Running Head: CONSPIRACY TO KILL ABRAHAM LINCOLN 1 Conspiracy to Kill Abraham Lincoln? Daniel R. Matawest HIST 101/American History to 1877 Tom Leamy August 11, 2014 CONSPIRACY TO KILL ABRAHAM LINCOLN 2 Conspiracy to Kill Abraham Lincoln? After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the question of whether or not this was a conspiracy of one person or a bigger plan amongst others comes to question. While most reports will say that John Wilkes Booth acted out with a select few people in the planning and killing of President Abraham Lincoln, there are contradicting theories that say there were other people involved including those in government positions. This paper examines three theories of research that could point out that this was much more than a simple conspiracy of John Wilkes Booth, to include the theory of Vice President Andrew Johnson was involved in planning the killing and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was the mastermind behind the planned assassination. Simple Conspiracy John Wilkes Booth was said to be the mastermind behind the most believable theory of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. John Booth was a man born in Maryland and lived in the North during the Civil War despite having …show more content…
According to Norton (1996), on March 15, 1866, she wrote to her friend, Sally Orne: "...that, that miserable inebriate Johnson, had cognizance of my husband's death. I have been deeply impressed, with the harrowing thought, that he had an understanding with the conspirators & they knew their man... As sure, as you & I live, Johnson, had some hand, in all this..." An assassination committee was set up to investigate then Vice President Johnson who was now President, but could not find anything that would incriminate him. Still some Americans and Mary Todd Lincoln believed