The Senate Tavern and house. If you judge by fords theater in washington, d. C. , its about 14 miles southeast of there. What happened at about midnight when the calendar turned from april 42, 52, 1865, here in this tavern, John Wilkes Booth had been on the run. He shot Abraham Lincoln about ten, 15 or 10 20 p. M. , and he met up with one of his conspirators, david harold, across the 11th street bridge. And they met up at a high point and they rode straight here. This was their intended because this was a house of conspiracy. It was owned by mary surratt. She live here. It was a country tavern that a man rented it and ran it for her. And then she was living in her house in washington, d. C. , her boarding house. So booth and david harold arrived here and they pounded on the door. The innkeeper, john lloyd, was asleep and they pounded on the door and again and in then they let booth and david harold. Then they came in the side entrance, not through the front door. And then booth said, for gods sake, lloyd, hurry up and get those guns in this house. Booth had stored a spencer, a seven shot repeating weapon, and they picked that up. They would have taken both of them. But booth had been injured. He broke a bone in his leg, jumping to the stage at fords theater. So they asked lloyd to get the guns. And they almost certainly took some gulps of whiskey and possibly a length of rope. And then they went on their way. And then booth said to lloyd, would you like some news . And he said, well, it doesnt matter to me. Im either way about it. And booth said, i think weve killed the president now, booth was an actor. He couldnt resist talking about it. You know, youre going to be hunted, man youre escaping. Are you going to tell the innkeeper who you dont know that you might have killed the president , then he couldnt keep his mouth shut. The hangman him had to boast about this. And so then they started briefly and then made their escape. And their next destination was dr. Mudds house a scene events that you write about in the book manhunt the 12 day chase for, lincolns killer and it happened 159 years ago. Your book came out about 20 years ago, and its being turned into an apple tv plus series, the seven part series. Yeah. How faithful is the Television Version of these events to what you wrote about 400 pages. About 40 pages of notes. How did you make that happen . Well, first of all, we made a miniseries. We initially plan was to do it as a two hour motion picture. But soon we realized and everyone involved realized the story is too big, too broad, too intense, too frightening too exciting to tell in a two hour film. So i think it works much better as a seven hour series. So thats the first decision that had to be made in movie . No. And then the way i judge television is im not a purist. Im not im not the author who runs off and tries, oh, you ruined my book. Its not exactly the same. No televised dramatization can include everything. Does it does the show include every word in my . Of course not. Thats a thats a ridiculous and impossible standard. The way i judge anything on television is that one is a true to the spirit of the times. Do i feel like ive been transported to civil war america . And the night of the lincoln assassins action . Absolutely. Yes, the series does a great job with that. Then i ask myself, are the portrayals faithful to the real characters . Hamish linklater is an amazing Abraham Lincoln. Ive known a few lincolns, ive known gregory peck, ive known sam waterston. I met hal holbrook. They were in their own ways, different lincolns. But hamish is i remember when i was on set in savannah when we were filming some scenes and hamish and i had dinner for the first time and he said, im very nervous to meet you. I said, ive watched you perform all day to day. You are abraham and hes Abraham Lincoln in the series, tobias is a fabulous secretary of war. Sam, a very important thing is to show the relationship and friendship between lincoln and stanton and hamish and tobias captured this perfectly. Tobias menzies. Tobias menzies, yes. And so i felt i was watching the real Abraham Lincoln, the real secretary of war, stanton you know, can in any tv series have every fact in my book . Of course not. But are the characters real . Yes. Did it convince me . Yes. So im very happy with it. A series that viewers can watch on apple tv. Plus, lets go back to the scene of the crime, though, as it were, to fords theater. How does John Wilkes Booth get within derringer distance of Abraham Lincoln and how does he do the deed in front of a thousand people in the theater and make it out of the theater to get here to the strat tavern . Well, booth plot was ingenious. He knew fords theater like the back of his hand, so he knew to enter through the back door to the stage entrance. He knew there was a trapdoor that led beneath the stage so he could cross the width of the theater without being seen. Then he emerged to the exit of that trapdoor, walked down an air passageway, came out on the 10th street, the front of fords theater. Anyone who seen who saw him out there would not think that booth came to the back of the theater. He left his horse behind a stable hand, holding the horse for him for his escape. He had planned that he would not try to run down the stairs and escape with lincolns box. He knew people would catch him. There were more than a thousand people in the theater. His ingenious this was to think i have to jump from a box down to the stage. He was a he was an athletic actor. He was really a great sword fighter, almost a gymnast. He knew he could do it from the top of the balustrade to the foot. The stage of fords theater was 11 feet, six inches. Who could make that . So his plan was to enter the box. And by the way, lincoln was not properly guarded during the civil war. Lincoln ignored his personal security. There was no one, but it was a wartime presence. The wartime president , multiple Death Threats against the president. People sent lincoln more than 100 letters threatening to kill him. People tried to send poison to him. He didnt take enough proper security. Lincoln thought, well, if someone wants to kill me, how can i stop them . Very much like john kennedy. And so booth came to the theater. No one stopped him. The theater was not guarded. Anyone could walk in ticket holders. So booth arrived during the play. He came to the second floor and then he looked across the theater. He wanted to know, was general grant there . Because grant advertised as coming in the newspapers and grant would bring guards. His official military family. It might make it tougher for booth. Booth looks across the stage. Theres no evidence of grant, is there . And his guards are there. And so he crosses the roof of the theater. He walks down to the entrance to lincolns box. Hes prepared early in the day by carving a little niche in the plaster wall. So he knows he can take a piece of wood and jam it in place and once he enters lincolns vestibule, no one can walk through the door behind him. So booth does those things. Then he opens a second door. Now hes directly outside where lincoln is sitting in a rocking chair. And there was a peephole in that door. And booth looks through it and he sees that lincoln is sitting right there. Booth knows the play. Our american cousin. So he times it. He wants to enter the box and shoot lincoln with a single shot pistol. Theres no chance to reload. He has no other weapons. Hes got to do it in one shot. And he listens to the play and he realizes theres a certain moment when only one actor will be on stage, not the whole cast. No one can stop him on the stage. And so booth waits for this corny line. You sat dodging old man trap, which is funny at the time today. The play is awful. No one wants to see the play today. I dont recommend it to the audience. Burst into laughter at that moment. Booth opens the door. Hes right behind abraham li lincoln sees something in the audience. Lincoln leans forward to see whats going on. So lincoln doubt is presenting the rear left of his head to the sightline of John Wilkes Booth. Booth has to do nothing but take the opportunity out of his pocket. Aim it forward. He can almost lincolns head with a pistol and he fires that one shot and lincoln slumps down. He doesnt know what hit him. Lincoln doesnt even hear the shot. Hes unconscious immediately because the bullet enters behind his lift, air goes diagonally through his brain and comes to rest behind his right eye. And then major rathbone, one of lincolns theater guests, leaps up. He realizes something is wrong. Booth shouts, freedom, freedom to the south. And then booth withdraws a dagger and stabs rather deeply through his arm. Rathbone is bleeding. Booth then goes to the balustrade. He slides over and he jumps down. Now, normally id make that shot with no problem, but his spirit catches on either flag or on a portrait of George Washington hanging from the front of the box and booth lands unevenly on the stage. The spear hits the stage booth hits the stage, and he breaks a bone in one of his legs and he howls of the center of the stage. The adrenaline is running, so heavily through his body, he might not even feel the pain, but this is he knows this is his last performance on the american stage. Hes got to be remembered for this. This is his last audience. So booth stops at center stage, pauses, brandishes the dagger, raises it into the air, and yells six separate taranis, which is the state motto of virginia. Thats always the tyrants. The audience doesnt realize whats happening. A man they hear a shot. They see smoke in lincolns box. A man hits the stage. People recognize that its John Wilkes Booth. He didnt shave his mustache. He didnt wear a face mask or kerchief. He wants to say to the audience, it is i, John Wilkes Booth, who has slain the tyrant. And then he says something that most folks dont record as hes running off to the stage to head to behind the scenes. A man and his girlfriend hear him say, exulting to himself, i have done it. And then went out the back door and jumps on this horse. And his first stop after getting out of washington, d. C. , is here. Its here at this tavern. Yes. Who is mary surratt and john surratt . Well, mary sarah was a 43 year old woman, catholic widow, who had a son, john junior. Her husband earlier. Johns, who had senior, had died previously, lee johnson junior is a confederate operative, an agent whos part of the confederacys web of Secrets Service operatives, and her daughter anna, and their two members throughout was she was a southerner, a loyalist, a friend of John Wilkes Booth, and she was not pro lincoln prounion, thats for sure. Her son, john, was involved in the earlier plot, which is partly planned in this house to kidnap Abraham Lincoln after his second inauguration and take him hostage for the confederacy, either as a pawn for negotiation to change the outcome of the war. We dont know exactly what the plot was and what they plan to do once they got lincoln. But the plan was to seize lincoln and take him away and that didnt happen because the very night they gathered on the road to capture lincoln, lincoln attended an event outside, the National HotelJohn Wilkes Booth own hotel. So lincoln was speaking to soldiers from boots hotel while they were waiting on the road to capture her when he was going to a remote performance of a military play at campbell hospital and that they feared that their plot had been discovered. So they rushed back to Mary Surratt House tavern in washington, d. C. Her boardinghouse, and they threw their weapons on the bed and they were disconsolate. I thought it was all over. But john surratt, on the night of the assassination was not here or in washington. He was in canada. He was in new york and then canada on a mission to free confederate prisoners from elmira prison in new york. So john surratt was not present at all, but he was a confederate operative, a loyalist, and a friend of John Wilkes Booth. And he was part of black booths original plan to kidnap the president. So John Wilkes Booth and his coconspirator, david herold, make it here. You mentioned John Wilkes Booth injuring himself in that dive out of the the box to the stage. Theyre going to a dr. Samuel mudds house next. How far away is samuel mudds house from where were sitting right now . Several hours, right. I think they got to doctor mans house about 330 or 4 00 in the morning and booth never entered this house that night. Hed been here before, but hed never enter. He never off his horse. The pain was throbbing now. So david herold is the one who came in and got the spencer carving and got the whiskey, got other materials, but he does enter a doctor mudds house and the apple tv series has a vivid scene where wilkes booth is there with dr. I want to show that scene to our viewers. Its just about 22 seconds or so. I can splint that. But if you dont stay off of it, you might end up on a surgeons table. Stay off for the fractured tibia requires about two months lying around, not sure you got that. Youre only doctor pepper, right in front page news. I always read my reviews. I always read my reviews. What does that line tell us about the man that John Wilkes Booth was . Booth was obsessed with . Reading newspaper accounts of his crime during the entire chase, he coveted the newspapers, and so he had to know how his last act was revealed, how his performance was viewed. He was disappointed because when booth got a lot of the newspapers, he was further along on the run and a confederate operative, thomas jones, who helped shield him in a plane ticket for us. And he brought booth several newspapers. The booth was crushed to see that his performance was was widely doomed. He couldnt believe what bad reviews got in to his escape. He kept a little notebook where he wrote about what was like to be a man, 100 men on the run. And he said, well, ive ive slain the caesar sign a tyrant. How can it be that im now and hunted and despised . Booth was crushed to read reviews. Why was dr. The one they went to . Was he in on the plot . Yes and no. Dr. Mudd was a confederate sympathizer, a slave owner, and i believe was certainly of boots original plot to kidnap Abraham Lincoln. Its a myth that booth did not know. And mudd was the innocent country physician obeying his hippocratic oath to help a wounded man. No, they knew each other. Booth had spent the night at my house. They are going shopping for horses together. That booth would use in the kidnaping plot. They had gone to church together. And so mudd not innocent. He was part of the plot to kidnap Abraham Lincoln. He was not expecting booth that night. Booth mudd didnt know that booth was going to shoot nick lincoln that night. But because of the wound, booth diverted his path and headed to dr. Mudds house. He knew that leg needed medical treatment, so thats why he went to doctor. How badly injured was he. Do you believe that John Wilkes Booth could have gotten away if he didnt have the injury . Well, he certainly could have gotten farther if he didnt injure that leg, which was very painful. Booth could have made it further. There were parts of the confederacy that had never seen a Union Soldier throughout the civil war that booth had been able to reach those people. They would have concealed him, hidden and escaped much further. I dont know. Where were those people were they richmond . Were they farther south than richmond, that point . They were farther south. Booth needed to head south as he could, and perhaps hoped to board a steamship and escape to england. Perhaps he hoped to get farther south and cross the Mississippi River and get into the deeper confederacy were considered. Armies were still in field. Perhaps he hoped to get to and rejoin kirby smiths forces. We dont know what booths plot was, but we know had a network of people to go to and see this journey south. And if he had broken that bone in his leg, i think he would have made it much farther least, and it wouldve taken longer to capture him. Theres plenty of historical of president s, cspan done several of them, asking historians to rank president s if there were a ranking of secretaries of war for this country where. Do you think Edwin Mcmasters Stanton would rank would rank in that list at the top of the list . Edwin stanton is one of the Great American heroes. One thing i love about the tv show is the real stanton is portrayed. Edwin stanton not only investigated the lincoln murder, he questioned witnesses he deployed detectives to the field. He had other things to do. Also, he had to help win the civil war. The war was not over. Confederate armies were still in the field. Yes, robert kelly had surrendered at appomattox. Joe johnston still had his army north carolina. Kirby smith had his army in texas. So the war was by no means over or one. And then stanton had to organize the wonderful and majestic funeral procession for Abraham Lincoln that, took him through all the major cities of the north and the journey back to springfield. So stanton had to hunt the lincoln assassins, get John Wilkes Booth, find the conspirators, fight and win the civil war, and organize the National Tribute to Abraham Lincoln. So stanton is a Great American hero, so overlooked. One of the best things about the show is stan is finally given his due in American History. Its Emmy Award Winning actor tobias menzies, as you said, who portrays Edwin Stanton. Yeah. Heres a little bit of how he portrays stanton, but if youre a war secretary, how come you dont assign a task like this to a clerk .