S02 E16 Lincoln's Bad Apple

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States of America. He led the nation through the perilous civil war and was re-elected to a second term. 

Today, he is one of the most admired and popular presidents we’ve had. But, following the civil war about half the nation didn’t feel that way. The feelings of those in the south were still very raw, and some of them were not at all ready to accept the outcome of the Un-civil conflict in which they had been defeated.

On the 14th of April, 1865, the President and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, decided to take in a play, at Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC. It was there that the President was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth. And, hours later, on the morning of April 15, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln died.

How did this happen?

Isn’t there tight security around a president everywhere he goes?

How did the assassin get so close that he was able to hold a gun up inches from the back of the President’s head, and take his life?