WI: John Wilkes Booth Kills All Four Targets

What if in April 1865, John Wilkes Booth kills all four of his intended targets and not just Abraham Lincoln. General Grant, Vice President Johnson, and Secretary Seward are all killed the same nigh as well successfully.
 
In public school back in the 1970s, I was told Booth went after Lincoln because some big thing about not getting a federal job.

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around that the best evidence does show that it was a conspiracy involving maybe a (?)dozen persons, including former members of the Confederacy secret service.
 
In public school back in the 1970s, I was told Booth went after Lincoln because some big thing about not getting a federal job.

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around that the best evidence does show that it was a conspiracy involving maybe a (?)dozen persons, including former members of the Confederacy secret service.

I think whoever told you confused Linconln's murder with Garfield's
 
Was Grant a target? Who was assigned to kill him?

Pretty sure it was only three. I don't think Grant was a target... I don't think he was even IN Washington at the time of the Lincoln assassination.

Edit: Nvm, was wrong about Grant not being in Washington.
 
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Was Grant a target? Who was assigned to kill him?

Yeah. Booth planned to kill Grant as well as Lincoln. The General and his wife had left Washington early in the evening of that fateful day, where they encountered Booth himself on the way out (according to Grant's wife, Booth "thrust his face quite near the General’s and glared in a disagreeable manner"). A short time later, someone tried in vain to break into Grant's train car and later sent him a letter expressing his relief that the assassination attempt failed.
 
Yeah. Booth planned to kill Grant as well as Lincoln. The General and his wife had left Washington early in the evening of that fateful day, where they encountered Booth himself on the way out (according to Grant's wife, Booth "thrust his face quite near the General’s and glared in a disagreeable manner"). A short time later, someone tried in vain to break into Grant's train car and later sent him a letter expressing his relief that the assassination attempt failed.

But if Booth kills Grant in the early evening, how does he get the chance to kill Lincoln?

As soon as Grant's murder is known, Lincoln (and maybe Johnson and Seward as well) are sure to be heavily guarded, and the trip to the theatre more than likely cancelled altogether.
 
I think whoever told you confused Linconln's murder with Garfield's
Maybe. At elementary schools in both Virginia and in Texas, they favorable showed films of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech. The school was at least in favor of de jure equality, without perhaps too much attention paid to actual employment, housing, and education opportunities faced by African-American citizens.

I think there was this thing that conspiracy was unseemly and we didn't want to inflame old hurts. So, the teacher just went to the easy conclusion and didn't look at it too much. I may be mistaken, but that's my best guess.
 
Grant was invited to the theater with Lincoln. Julia Grant was not fond of Mary Lincoln so they begged off.
 
Wildly improbable one man could get everyone - and they weren't silly enough to try.
wiki said:
Booth's co-conspirators were Lewis Powell and David Herold, who were assigned to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward, and George Atzerodt who was tasked to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson. By simultaneously eliminating the top three people in the administration, Booth and his co-conspirators hoped to sever the continuity of the United States government.

One assassin per victim.
 
Grant was invited to the theater with Lincoln. Julia Grant was not fond of Mary Lincoln so they begged off.

If he did go to the theatre, he would have brought a military guard along, and they would almost certainly have stopped Booth from shooting at Lincoln.
 
One assassin per victim.

Interestingly they seem to have planned nothing at all against Senator Lafayette Foster.

Was it because he was too far away from Washington at the time? Or could they have been simply unaware that he had been chosen as President of the Senate? I don't know how well-publicised the special session was.
 
Interestingly they seem to have planned nothing at all against Senator Lafayette Foster.

Was it because he was too far away from Washington at the time? Or could they have been simply unaware that he had been chosen as President of the Senate? I don't know how well-publicised the special session was.

Probably because he was too far away from Washington. Booth's conspirators were only really concentrated around Washington and had a limited opportunity to get each man.

At their most successful (judging by the way things went) they could really only have relied on killing Seward and Lincoln since Atzerodt seems to have been unable to summon the nerve to kill Johnston.
 
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