Through Five Administrations

[RJNorton]

Either my files are wrong or Crook's memory was faulty. I have the initial detail (appointed November 3, 1864) composed of John R. Cronin, Alphonso Donn, Alexander Smith, and Tom Pendel. So what I have does not include Parker as one of the "originals." According to what I have Crook and Parker came later. I don't think Parker came until sometime in the winter/early spring of 1865. Changes were occasionally made, although the detail was never more than 5 officers at any one time. Other officers who served in the detail included William S. Lewis, George W. McElfresh, Thomas T. Hurdle, Joseph Sheldon, and D. Hopkins.

McElfresh stated, "My orders were that when the President went to the theater I should get there as soon as possible, take a seat at the box door, and let no one enter without first sending in his name or card, and I often stopped people that I knew to be particular friends of the family, until I had announced them....if the officer that took my place had carried out the orders given to me I don't think Booth could have gotten into the President's box."

[LincolnToddFan]

It has just crossed my mind that even if there had been a guard at the door of the Presidential Box at Ford's that night, Booth would have gained entrance simply by presenting his card.

Lincoln was known to have been an admirer of Booth. He tried to arrange a meeting with him on at least one other occasion and was rebuffed by JWB.

[L Verge]

When I used to deal with the school tours here at Surratt House, I would ask the students, "Who guards the President today?" Once I got the Secret Service answer out of them (and it wasn't always easy), my next thing was to have one of them pretend to be a Secret Service agent. I would then announce to them that Brad Pitt (or Michael Jordan or Will Smith) was entering the presidential box. What would they do. Every one of them said they would pat the man down -- and quite a few of them would then say, "And I'd ask him for an autograph!"

Charles Forbes obviously did not see Booth as a threat that night. Would Parker have sensed danger? I personally doubt it. I don't condone his actions, but I don't think he would have turned Booth away either.

[RJNorton]

It has just crossed my mind that even if there had been a guard at the door of the Presidential Box at Ford's that night, Booth would have gained entrance simply by presenting his card.

Charles Forbes obviously did not see Booth as a threat that night. Would Parker have sensed danger? I personally doubt it. I don't condone his actions, but I don't think he would have turned Booth away either.

Toia and Laurie, I tend to agree that Booth would have made his way into the box no matter what. But, for what it's worth, Crook lays out a different scenario in his book. Before I quote Crook on the scenario, he also points out that the Ford's doorkeeper, John Buckingham, said that a chair had been placed in the passageway behind the State Box for Parker to sit in. If true, why wasn't Parker sitting there? Did Lincoln himself tell Parker to go find a seat where he could see the play? Or did Parker leave on his own? No one knows. Parker escorted the presidential party to their seats; thus he would have seen the chair Buckingham said was there for him in the passageway.

Crook surmised that once Booth got by Forbes he still would have to deal with Parker (had he been sitting in the passageway). His scenario:

"Had Parker been at his post at the back of the box - Booth still being determined to make the attempt that night - he (Parker) would have been stabbed, probably killed. The noise of the struggle - Parker could certainly have managed to make some outcry - would have given the alarm. Major Rathbone was a brave man, and the President was a brave man and of enormous muscular strength. It would have been an easy thing for the two men to have disarmed Booth, who was not a man of great physical strength. It was the suddenness of his attack on the President that made it so devilishly successful. It makes me feel rather bitter when I remember that the President had said, just a few hours before, that he knew he could trust all his guards. And to think in that one moment of test, one of us should have utterly failed him. Parker knew that he had failed in his duty. He looked like a convicted criminal the next day. He was never the same man afterward."

[LincolnToddFan]

Thanks Roger, that is indeed something to think about. And I agree that it's the element of surprise that cost AL his life.

AL's only chance would have been if Forbes had actually announced JWB to the president before escorting him into the Box. AL would almost undoubtedly have stood up to receive him and I don't see the much smaller, probably slightly intoxicated Booth taking him on to his face. AL was much older than JWB but he was also 100x stronger. With AL towering over him, Booth would have had to fire into his chest or abdomen and use his knife against both Parker and Rathbone...which would have lessened his chances of both fatally wounding Lincoln AND escaping intact.

And I have to believe that in the final analysis Booth was a coward. He would not have dared to attack the "tyrant" without a sure plan of escape for himself.