John Wilkes Booth: The Real Story of Lincoln's Assassin

John Wilkes Booth: the real story of the actor who killed Abraham Lincoln, told from the real photographs and records. Why did one of the most famous actors in America murder the President, how did he escape for twelve days, who killed John Wilkes Booth, and did he really die in a burning barn in Virginia? John Wilkes Booth was born in Maryland in 1838, into one of the most famous acting families in the country. This Civil War documentary follows him from the stage to the Confederate Secret Service, the plot to kidnap Lincoln, Lincoln's last speech, and April 14, 1865 at Ford's Theatre. Then the night of the other attacks on William Seward and Andrew Johnson, the twelve-day manhunt through Maryland and Virginia, Dr. Samuel Mudd, the burning barn at Garrett's farm, and Boston Corbett, the strange soldier who shot him. Finally, the trial of the conspirators, Mary Surratt, the legend that Booth escaped to Texas as John St. Helen, and his brother Edwin Booth, who once saved Lincoln's son. Chapters 0:00 April 14, 1865: Ford's Theatre 1:08 The Booths of Maryland 2:52 The Handsomest Man in America 5:02 A Southern Man: John Brown and the War 6:55 A Star at Ford's Theatre 8:31 The Confederate Spy 9:49 The Plot to Kidnap Lincoln 11:45 Lincoln's Last Speech 13:21 10:14 P.M.: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln 15:45 The Other Attacks: Seward and Johnson 17:29 The Manhunt for John Wilkes Booth 21:28 The Burning Barn at Garrett's Farm 23:04 Boston Corbett: Lincoln's Avenger 25:08 The Conspirators: Mary Surratt, Powell, Herold, Atzerodt and Dr. Mudd 27:08 Did John Wilkes Booth Escape? 29:10 Edwin Booth and the Legend Sources Wikipedia: John Wilkes Booth; Assassination of Abraham Lincoln; Boston Corbett; David Herold; Lewis Powell; Mary Surratt; Samuel Mudd; George Atzerodt; Ford's Theatre; Edwin Booth Photographs and newspapers: public domain archival images from Wikimedia Commons, plus the licensed images credited below. Maps and diagrams are our own. Image credits (Wikimedia Commons) CC BY 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0): "President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home -- Washington DC" by Ron Cogswell CC BY-SA 3.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0): "TUDOR HALL, BEL AIR, HARFORD COUNTY, MD" by Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD; "Home of Samuel Mudd" by Michaeljosephgraham; "John Wilkes Booth guns on display at Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C" by Wknight94 talk CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0): "CAESAR POSTER WINTER GARDEN THEATRE 3" by Unknown author; "Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House" by Jamie Krouse; "US National Park Service marker for Samuel Mudd at Fort Jefferson" by Pi3.124; "Grave of John Wilkes Booth 01" by Danekusic Music: "Crossing the Divide", "Lost Frontier", "Pale Rider", "Smoking Gun", "Showdown", "Western Streets", "Americana", "Windswept", "Oppressive Gloom", "Cowboy Sting" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) Three short scenes (the leap to the stage, the ride across the Navy Yard Bridge and the burning barn) are AI-generated reconstructions; no photographs of those moments exist. Narration is AI-generated from our own researched script. Maps and diagrams are our own. Which story from the Civil War should we take apart next? Tell us in the comments. #JohnWilkesBooth #AbrahamLincoln #CivilWar #LincolnAssassination #FordsTheatre #AmericanHistory