Through Five Administrations

[LincolnMan]

For me the most interesting part of Crook's book is the blame he places on John Parker for the president's assassination. Some top Lincoln assassination historians give Parker a break and say that Parker was at Ford's more as an escort, not as a guard for the president. Crook disagrees. He wrote, "Yet had he done his duty, I believe President Lincoln would not have been murdered by Booth. The man was John Parker."

Parker was an officer of the police force at the time? Wouldn't his duties have been clearly known to himself, his superiors, and the president?