This month marks the 155th anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by the actor John Wilkes Booth. While most people know the bare facts of what happened, a number of unsolved mysteries and enduring urban legends still surround the assassination.
In a new book about the case author Robert J. Hutchinson explores what we do know, and don’t know, about what really happened at Ford’s Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865.
1. The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, came from a family of:
A: Confederate military officers in Maryland
B: Unemployed immigrants who hated the draft
C: Union supporters and abolitionists
D: Slave owners who feared abolition would end their way of life
2. Booth’s original plan was to:
A: Kidnap Lincoln and hold him hostage for ransom
B: Kidnap Lincoln and trade him for Confederate prisoners
C: Burn Ford’s Theatre to the ground
D: A and C
3. Booth shot Lincoln with this type of weapon
A: A Colt .36-caliber Navy revolver
B: A Colt .44 caliber dragoon revolver
C: A .44 caliber derringer
D: A Smith & Wesson Model 1
4. After he landed on the stage, Booth yelled out, “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” which:
A: Means, in Latin, “Thus always to tyrants”
B: Is the motto of the Commonwealth of Virginia
C: Was featured on a T-shirt worn by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh
D. All of the above
5. The government arrested many people for helping Booth but only executed the following for directly aiding the assassination
A: David Herold, a “pharmacist’s” assistant
B: George Atzerodt, assigned to assassinate the vice president
C: Lewis Powell, assigned to assassinate the secretary of state
D: All of the above
6. The individuals who accompanied Lincoln and his wife to Ford’s Theatre included:
A: Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia Grant
B: Clara Harris and her fiancé, Henry Rathbone
C: Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and his wife, Ellen Stanton
D: Telegraph office chief Thomas T. Eckert
7. When Booth stood outside the presidential box at Ford’s Theatre, the following staffer allowed him to enter:
A: Lincoln’s personal assistant Charles Forbes
B: Lincoln’ police bodyguard John Parker
C: Lincoln’s driver Edward Burke
D: Lincoln’s personal secretary John Hay
8. Booth wrote a manifesto explaining why he planned to kill Lincoln and that manifesto was:
A: Printed the following day in Washington’s largest newspaper, the Washington Intelligencer
B: Burned by an actor to whom Booth had given the manifesto
C: Was found in Booth’s personal papers years later by his sister
D: Was found by detectives but destroyed out of loyalty to Lincoln
9. Despite being unable to walk, Booth was able to evade capture for 12 days during the largest manhunt in U.S. history because:
A: He was hidden in a secret room for 10 days in the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd
B: He stayed in the Washington boarding house of Mary Surratt until the roads were clear
C: He hid in a pine thicket for five nights without a fire
D: He escaped by boat and got all the way to Richmond until he was caught
10. After being tracked to a hideout in Virginia, John Wilkes Booth was shot in the neck while the barn he was hiding in burned. His last known words were:
A: “The South shall be free!”
B: “Tell mother, I die for my country.”
C: “I die in the service and defense of my country.”
D: “Useless! Useless!”
Answers: 1-C, 2-B, 3-C, 4-D, 5-D, 6-B, 7-A, 8-B, 9-C, 10-D