proclamation, booth was finishing a rehearsal at the bars theet e and dramatic and out of nowhere he picked up a big stage prop, put it in the chest of a prop pistol in the chest of an actor, and if you were lincoln by god, could i make history. That was january 1st 1863. You can see this had been in the back of his head forsome time and then the night in the theater, and booth came in after 10 00 as i reconstructed dressed in ordinary clothes had a pistol concealable in the hand a touch than 10 inches long, came on top of the dress circle, and there was an attendant named forbes at the box. Forbes was an attendant. Not a body guard or soldier armed only with good intentions. People had been coming and going that night in and out of the box, and so fords admitted booth, theres a surprise explanation with, ill tease you with in hopes you buy the book, but its something that nobody speculated about before but i feel id like see if it makes sense to you, about how he got in the box. And that explains one mystery thing about the assassination invest gaegs. Why was forbes never interviewed or called to the trial or not give a statement . I mean, how come, you know they are looking at everyone else and they do not ask the person who open the door for booth what happened there. That is a considerable distance as you can guess right, to jump . When i was a kid, i fell out a tree about that far, and i saw in an imax filmed here years ago, someone jumped from this side for the filming they were doing, and he had, you know, ankles heavily taped, gel pack in the boots, right to cushion the fall and it sounded like a cannon went off when he hit the stage. And my theory is the traditional one, that booth broke his leg right there. You know, he told other people he did, anddavid was captured, david told booth broke his leg on the stage. I think it was less the speed of the exit that got him out of the theater, but people were not sure what was happening. It was a scene right, with one actor, and, again, he knew the play and knew exactly when there was one actor on stage. There was a front set, meaning in other words, everything was down at front here, right at the foot lights for a dramatic presentation of the audience not much furniture on stage for the scene, and it was perfectly selected time to commit the crime that he did. And them you know, out the back door and out the alley. As we know i suppose most of us know booth was on the run for quite a while. He was very lucky to have david along, and thomas, a confederate agent, whom he met, said he was complete santly surprised with his resourcefulness and courage in assisting booth and others were willing to hide booth or head him off as a hot potato to the next person, but, of course, he made his fate at garrets barn. Down below fredericksberg. Now, booth was buried in washington in 65, but in 69 the body was turned over to the family, and it was taken to baltimore, and identified there by booths brother joseph, the youngest brother. Mrs. Booth was there, but she would not go look at her sons remains. The fords were there. Because the funeral home in baltimore was across the street from fords baltimore theater. There was a number of actors who knew booth and were present. And they identified him to their satisfaction. I remember Henry Clay Ford harry clay ford, rather who managed the theater here says that booth no doubt about it and his future bride asked him, how do you know that, and he said, i know him better than i know you. One look told me that was John Wilkes Booth, no doubt about it, and then William Burton a friend of booth said if thats john, look at the boot. Look at the boot he wore. We went ice skating, and there should be hole in it where skates were affixed, and look at the boots and you saw the holes they screwed in and affix ice skates into the boots that period of time. This was february of 69 and when the weather improved in june of 69, they got together and buried him in greenmont certainly tear. The grave is not marked, but it was well known to everybody distinguished by a mound for quite a while, and then the next year in 1870, that was the first year that confederate families in baltimore decorated the graves of their dead. And the baltimore american said that the grave and cemetery with more flowers than any other was John Wilkes Booth, unmarked in the cemetery had a pyramid of flowers on it, which says something about post war feelings about, you know, Abraham Lincoln among the confederate element in baltimore. You know its hard to know how to close out remarks like this with something nothing happy here, but something positive and ill tell you what i wanted to do today. Nicholas dejesus, a friend of mine, an artist from mexico, from aztec ancestry, and he works in traditional formats celebrating mexican rural life, whimsical paintings and colorful things. I commissioned him to do a painting for me to commemorate this time. Hes app important artist. I didnt say what to do just lincoln, booth, assassination. I gave it to him, and i got the painting. Its neat because he works on amonte, the old aztec paper you pound the inner bark of a Mulberry Tree into paper. Its rough but you get great stuff the aztecs used. He gave me a painting three and a half feet tall and at the top was booth shooting lincoln, but booth was a small character in the corner, and lincoln is shot, in his agony, but theres white doves around lincoln, which i understand to mean the wars come to an end, right, and this happened at a moment of impending peace and the central part of the painting was a slave whose chains were falling away, and they are broken off flying out, and skeletons from the dead of the war and maybe from the legacy of slavery, and at the bottom of the painting is a woman giving birth to a child. The little baby infant, with no chains because its being born free. Nicholas drew thorns around the bottom part to suggest that freedom would not be easy, right . This was not the end of a story, but there would be more trouble to come for everybody. But the baby was free, no chains, and then the planted earth behind them all suggesting that that this freedom was not just something important to the Southern States but important, in fact, to the entire world. When i see that painting i think, you know, for lincoln you know well thats not a bad legacy, i dont think, not a bad legacy. Well, thank you very much. [ applause ] [ applause ] glad to take questions, thank you. Did you come to conclusions about the extent of the involvement of confederate government authorities, booth traveling to canada supposedly getting money from confederate sources, and the head of well the person in charge of the secret service, as leaving the country, and never talking about anything involving the war. Did that lead you to any cop collusion conclusion . Yes, i paid attention to that question. I just didnt find anything. I just didnt find anything. I did help the conspiracy people out a little bit. I was able to discover that booth you wont see this in the other books booth went to canada ten days before the murder, not just in the fall of 64, but in 65, and met with james gordon of mississippi, the nephew of Jacob Thompson and i found a statement never published in the library of fort wayne, and he said what they were doing there is they were working on an abduction plan with booth to try to force a peace conference. No longer to rescue prisoners. But to force a peace conference and thompson told post war years told a friend, im sorry we had anything to do with booth because i think maybe the assassination would not have happened if we had not thrown a log on that fire at that point. Belleair, maryland is a few miles from pennsylvania, and the family was prounion to my knowledge. Why did booth become pro southern in your opinion . Its interesting. The family is not traditional plantation, right . They do not own slaves, essentially, and i mean they never made a living on slave labor labor, they were urban acting people. I dont know that booths father ever became an american citizen, for example. Thats a good question. He just identified with the institutions of maryland rs of the white middle class and white upper class. And he just felt really that the best country in the world was the United States before the civil war. That, you know,1 it was a country with problems, but any day of the week i mean he could look at the ports of new york and see a hundred thousand people trying to get in this place and so that was the best country there was, and lincoln was destroying it, right, essentially, and he just didnt he was not a tra traditional slave opening family, but enmbodied their principles. Was it because of the strong measures against maryland . Yes,inted out in the book in the fate of liberty, more civilians were arrested from maryland than from any other state, and, of course, booth knew or knew by reputation quite a few a of the people. They arrested the police martial, and a friend of the booth family which enraged booth, and one of the things, if we had all day rather than a short period of time, id tell you, is booth had many charming qualities, a personality, and thats why theres so many friends, who shrank from what he did, but not from him, but one thing that was not charming was, you know if something was under his skin, he could not let it go that wrangle him, and the arrest of marshall caine, the police chief, arrested at the beginning of the war, in prison onethird of the entire war, released without trial, without charge, without apology or explanation, just arrested thrown in, released, thrown out. That was something in booths mind, and brought up later, he could just explode talking about it. Thank you very much. As you acknowledged its a jump from down here to the stage. Was that his plan all along . His planned exit or did he intend to go back down the steps and out the back way . Intended to come right down that way, and as scary as that looks, according to john t. Ford, he made leaps of similar heights in some of the plays. Dramatic entrances, that he liked to make, you know he could spring down, you know, from the saepcenery, and he could make a dramatic entrance. If youre not thrown off balance, you know, by catching your rile of the spur in a flag or nothing pulling on the coat you might have been able to do it. Its still quite a jump, but that was a way he was coming out. In fact, he barred the door right . Once in there. Nobody was coming in after him. Thank you. One of the things im interested you know, he has a lot of conspirators worked with, a part of the trial later on. How did he, as hes organizing all this, what was his relationship with the people and was he really an effective organizer . A lot of this plot does not really come together that well in the final, you know, days. Theres people who kind of good dont deliver or live up to what they promised. Hes on his open a lot. Thats a very good question. I think i described him in the book as a passionate private, but not a good captain. He was very charismatic, and there were people that he could went over with the force of his personality but i think he underestimated at least in the abduction phase he underestimated loepgs accessibility. Lincoln was not as successful as he hoped, to the time this would take and expense this would take. As far as i could tell, he funded this from his own pocket with money from maybe one other person. He was paying for this whole thing, and as one said, we were all very expensive drinking peoplings right, who wanted to eat as well right . So booth, i would say booth was an effective con sir tor, but in the a natural one. Hes more this it was really hard for him to disguise what he was thinking with people. If he had been a good actor, he couldnt have done it well. Hes an effective cop spir iveive conspirator, but not a natural one. He did not have the craftiness. Thats my opinion. So speaking about who continues to be one of the more controversial conspirators today, movie made about her recently, is there anything in booths writings or what he said to people in the days immediately proceeding the assassination that would make you think that she was, in fact, guilty and knew what was going to happen on april 14th . Right. That was, in fact, delivering guns that would be used that night, et cetera et cetera, because those were the circumstances that got her hanged. The other one, the pal happened to show audiotape the the boarding house when they were raiding it saying oh she must know. There was one fact of interest to that discussion. That i have not seen in any book. And that is that booth planned to abduct lincoln from this theater in january of 1865, and it did not come off, but they got awfully close i think but lincoln did not show up that night, but another theater and came here the next night. That map did not work. I dont know how it would have worked out, but that was the scheme. I think what i was able to discover that was so interesting was that when the january plot fizzled, booth said according to the statement of the agent booth sent her out of the country to tell him her son john was going to stand down and nobody would be coming out from this attempt. Realize she ran that errand for them in january, that puts a little different light on the later errands. It was a pattern. You have to wonder if she was not more involved in this thing than people have thought. Hi, have you considered the writings of the former Roman Catholic priest lincoln defended as a client, grew of conversations with lincoln on the potential for him being assassinated, and writings of Brigadier General thomas harris, who wrote the book romes responsibility in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the brigadier was on the military commission that investigated and then tried conspirators. If you could reflect on either writings, thank you. Well, we all know that i guess a lot of us know that some of the catholic leaders and catholic citizens were not enthusiastic for the programs that lincoln had going and theres a new york friedmans recommendation steer, a catholic newspaper, that is particularly interesting, right to read complaints on lincoln and so forth, but i did not see anything that led me to think that there was anything, and i cant think about the lincoln murder conspiracyiesconspiracies, where they were, and i agree with him that i dont see a catholic hand in the plot if thats what youre asking. Well, i had never learned growing up high school or junior high, college, anywhere that the u. S. Broke diplomatic relations with the vatican in 1868 and did not restore relations until 1984 and the pope at the time of the civil war wrote to and acknowledged Jefferson Davis as the president to the Confederate States of the america. I cant comment on that. I just dont know anything. It was not taught in schools, i was curious. It was not taught in mine, i can tell you that but, of course, i went to school in the mississippi delta. [ laughter ] three minutes . Okay, thank you. Some years ago here at the ali, we had james hall and the daughter of one of the two generals didnt they imply booth had a strong connection to the confederate intelligence . Yes they did. In fact, you know the whole point of the book right, was to sort of see to what extent the assassination related to the Jefferson Davis, and benjamin, people like that, and, again, i looked hard for that and i have no reason not to put it in there, but i just didnt see anything like that. I, you know, it was obvious he worked with confederate payroll, cop fed rat people like brian who lived in maryland and went back and forth across the river, but at one point i remember john said that one discussion he had with booth was dont you think we have to check it out because if we just show up one day with lincoln you know they are going to [ laughter ] they might hit us over the head or they might think the only way out of this is to turn us over to the yanks. So they decided to just not to do that but that was always something that the conspirators talked about. You describe booths father as difficult and trouble. Right. Booth did go into his fathers profession. Im interested in what his attitude was about his father . Reject his father or did he maintain compassionate view of his father . Right. His views were mixed and not very public. I did find a couple of examples. He was, you know, actors are clappish and acting families are isolated particularly in that time because they had a very odd occupation by the standards of 1816, one that the religious part of the country looked down upon. Right . I mean, a lot of people would not go to the theater under any circumstances. They considered that inconsistent with, like, the seventh commandment and things like that. I think to some extent the family closed wagons when dealing with outsiders, but booth did greatly admire his fathers acting eighty. He thought he was maybe the greatest actor, but he felt the alcoholism of the father put a dreadful curse on the rest of him, and there was a scene in richmond thats developed in the book. I dont remember seeing this in any other book, and youre tired of hearing that, right but where his brother was acting in richmond, and john was an actor in support, and there was an english actor sullivan in the audience, and it distressed john to see that edwin had been drinking, and as soon as the curtain fell and distressed him because, you know, he was kind of embarrassing everybody in front of the distinguished english actor, and as the curtain fell john went up to edwin, how can you be on stage drunk . Dont do that humiliating our fathers legacys trowelubling enough in that regard. I feel like attacking you, and edwin, only four or five years older than john, but much more worldly and experienced, much more attune to things in the world, you know, made a sarcastic response and blew him off, and john reached around and grabbed a prop and would have hit his brother if his brother it not headed off to the dressing room. But, certainly, that night, you know the action backstage was as interesting as out front because he put on display in a very rare occasion, he put on public display in prompt of other actors and staff you know, the troubling dynamic in the family. You know, you loved your dad because hes your dad, admire the actor, but what a burden, you know to have to be the son of the elder booth, and then of course, the elder booths success as an actor. Youre on stage, youre measured by him and by your older brother. Which could be trouble. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate it. [ applause ] youre watching American History tv in prime time and every weekend here on cspan3, experience American History tv saturday at 8 00 a. M. Eastern. For more information, follow us on twitter at cspan history, like us on facebook and visit cspan. Org history, and with congress out for the spring recess this week we continue American History tv in prime tine on thursday night with an event hosted by the library of virginia and the American Civil War museum. They invited five historians to present who they would nominate to be person of the year in 1865. Nominees include clara barton, robert e. Lee, the freemen, and Jefferson Davis. That begins thursday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern here on cspan3. Here are some featured programs for the Holiday Weekend on the cspan networks. On cspan saturday 8 00 p. M. Eastern, former seconds state senator on the challenges facing women in politics and Easter Sunday at 6 30 p. M. Eastern golfing lengd Jack Nicholas receives the congressional gold medal for contributions to the game and community service. On after words, activist and arian hours on the radical political thinking of Martin Luther king, jr. And sunday at noon on indepth our live three hour conversation with former Investigative Reporter for the washington post, and New York Times best selling author ronald kessler, written 20 books, including the sins of the father, and the first family detail, and on American History tv on cspan3 sat at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on lectures in History East Carolina University professor Charles Calhoun on obstacles faced and accomplishments made by grant during presidency, and sunday afternoon at 6 00 on american artifacts, historians take us on a to