Extra Credit Questions

[Joe Di Cola]

There are two gift shops at Ford's Theatre - one run by the Park Service, and the other run by the Ford's Theatre Society (the arts branch that technically takes over the theatre after 5 pm each night for live performances). When O'Reilly's book came out, the National Park Service refused to sell it, but the Theatre Society's gift shop said that they would sell it.

This is my personal opinion only, but frankly there are worse books out there on the Lincoln assassination that are being sold in a variety of NPS sites and others without any qualms whatsoever. Again, my personal opinion strictly, but the mid-1900s work by Otto Eisenschiml (which is still available) and the 1970s debacle titled The Lincoln Conspiracy, and the recent works by Ray Neff have done more to damage the story than O'Reilly's book -- and that's saying something, because I'm not a fan of Killing Lincoln (although I did enjoy his first two chapters).

If someone other than the inflammable Bill O'Reilly had been credited as writing the book (say, his co-author who likely did 98% of the writing), I wonder if there would have been so much flap over the errors???

You are so right about there being a gaggle of bad books out there about the assassination. I am no fan of O'Reilly (and have only ever read one of Dugard's books and that was on Columbus's last voyage), but have also wondered if a lot of the antipathy is connected to the former's persona and sometimes disregard for journalistic integrity (in which he is not alone, I might add!). That is why I am so very happy that Roger started this site, and also am happy to be in contact with people who care about history. Thanks for your comments, Laurie.