It was this week that we observe the 160 th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, and a week later, Lincoln’s declaration of the first national Thanksgiving.  In this vein, this presentation dispels many of the commonly-held myths about the murder of our 16 th President. Although assassin John Wilkes Booth fired the gun that killed the President, there were many fingers on that trigger.  The Confederate Secret Service, a foreign bank account, multiple assassins and an orchestrated underground plot conspired to decapitate the Union government, a plan set in motion months before the evening of April 14, 1865.

This fascinating story examines the truth versus the myth:

• Booth acted alone and was mad. MYTH.
• Dr. Samuel Mudd, who set Booth’s broken leg six hours after the assassination, was an innocent country doctor who acted merely in fulfilling his Hippocratic oath. MYTH.
• Mary Surratt, a middle-aged innkeeper, was close to the heart of the conspiracy. TRUTH.
• The Confederate government had nothing to do with the assassination. MYTH.

This compelling narrative, both detailed and riveting, has been unearthed by modern scholars.

Justice Dennis J. Curran (ret.), member of the national Board of Advisors of The Lincoln Forum, Life Member of the Surratt Society, and a Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society, who appeared on C-SPAN-2, will present on this dramatic subject.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Shrewsbury Public Library.

Contact
508-841-8531
Michael Zeller, mzeller@cwmars.org