Although the official historical record confirms that John Wilkes Booth and a small group of accomplices assassinated Abraham Lincoln and attempted to kill other top government officials, numerous alternative—and often fascinating—conspiracy theories have surfaced and gained varying degrees of acceptance over the past 160 years. Almost immediately after the event, various theories began to circulate, evolving over time to implicate organizations such as the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Pius IX, the U.S. War Department and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, the Confederate government, and certain disaffected factions within Northern society who allegedly despised Lincoln’s wartime leadership and decisions as President and Commander-in-Chief. These theories have persisted into the modern era and remain subjects of considerable intrigue. This presentation will seek to explore these major conspiracy theories, tracing their origins and examining the purported evidence behind the seven principal theories linked to Lincoln’s assassination.


LLI Coordinator: David Pace