A new series transforms the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln into a true crime thriller that goes deeper into the story than most textbooks.
Most who studied Lincoln in school learn he was assassinated by a man named John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln was watching a play with his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, at Ford's Theatre when Booth .
What isn't as widely remembered is that Booth killed the president just five days after the surrender of effectively ended . It was a pre-planned, coordinated attack on the president, Vice President Andrew Johnson and the Secretary of State. Only Booth was successful.
A Confederate sympathizer, Booth relied on a network of supporters to help him hide. Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War, led the search by the Army to track Lincoln's killer down. He was found 12 days later hiding in a barn where he was shot and killed.
鈥 ," , dramatizes the hunt for Booth and the trial that followed. It鈥檚 based on the book 鈥淢anhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln鈥檚 Killer鈥 by James L. Swanson. Tobias Menzies stars as Stanton, who also helped convict Booth's conspirators.
鈥淢ost no one knows the details of this story unless they鈥檝e done a Ph.D or it鈥檚 a special interest of theirs,鈥 said creator- showrunner Monica Beletsky in a recent interview.
Bringing Stanton to life is exciting, said Menzies, because he had a close, respected relationship with Lincoln.
鈥淎 big part of Stanton鈥檚 journey is both a political loss and also a personal loss. He loses a friend. ... I studied very little American history, and I certainly didn鈥檛 do this period of history,鈥 said Menzies. 鈥淎s an actor, I鈥檝e done quite a lot of period stuff and I find it enjoyable to get the chance to find out about a new part of these stories and this is a really good example of that.
"Truth is stranger than fiction.鈥
Anthony Boyle plays Booth and his awareness of the man began with an episode of 鈥淭he Simpsons鈥 where Bart portrayed him in a school play. He knew his research needed to dig deeper to understand Booth's psyche and read letters he had written between the ages of 15 until his death at 26. Boyle describes them as a 鈥渄escent into madness.鈥
Beletsky hopes 鈥淢anhunt鈥 underscores how Lincoln's killing was especially shocking at the time.
鈥淭hat kind of murder was so uncommon,鈥 she said. 鈥淟incoln famously left the White House door unlocked during the Civil War, even though he had piles of death threats. It wasn鈥檛 even imagined that kind of crime could happen in our culture. My costume designer told me that Booth, wearing all black that night, is the origin of villains wearing all black in our storytelling.鈥
There was a boldness and conceit to the way Booth decided to kill Lincoln so publicly in front of an audience that fit his desire for attention.
鈥淭he theater was absolutely jammed,鈥 said Menzies, a British actor who's starred in and 鈥淎nd then to run out and disappear into the night and then take 12 days to find this man, you couldn't make it up.鈥
Booth was an actor in a family of actors, but lived in the shadow of his older brother Edwin, who was well-respected for his talent. 鈥淚'm gonna be the most famous man in the whole world,鈥 Booth says on the show, prior to the assassination. While on the run, he reads newspaper articles about himself and loves the attention.
鈥淚t was like, Leonardo DiCaprio鈥檚 brother killed the president," said Hamish Linklater, who plays Lincoln. "I mean, (Edwin) was the biggest celebrity of his time," he said.
鈥淭his was before the internet and before television, this was word of mouth," added Boyle. "People were hearing about it (asking), 鈥滼ohn Wilkes Booth, the actor, killed the President? Was this some sort of farce?鈥
Besides telling Stanton's story, Beletsky introduces viewers to Mary Simms, a slave belonging to a physician named Dr. Samuel Mudd, (played by Matt Walsh), who treated Booth while he was on the run. She was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. The series depicts Simms 鈥 played by Lovie Simone鈥 as interacting with Booth when he shows up at Mudd's house to hide, but in reality, she never met him.
Simms went on to testify in the trial of Booth's conspirators 鈥 which included Mudd 鈥 and confirmed his allegiance to the Confederacy. Because there is not a lot of information available on Simms, she was written as a composite of a number of people who helped to convict Booth's co-conspirators.
鈥淚t was a real opportunity to bring some of these heroes to light, like Stanton and Simms, and also to sort of set the record straight in some ways of what happened in our past and how that still continues to affect us," said Beletsky.
鈥淚t feels like a good time to be telling this story. You know, . Our story is partly a story about the fragility of democracy to some extent," Menzies said. 鈥淚 think that鈥檚 as true now as it was then. It has a relevance and a resonance which feels kind of rich to be telling now.鈥
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This story has been updated to correct the title of the book 鈥淢anhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln鈥檚 Killer.鈥
