Killing Lincoln Page #7

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Dr. Barnes:

Barely perceptible.

Mary Todd Lincoln:

[sobbing]

[clock ticking]

[gun clicks]

Mary Todd Lincoln:

[whimpering]

It's your Mary.

Mother.

It's your Molly.

I'm here little Puss.

[sobbing].

Your child-wife.

[crying].

Oh, my love.

Live but one moment

to speak to me once.

To speak to our children.

You'd speak to little Tad,

wouldn't you, Father?

You love him so well.

Abraham Lincoln:

[gasping breath].

Tom Hanks:
Mary Lincoln

screams and faints.

And Secretary of War

Stanton orders that she is

to be removed

from the room.

As she is led away,

Corporal Tanner,

transcribing his shorthand

in the back parlor,

overhears her to say,

"Oh, my God and

I have given my

husband to die."

Dr. Charles

Augustus Leale,

the 23-year-old surgeon

who has been by the

president's side

for nine hours,

has scarcely let go

of Lincoln's hand,

for no other reason than,

"To let him in his

blindness know that he

was in touch with

humanity and had a friend."

At 21 minutes and 55

seconds past 7 AM on

Saturday, April

Abraham Lincoln draws

his last breath.

his heart stops.

Robert Todd Lincoln:

[sobbing].

Tom Hanks:
The Reverend

Phineas Gurley will recall

that those present remain

motionless and silent for

several minutes after

Surgeon General Barnes

says, simply.

Robert Todd Lincoln:

[sobbing].

Tom Hanks:

"He is gone."

[clock ticking]

Edwin Stanton:
Now he

belongs to the ages.

Robert Todd Lincoln:

[sobbing].

Tom Hanks:
Angels.

According to Corporal

Tanner, Stanton said,

"He belongs to

the angels now."

But Tanner was unable

to record the moment.

His pencil had broken.

[rooster crows]

His leg splinted and

with the aid of a crutch,

Booth leaves Dr.

Samuel Mudd's home

late on the afternoon of

Saturday, April 15th.

Already, members of the

been ordered to southern

Maryland in search of

Lincoln's killer.

What will soon become

the largest manhunt in

American history at that

time begins with troops

searching scarcely

four miles from

Dr. Mudd's farmhouse.

Lost in the dark and on the

edge of the Zekiah swamp,

Booth and Herold

have promised to pay

tobacco farmer

Oswell Swann $12 to

lead them to the

home of Samuel Cox,

a leader in the

Confederate underground.

John Wilkes Booth:

How is it that you

know Captain Cox?

Oswell Swann:
Oh, we all

know Captain Cox, sir.

He a true man

of the South.

He a hard man.

Beat a n*gger to

death hisself.

Mmm-hm.

David Herold:
You,

you a free n*gger?

Oswell Swann:
Oh, we

all's free now, sir,

thanks to Marse Lincoln.

Lawd rest his soul.

But I ain't no n*gger.

I's a we-sort.

David Herold:
What?

Oswell Swann:
A we-sort.

You know.

"We-sorta-folk."

N*gger, injun, white man,

all mixed up, you know.

John Wilkes Booth: You

have heard about Lincoln?

Oswell Swann:
Yas suh.

He in the arms

of the Lawd.

[pounds on door]

David Herold:
Um,

my friend and I,

we're in need of

some shelter, food.

Not the n*gger.

Samuel Cox:
Name?

David Herold:
Um, my

friend, he's hurt his leg.

Samuel Cox:
You're

John Wilkes Booth.

I think I know

what you have done.

Tom Hanks:
They have

arrived at about 1:00 AM

on Easter Sunday.

After talking until dawn,

Cox is sympathetic,

but no fool.

He will put Booth and

Herold in touch with a

Confederate smuggler who

will get them across the

Potomac and into Virginia.

But Cox will not allow

Lincoln's assassin to stay

in his home.

So Booth and Herold are

directed to wait in a pine

thicket just across

Cox's property line.

They don't know it yet,

but they will wait there

for the next five

days and four nights.

John Wilkes Booth: Davey!

Don't you know

I can't get on?

David Herold:
Help

him on his horse.

John Wilkes Booth:

[groans in pain].

$12?

Oswell Swann:
Yas suh.

John Wilkes Booth: Thought

you said Captain Cox was a

man of Southern feeling.

David Herold:
You say

anything about this,

and you won't live long.

Tom Hanks:

John Wilkes Booth

has 10 days to live.

[clock ticking].

[gun clicks].

Tom Hanks:
On April 17th

Colonel Lafayette Baker,

the head of the National

Detective Police,

asks Alexander Gardner

to make copies

of three pictures.

It is the first time in

history that photographs

have been used on

a wanted poster.

Thanks in part to papers

found in Booth's room at

the National Hotel,

Lewis Powell and Mary Surratt

are jailed in Washington

and George Atzerodt,

who simply got drunk and

wandered away from the

Kirkwood Hotel,

rather than attempt to kill

Vice President

Andrew Johnson,

is discovered hiding-out

in his cousin's home in

Germantown, Maryland.

Elements of the

and the U.S. 22nd

Colored Troops join the

in southern Maryland.

And two members of the

National Detective Police,

Lieutenant

Luther Baker and

Colonel Everton Conger,

accompany 26 members of

the 16th New York Cavalry

under the command of

Lieutenant Edward Doherty.

John Wilkes Booth: Our

cause being almost lost,

something decisive and

great must be done.

I struck boldly and

not as the papers say.

I shouted "sic semper"

before I fired.

In jumping,

broke my leg.

This night,

before the deed,

I wrote a long article and

left it for one of the

Editors of the National

Intelligencer in which I

fully set forth the

reasons for our proceedings.

He or the government.

Tom Hanks:
The first

of Booth's two journal

entries ends there.

He is interrupted

by Thomas Jones,

Samuel Cox's

foster brother.

Cox has asked Jones to

see to it that Booth gets

across the Potomac

to Virginia.

In spite of the $100,000

bounty being offered,

Jones keeps Booth and

Herold hidden and fed

while government

troops occupy and

sweep through the region.

Later, Jones will claim

that Booth's singular

desire was for newspapers.

So it is here, in

the pine thicket,

that Booth reads the

horrific accounts,

the lurid details,

and bloody result of

Lewis Powell's attack

on Secretary of State

William Seward.

Fanny Seward:

[screams].

Murder!

He's killing my father!

Murder!

Help!

[screams].

[sobbing].

James Powell:
I'm mad.

I'm mad, I'm mad!

Emerick Hansell:

[screams].

William Bell:
Murder!

Stop that man!

Murderer!

Tom Hanks:

Miraculously,

Secretary of State

William Seward

is still alive,

as are all of the victims

of Lewis Powell's

savage attack.

And George Atzerodt's

intended victim,

Vice President

Andrew Johnson,

has been sworn in as

the 17th President

of the United States.

But as Abraham Lincoln's

body lies in state

in the East Room

of the White House,

John Wilkes Booth lies on

a bed of dirt and pine

needles and reads the

worst reviews of his life.

A man who was raised

on Shakespeare is brought

to his knees by

his own hubris.

In one fell swoop,

with one grand gesture,

he has changed the course

of American history

and dramatically

jeopardized the fate

of the South that

he loved so dearly.

[horse neighs]

[search party passes]

Tom Hanks:
Booth's

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