THE LINCOLN ASSASSINATION
(Arts & Entertainment Television Networks, $29.95). The myths and misconceptions that surround the death of President Abraham Lincoln (1809-65)–the first American president to be assassinated–are unraveled in this two-cassette video presentation. The documentary examines why, from the moment he was elected, Lincoln lived with the threat of assassination, a fact that led him to keep in his desk during the war years an envelope filled with threatening letters and marked “Assassination.” Commentary from historians and forensic experts address such issues as why John Wilkes Booth (1838-65) became a Confederate spy during the Civil War and why he was driven to kill the president; what led Lincoln to predict his own death; the fate of the conspirators involved in the plot to murder the president; and the precautions taken at Lincoln’s Illinois grave to prevent the theft of his body.
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