On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated
in Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth. Booth's leg was fractured
while escaping and he was forced to stop for medical attention at
the house of his friend, Dr. Samuel Mudd, slowing his escape. Twelve days after the
assassination Booth and a fellow conspirator were surrounded by
Union troops while hiding out in a tobacco shed in Port Royal, Virginia.
Booth's companion surrendered, but Booth resisted and was shot to
death as the shed burned around him. For more information about
the assassination, Booth, Lincoln, or Ford's Theatre, visit the
official Ford's Theatre website (http://www.nps.gov/foth/)
maintained by the National Park Service.
These files contain the correspondence of William J. Burns, former
Director of the FBI. The letters, written in 1922-23, concerned a theory
that Booth was not actually fatally shot, but rather survived for
several years after the death of Lincoln. There are also files detailing
the 1948 examination of a boot said to be worn by Booth on the night
he assassinated Lincoln and the 1977 examination of Booth's diary.