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- [00:01]
Genevieve Mannion
I see you.
- [00:02]
Disney+ Advertiser
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- [00:13]
Genevieve Mannion
This is the only pure thing in this world.
- [00:16]
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Return to Pandora on Disney.
- [00:18]
Genevieve Mannion
It will be an adventure for the
- [00:19]
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whole family and watch the Oscar winning phenomenon at home.
- [00:22]
Genevieve Mannion
This is sick.
- [00:27]
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Fire and Ash now streaming on Disney. Rated PG 13.
- [00:33]
Genevieve Mannion
Hello and welcome to my Victorian Nightmare. I'm your host Genevieve Mannion and I'm here to talk about mysterious deaths, morbid fascinations, disturbing stories and otherwise spooky events from the Victorian era. Because to me there's just something especially intriguing, creepy and oddly comforting about horror and mayhem from the 19th century. So listener discretion is advised. Hello friends and welcome to this, my 106th episode and have I got a show filled with horrifying little known details about one of the most famous tragedies in American history for you today. On the night of April 1865, a single shot rang out in the Ford's theater that would send shockwaves through the entire world and would trigger a series of unthinkable tragedies that were never taught in school. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest tragedies in American history, was the catalyst for many, many more disasters. Numerous executions, attempted suicides, the unraveling of minds, bone chilling hauntings and murder. For you today, dear listener, I will discuss the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the shocking little known disasters and tragedies that began to unfold even before the smoke had cleared. Goodness gracious, have I got a show for you today. I promised that I would talk about the haunted Ford theater in episode 104. And I decided that today was the day. I couldn't wait to get to it. As soon as I began to dig into the assassination of President Lincoln, I found a treasure trove of other tragedies. Hauntings, prophetic dreams, murders, lunatic asylums. This episode is just. It's one big disaster. It is a mess. I think, I think you're really going to enjoy it. I had a blast putting it together. I learned so many things that I had never heard before. I'm generally not super interested in covering the Civil War. It's not a topic that I've covered at any kind of length on this show. But when I started researching the many tragedies that were a direct result of the assassination and the blood covered dresses being bricked into closets to keep Lincoln's ghosts laughter quiet, the harrowing rescues of dozens of men from a collapsing building, the beef that Mary Todd Lincoln had with Ulysses S. Grant's wife. I was so in it. This is another great horrifying factoids for the Thanksgiving dinner table to make your annoying cousin leave the room kind of episode. But first, thank you everyone who has joined the Patreon. Those who receive the show ad free a day early, they receive Victorian true crime extras, dark poetry and witchy content. I talked about how to perform full moon rituals and how to just let them crush you to a pulp, how to give up and gave some pointers on how to release some of the shot nerve energy that we may all still have after our last Mercury retrograde. So if you are into witchy stuff and some lovely meditations that I also include in there, you can join the free trial just click the link in the episode notes. You will also find the link to the the newsletter, which I love to create, and today's Instagram post with photos of all of this madness. Help yourself okay, I admit it. You got me. I don't eat enough fish. I know you were all wondering if I've been getting enough Omega 3 in my diet, but no, far from it. Which is really not great. And considering that only 2% of Americans get enough Omega 3 in their diet, you are probably low as well. I wanted to do something about this, so I started taking Aqua Omega fish oil. I honestly don't trust a lot of fish out there and I don't trust a lot of fish oils on the market either. So many brands cut corners on quality use fillers, but not Aqua Omega. Their fish oil is third party tested for potency, purity and freshness by ifos, one of the world's leading fish oil certification programs. They use anchovies that have far fewer contaminants than tuna or salmon and it's Friend of the Sea certified. I have been taking it for like three weeks now and I already feel sharper. My rickety bones and joints don't feel quite so rickety. I usually feel like I'm a cadaver crawling out of my coffin in the morning. I've been genuinely impressed by just how much my very comfortable bed can hurt me. But it's not hurting me anymore. Ever since I started taking Aqua Omega, starting to think it was a me problem. But honestly, my favorite thing about Aqua Omega is that they partner with 4Ocean to ensure that every bottle sold removes one pound of plastic and debris from our oceans and coastlines. For your daily dose of omega 3s, go to myaqua omega.com Victorian and use code Victorian for 20% off that's myaquaomega.com Victorian and use code Victorianfor 20% off. Also available in thousands of health food stores nationwide. Okay, I almost didn't know where to begin with this story I have to share today because it's isn't just one story. This is not just the story of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. I have never heard of a dramatically tragic event leading to so many other, in some cases, even more horrifying, dramatically tragic and haunting events. The assassination of President Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth led to more murders, executions, unimaginable tragedies, attempted suicides, numerous people being admitted to lunatic asylums, as they were called, and even the alleged subsequent hauntings of the Ford Theater. They're just gut wrenching. Often when I read about the hauntings of places, they consist of a ghost or ghosts wafting around, showing up in photographs, just being a generally menacing or upsetting presence. And that's the scary part. Just a ghost being a ghost in a place. It's scary in and of itself. But the details about the hauntings of this theater and the manner in which it is alleged, allegedly haunted nearly brought a tear to my eye and also gave my goosebumps. Goosebumps. So buckle up. This episode is not just like I said, about the assassination of the 16th president. That one split second, that one shot fired, was just the first tragic domino in a series of dominoes that allegedly continue to fall to this very day. And if you would follow me through this dark lamplit hall of the White house in Washington D.C. in April 1865, I want to show you something. It is three nights before the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and you may notice something strange about this place. The faces of Washington Adams in Jefferson, in the paintings on the walls are changing. Some are fading, warping. And the walls themselves are moving, extending doors disappearing. And the sounds that we hear the morning wailing appears to be moving from room to room as we walk. You can't quite place where it's coming from, although it appears appears loudest down the end of this hall. We are in a dream. Lincoln's dream. One that he had three nights before he died. And unlike how we usually have to hide when we take our little 19th century field trips, I don't think it will be necessary. Things are weird enough. Two people in 21st century clothing sneaking around the White House shouldn't seem too out of place. I don't think we'll just stand by. Mr. Lincoln probably won't pay us any mind. And here he comes, top hat and All a candle in his hand, searching down the halls. He appears to be looking for the source of the crying. Just stand back a bit.
- [09:19]
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You there. Can you tell me who is weeping?
- [09:25]
Genevieve Mannion
Where are they? We cannot, Mr. President. But you might find your answer that way, in the East Room.
- [09:32]
Disney+ Advertiser
Thank you.
- [09:33]
Genevieve Mannion
I will. I will make my way there. Off he goes. That was unexpected. I didn't actually think that we would get to speak to Lincoln in his nightmares. It was special. Okay, let's stay somewhat close behind the man. He is throwing open two large, dark French doors to the East Room. That's a sight. The room he just opened must be lit with a thousand candles, but somehow it's still dark. Let's get a bit closer. We'll just stand out here in the hall. There are a lot of people inside. There is a platform in the center of the room adorned in funerary linens and what appears to be a corpse laying on top. There are Civil War soldiers behind the body, on guard, and many people weeping. Lincoln is slowly approaching, and all eyes have turned to him, who is dead
- [10:33]
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in the White House here.
- [10:34]
Genevieve Mannion
Let's find our way out and we'll discuss this and many more horrifying things to come. We just left a dream that the President described to Ward Hill Lemon, a friend and bodyguard of the President. He told him this three days before his assassination. He said that, quote, in this dream, it was not me, but some other fellow that was killed. It seems that this ghostly assassin tried his hand on someone else. Oh, so strange. And on the day of his assassination, he was still talking about it. And his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, said that she didn't like all of this discussion of assassination. She believed it was bad luck. He told his Cabinet that morning that he had another dream. And this is so haunting. He said that he dreamed of being on a, quote, singular and indescribable vessel that was moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore. He said he also had this dream every night before the most pivotal events of the Civil War. An assassination attempt had already been made on Lincoln in August of the previous year, 1864. He was riding his horse about three miles northeast of the White House. He was riding alone, late at night or 11pm that's late to me. It's already way past my bedtime. He said that he was deep in thought, riding by moonlight, when all of a sudden a shot rang out. He was close to the gate of what called the soldiers home, a little retreat property where Lincoln spent some of his time. The sentry heard the shot and saw Lincoln approaching through the shadows. He ran to him and noticed that he was not shot, but his hat was missing. Lincoln said very calmly that someone must have shot me by the foothill just as I was approaching. Darn near scared my horse to death. He said it must have been a hunter. Misfiring the sentry was like, let's go ahead and get you into the house Post haste, Mr. President. The next day his hat was found with a bullet hole. The direction of entry and exit showed that the bullet was shot from below a low angle, as if someone was waiting in a bush below his horse. Not something that could have been accidentally shot from far away. Lincoln did not want the incident shared with the press. He just dismissed it. But from then on, it was determined that the President should not be riding alone. The sniper was never caught, but many believe that it may have been none other than John Wilkes Booth, who was well known to be a crack shot. Mr. John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor. He was a Confederate sympathizer who lamented the abolition of slavery in the United States. His good friend John T. Ford had just recently opened a 1500 seat theater which he named after himself. On November 9, 1863, Booth was the very first leading man to appear on the stage performing in Charles Selby's the Marble Heart. And Lincoln was there at this performance, watching from box seven, the Presidential box. Booth at one point pointed directly at Lincoln during a biting soliloquy and Lincoln's own sister in law remarked, that looked very accusatory, didn't it, to Lincoln? To which he replied, he does look pretty sharp at me, doesn't he? End quote. Booth was inv. To meet with Lincoln between acts, an invitation he refused. Not many folks know that Booth attended the hanging of one of my famous relatives in 1859. Not half hanged. Mary. I've mentioned that I am a direct descendant of Mary Webster, the only known quote unquote witch to survive her execution. But thanks to the diligent ancestry detective work of my sister, she discovered that I am also related to John Brown, the take no prisoners abolitionist conductor on the Underground Railroad who was executed for treason, murder and inciting a slave insurrection. He is a not so distant cousin of mine that I am particularly proud to have through my mother's line. My sister just dropped that bomb. In a family group chat just recently, we were all rather elated. John Wilkes Booth watched John Brown die. It was said that he stood near the scaffold and expressed great satisfaction with Brown's fate. Although he was also said to have admired his bravery in facing death, which he did stoically. But he also admired his bravery in life, despite his disagreements with his stance on abolition. Booth's sister quoted him as having said, quote, john Brown was a man inspired the grandest character of the century, end quote. With Booth's beloved Confederacy fail, the 1864 presidential election approaching and the high likelihood that Lincoln would be elected once again, he became saturated with rage. He blamed Lincoln for all of the South's troubles. He didn't sign up to fight in the war himself, didn't have the courage to fight for his beloved Confederacy. And as the war was coming to an end, he expressed regret that he didn't find the courage to fight the war and was beginning to, quote, despise his own existence. He wanted to do something. He began to formulate a plan to kidnap Lincoln for the purpose of trading him for captured Confederate soldiers. He believed that he himself could bring the war to an end and perhaps even win the war for the Confederacy by kidnapping the President and emboldening what was left of the Southern troops and force the Union to recognize the Confederate government or he would murder Lincoln. He started to assemble a ragtag group of co conspirators. They'd loosely discuss plots to kidnap the President, who would soon be re elected in a landslide in 1865, and Robert E. Lee would surrender on April 12, 1865, before Booth could get his kidnapping plot off the ground. He decided now that he couldn't do anything for the Confederacy, but he could assassinate the President. It was only a matter of when and where. This episode of my Victorian nightmare is brought to you by Alloy Health. I went to go get Korean barbecue with a pair of friends the other night and I was hoping that they would notice just how how dewy and bouncy my skin has been lately. And they did. It's not just me thinking that my skin looks better than it actually does and it's all because of aloe. I started using their M4 skincare, the moisturizer and the eye cream about a month ago and I am shocked. Perimenopause has not been kind to my under eyes especially. And I started using Aloi's Estriol powered skincare to bring back a little bounce and it has been a booming success. 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Booth had been performing at the Ford Theater in a show that was running for a few weeks at that time. He went to the theater to collect some mail, and while he was there, John Ford's brother told Booth that the President would be there that night with his wife. He decided tonight's the night. He quickly assembled his team of conspirators to help him plan his escape after the assassination. His plan was to assassinate not just Lincoln, but also Secretary of State William H. Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson. He assigned those assassinations to his co conspirators. The goal was to decapitate the Union government and throw it into a state of panic and confusion. Neither of the other assassinations would be carried out. Originally, Ulysses S. Grant and his wife were going to join Lincoln and his wife at the theater, and he hoped to assassinate him as well for added effect. But Mary Todd and Julia Grant were not on good terms. The hot goss was that Mary was getting increasingly jealous of other women, giving her husband attention. Toward the end of the war a few weeks earlier, the wife of General Edward O.C. ord sidled her horse up beside Lincoln's while he was visiting General Grant's headquarters, and Mary got so furious at this woman that she accosted her, and in front of officers and others, she accused Mrs. Ord of flirting with her husband. She was so enraged that she made Mrs. Ord cry. General Grant's wife Julia stepped in to defend her, and so she turned her ire toward her and then accused her of wanting to become first lady herself and was quoted as saying, I suppose you think you'll get to the White House yourself, don't you? End quote, Mrs. Grant was like get this woman away from me. And when Lincoln extended an invite to Grant and his wife to join them for the show, General Grant was totally down. But his wife forced him to decline the invitation. However, Major Henry Rathbone and his fiance Clara Harris agreed to take their place and accompany them to the theater. Mary didn't really even want to go herself. She had developed a headache earlier in the day. But it was already being reported in papers that Lincoln would attend, so he did not want to cancel. The Lincolns and their guests made their way to Presidential Box 7 in Ford's Theater. The orchestra played Hail to the Chief to a packed house who rose in jubilant applause. One of the actors delivered altered line in the play, a joke about a character wanting to avoid the draft that he changed to quote the draft has already been stopped by order of the President. Robert E. Lee had just surrendered his army to the Union General only five days earlier in Virginia. So although the war wasn't officially in black and white over, it was over for all intents and purposes. And that line gave Mary Todd a particular tickle. She was seen to laugh heartily and explain to Lincoln that that must have been an altered line just for his amusement. Lincoln's personal bodyguard wasn't there that night. He had been sent away to Richmond on an assignment. And the man who was supposed to be guarding the box, John Frederick Parker, went to a nearby tavern with the Lincolns valet and coachman during the intermission. It's not clear if he returned at all. But he wasn't there when Boo Booth arrived. Booth was having a drink at the Star Saloon, a tavern right next door to the theater until 10 o' clock when he decided now was the time. No one suspected that John Wilkes Booth, the regular star of the stage of that very theater, was up to anything nefarious. When he entered the building he walked right up to the door where there was a hallway that connected the theater boxes. It was opened by an usher who, who no doubt recognized him. And as soon as he entered, Booth barricaded the door by wedging a stick between it and the wall. Booth timed his assassination with the most effective laugh line of the play. A moment where the President and his guests would best be caught off guard. The line was well I guess I know enough to turn you inside out old gal, you sock dologizing old man trap. End quote. Apparently that was a made up word, kind of like Yankee. It was a colloquialism for overtly American. At the time Lincoln was laughing uproariously at this line when Booth raised his pistol and with one single shot, he fired directly into the back of his head. The bullet passed through his brain and stopped at the front of his skull. He slumped forward, then fell backward in his chair. Lincoln's guest, Mr. Rathbone, immediately snapped to life and jumped on Booth. John also had a dagger and he stabbed Rathbone in the arm with it. But Rathbone was a badass and he continued to wrestle with him and got him to drop the gun. But then Booth jumped down onto the stage, a 12 foot drop. And many people thought that it was just part of the play. And it's astounding how no one can confirm what Booth yelled out in this moment. He yelled a slogan of some kind. And there are endless accounts of what people thought he said. Some say that he said, sic semper tyrannis, Latin for thus always to tyrants. Some say that he yelled, only sic semper. Some said that he shouted, the south is avenged. Some heard revenge for the South. And two different witnesses on two different ends of the stage said that he said simply, I have done it. Mary Lincoln, Clara Harris and Rathbone all screamed, stop that man. And the chase was on. Lincoln was taken across the street to a boarding house. He was still alive. Mary was sobbing. The President was described as such. His eyes were closed and he was in a profoundly comatose condition while his breathing was intermittent and exceedingly stertorous. Here at the boarding house, although he was still alive, the wound was rul as mortal. It was only a matter of time. Numerous surgeons and doctors arrived and his personal physician, Robert K. Stone, came right away. They located the bullet and some bone fragments. They all agreed there was nothing they could do, but they could at least relieve pain and pressure on the brain by removing clotted blood. Charles Leal, who was a young Union army surgeon, was the first to the president presidential box. He was a member of the audience. He was the first to discover the bullet wound. And as he and other surgeons did their best to reduce the swelling and discomfort, it was said that young Charles Leo held the comatose President's hand with a firm grip, quote, to let him know that he was in touch with humanity and had a friend all night long. Oh, that got me. Lincoln's oldest son, Robert arrived at 11pm Although his youngest son, Tad, was kept away, Mary was beside herself in inconsolable grief. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton convinced her to leave the room so that the doctors could do their work. He then essentially governed the United States from that boarding house through the night, directing the search for Booth and any co conspirators. By 7am Mary returned to his bedside. He was still alive at that time. The careful attention to relieving the swelling all night long prevented the President's face from swelling. It was said that he looked perfectly natural by the time his wife arrived. It was said that she sat by his side, kissing him and calling him every endearing name. He died 22 two minutes later, one of the surgeons noted that, quote, there was no apparent suffering, no conclusive action, no rattling of the throat, only a mere cessation of breathing. All present knelt in prayer and it was said, quote, now he belongs to the ages. Now he belongs to the angels. 12 days later. Later, Booth would be tracked down with a co conspirator, David Herold. The Union cavalry located Booth and Herold hiding in a barn on Garrett Farm. The cavalry surrounded the barn and demanded that they come out. Harold totally gave up. He walked right out. But Booth wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, so they lit the barn on fire. Before Booth could run out, sharpshooter Sergeant Boston Corbett fired one shot through the window in the barn and caught Booth right in the neck, severing his spinal cord, paralyzing him instantly. Soldiers pulled his body out of the blaze onto the farmhouse porch. He died three hours later, and numerous witnesses said that before he took his last breath, he looked at his hands and said, useless, useless. Four more conspirators would be caught and sentenced to death by a military tribunal ordered by the new President Johnson. Lincoln's body would lay in state in the East Room of the White House, guarded by soldiers, surrounded by members of the weeping public. Mary Todd Lincoln was too grief stricken to attend the funeral services, discouraged from attending because she would not or could not grieve quietly. Before Lincoln's funeral, his son, William Wallace Lincoln, who had already died at age 11, had his coffin examination at the request of his mother Mary, so that it may be buried beside Lincoln. His little coffin was placed on his father's funeral train to travel 1700 miles from Washington, D.C. to Springfield, Illinois. The special nine car train traveled through seven states, making major stops in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Chicago, passing millions of mourners as it traveled. Lincoln was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery. He rests in a concrete vault 10ft below the floor of the burial chamber, beneath a large red marble marker. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln, a horrific tragedy, was also a catalyst for numerous other tragedies, some of which are simply unthinkable. And I myself didn't even know some of this incredible history until I dug in. I have come to see this event, the assassination of President Lincoln as a veritable pomegranate of horror. So let's start pulling out the seeds and discuss how this one event led to horrific disasters, the unraveling of numerous people's sanity, heart stopping heroic rescues from certain doom and murder. I see you.
- [29:42]
Disney+ Advertiser
Fire and Ash is now streaming on Disney. It's the the film critics are calling the best avatar yet. A true epic and completely jaw dropping.
- [29:52]
Genevieve Mannion
This is the only purest thing in this world.
- [29:55]
Disney+ Advertiser
Return to Pandora on Disney.
- [29:57]
Genevieve Mannion
It will be an adventure for the
- [29:58]
Disney+ Advertiser
whole family and watch the Oscar winning phenomenon at home.
- [30:01]
Genevieve Mannion
This is sick.
- [30:06]
Disney+ Advertiser
Fire and Ash now streaming on Disney. Rated PG 13.
- [30:09]
Genevieve Mannion
You would imagine that after the assassination, the first lady would receive an outpouring of support and care. But this, this did not happen. She had made a good number of enemies long before the assassination. As mentioned, she was known for angry outbursts, jealousy. She was accused of Marie Antoinette like behavior during the war where the people were rationing food and suffering during the war. For many reasons, she chose to refurbish the White House. Her spending was completely out of control and it flew under the radar for a while until the President found out and was furious. Congress had to pass additional appropriations just to cover the costs. This did not go over well with the public. She had a history of intense mood swings and is now believed by some historians and psychologists to have been suffering perhaps from bipolar disorder at the time of her husband's murder. There were no provisions for pensions for presidential widows in these days. So Mary Todd Lincoln was soon unceremoniously evicted from the White House. With no money and no home to go to. Her Confederate family disowned her years ago, considering her a traitor for being married to Lincoln. Seven of her relatives would die fighting for the Confederacy. She moved into a boarding house while suffering from severe ptsd. Her son Tad cared for her as best he could until he tragically died at only 18 years. Women in her time were expected to grieve quietly, hide their faces behind a veil. It is often misunderstood that just because this was a time where public mourning was not only socially acceptable, it was encouraged that women could grieve freely. No, no. There were still rules about exactly how you were supposed to mourn. And Mary broke some of the strictest rules. She would not mourn quietly. She would often be shooed away from her own children's and husband's deathbeds for wailing too loudly, crying too dramatically. Her authentic way of mourning was offensive and so she was shunned. And in fact, she wasn't just not in the room when Lincoln died. She wasn't allowed in the room when Lincoln died. She had been shuffled out of the room because her grief was too distracting to the doctors. She would later seek out mediums and attended seances regularly in desperate attempts to connect with her husband's spirit. She was photographed by the famous spirit photographer William H. Mumler. And you can see the ghost of Abraham Lincoln standing right behind her, wrapping his arms around her. This was of course, only double exposed photography, but she and many other people believed that it was real. And her grief was taken advantage of by frauds like Mumler. She, like Queen Victoria, chose to make black her only color of clothing for the rest of her life and remained in permanent mourning. She vacillated between anger, self pity, guilt, intense depressions and anxiety attacks. Her oldest son had her convicted of lunacy and had her committed to an asylum. She would luckily later be able to appeal the verdict and had a retrial. She was then declared sane, but only after spending four harrowing months in an asylum. She would spend the rest of her life living with her sister. Sister and died in 1882 at the age of 63. She's buried next to Lincoln in his tomb in Springfield, Illinois. Immediately following the assassination, Ford's theater was closed for a government investigation. Access to the building was heavily restricted. Ford, however, was already advertising selling tickets for a show called the Octoroon only days later after the assassination. And he had sold 200 tickets. Mind you, the theater held 1500. But he be receiving threats from people who were disgusted that he would reopen the theater so soon. He received numerous letters from people threatening to burn down the theater if he dared allow a performance to take place. But Ford forged ahead. On opening night, government officials and soldiers showed up and prevented the show from happening. In the interest of protecting theatergoers, the threats were deemed credible. The government would soon seize the property altogether and compensated Ford for the loss of the theater. The building was soon turned into an office building for the War Department. The inside was stripped and rebuilt and numerous employees complained that it was not rebuilt in a very sturdy manner. Construction was rushed. Not only that, but the clerks were worked 10 hours a day. It was a pretty miserable place to work. The building was so poorly constructed that there were whole areas roped off because the floors were crumbling, the beams were bending, plaster was falling from the ceilings and employees employees noticed a foreboding bulging in the east wall. But the bureau chief, Colonel Fred C. Ainsworth, was assured by the contractors that everything was perfectly safe. It was such common knowledge to everyone in the building that the structure was so flimsy that each floor of 100 or so employees would have to be released at the end of the day, floor by floor, so as not to put too much pressure on the staircases. In 1893 it was decided that the place would be wired up for the newfangled electric. Electricity taking the world by storm. To do so, they needed to dig up the basement to install a light plant. They dug between brick piers that held up posts and load bearing beams. On June 9, 1893, at 9:30am One of those brick support piers collapsed and everything above it did too. One clerk reported that it sounded like an earthquake and a crash quote, like the end of the world. Like dominoes, floor by floor folded in, beginning at the bottom. As each floor collapsed, the beams that held the floors above them did as well, crashing cement beams and bodies down. A 40 foot hole was punched through the floors, filing cabinets, desks, chairs, wooden beams and men were tangled together in a dusty cloud into the basement. 22 men were crushed to death and 68 others were seriously injured. A man named B. Hazel Lockwood saw the tragedy unfolding from outside of the building and ran to the back window to help. He climbed a telegraph pole and found a ladder to direct to the third floor window, helping people escape just in time before the rest of the floor collapsed. This African American man saved the lives of 20 clerks. The surviving clerks of the Record and Pension Division invited Lockwood to their new offices and presented presented him with a gold watch inscribed presented to Basil Lockwood by the clerks in the Record and Pension Division in recognition of his heroic conduct in the Ford's theater disaster of June 9, 1893. In this time of Jim Crow, the white clerks petitioned the government to give this man a job and he was soon employed as a messenger for the War Department. Though sadly, only seven months later his position would be eliminated along along with thousands more during the panic of 1893, which caused massive unemployment and hundreds of bank closures across the country. But this man's story keeps going. He was able to find work as a waiter just a few doors down from the collapsed Ford's Theater. But in that same year, he allegedly attacked his employer with a knife and the wife of his employer threw him down the stairs. Now. Now this and the details of the alleged attack is just what was written in the papers. An Attempted murder trial was held and the racism shown by the judge was so overt it is jaw dropping. He repeatedly used the N word to describe the defendant. But surprisingly for these days, and with the demonization of the defendant by the judge himself and an all white jury, Mr. Basil was acquitted of any wrongdoing. After the collapse of the Ford's Theater building, it took days to remove all of the bodies from the rubble and a criminal investigation was begun. The entire country wanted to know who was to blame. A coroner's inquest was held to determine who that may be. Colonel Ainsworth, the bureau chief, or the contractor, George Dant, who assured Ainsworth that the building was perfectly safe. As he was watching it crumbling with his own eyes. The jurors at the inquest requested that both of these men, along with the building superintendent and the engineer, be tried for criminal negligence. Somehow, every case was dismissed against these men. The building was rebuilt and served numerous governmental purposes over the years. God, you couldn't pay me to work in that building. But in the 20s, a campaign to return the building to a theater was begun. It took decades, but it was restored to its wartime appearance and reopened as a Theater in 1868 and continues to exist as a theater to this very day. Now, I was completely unaware of that particular history. I just always thought that the theater remained a theater all this time. And I certainly never heard what became of the Rathbones, the folks who joined Mary and Abraham on that fateful night. Night. Lord have mercy. Get ready for this. During the scuffle between John Wilkes Booth and Henry Rathbone, just after the President was shot, it was Booth's intention to stab Henry in the chest, but he was able to deflect the blade and instead it cut deep into his arm. He narrowly, narrowly avoided being killed himself. Once Booth had escaped, he and his fiance Clara tended to marry. But Rathbone didn't even notice that he was bleeding profusely himself. So much so that he became delirious from the loss of blood which covered his wife's dress. Both he and his wife would be seriously psychologically impacted by this event in deeply disturbing and tragic ways. Rathbone blamed himself for not being able to apprehend Booth for the rest of his life. And Clara, strangely, had herself photographed by Matthew Brady, a Civil War photographer, in the bloodied dress that she wore that night. If you try to find the photo of this dress online, you will see numerous photographs that are labeled as the photo. But I put the photograph on the Instagram from the Chicago History museum that is accepted by historians as the authentic post assassination image. The reason why there is some confusion is because the blood stains were not shown in the photo. They were all over the lower part of the dress and the portrait was purposely taken from the waist up. But the one that I posted is the photo. It's very haunting to know that the entire bottom of her dress was still completely caked with blood. You'll find the link in the episode notes. Clara couldn't bring herself to or allow anyone else to wash the dress. She couldn't bring herself to destroy it. So she hung it in a closet unwashed. But on the one year anniversary of Lincoln's death, she and another family member claimed to hear Abraham Lincoln laughing from within the closet. It this is so haunting for numerous obvious reasons, but to think that she may have been hearing either paranormally or psychologically, the last laugh of the President moments before he was shot. Oh, it is just so much more chilling than any sound I can imagine she would hear. A year later, another house guest heard the same thing. Allegedly so Clara had the clothes closet bricked up, leaving the dress sealed inside for decades. Her now husband was also unraveling. They married in 1867, two years after the assassination. They were stepbrother and sister by the way. Just an interesting detail there. Henry chose to move Clara and their children to Germany in 1870, hoping the move would give the family a fresh start, give them the opportunity to leave behind all of the pain and trauma that they endured. But you know what they say, wherever you go, there you are. Rathbone became increasingly unstable. And two days before Christmas in 1883, deeply suffering from a bout of paranoia, he attempted to kill his children. He grabbed a revolver and a knife and made his way to the bedroom of his children. Clara saw him and tried to stop him, but he both stabbed and shot her to death right there outside of the children's room. And then stabbed himself in the chest test five times in an attempt to kill himself. He however, did not die. He would stand trial for the murder of his wife, but he would be found innocent for reasons of insanity. He would be sent to the provincial insane asylum where he died in 1911. In 1910, one year before the death of his father, one of his sons, Henry Riggs Rathbone, who was 13 at the time his father murdered his mother. He returned to the home home where his mother's dress had been entombed behind the brick wall. He broke the wall down with a sledgehammer and he burned the dress in an attempt to end what he believed to be a family curse. Henry Riggs Rathbone helped to care for his younger siblings when they were sent back to the states to live with their uncle. After the tragedy, he went on to graduate from Yale. He became involved in politics just like his father, and would go on to be elected a United States Congressman of Illinois. He served from 1923 until his death in 1928. A rare happy ending. Within all of this tragedy, there have been claims that the home where the dress was originally entombed in Ludonville, New York, is haunted by the spirit of a woman in a bloodied dress, weeping. And you can still hear the laughter of Abraham Lincoln to this very day. But the current owners of the property have been made no claims of the sort. In fact, they have been asked if the home is haunted. And they refuse to indulge any ghost hunters with any information. So it's not clear where that information comes from. But Ford's Theater, on the other hand, has some rather disturbing and heartbreaking hauntings that numerous people have claimed to encounter. The ghost of Lincoln tends to get around. He has been reportedly encountered in the theater by numerous people, citing his unmistakable stove pipe hat. But he also apparently finds his way to the White House from time to time. Eleanor Roosevelt claimed to have felt his presence, and Winston Churchill claimed to see the ghost of the President when he visited the White House during World War II. He allegedly had just stepped out of a hot bath and while still naked, came upon the transparent figure of Lincoln leaning against a fireplace mantel. Churchill then said to the specter before him, good evening, Mr. President. You seem to have me at a disadvantage. The President reportedly smiled a gentle smile before disappearing into thin air. Now, this is a well known story, but there is no historical evidence to this, no written record from Church Churchill's diaries of this event taking place. So it's difficult to trace the source. But whether or not he has actually been seen in the White House again, numerous folks claimed to have seen him in Ford's Theater. Some have claimed to see a dark figure in the presidential box, slumped forward, then suddenly jerking back. Some claim that cold spots are felt in the box, followed by a scent of lilac cologne, which was the President's favorite. And some claim, just as Clara Rathbone did, to hear a man's laughter coming from the box, presumably Lincoln's last laugh before the shot rang out. God, I think this is so particularly chilling to me because I have a fear of becoming stuck as a ghost. I've talked about it before, like, stuck, replaying my own tragic death as a ghost forever. It's a very random phobia, I know, but it's just one I can't shake. And it just adds to the sense of tragedy for me, the idea of him reliving that moment in death over and over again. Some people who have watched plays from within the box even claim to hear someone laughing right beside them at jokes in plays that they are watching, but no one is there. Some have claimed to see the spirit of John Wilkes Booth replay his assassination, firing his gun, leaping to the stage and running off, trapped in his moment of infamy. Some have heard the voice of Mary Todd Lincoln shouting, they've killed him. When the theater is entirely empty. And some psychics have claimed that she has tried to warn them that an assassination is about to occur, and she pleads for them to help her prevent it from happening. As if her spirit is caught in a time where moments before Booth walks in, she knows what he will do, but she cannot stop him herself. Almost as if she is haunting a residual haunting of the event, replaying over and over. Okay, bear with me for a second. A residual haunting is when the intense energy of a tragedy or traumatic event becomes stuck in a space like a loop. And it's not spirits of the dead that are stuck. It's the energy produced from the tragedy that gets stuck and repainted over and over again in a space like a stuck record. Some have claimed to see the entire theater briefly become the theater as it was in 1865. They see decorations, an entire audience of transparent, terrified people in Victorian dress react to a loud noise, and then it all disappears. But what if the ghost of Mary Todd Lincoln is witnessing this event, not part of the residual haunting, but as an autonomous spirit, and she's trying to stop the replay because she thinks it's real? These are the kinds of thoughts that I have in the shower. And then I realize I've been in the shower for 45 minutes and I've washed my hair six times because I'm not keeping track of the hair washing steps while I think about ghosts haunting, other kinds of hauntings. You know what I'm talking about. You do exactly the same thing. Some also have claimed to see the transparent form of the president being carried by men toward the doors of the theater and a deep, heavy sadness that hangs like a black cloud in box number seven. Before we go, I wanted to read a poem written by Walt Whitman about the assassination of Lincoln that you may be familiar with, but didn't know that the death of Lincoln was the inspiration. This is O Captain, My Captain by Walt Walt Whitman O Captain, my Captain, Our fearful trip is done, the ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won. The port is near the bells I hear the people all exulting while follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring But O heart, heart, heart, heart. O the bleeding drops of red where on the deck my captain lies fallen cold and dead. O Captain, my Captain, rise up and hear the bells. Rise up for you the flag is flung for you the bugle trills for you bouquets and ribboned wreaths for you the shores a crowding for you they call the swaying mass, Their eager faces turning Here, Captain, dear father, this arm beneath your head it is some dream that on the deck you've fallen cold and dead. My captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still. My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will the ship is anchored safe and sound it its voyage closed and done from fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object 1 exalt. O shores and ring, O bells. But I with mournful tread walk the deck My captain lies fallen cold and dead. If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to hear more, please rate the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Leave me comments because I love them so much and for ad free listening, true crime extras, dark poetry and witchy content. Join the patreon@myvictoriannightmare.com Be Kind Kind to yourselves and I will see you in your nightmares. I see you.
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