On this day 158 years ago - April 26, 1865 - U.S. troops cornered and killed John Wilkes Booth (left), assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, in Virginia.
On this day 158 years ago - April 26, 1865 - U.S. troops cornered and killed John Wilkes Booth (left), assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, in Virginia.
After shooting Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. (www.nps.gov/foth) on April 14, Booth escaped and eluded capture for the next 12 days.
He was hiding in a Virginia tobacco barn when the troops caught up to him. In an effort to get him to come out and surrender, the soldiers set the barn on fire, but Booth still refused to come out. He was shot as he moved around inside the barn. The bullet hit Booth in the neck and partially severed his spine, paralyzing him. He died soon after. In his pocket was a diary in which he wrote of Lincoln's death: "Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment."
Booth's remains were not released to his family until 1869, when they were interred in the family plot in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.
Charles Guiteau (right) shot President James A. Garfield on July 2, 1881, and made little effort to escape. Though he was sure he would be hailed as a hero, the government tried, convicted, and executed Guiteau for assassinating Garfield. (Of course, Garfield's doctors played a role as well by not washing their hands or instruments and introducing a deadly infection into Garfield's body while treating his wounds).



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