Booth's visit to the Surratt Boarding House after the assassination

[Laurie Verge]

I agree that there is no definite evidence that I have ever heard as to Booth timing the shot to coincide with the audience's laughter. However, I do feel that the attacks on Lincoln, Seward, and Johnson were coordinated to occur at much the same time.

There is one other thing that I researched about thirty years ago that lends credence to his shooting Lincoln at that precise line in the play: "Sockdologizing" is not a term that you hear nowadays except in explaining the assassination, but it is not a made-up word by Tom Taylor, who wrote Our American Cousin. It was a genuine word in the good old days of the English language.

Given Booth's proclivity for theatrical symbolism (his belief in Shakespearean principles linked to republicanism, etc.), the definition of sockdologizing makes sense as to why he might time the shot at that exact moment. If I remember correctly, the word was used to describe final, knockout blows that quelled one's enemy or opponent. I think it was used a great deal in pugilistic terms. Anyhow, it seems very appropriate that Booth would deliver a sockdologizing blow to Lincoln at the moment the word was uttered, especially since he was so familiar with the play.