Killing Lincoln Page #6

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The saloon.

Here, next door.

Peter Taltavul:
No!

No, it should

not be said the

President of

the United States

died in a saloon.

Not even my own.

Lieutenant Bolton: Doctor,

give me your commands and

I will see to it that

they will be carried out.

Dr. Charles Leale: As I

said, across the street,

to the nearest house.

Lieutenant Bolton:

Make a path!

Let us pass!

Dr. Charles Leale:

Stop, stop!

[grunts].

Abraham Lincoln:

[gasping breath].

Dr. Charles Leale:

[grunts].

William H. Flood: The

house opposite is closed.

Henry S. Stafford:

Here, here!

Bring him here.

Dr. Charles Leale:

Go, go, go.

Man:
Clear the way, please.

Out of the way, please.

Tom Hanks:
Lincoln is

taken to a boarding house

directly across the

street from the theater and,

due to his 6'4" height,

laid diagonally on the bed

of absent boarder,

William Clark.

Shorty after 11:
00

PM, Secretary of War

Edwin Stanton sets up

a headquarters in the

back parlor of the house

and establishes relays

between there and

the War Department

telegraph operators.

He alerts General Grant

and calls him back to

Washington, issues

emergency directives to

police and military

authorities,

orders the National

Detective Police,

to initiate a manhunt

for the as-yet unknown

assassin and notifies

Vice President Johnson

that the

President is dying.

And shortly

before midnight,

Chief Justice David

Kellogg Cartter begins to

hear eyewitness

testimony of the crime.

But the appointed

stenographer cannot

write fast enough.

General Christopher Augur:

Is there anyone here who

knows the practice of

shorthand writing?

Albert Daggett:
Here!

There's a boarder

here who does!

General Christopher Augur:

Tell him that his services

are required here.

Immediately.

Albert Daggett:
Jim,

it's General Augur.

They want you next door.

Corporal James Tanner:

Tell him I'll be right there.

[clock ticking].

[gun clicks].

Tom Hanks:
Minutes after

John Wilkes Booth crosses

the Navy Yard Bridge,

Sergeant Cobb stops

David Herold,

riding a gray roan horse.

Herold asks if a rider

has passed here and

Cobb tells him,

"Yes," and lets him pass.

David Herold's job on

April 14th is to guide

Lewis Powell out of

Washington after killing

Secretary of State Seward.

But hearing the

cries of "Murder"

from Seward's house.

Fanny Seward:
Murder!

He's killing my father!

Tom Hanks:
Herold

flees the scene,

not waiting for Powell.

He catches up with

Booth at Soper's Hill,

eight miles from

Washington.

And it's a little after

midnight when they arrive

at a safe house for

Confederate spies.

[banging on door]

David Herold:
For

God's sake, Lloyd,

make haste and

get the things!

Tom Hanks:
A tavern where

weapons have been stored.

David Herold:

Lloyd, the things!

Tom Hanks:
A tavern

owned by the mother of

Confederate courier

John Surratt.

John Wilkes Booth: I

cannot carry a carbine.

This little

b*tch fell on me.

Stumbled while jumping.

I broke my damned leg.

I need a surgeon.

We'll go to Sam Mudd's.

David Herold:
But, no.

Hadn't we

oughta get down south,

cross to the river,

cross into Virginia.

John Wilkes Booth:

I cannot go on

without a doctor.

Lloyd?

Lloyd?

John Lloyd:
Huh?

John Wilkes Booth: I am

fairly certain we have

assassinated the

President and Secretary Seward.

Mind your damn

horse, Davey.

Let's go.

Tom Hanks:
Meanwhile at

the Petersen boarding house,

Corporal James Tanner,

who has lost both legs

at the Second

Battle of Bull Run

and is just 10 days

past his 21st birthday,

is about to take the

first eyewitness testimony

in the assassination

of Abraham Lincoln.

Mary Todd Lincoln:

[sobbing].

Dr. Ezra Abbott:

Pulse 48, rising.

Dr. King:

Respiration 21.

Dr. Barnes:

Ecchymosis is setting in.

Edwin Stanton:

Who are you?

Corporal James Tanner: Uh,

Corporal James Tanner, sir.

Uh, you're in need

of a phonologist?

Edwin Stanton:
What?

Corporal James Tanner:

Shorthand, sir.

Edwin Stanton:

Yes, come here.

Mr. Hill will be asking

questions of the witnesses

before Chief

Justice Cartter.

Mary Todd Lincoln:

[sobbing].

Tom Hanks:
The

assassination of

Abraham Lincoln

is witnessed by

more than 1,500 people,

yet no two

accounts match.

Lieutenant Crawford:

A.M.S. Crawford.

Henry Hawk:
Uh,

William Henry Hawk.

James P. Ferguson:

Uh, James P. Ferguson.

Lieutenant Crawford:

I thought at first

he was intoxicated.

There was a

glare in his eye.

I turned to

Captain McGowan,

intending to say

something in reference

to this man's manner.

James P. Ferguson:

I was looking with

an opera glass to see,

uh, which citizen it was,

with the President.

Lieutenant Crawford:

The next instant,

the shot was fired.

[gunshot].

Lieutenant Crawford: I

said at once it was the

president's box and

jumped to the door.

Henry Hawk:
I was on stage

at the time of the firing.

[gunshot].

James P. Ferguson:

And he put his hands

on the cushion

of the box and

he threw his

feet right over.

And he pulled part

of a state flag off.

Henry Hawk:
And as I

looked towards him,

he came in the direction

in which I was standing.

B.A. Hill:

Can you describe the

man's form that

jumped from the box?

Lieutenant Crawford:

Yes, sir.

I saw him as he ran

across the stage.

James P. Ferguson:

As he ran across,

he looked right

up in my face.

I, I pulled the lady

down behind the banister.

Lieutenant Crawford: As he

went through the scene he

threw his hand behind

him and the knife

was up in sight.

Henry Hawk:
He made

some expression when

he came on the stage.

John Wilkes Booth:

The south shall be free!

Henry Hawk:
But I

did not understand what.

James P. Ferguson:

He stopped as he said.

John Wilkes Booth:

I have done it!

James P. Ferguson:

Shook the knife.

Lieutenant Crawford:

His face was towards me.

He did not say a

word that I heard,

but very strongly

resembled the Booths.

Henry Hawk:
I, I believe

to the best of my

knowledge that it was

John Wilkes Booth.

Still, uh, I'm

not positive, uh.

Abraham Lincoln:

[gasping breath].

Tom Hanks:
At 4:30

AM April 15th,

Booth and Herold

arrive at the home of

Dr. Samuel Mudd.

Either during

his jump from the

presidential box

to the stage,

or as the result of

his horse falling,

Booth has sustained a

clean break of his fibula,

two inches above the

instep of his left foot.

John Wilkes Booth:

[grunts in pain]

Tom Hanks:
At the same

time that Dr. Samuel Mudd

is tending to

John Wilkes Booth,

Abraham Lincoln is dying.

Dr. Barnes:
I am

inserting a Nlaton probe.

Dr. Ezra Abbott:

Pulse 60.

Dr. King:

Respiration 24.

Dr. Barnes:

At three inches,

following the

track of the ball,

there's the bone plug.

Driven in from the skull.

I can feel the ball

at, at five inches.

And two inches

further, fragments.

Dr. Charles Leale:

The orbital plate?

Dr. Barnes:

Undoubtedly.

Dr. Charles Leale:

Perhaps we should summon

Mrs. Lincoln.

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