Killing Lincoln

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# Killing Lincoln #

Harry Ford:

Hello, John.

John Wilkes Booth:

[humming].

Murcott:
I am

harmless except to myself.

Florence Trenchard:

I hear you.

Mrs. Mountchessington:

You will please recollect

you are addressing

my daughter.

And in my presence.

Asa Trenchard:
Yes.

I'm offering her

my heart and

hand just as

she wants them,

with nothing in 'em.

Mrs. Mountchessington:

Dear, to your room.

Augusta:
Yes, ma.

The nasty beast!

Mrs. Mountchessington:

I am aware.

[gun c*cks].

Mrs. Mountchessington:

Mr. Trenchard, you are

not used to the manners

of good society and that,

alone, will excuse

the impertinence of

which you have

been guilty.

Asa Trenchard:

Don't know the manners

of good society, eh?

Well, I guess I know

enough to turn you inside out,

old woman; you

sockdologizing old man-trap!

Tom Hanks:
On the evening

of April 13th, 1865,

John Wilkes Booth

initiates his plan

not only to kill

Abraham Lincoln,

but to decapitate

the government of

the United States.

A Civil War that has

lasted four years is

drawing to an end.

While Washington City

celebrates the surrender

of Robert E. Lee's

Confederate Army,

Booth and his

co-conspirators plot

a carefully

coordinated triple murder.

John Wilkes Booth:

And?

Mister Powell?

Lewis Powell:

The Secretary of State

ain't going

nowhere soon.

Confined to his bed

and slow to recover.

Got his-self a nurse.

A little slip of a man.

And there's a

n*gger butler.

John Wilkes Booth:

Mister Atzerodt,

you will check into the

Kirkwood tomorrow morning.

Vice President

Johnson's suite is

on the first floor.

George Atzerodt:
No.

John Wilkes Booth: No?

George Atzerodt:
No.

I do not wish.

I cannot.

John Wilkes Booth:

It is too late, George.

We have, all of us,

conspired together.

George Atzerodt:

To capture, ya.

To kidnap one man.

Not to murder.

John Wilkes Booth:

This is an act of war.

And you are

stuck to it.

It is a tar pit from

which you cannot pull away.

And when tomorrow

night is through and

our deed is done,

we will, all of us,

be known as its authors.

I have seen to it.

And we will be

hailed as heroes!

We will meet back

here tomorrow night

at nine o'clock.

And Powell and Herold

will pay a visit

to the

Secretary of State.

Mr. Atzerodt will go to

see the Vice President.

And I will go to

Grover's Theater

for a performance of

"Aladdin" or "His

Wonderful Lamp."

And there I

will kill a tyrant.

[small explosion sound]

Tom Hanks:
This is the

true story of the killing

of Abraham Lincoln,

the first assassination of

an American president,

and what might be the most

resonant crime in the

history of the nation.

John Wilkes Booth's

plan to kill Lincoln isn't

the first Black Flag

operation to target

the 16th president of

the United States.

At least five

kidnapping or assassination

schemes are hatched,

although none

are attempted.

None, save

perhaps one.

Abraham Lincoln

is riding alone,

as is his custom,

from the War Department

to the soldier's home where

the family stays during

the hot summer months.

[loud rifle shot]

Abraham Lincoln:

Whoa, whoa!

[grunts].

Help me, son!

Private Nichols:

Whoa, whoa!

[horse neighs].

Private Nichols:

Steady, steady now.

Steady.

[horse neighs].

Private Nichols:
I, uh,

I heard a rifle shot.

Abraham Lincoln:
Yes.

Down by the bottom

of the hill.

That is what

frightened him so.

And, uh, he bucked and

separated me from my,

my $8 pug hat.

Private Nichols, I am

much obliged to you.

Private Nichols:

Your hat, sir.

I found it at the

bottom of the hill.

Abraham Lincoln:
It is

properly ventilated for

these hot summer months.

Likely some fellow

returning from a day's

hunt discharged his gun in

a precautionary measure of

safety before

bringing it into his home.

I assure you I am in

greater danger from a

rumor of snipers

than I am from your

silence in this affair.

I would ask that you tell

no one of this adventure.

Private Nichols:

Sir, I.

Abraham Lincoln:
I will

be doubly obliged to you.

Private Nichols:

Yes, sir.

Tom Hanks:
That

is Abraham Lincoln.

The self-educated

statesman who has

abolished slavery

and will go on to

end the war and

save the Union.

Yet, during his 4

years and 41 days in office,

the intensity of the

hatred leveled toward him,

even by members of his

own party, is extreme,

even by

today's standards.

But while the killing

of Abraham Lincoln

serves to sanctify him,

to transform a

controversial

president into a

dearly beloved martyr,

it also serves to

pervert the truth

about his killer.

John Wilkes Booth,

a passionate and

well-admired man on

the path to become one

of the greatest

actors of his time,

is reduced by history

to a two-dimensional

scoundrel and

dismissed as a madman.

John Wilkes Booth:

Harder!

Faster!

Come on!

[laughs].

[audience screams].

[audience gasping].

James McCollom:

Good God, I've.

John Wilkes Booth:

It's all right, old man.

Come on hard, for God's

sake and save the fight.

[audience applause]

John Wilkes Booth:

[screams]

[audience gasps]

[audience applause]

Man:
Curtain!

Bring the curtain down.

James McCollom:

Mr. Booth.

John Wilkes Booth:

Why, Mr. McCollom!

James McCollom:

Mr. Booth, I,

I am so very sorry.

John Wilkes Booth:

Come, come, old fellow.

You look as if you

had lost the blood.

Not another word.

Now, if you'd had

gotten my eye,

that would have been bad.

But you didn't.

And it was, well,

it was splendid!

James McCollom:

Thank you, sir.

Tom Hanks:
That is

John Wilkes Booth.

Born and raised

in Maryland,

a border state,

a slave state that did

not secede from the Union.

John Wilkes Booth is

also a Southern zealot,

whose hatred of

Abraham Lincoln is

nothing less

than fanatical.

In October of 1864,

Booth makes contact

with the Confederate

Secret Service.

And shortly after

Lincoln's reelection,

he determines to

kidnap the President.

He stops in Philadelphia

to visit his sister, Asia.

And there he

writes a letter.

John Wilkes Booth:

To whom it may concern.

Right or wrong,

God judge me, not man.

My love is for

the South alone.

Nor do I deem it a

dishonor in attempting

to make for her a

prisoner of this man

to whom she owes

so much misery.

Edwin.

Our brother

voted for him?

Asia Booth Clarke: Yes.

John Wilkes Booth:

For a false President?

A tool of the North

who means to crush out

slavery by robbery,

rapine and slaughter?

Oh, God, grant that

I may see the end!

This country was

formed for the white man

and not for the black.

Asia.

Lock this in

your safe for me.

I may come back for it.

But if anything

should happen to me,

open it alone and send

the letters as directed

for brother Junius

and sister Rosalie.

And one other, to

whom it may concern.

A Confederate

doing duty upon

his own

responsibility,

J. Wilkes Booth.

Abraham Lincoln:
Hmm.

I will fix that

for you, son.

We'll put a fine

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