They Have Killed Papa Dead by Anthony S. Pitch

Smooth Criminal by Mervin Liongco
“They Have Killed Papa Dead!” by Anthony S. Pitch isn’t any ordinary recounting of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. What separates Pitch’s account from anybody else’s account is that he took the time to ensure that he acquired as many facts as possible, especially the facts that no one else had unearthed. He shines light behind the events that occurred before the actual assassination and provides a new angle from which the assassination could have been prevented and details that showed Lincoln didn’t exactly take the steps necessary to protect himself.
The book begins with a run down of Lincoln’s security detail. In short, it was scant, and it really shouldn’t have considering how he received an average of 80 death threats a week. His night watch consisted of two men, and he didn’t have a day watch guard while he was at the White House. When Lincoln did have escorts, the team consisted of four men who would not only serve as his guards, but also his waiters, cooks, and maids. Because of this, these men were always tired and could not provide adequate protection to Lincoln. Another thing to note was that Lincoln made himself a bit of a target. When walking to Ford’s Theater, Lincoln would only walk with one friend. Lincoln was so vulnerable! What person wouldn’t think to exploit this if they wanted him dead? On top of being incredibly unprotected, Lincoln had a very driven killer on his heels.
John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s assassin, was no ordinary person, either as a boy or a man. As a boy, Booth had a drive within him to be evil. He would frequently have conversations with his friends saying that he would like to leave his mark on the world by doing something bad. On top of this, when he was young he had his palm read by a gypsy and this is what she said, “I’ve never seen a worse hand, and I wish I hadn’t seen it. It’s full enough of sorrow. Full of trouble. You’ll die young. You’re born under an unlucky star. You’ll make a bad end.” Had this been said to any child, it would have been sure to provoke some sort of mental trauma. It was as if his drive to be evil was confirmed, and he set it in his mind that this was his destiny. As a man, Booth was a white supremacist. He would often have random fits of aggression against his slaves. This was a huge reason why he was so upset with Lincoln. He and Lincoln had completely opposite views on the treatment of African Americans. Lincoln sought to treat these people as equals, whereas Booth put them on the same level as a dog. Despite this, Booth was still quite the wanted man, and in a good way.
John Wilkes Booth was a famous actor in American theater. He was actually very similar to actors today who work in the Hollywood industry. In terms of his body, Booth was taller than average, had a muscular build, because he exercised everyday, had jet, black hair, weighed in at a fairly lean 160 lbs, and possessed dashing good looks. To compliment his figure, he always wore the latest fashions that his money could buy. Once he got the attention of the ladies by his looks, he could then continue to charm them with his fantastic conversational skills. Booth was incredibly well spoken, using eloquence with words not found in most men at the time. Using his people skills, popularity, and devious mind, Booth began to plot against the President.
Booth hated President Lincoln and felt a dire need to take action against the President. A large difference between the North and the South was the amount of manpower available to both. The North had a plethora of men ready to fight, but the South was quite shorthanded. This was because the North had captured a large contingent of the Southern forces. To swing the favor of the war in the South’s favor, Booth devised in plan. This plan involved kidnapping Lincoln, then exchanging him for Southern troops. If one were from this South, this was a fantastic plan! How hard could it have been to kidnap Lincoln? The man was always lightly guarded; a small, elite team could easily abduct him, and assemble an “elite” team is exactly what Booth attempted to do.
Within the team that Booth assembled there were six main people: Samuel Arnold, Michael O’Laughlin, John Surrat, George Atzerodt, David Harold, and Lewis Payne. Each man had his own specialty, and the plan would have gone off without a hitch, but most of these men had big mouths. They would frequently gather at the boarding house of Mary Surrat, the mother of John Surrat. As the team began to meet more frequently, people began to notice. One man in particular, Louis Weichmann was apart of the Northern army and reported their suspicious behavior to Captain Gleason. The two men deduced that the group was either planning to kidnap Lincoln, which they were, or going to plan to jailbreak at Old Capital Prison. However, over much pondering, they decided that neither was going to happen. However, they did begin to start making the necessary precautions and they increased the President’s security. Booth, in his fury, decided that he was going to kill the President. Unfortunately, he succeeded.
President Lincoln’s death was quite untimely. However, what was even more saddening was that it was completely preventable. If all the players in the plan had been shut down early, nothing would have come to fruition. Benjamin Brown French had even apprehended Booth at the Rotunda for Lincoln’s 2nd inauguration, but he failed to act on his catch. If any of these people simply acted on their gut feelings and added some extra security, Lincoln would’ve lived another day to make the United States a better place.