Assassination Trivia

[Gene C]

How are you managing to get around the age requirement? Are we going to have another case of a missing birth certificate? Hope you have a magnificent puppet master to pull that off again!

That's a minor technicality Laurie, let's get him elected first.
We can read the election rules after his inauguration.

Thomas, can I have a government office with a view of the National Mall?
Laurie, I know we will be looking for a National Museum Czar, interested?

---

[RJNorton]

In a newspaper article dated December 8, 1927, a man named John Russell recounted the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He said he was present in the theater when Lincoln was shot. He attended the play with his uncle.

When the shot rang out he said, "A hushed silence soon fell over the theater as it stilled suddenly by some intuition of something disastrous. Suddenly John Wilkes Booth, whom I had seen on several occasions, leaped on the stage. He quickly arose and shouted 'Sic Semper Tyrannis' and walked off the stage."

Mr. Russell continued his eyewitness account and said:

"__________________, whom I had often seen, came out to the footlights and calmly announced that the President had been shot by John Wilkes Booth and requested that the audience now maintain order."

What is the name of the person whom Mr. Russell said came out and announced to the audience that JWB had shot President Lincoln?

[Thomas Kearney]

William Withers

[RJNorton]

That is a good try, Thomas, but it was not William Withers.

[L Verge]

Laura Keene?

[RJNorton]

That is another good try, Laurie, but it was not Laura Keene.

Hint #1: The right answer is indeed a familiar name in the assassination saga.

[L Verge]

OK - Laura Keene asked the audience to remain calm, and she later identified Booth as the one who ran past her. Who else did much the same thing?

Let's try for theater management; Harry Ford?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Harry Hawk?

[RJNorton]

Good try, Eva, but kudos to Laurie. I am not sure which brother Mr. Russell meant as he said, "Mr. Ford, whom I had often seen...."

Mr. Russell also indicated he could tell where the President was seated in the theater "because of the draperies of flags around the box and the presence of Secret Service men nearby."

I wonder if Mr. Russell knew Mrs. Nelson Todd (post #39 here.)

At the time of his statement Mr. Russell was a resident at the Home for the Aged, Little Sisters of the Poor in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 82 years old.

My source for this question is An Eyewitness Account, courtesy of Joseph Hewgley, in the November 2002 Surratt Courier.

Laurie, you win best wishes for a wonderful and successful conference this weekend!

[Eva Elisabeth]

Laurie, second Roger's wishes!

[RJNorton]

Who is this man?

[Rogerm]

I notice that this man is wearing two badges. Is this the detective Pinkerton?

[RJNorton]

Roger, that is a terrific guess!! However, it is not Pinkerton.

[PaigeBooth]

Doctor Luke Blackburn?

He believed yellow fever was spread via contamination, so he arranged to have garments and a blanket that he believed were "infected" with the fever sent to the White House in hopes Lincoln would catch yellow fever. In reality, yellow fever is only spread through mosquitos.

I was so surprised to see this trivia question, because I was originally planning to discuss Dr. Blackburn in my TEDx speech, but since I only had 12 minutes, I had to delete Blackburn when I was cutting my speech down to size.

[RJNorton]

Brilliant, Paige! That is correct. We have a forum member, Dr. Leon Greene, who is an expert on this topic. His latest post is here.

Paige, you win best wishes for a wonderful weekend.