The Plot to Kill John Wilkes Booth

Otto Eisenschimyl shocked the world by implicating Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in the plot to kill Abraham Lincoln. That author made Stanton the mastermind behind the plot and not just another of Booth's stooges. Mainstream historian's have always dismissed his charges and claimed there was nothing unusual in the Secretary's behavior. After all, they claim, the Confederate government was the mastermind behind the plot. This volume attempts to show both sides in that debate are wrong. Eisenschimyl misread Stanton's actions and the historians are no closer to proving the Confederate connection than when Stanton first unveiled the claim almost a century-and-a-half ago. The question hinges on motives. Once one understands the motives behind Stanton's actions, all that he did makes perfect sense. On Booth's side of the ledger, it is the lack of a cohesive motive that has kept the historians at drift since the assassination. No one has yet come forward with a solid motive for the actor's insane act. Perhaps by putting both of these investigations together in one place, and shaking well, we can begin to make a little sense out of the ages-old confusion that is the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. We might be able to shed a little light on the plot to kill Lincoln, but we most definitely reveal what was behind the plot to kill John Wilkes Booth.