Scatter Brained

05
 Assassi-nation: 
American Presidential Assassinations 
Th
  rough the Years
ABRAHAM LINCOLN—APRIL 14, 1865
What You Already Know:
 Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Th
 eatre 
by a deranged Southern-sympathetic actor named John Wilkes 
Booth. After shooting Lincoln in the head, Booth jumped 
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S C A T T E R B R A I N E D
onto the stage screaming, “
Sic semper tyrannis!
* Th
 e South is 
avenged,” breaking his leg in the process. Later, law enforce-
ment offi
    cers caught and shot him and then hanged several of 
his associates. When Lincoln died, his secretary of war, Ed-
win M. Stanton, said at his deathbed, “Now he belongs to the 
ages.”
What You Might Not:
 Conspiracy buff s of the day analyzed 
Lincoln’s assassination just like today’s conspiracists exam-
ine  Kennedy’s.  Some  even  speculated  that  the  mastermind 
was someone else, a man who craved not the presidency, but 
the (nonexistent, as it turned out) Lincoln family fortune. 
Yes, all conspiracy fi ngers were pointed at his eldest son, Rob-
ert A. Lincoln, who was also suspiciously present for a sepa-
rate assassination, that of . . .