Just Trivia

[David Lockmiller]

(12-22-2020 08:00 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Yes, Gene! Indeed it was the plainclothes police officer who was a bodyguard to the President. Perhaps William H. Crook is most known for his reminiscence that Lincoln said "Goodbye, Crook" rather than the normal "Good night, Crook" as the President departed for the theater on April 14, 1865. Crook recalled: "It was the first time that he neglected to say 'Good Night' to me and it was the only time that he ever said 'Good-bye'. I thought of it at that moment and, a few hours later, when the news flashed over Washington that he had been shot, his last words were so burned into my being that they can never be forgotten."

(I will note that some historians feel Crook's memories fall more into the myth category than fact category.)

Roger, as I recall, on the night of President Lincoln's assassination, William Crook was no longer serving as President Lincoln's bodyguard. Mary Lincoln had fired someone in the White House. Crook applied for and received the promotion and so was no longer serving as the President's bodyguard.

I believe that I read on the night of the assassination, he had asked his replacement as bodyguard if he had his gun before the President departed for the theater. Mr. William Crook, in his words, appeared to be a very conscientious person.

I have wondered that if Crook had been the bodyguard for President Lincoln that fateful night, the end of the "play" that night might have been different. But, now, you call into question the credibility of Crook's statements with your parenthetical note: "(I will note that some historians feel Crook's memories fall more into the myth category than fact category.)"

Wasn't Crook the kind man that stayed with Tad that night after Tad learned of his father's death?