Customer Reviews

Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution

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This book is a fabulous photographic piece on the Lincoln assasination, covering the events and the people involved. The artifacts that are pictured are truly excellent examples. The quality of the photographs make for a wonderful book with great content. Many of the photos included have never been seen before. Swanson and Weinberg have put together a wonderful book that should be on every Lincoln bookshelf! I hope that the authors consider producing other fine books about President Lincoln that follow the same format. This is a great companion book to "Blood on the Moon" by Edward Steers, Jr..

What Weinberg and Swanson give us here is a journey back in time to the Spring and Summer of 1865. For some reason, Lincoln assassination scholarship has been gaining interest of late with Swanson's other book entitled "Manhunt." No doubt, interest is also gaining momentum with the proposed Harrison Ford movie about the assassination. Nevertheless, Swanson's book is destined to be a classic illustrated compendium of the events around Lincoln's death. It is equal or maybe even better to Kunhardt's "Twenty Days" which was published during the 1960's.

The stories behind the photographs are well worth mentioning. In particular, there is a very poignant story of a soldier leaning on the scaffolding for the gallows during the execution. That soldier is right below Mary Surratt, and in one of Gardner's pictures (which were beautifully restored for this book) you can see this soldier puking as the death warrant is read aloud. Another story which Weinberg and Swanson relate is how the 4 hooded prisoners could hear, the night before their execution, the gallows being constructed. Overall, a great companion piece to either Swanson's "Manhunt" or any other book on the Assassination.

In this fascinating book, an accomplished author teams up with an avid Lincoln-ologist to produce an excellent work. This book has a fascinating account of the capture, trial and (in some cases) execution of John Wilkes Booth's fellow "conspirators," and an excellent collection of pictures and reproductions of important documents.

Overall, I found this to be an excellent book. It has just enough text to be highly informative on the conspirators, without getting bogged down in minutiae. Also, it keeps a level-headed approach to the assassination throughout, eschewing the kind of theorizing that marks too many books on the subject. Yep, I highly enjoyed this colorful and highly readable book, and give it my highest recommendations!

This is a truly excllent monograpraph with some intriguing photographs and commentary not available before this account. This is a beautiful treatment of what happened to the almost mystical and undeniably lunaticical cadre of villains responsible for one of America's most horrifying and haunting domestic events. Like everything else that this dark chapter in US history provokes, these pictures catapult the reader back onto the streets of Washington D.C. where you stand as witness to this shocking tale.

"They are forgotten now, long buried in their graves." So begins this compelling pictorial book on the trial and execution of Lincoln's assassins. The photographs are excellent and have a way to drawing the reader back into the 19th century. People who were relatively unknown jump off the pages as flesh and blood who plotted one of the most evil deeds in our nation's history. Take time to read the copies of handwritten letters that Swanson has included. Written in cursive (a style that is almost lost in the 21st century), the letters bring the characters to life. Swanson and Weinberg's work is an important piece of our national history.

This is a wonderful addition to the book collection of any reader of Lincoln or civil war history. I have studied the story of the Lincoln conspirators for nearly 20 years, and have read a lot of fine material on the subject, but this book contains amazing photos I did not know existed. Where one may have seen a single picture of the conspirators or their July 1865 hanging.......this book contains pages and pages of photos of them, taken shortly before their execution, often from the original glass negatives. Of course, it also contains a vivid narrative of their trial and last moments. Others have written superb accounts of these events. This book is "worth it just for the photos."

This has to be one of the most fascinating ,interesting ,and probably the most factual treatment of the trial and execution of the assassins of President Lincoln.
There are several reasons that this book is so outstanding.It's large size,9 1/2 X 12 inches is required to do the photographs justice.The paper, quality,printing ,color reproduction and overall construction are supurb.The two authors are outstanding in their knowledge and long time interest in the subject.It has a selected bibliography that must be as good as one will find on the subject.The organization of the book makes it a clear ,concise and easily absorbed chronology of events that was probably even more captivating in its day than the period after the Assassination of President Kennedy.
The book also shows, as a besides, the difference in the art of photography in 1865 compared to what we have come to take for granted today or in the time of Kennedy's assassination. The fact that newspapers did not even have the ability to print a photograph. Photographs were not even available until several days after taken,and forget about color photography then. Come the advances in 100 years and we watched events live and in our living rooms with the assassination of JFK.
Compare this advancement in recording and speedy dissipating of information with the regression of and the drawn out, convoluting that takes place in the legal and justice that has become the norm today. Absolutely amazing in both cases.A few weeks and negligable expense in the case of Lincoln and years and untold millions with Kennedy.There has been great advances in the information processes and just the opposite in the legal and justice process.
Getting back to how the assassination is covered in this book. The authors have been able to make the reader feel that they were living at the time the event took place and convey what it might have felt to witness those great events taking place.There have been many books on the subject,and it was complicated;but the authors have boiled it down to the essentials.The hundreds of photographs,illustrations,reproductions and illustrations are a real treasure trove that have been collected and assembled in a way that obviously must have talen taken lot of time ,knowledge and contacts.
If you want a book that details the capture,trial and execution of President Lincoln,in a clear,concise way;look no further --this is the book you are looking for.

This is more of a picture book than a text-laden history book, but it's the appeal of the many photos, pictures, illustrations, and even cartoons that make this book a fascinating one to read. The book includes photos of all the conspirators, in life as well as death, along with other interesting details such as a letter Booth wrote as a teenager. Today few remember that John Wilkes Booth was the teenage heart-throb of his day, making it all the more shocking when he was involved in the assassination.

The details of the trial sound like something from some fantastic kangaroo court, not the U.S. For example, the defense had no time to marshall their case, interview or call witnesses, or even to meet much with their clients. The jury was composed of generals and military men, not civilians, and their decision would be final, with no right of appeal.There were indeed judges in the courtroom, but they were watching from the audience.

The public and the press constantly talked about their favorite conspirators, of which the young, handsome and dashing looking Lewis Powell was the favorite, who attempted to kill secretary of state William Seward with a Bowie knife on the night of the assassination, rather than the president, but was foiled. Even the decision of who to prosecute left many questions unanswered, as several suspects with far more incriminating evidence weren't even brought to trial, whereas others with less evidence were tried and executed. The authors suggest that this might have had more to do with who actually plotted the murder vs. who was involved with post-assassination attempts to shelter Booth.

However, it's the stunning visual presentation here rather than the now well known history that is the star here. This book will be enjoyed by any history or Americana buffs or anyone interested in a well done presentation of a unique event in our history.

On April 13th I went on a John Wilkes Booth Escape Route tour in
Clinton, Maryland, and just by sheer luck, Mr. Swanson was in attendance and though it was the 3rd time I'd been on the tour, it was the best. He is a most enthralling person and though I didn't know who he was for almost an hour, he was obviously very knowlegeable on the subject of the assassination. He was kind enough to sign a copy of his book for me that I purchased in the Surratt Society bookstore and wrote a very lengthy and personal note in it-but I'm rambling- The book is simply fabulous-The text is extremely informative and the photos are the best I've ever seen-some are very rare and have never been published before-This book is a MUST for anyone interseted in either the Civil War or the Lincoln assassination- it's definitley top drawer and well worth ever cent-I can't recommend it highly enough!

Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial And Execution is a cold, clear look at the aftermath of a crime that forever changed American history. President Lincoln's assassination and the subsequent execution of his killer, John Wilkes Booth, is a well known event, but afterward, in the spring and summer of 1865, a military commission tried eight other people as conspirators in Booth's plot to murder Lincoln and other officials. Filled with period photographs and historical records as well as comprehensive, detailed text, Lincoln's Assassins is a fascinating and even disturbing close analysis of a time of turmoil and mourning across America. A welcome and invaluable addition to Lincoln historical studies and reference collections.