Booth planned for coordinated attacks against several members of the executive branch. He quickly contacted his co-conspirators from the 1864 plot. Lincoln would be attending the evening performance. Visiting the Ford Theatre to pick up his mail, he heard the news that the president and Mrs. On April 14, 1865, however, Booth seized a chance. In each instance, he could have shot the president, but did not take the opportunity. On Maand April 11, 1865, Booth watched Lincoln give his second inaugural address and a speech about voting rights for freed blacks. The kidnapping plot had come to nothing, however, when the President changed his plans at the last minute. He then made contact with the co-conspirators who would eventually be involved in the assassination: David Herold, Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, the Surratt family and Dr. He had travelled to Canada to meet with Confederate sympathizers and forge connections. Booth had plotted in late 1864 to kidnap president Lincoln and then use this hostage to affect the outcome of the war. Meanwhile, one of the most celebrated actors in the country, John Wilkes Booth, was devastated by the Confederacy’s impending loss. Mary Todd had been depressed since the death of their son in 1862 and Lincoln wanted to spend quality time with her. Lincoln, finally feeling a lightening of his presidential responsibilities, decided to take his wife Mary Todd Lincoln to the theater on April 14, which was Good Friday. Lee’s surrender at the Appomattox Court House on April 9, it seemed the war would soon be at an end. President Abraham Lincoln had led the Union forces against the Confederacy, which sought to secede from the Union.

Chasing Lincoln’s Killer begins in 1865 at the end of the four-year Civil War.

Lincoln's assassins james l swanson