Unknown Accomplices

Yesterday I finished reading the book, Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L Swanson. In the book it talks about the plot to assassinate President Lincoln, as well as other heads of state, such as, Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H Seward. The conspiracy to kill President Lincoln was however, not a one-man job. It is common knowledge that John Wilkes Booth was the assassin who killed Lincoln, but did you know that there in fact were three other accomplices? I sure didn’t! In this paper I am going to reveal the other three accomplices and the part they played on that cold April night.

The first of the three accomplices was Lewis Powell. Powell had orders from Booth to kill Secretary of State, William H Seward. Booth thought that this would be a manageable task for Powell since Seward was recovering from a recent carriage accident and was therefore, bed ridden and helpless to any assailants. The attack however, did not go quite according to plan. Powell made his way into the Seward house by saying that he was a messenger with important medication for William Seward. Once he got upstairs, he leapt into action, as he began to stab the helpless secretary of state. Augustus and Fanny Seward, who were the secretary of state’s children, were able to turn the attention upon themselves and were then able to fight Powell out of the house, causing him to hop on his horse and gallop away. Seward ended up surviving the ordeal and had a pretty noticeable scar to show for it.

The second of the accomplices was David Herold. Herold was an excellent tracker, and knew his way around the country very well. His job was to escort Lewis Powell to the Seward household and to then wait outside with the horses, so they could make a quick getaway once Powell killed the secretary of state. Once Powell entered the house, Herold was left to wait outside and keep watch. After a while though, he started to get nervous when he heard Fanny Seward cry out for help from the upstairs window. Worrying that the authorities might catch him outside the house, he left Powell’s horse behind and galloped away, thus abandoning Powell.

The last of the three men was a gentleman by the name of George Atzerdot. Atzerdot was supposed to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson at his hotel in Washington D.C. Atzerdot however, doubted Booth’s entire plan and ended up at the hotel bar, drinking. He never even attempted to kill the vice president. Atzerdot was still found guilty and hung for his connection to John Wilkes Booth and his plan.

In closing, I really enjoyed this book, as I found it to be a very valuable source of information. I never knew that John Wilkes Booth had three accomplices! While the murder of President Lincoln proved heart breaking for the Union, just imagine how catastrophic it would have been if all the assailants had carried out their mission. It might have changed the world, as we know it. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good historical read, that might also give them insight into lesser well-known people involved in a very well-known crime of perhaps our greatest president of all times.