A review of Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever, 336 Pages, 62 Chapters and 4 Parts, published by Henry Holt & Co., on September 27, 2011.
Before getting into the book itself, I think it’s important readers understand how O’Reilly and Dugard came to write it in the first place. O’Reilly says his interest was stimulated by some strange situations surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, such as Edwin Stanton’s selection of Lafayette Baker to head up the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth. O’Reilly states his suspicions were stirred; “Why would Stanton go to some guy in New York when he had all his own people around him in D.C.?” Per O’Reilly, the mystery got murkier still when Baker wrote a book of his own claiming he’d personally given Booth’s diary to Stanton, who then supposedly removed eighteen of its pages due to their “sensitivity as regards certain citizens of the Republic”.
O’Reilly says Dugard did the research and he developed it. Dugard’s claim to fame comes from writing chronicles of great men driven to realize their potential. An example is his 2008 book The Training Ground that is about America's Civil War generals in the making during the Mexican War, when they learnt the ways of war. Before becoming a talk show host, O’Reilly had taught high school History, a subject, he states, he still loves. He’s told interviewers he wrote the volume because he believes it shall also serve to increase American awareness of Lincoln’s skill as a leader.
In addition, O’Reilly has remarked he’s already had discussions about Killing Lincoln being made into a cable TV special and that he could see Harrison Ford in the role of Lincoln. His publisher, Henry Holt & Co., announced the tome’s opening day sales [$28 list price] were more than the first-week sales of his last two books.
The Book Speaks Volumes
In and of itself, one would be hard pressed to call it a new book because it is about an old subject. The topic being, of course, that the recently recalled chief of Federal detectives, Lafayette Curry Baker, and Lincoln’s Secretary of War, Edwin McMasters Stanton, were both somehow together involved in the Lincoln homicide. Throughout the tome, O'Reilly and Dugard strongly suggest, several times in fact, that Stanton, nicknamed “Mars” by Lincoln, and Baker, a double-dealing man of mystery, to the point of his own paranoia I might add, were parties to the murder of Lincoln and attempted murder of Secretary of State, William Henry Seward, Sr..
Unfortunately, for Messrs. O’Reilly and Dugard, but fortunately for Stanton and his heirs, 20th century scholarship has all but completely cleared him of claims of complicity. Previously, in the past, because of Stanton being neither a people person nor a politically correct personality, his words and actions have been held against him. However, as others who’ve tried to put Stanton on trial have discovered, it’s one thing to accuse a man of wrongdoing, it’s quite another thing to prove it. Then Killing Lincoln’s intrepid inquisitors almost admit as much when they write; "Clues such as this point to Stanton's involvement, but no concrete connection has been proven".
The reality with any non-fiction authorship, as any investigative journalist worth his salt will attest to, is fact-checking is both a duty and a responsibility. Historians are held to an even higher standard than that, the cross-checking facts and figures. Regrettably, in this case there’s a lack of either in Killing Lincoln that starts with the researcher, Dugard, and which ends with the developer, O’Reilly. In this case, it is the writers themselves who have pointed out the problem with the book in general. O’Reilly and Dugard collaborated on the project via email and telephone and wrote it in six months. O'Reilly stated (on “The O’Reilly Factor”) Killing Lincoln took six months to complete. Trust me, sir, it shows. The bottom line, the authors should’ve spent six more months working on it to get the facts straight, at the very least.
Lincoln Has Left The Building
Let’s just take for example the tale that Messrs. O'Reilly and Dugard tell of the time when Grant met with Lincoln in the "Oval Office" of the "White House".
Originally referred as the "President's Palace", "Presidential Mansion", or "President's House", the name "Executive Mansion" was used by 19th century Presidents, including Lincoln, until Theodore Roosevelt had "White House–Washington" engraved on the stationery in 1901. The current centered configuration of "The White House" official letterhead originated with another Roosevelt, Franklin Delano.
William Howard Taft had the West Wing's first Oval Office built in 1909 on the south side of the building, which was rebuilt by Herbert Hoover, after a fire in 1929, in the same location. In 1934 FDR ordered the present Oval Office built in the West Wing's southeast corner. During the 19th century, Presidents, again including Lincoln, usually used the second-floor, southeast corner, room as a private office.
Which is where, Grant met with Lincoln, and where today is located the same space, since renamed, “The Lincoln Bedroom".
Story Telling Time: Old School Show & Tell
Bestselling novelist, Nelson Richard DeMille, the son of a French Canadian immigrant and his Italian wife, Huron and Antonia Panzera DeMille, [but no relation to Cecil B. DeMille] in his “peer” review of fellow New Yorker O’Reilly’s Killing Lincoln diplomatically declares:
"As a history major, I wish my required reading had been as well written as this truly vivid and emotionally engaging account of Lincoln's assassination. And as a former combat infantry officer, I found myself running for cover at the Civil War battle scenes. This is the story of an American tragedy that changed the course of history. If you think you know this story, you don't until you’ve read Killing Lincoln. Add historian to Bill O’Reilly’s already impressive résumé".
If I didn’t know better [about dust cover “blurbs”] I might begin to believe that I read a different book than did Mr. DeMille, because my copy did not contain any new discoveries. Further, if one is going to include details [otherwise why mention them at all] they must be both actual and factual. When details are inaccurate and the inaccuracies accumulate at an alarming rate, sincerity for serious students and standing for scholarly sleuths, both suffer to survive. In their attempt to author a book which reads like a cerebral historical study and a sensational suspense novel, Messrs. O’Reilly and Dugard miss the mark by a mile.
There are far better books, which I cannot help but feel I’d be remiss if I didn’t recommend them. For non-fiction, there’s Mike Kauffman’s American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracy and/or The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, And The Great American Tragedy by Tom and Deb Goodrich. For fiction, there’s The Cosgrove Report: Being The Private Inquiry Of A Pinkerton Detective Into The Death Of President Lincoln by George O’Toole and/or William L Richter’s The Last Confederate Heroes: The Final Struggle For Southern Independence & The Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln.
As Good As It Gets
Despite my above referenced disparaging remarks, I have to give credit where credit is due when it comes to Messrs. O’Reilly and Dugard including a mention, albeit a brief one, from page 119 to page 121, of maybe perhaps the most important address as regards solving the Lincoln killing - an excerpt follows:
“This theory suggests that Baker worked as an agent for a Canadian outfit known as the J.J. Chaffey Company. ...The J.J. Chaffey Company also paid John Wilkes Booth…The common thread in the several mysterious payments and missives involving Baker and Booth is the mailing address 178-1/2 Water Street. This location is referenced in several documents surrounding payments between the J.J. Chaffey Company, Baker, and Booth”
“To this day, no one has discovered why the J.J. Chaffey Company paid Lafayette Baker and John Wilkes Booth for anything. A few clues exist, including a telegram sent April 12, 1865 from 178-1/2 Water Street to a company in Chicago….This connection continues to intrigue and befuddle scholars. Why was Baker, a spy, paid an exorbitant amount for his services? And why did John Wilkes Booth secure a healthy payment from the same company?”
Once again, close but no cigar[s]. If only they had dug a little deeper they might have come across clues and hints which have been hidden in plain sight since April of 1865 when John Wilkes Booth turned an Easter Sunday plan to capture Abraham Lincoln, and hold him as a Confederate prisoner of war, into a Good Friday one shot kill plot.
The building at 178-1/2 Water Street in New York City indeed played a part. The Chaffey Company had leased the space before the battles began between the North and South from two well-to-do Dutch-American families, the Van Der Bilts and the Demills.
When the Chaffey family went bankrupt and out of business, Thomas Arnold Demill, a partner of Cornelius Van Der Bilt [a.k.a Vanderbilt], took over the location with his sons, William Edward of North Carolina [and soon to be a Confederate Major] and Richard Mead [a Brooklyn attorney to NYC’s rich and famous]. The Demills, like the Vanderbilts and New York’s other Dutch-American families, such as the Roosevelts, were heavily invested in “the City” as the country’s capital of capital. As such, they were at the center of Civil War commerce and had a stake in the states, united or not.
Among the descendants of these Demills, of course, was none other than Cecil B. DeMille [again, no relation to the aforementioned Nelson DeMille the novelist] who had added the “e” at the end of the family name to give it a bit of foreign flair when he started out in motion pictures]. In keeping with the show business allusion, it will suffice to say that the Demill role in killing Lincoln is a story for another day.
Sources:
- Chaffee, William H., The Chafee Genealogy 1635-1909 © Grafton Press 1909.
- DeMille Files courtesy of and used with permission of Mr. Bernard Stein.
- de Mille, Richard., My Secret Mother: Lorna Moon © Farrar, Straus, & Giroux 1998.
- National Archives Microfilm Publications, Microcopy No. 599, Investigation and Trial Papers Relating to the Assassination of President Lincoln, Roll/Reel 3, Frame 0114 [Letter from Watson to Surratt] Envelope: Postmark New York_____19,____ Address: Mr. John H. Surratt, Washington DC. Word for word transcription of entire letter as follows: “New York, March 19th, 1865. Mr. J.H. Surratt. Dear Sir, I would like to see you on important business. If you can spare the time to come on to New York. Please telegraph me immediately on the reception of this, whether you can come on or not & much oblige. Yours Etc.. R.D. Watson P.S. Address care Demill & Co. 178-1/2 Water St”.
- Stelnick, Rick., There’s Spirits Mingling In Heaven With The Godly © The Surratt Courier, a publication of The Surratt Society January and February 2010.
- The New York Times Published: March 28, 1865 Arrival of Captured Rebel Officers at Washington - Their Statements Regarding the Battle & December 3, 1907. Romance Of War In Play At Belasco’s & December 19, 1908. A Lawyer On Religion. “Foundation and Superstructure: Or the Faith of Christ and the Works of Man. R.M. De Mill. & December 29, 1908. De Mille War Play Returns & October 1, 1911. Duty Of The Dramatist - William C. DeMille on Morality, Old and New, and its Treatment on the Stage.
- Trow, J.F. & Wilson, H., “Demill & Co., R.M., & T. A. Demill, com. mer. 178½ Water N.Y.”. © Trow’s New York City Directory 1860-1865.
Rick Stelnick - Rick Stelnick is a superannuated political scientist, crime historian and historical detective.
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