John Butler Ford

Every schoolchild knows about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln - how the actor John Wilkes Booth shot the president while he was watching a play, leaped to the stage from the presidential box, and made his escape. But there is far more to the story, including the bizarre scheme that Booth first concocted to kidnap Lincoln and trade him for Confederate soldiers held in Northern prisons. Here is the full story of the plot, the bumbling plotters that Booth recruited, Lincoln's lingering death, the manhunt for the assassin, and the trial of the conspirators. It is essential knowledge of a tragedy that shaped America for a century to come.