My Fascination With Lincoln Leads to My Novel A NECESSARY END

 

Hello, readers. One hundred fifty-eight years ago today, President Lincoln was shot in Ford’s Theater, in the back of the head by a deranged coward, John Wilkes Booth. I’ve been a Lincoln buff since childhood, and in 2006, I decided to combine my love of Lincoln and the paranormal. I began researching A NECESSARY END, my paranormal twist on Booth's insane plot to assassinate President Lincoln. It contains no fictional characters.  

Abraham Lincoln has fascinated me since I was eight years old. I don’t know what got me started, but it might’ve been a book which I still have titled The Life of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 1, written in 1895. When I was in 3^rd grade, in the mid-60s (which shows how long I’ve been a Lincoln nut), my teacher asked us to bring a book to school from home, for a show & tell. My mother suggested I bring this Lincoln book, which even in 1966 was in bad shape—yellowed, stiffened strips of Scotch tape barely held the covers to the spine. With the wisdom of an 8-year-old that sadly, all of us outgrow, I demurred, saying, “This old book? She’ll think we’re poor!” My mother corrected me: “No, she’ll think we’re rich. Books like this are rare.” Then she proceeded to tape it up some more. Those 47-year-old Scotch tape fragments adhere to the book’s spine and pages to this day. My teacher, Miss Cohen, was duly impressed. I treasure that book to this day, and it’s one of many on my “Lincoln shelf” which holds books about our murdered president, his wife Mary, his assassin John Wilkes Booth and his family, the “Mad Booths of Maryland” and the conspirators who faced the gallows or years of hard labor because Booth, their charismatic leader, sucked these poor impressionable souls into his insane plot. 

After writing 8 historicals set in England and New York City, I wanted to indulge my passion for Lincoln-lore. I began researching in depth about Lincoln’s life, his presidency, his role in the Civil War, and Booth’s plans to first kidnap him, and then to assassinate him. 

This is a short list of the many books I read for research: 

The Day Lincoln Was Shot by Jim Bishop. (I read this in one sitting—I am not exaggerating. I could NOT put it down)

 The Unlocked Book by Asia Booth Clarke. Asia is John Wilkes Booth’s sister. She and her husband were arrested after the assassination. 

The Mad Booths of Maryland by Stanley Kimmel. A fascinating insight into what made the Booth family tick—John Wilkes’s parents, Junius and Mary Ann, had ten children, and Junius had another wife and child in England, where they originally came from. 

A True History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln by Louis Weichmann. Louis lived in Mary Surratt’s boardinghouse, where Booth and the other conspirators met to hatch their heinous plot. Louis was not charged as a conspirator, but Mrs. Surratt and the 3 other conspirators were. They were all hanged in July 1865. 

A NECESSARY END combines two genres I’m passionate about—history and paranormal. I joined The Surratt Society, based in Maryland, and attended their conferences and tours. Through the Surratt Society I met several Lincoln/Booth/Civil War experts. One lady I’ll never forget meeting is Marjorie “Peg” Page, who claimed to be John Wilkes Booth’s great granddaughter. My trips to Lincoln's home and tomb in Springfield, Illinois, Gettysburg, Ford’s Theater, and the house he died in, Petersen House, brought me close to Mr. Lincoln’s spirit. My travels also acquainted me with Booth’s brother Edwin, the most famous actor of his time, and his unconventional family.  A recording of Edwin’s voice reciting Shakespeare on one of Edison’s wax cylinders still exists at  http://www.britannica.com/shakespeare/browse?browseId=248018

Tragically, we’ll never hear Abraham Lincoln’s voice. But his spirit lives on. In my book, which is fiction--but we all know that novels are fictionalized truths--I gave Booth what was coming to him. He got his justice in real life, but in A NECESSARY END, he also got the paranormal twist he deserves. 

And I enjoyed sticking it to him! 

I paralleled the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar in this story because in the play, Caesar was known as a tyrant to the Senators, who feared losing their power, as Booth feared losing the Confederacy. Booth always considered Lincoln the tyrant, hence his proclamation ‘sic simper tyrannis’ (be it ever to tyrants) when he jumped to the stage after shooting Lincoln. 

Caesar’s Senators, Brutus and Cassius among them, conspired to stab Caesar to death on an appointed day. Booth recruited a group of like-minded disciples to aid him in his insane plot, at first to kidnap Lincoln, then to kill him. 

By day, Booth was a Confederate spy and courier, taking dangerous missions so that his beloved South could fight the North in the war that tore the nation in two. But in this story, an even darker secret plagues him–he believes he’s the reincarnation of Brutus, the man who slew the tyrant Caesar, and Booth’s destiny in this life is to murder the tyrant who’s ravaged the South—Abraham Lincoln. In obeying the spirit of Brutus, Booth devises a plot to assassinate the tyrant. 

I wrote it as a paranormal instead of a straight historical novel because spirituality was extremely popular in 1865 and all throughout Victorian times. Mary Lincoln was a staunch spiritualist. So stricken with grief after the deaths of her boys Willie and Eddie, she hired mediums such as Nettie Maynard to visit the White House and hold séances in attempts to contact her boys from beyond the grave. 

The extent of séances, table-tapping, Ouija boards, Tarot cards, and otherworldly activities in this era fit perfectly with the story I wanted to tell. We could never enter Booth’s head, but his insane behavior begs the question: was he truly haunted by a spirit who drove him to his heinous act that changed history forever?

Or was he simply insane? 

Excerpt: 

“And I am Brutus, Marcus Brutus, I; Brutus, my country's friend; know me for Brutus!" Booth declared to the proud reflections in his three facing mirrors.

          The center mirror clouded over. Puzzled, he leaned into it to peer closer. His  reflection faded as if the mirror were clear glass, and another human form took shape, becoming sharper as the mist faded. He was astonished to be looking into the face of a man whose eyes bored into his, pinning him with an unnerving stare. Booth took a step back, glancing to the left, then to the right, but his own reflections were moving right along with him. He focused once more on the stranger in the center, the Roman nose giving the weathered features distinction. He’d seen this face before, but where?

          The head nodded and the hint of a pleased smile curled the thin lips. Without so much as a word, the figure faded into the mirror’s eternal depths, and Booth was once again looking at his own astonished face.

          “Damn you! Who are you?” He pounded the mirror and it wavered, his image jerking back and forth with the moving glass.

          Exasperated, he turned away.

          “I’ll find out who you are if I die doing it.” He twirled around to face the mirror, seeing only his three perplexed reflections.

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Meet Sam Rawlins, Author of YOUNG LINCOLN OF NEW SALEM, in Celebration of Lincoln's 211th Birthday

I've been a huge Lincoln buff since childhood, and it was a joy to write my own novel about Booth's insane plot to assassinate him (A NECESSARY END). I read every Lincoln book--fiction and nonfiction--I can find. When I saw a post about Sam's book on one of my Facebook author groups, I snapped it up and read it immediately. After thoroughly enjoying it, I gave it a glowing review on Amazon (below).

In Sam's Own Words

In all my years of researching Lincoln’s life for my book, Young Lincoln of New Salem, I have found what he lost in life was worth saving in his memories. This was something he learned time and again throughout his life.

In the many first hand accounts I have reviewed over several decades, one important personal trait he never lost. He never let go of his deep, emotional feelings for friends and beliefs he treasured.

He kept all that he cherished locked inside his heart and soul. To those he shared his feelings and beliefs with, he was a man of great courage and compassion. The fact that he never let go of memories of those he loved and cherished is reflected in countless photos that reveals the grief concerning them. Such deep, heartfelt feelings were all a part of the sadness that never left his face.

In some ways it was these emotions that filled his most sincere beliefs and contributed to the great man Abraham Lincoln became. He drew to embrace all that was inside him to become one of the greatest presidents and one of the greatest Americans who ever lived.

He left both a legacy and a shining example of what can be accomplished against all odds if one comes to believe in oneself. In writing my own book about Abraham Lincoln I became deeply humbled by this man’s shining example to others. I will always admire him.

On the coming occasion of the 211th anniversary of his birth on February 12th I would encourage everyone to learn more about the life of this great human being.

Connect With Sam

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* * *

My Review of YOUNG LINCOLN OF NEW SALEM:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lincoln’s Early Life That We Never Learned About in School

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2020

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I’ve been a huge Lincoln buff since childhood and have read many of the 
thousands of books about him, all of which go no farther back than his 
career as a lawyer in Springfield, and his tragic romance with Ann Rutledge. 
They all mention his birth in a log cabin, of course. But Mr. Rawlins dug 
deep—and you’ll see at the end of the book how many sources he 
probed—to research Lincoln’s early life—that log cabin birth in Kentucky, 
his formative years during which he was brutally abused by his father, 
his and his sister’s starving after his mother’s death during his father’s 
many absences, his stints as a store clerk, postmaster, term in the 
Illinois State Assembly, service as a captain in the Illinois Militia, four 
terms in the Illinois House of Representatives, and flatboat trips to 
New Orleans, where he witnessed the brutal treatment of slaves. He 
fell deeply in love with Ann Rutledge, and she died soon after they became 
engaged. He suffered a deep depression and friends prevented him 
from committing suicide. This ‘melancholy’ never left him, as Ann 
was the love of his life. His grief consumed him through his courtship 
and marriage to Mary Todd. We learn of the extreme poverty he suffered 
as a child and how he overcame it to learn the law from reading law 
books, becoming a successful lawyer. The book then goes over the 
later parts of his life; his marriage, law career in Springfield, presidency, 
family, and assassination. Up to now, we know who Lincoln was, but not 
what made him who he was. I highly recommend it.

Meet Mystery Novel Author Lynne Kennedy--Read About Her Books That Blend the Past & the Present

I started reading Lynne's historical mystery novels, and now I'm hooked. I read TIME EXPOSURE after I learned that it's set during the Civil War, and as a huge Civil War/Lincoln buff, I read every book I can get on the subject, and even wrote one!

I purchased several of her other books, then just last week, noticed she'd written a mystery set around the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, THE TRIANGLE MURDERS. On March 25, I sent Lynne a message about this great find, and she mentioned that day was exactly 107 years since that horrible fire where 146 people perished.

Lynne is my guest today, so meet her and read about her books.

About Lynne

With a Masters’ Degree in Science and more than 28 years as a science museum director, Lynne has had the opportunity to study history and forensic science, both of which play significant roles in her novels. She has written six historical mysteries, each solved by modern technology.

Time Exposure: Civil War photography meets digital photography to solve a series of murders in two centuries.

The Triangle Murders was the winner of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Mystery Category, 2011, and was awarded the B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree Award for independent books of high standards.

Deadly Provenance has also been awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion and was a finalist for the San Diego Book Awards. With the release of Deadly Provenance, Lynne has launched a "hunt for a missing Van Gogh," the painting which features prominently in the book. "Still Life: Vase with Oleanders" has, in actuality, been missing since WWII.

Her fourth book, Pure Lies, won the 2014 “Best Published Mystery” award by the San Diego Book Awards, and was a finalist in Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award.

Time Lapse, her fifth mystery, premiered at the end of 2016 to all 5-star reviews.

Lynne’s newest novel, Hart of Madness, premiered August of 2018 to all 5-star reviews.

She blogs regularly and has many loyal readers and fans.  

Connect with Lynne on Facebook

Visit Lynne's Website

About Lynne's Work in Progress, THE FINAL NOTE

Thank you to the readers and writers who responded to my query about a concept for my next book.  Your input and my proclivity toward war(s) has helped me decide:  I shall return to World War II.  Instead of the Nazi confiscation of art and a missing Van Gogh painting as in my book, Deadly Provenance, I will focus on music and stolen music manuscripts.  Working title: The Final Note.

Historical fact: Beginning in the early 1930s, edicts against the Jewish population began emerging in Germany.  These edicts became increasingly distressing and disruptive, causing Jews to forfeit their businesses, their homes, their possessions.  Slowly and inexorably they were impelled toward the Final Solution where they would forfeit their most precious commodity: their lives.

In 1933, a group of German Jews set up Der Jüdische Kulturbund, a cultural federation consisting of unemployed Jewish musicians, actors, artists, and singers.  The Kulturbund, or Kubu, was created with the consent of the Nazis strictly for Jewish audiences. The Nazis cleverly permitted this association in order to hide its oppression of the Jews. The Kubu was illustrative of Jewish creativity in response to cultural exclusion.

The Kubu performed theatrical performances, concerts, exhibitions, operas, and lectures all over Germany, allowing Jewish performers to earn their livelihood, however scarce. Under the watchful eye of Sturmbannführer, Hans Hinkel, whose boss was Joseph Goebbels, Kubu survived for eight years performing for audiences that continued to diminish.

My research into the life of Jews at this time is only part of my work.  Since the Kubumusicians were permitted to play only “Jewish” musical compositions, I will be researching music history during this period.  In addition, my musician protagonist in the back story will be writing his own compositions. While I play the piano, I have little music theory background and have never written music.

Writers of historical fiction must become artists, teachers, police officers, lawyers, detectives, photographers, doctors . . . all manner of occupations in their novels.  For this book I will become a musicologist.  Well, I can only hope.

The stolen music manuscripts will lead to dire consequences when we fast forward to the modern storyline. Can the manuscripts be authenticated?  Can we learn through modern science and technology, the attribution of these brilliant symphonies?  My task is to find the answers.

Your ideas are welcome.

Follow Lynne on Amazon on this link to all her books

Happy Birthday President Lincoln--Read About My Paranormal Twist on Booth's Insane Plot To Kill Him in A NECESSARY END

In 2006, I decided to combine my love of Lincoln and the paranormal. I began researching A NECESSARY END, my paranormal twist on John Wilkes Booth's insane plot to assassinate President Lincoln. It contains no fictional characters. 

Abraham Lincoln has fascinated me since I was eight years old. I don’t know what got me started, but it might’ve been a book which I still have titled The Life of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 1, written in 1895. When I was in 3^rd grade, in the mid-60s (which shows how long I’ve been a Lincoln nut), my teacher asked us to bring a book to school from home, for a show & tell. My mother suggested I bring this Lincoln book, which even in 1966 was in bad shape—yellowed, stiffened strips of Scotch tape barely held the covers to the spine. With the wisdom of an 8-year-old that sadly, all of us outgrow, I demurred, saying, “This old book? She’ll think we’re poor!” My mother corrected me: “No, she’ll think we’re rich. Books like this are rare.” Then she proceeded to tape it up some more. 

Those 47-year-old Scotch tape fragments adhere to the book’s spine and pages to this day. My teacher, Miss Cohen, was duly impressed. I treasure that book to this day, and it’s one of many on my “Lincoln shelf” which holds books about our murdered president, his wife Mary, his assassin John Wilkes Booth and his family, the “Mad Booths of Maryland” and the conspirators who faced the gallows or years of hard labor because Booth, their charismatic leader, sucked these poor impressionable souls into his insane plot.

After writing 8 historicals set in England and New York City, I wanted to indulge my passion for Lincoln-lore. I began researching in depth about Lincoln’s life, his presidency, his role in the Civil War, and Booth’s plans to first kidnap him, and then to assassinate him. A NECESSARY END combined two genres I’m passionate about—history and paranormal. I joined The Surratt Society, based in Maryland, and attended their conferences and tours. Through the Surratt Society I met several Lincoln/Booth/Civil War experts. One lady I’ll never forget meeting is Marjorie “Peg” Page, who by all accounts except definitive DNA testing, is John Wilkes Booth’s great granddaughter. My trips to Lincoln's home and tomb in Springfield, Illinois, Gettysburg, Ford’s Theater, and the house he died in, Petersen House, brought me close to Mr. Lincoln’s spirit. My travels also acquainted me with Booth’s brother Edwin, the most famous actor of his time, and his unconventional family.  A recording of Edwin’s voice reciting Shakespeare on one of Edison’s wax cylinders still exists at  http://www.britannica.com/shakespeare/browse?browseId=248018 My paranormal experience includes investigations at several haunted homes, restaurants and graveyards. I investigate with a group from Merrimack, NH, led by CC Carole, www.ccthehuntress.com. I’ve never seen a ghost, but I’ve received responses to my questions with my dowsing rods. Wishing I had my recorder with me, I made a ghost laugh at the Jumel Mansion in Harlem, New York City, (see the story and photos on my blog, www.dianarubinoauthor.blogspot.com)

Tragically, we’ll never hear Abraham Lincoln’s voice. But his spirit lives on. In my book, which is fiction--but we all know that novels are fictionalized truths--I gave Booth what was coming to him. He got his justice in real life, but in A NECESSARY END, he also got the paranormal twist he deserves.

And I enjoyed sticking it to him!

I paralleled the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar in this story because in the play, Caesar was known as a tyrant to the Senators, who feared losing their power, as Booth feared losing the Confederacy. Booth always considered Lincoln the tyrant, hence his proclamation ‘sic simper tyrannis’ (be it ever to tyrants) when he jumped to the stage after shooting Lincoln.

Caesar’s Senators, Brutus and Cassius among them, conspired to stab Caesar to death on an appointed day. Booth recruited a group of like-minded disciples to aid him in his insane plot, at first to kidnap Lincoln, then to kill him.

By day, Booth was a Confederate spy and courier, taking dangerous missions so that his beloved South could fight the North in the war that tore the nation in two. But in this story, an even darker secret plagues him–he believes he’s the reincarnation of Brutus, the man who slew the tyrant Caesar, and Booth’s destiny in this life is to murder the tyrant who’s ravaged the South—Abraham Lincoln. In obeying the spirit of Brutus, Booth devises a plot to assassinate the tyrant.

I wrote it as a paranormal instead of a straight historical novel  because spirituality was extremely popular in 1865 and all throughout Victorian times. Mary Lincoln was a staunch spiritualist. So stricken with grief after the deaths of her boys Willie and Eddie, she hired mediums such as Nettie Maynard to visit the White House and hold séances in attempts to contact her boys from beyond the grave.

The extent of séances, table-tapping, Ouija boards, Tarot cards, and otherworldly activities in this era fit perfectly with the story I wanted to tell. We could never enter Booth’s head, but his insane behavior begs the question: was he truly haunted by a spirit who drove him to his heinous act that changed history forever?

Or was he simply insane?

Excerpt:

“And I am Brutus, Marcus Brutus, I; Brutus, my country's friend; know me for Brutus!" Booth declared to the proud reflections in his three facing mirrors.

          The center mirror clouded over. Puzzled, he leaned into it to peer closer. His  reflection faded as if the mirror were clear glass, and another human form took shape, becoming sharper as the mist faded. He was astonished to be looking into the face of a man whose eyes bored into his, pinning him with an unnerving stare. Booth took a step back, glancing to the left, then to the right, but his own reflections were moving right along with him. He focused once more on the stranger in the center, the Roman nose giving the weathered features distinction. He’d seen this face before, but where?

          The head nodded and the hint of a pleased smile curled the thin lips. Without so much as a word, the figure faded into the mirror’s eternal depths, and Booth was once again looking at his own astonished face.

          “Damn you! Who are you?” He pounded the mirror and it wavered, his image jerking back and forth with the moving glass.

          Exasperated, he turned away.

          “I’ll find out who you are if I die doing it.” He twirled around to face the mirror, seeing only his three perplexed reflections.

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John Surratt Jr.- The-Lincoln Assassination Conspirator Who Got Away

What on earth caused John Surratt, Jr., former Roman Catholic seminary student, to get involved with John Wilkes Booth’s insane plots against President Abraham Lincoln?

Not having left any diaries behind, John took his reasons, his hopes and his fears to his grave in 1916. But from what we know of his devotion to the South, his desire to make his late father proud, and his need to be a war hero, we can draw up a believable picture of what made John tick.

John Wilkes Booth recruited a small group of confederates whose paths never would have crossed if it weren’t for their devotion to him, and to The Cause. John met Booth through Dr. Samuel Mudd, whose name went down in infamy as the doctor who set Booth’s broken leg on the night of the assassination. The handsome charismatic actor charmed everyone, male and female, and John Surratt was no exception. When Booth and his cohorts began visiting the Surratt boarding house to discuss abducting the president in exchange for prisoners of war, John and his mother Mary became loyal followers, eager to do his bidding. The group consisted of David Herold, Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, Samuel Arnold, Michael O’Laughlin, Mary Surratt and John. Each had their separate talents and purposes to aid the plot—which failed not once, but five times.

Two days after General Lee’s surrender, President Lincoln appeared at a second-story White House window and spoke to an adoring, jubilant crowd. Booth happened to be standing there among the well-wishers. When Lincoln promised blacks the vote, Booth decided abduction would no longer be adequate. The only way to avenge the South was assassination—not just of the president, but the other heads of state, Vice President Johnson, Secretary of War Stanton, and Secretary of State Seward. Booth’s group met at a hotel to discuss the details. But one mystery will forever be enshrouded by the shadows of time—did Mrs. Surratt and John know of the assassination plot?

The essential question of John Surratt’s story is: where was he on April 14, 1865, the night Booth shot President Lincoln? In Surratt’s 1867 trial for Lincoln’s murder, the federal prosecutors maintained that he was in Washington City all day and well into the evening, helping Booth set up the assassination. In front of Ford’s Theater, it was John who called off the time every ten minutes, his announcements relayed down the road by other unnamed accomplices to David Herold near Lafayette Park. Herold then coordinated Powell’s attacks on Seward and O’Laughlin’s on Secretary Stanton to correspond with Booth’s assault on Lincoln.

But John Surratt’s defense team insisted that he was not in Washington that fateful April 14. He was in Elmira, New York, allegedly checking up on the numbers of Confederate prisoners of war held at Elmira prison for a possible exchange. Railroad employees attested that existing schedules and bridge washouts made it impossible for John to get from Elmira to Baltimore, much less Washington, in less than a day and a half or two days.

Both sides claimed the other’s witnesses were lying, then produced new witnesses to verify the integrity of their own deponents.

In fact, John was involved in two attempts to kill Lincoln and his cabinet that April week. The first, on April 13, saw Booth assign John to kill Vice President Johnson in the original plot hastily hatched that evening. That plot failed when the Lincolns didn’t appear at the theater.

But on April 14, the Lincolns invited General Ulysses Grant and his wife to Ford’s for the evening performance, making Grant a perfect target for assassination. Unfortunately for the assassins, a glitch developed in the plan. The Grants declined the presidential solicitation and left Washington. Booth saw the Grants leave. Indeed, he had ridden up to the Grants’ carriage and peered menacingly inside as they rode down Pennsylvania Avenue, headed for the railroad station.

As Booth saw half of his reason for killing the president on April 14 disappear, he providentially ran into John on the street and ordered him to follow Grant and kill him on the train that night. Hence John had plenty of time to arrive in Washington on the 13^th and plenty of time to get to the Canadian border the night of the 14^th, regardless of the state of the tracks or rail schedules. Barring a train wreck, he was ahead of all delays that man or nature might dream up.

John’s role as Booth’s right-hand man was too important to consign him merely to call out times on a clock. Obviously, as General Grant lived a long productive life as commander of the U.S. Army and President of the United States, John failed in his assigned task.

He boarded the train and walked past Grant, so close John brushed against him. But it wasn’t meant to be. John later collapsed, physically and emotionally exhausted—and greatly relieved.

          His dilemma—whether to carry out this deed for his love of the South, or back out and be branded a coward, but live free from sin—consumed his thoughts, prayers and dreams throughout this part of his life.

          John fled the country after the assassination, and heard second-hand that his mother had been hanged, along with Herold, Atzerodt, and Powell. Booth was already dead, trapped and shot in a barn, the final stop on his escape route.

          John was eventually seized in Alexandria, Egypt and brought back to the U.S. to face trial, after which he was acquitted. He’d never achieved his wish of being a famous war hero. He’s a rather obscure historical figure, known only to Lincoln assassination devotees. But he wasn't a would-be hero; he was a young man devoted to his beloved country, but emotionally torn. On one level, avenging the South was a noble deed. But deep down, his fear of God’s wrath prevailed.

          A backwoods Maryland boy came of age during the Civil War, starting out as a courier, and becomes embroiled in one of the most notorious plots in American history.

As a HUGE Lincoln assassination buff, I've read numerous books about the subject, and wrote my own, A NECESSARY END, about Booth's insane plot to murder the president with a paranormal twist. 

One of my favorite books on the subject is BACKSTAGE AT THE LINCOLN ASSASSINATION, about how the tragedy affected the actors and everyone associated with the Play "Our American Cousin" at  Ford's Theater that night. 

       

         

A NECESSARY END - My Civil War Romance - Booth's Insane Plot to Murder President Lincoln with a Paranormal Twist -- On Sale for Kindle for 99 Cents Till July 22

Dear Readers, 

I'm a HUGE Lincoln buff, always have been. In 2006, I decided to combine my love of Lincoln and the paranormal. I began researching A NECESSARY END, my paranormal twist on John Wilkes Booth's insane plot to assassinate President Lincoln. It contains no fictional characters. 

I joined The Surratt Society, based in Maryland, and attended their conferences and tours. Mary Surratt was one of Booth's conspirators--the motley crew met at her Washington D.C. boarding house to hatch their plot. She was tried, convicted and hanged with three others.  Through the Surratt Society I met several Lincoln/Booth/Civil War experts. One lady I’ll never forget meeting is Marjorie “Peg” Page, who by all accounts except definitive DNA testing, is John Wilkes Booth’s great granddaughter. 

Abraham Lincoln has fascinated me since I was eight years old. I don’t know what got me started, but it might’ve been a book which I still have titled The Life of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 1, written in 1895. When I was in 3^rd grade, in the mid-60s (which shows how long I’ve been a Lincoln nut), my teacher asked us to bring a book to school from home, for a show & tell. My mother suggested I bring this Lincoln book, which even in 1966 was in bad shape—yellowed, stiffened strips of Scotch tape barely held the covers to the spine. With the wisdom of an 8-year-old that sadly, all of us outgrow, I demurred, saying, “This old book? She’ll think we’re poor!” My mother corrected me: “No, she’ll think we’re rich. Books like this are rare.” Then she proceeded to tape it up some more. Those 47-year-old Scotch tape fragments adhere to the book’s spine and pages to this day. My teacher, Miss Cohen, was duly impressed. I treasure that book to this day, and it’s one of many on my “Lincoln shelf” which holds books about our murdered president, his wife Mary, his assassin John Wilkes Booth and his family, the “Mad Booths of Maryland” and the conspirators who faced the gallows or years of hard labor because Booth, their charismatic leader, sucked these poor impressionable souls into his insane plot.

After writing 8 historicals set in England and New York City, I wanted to indulge my passion for Lincoln-lore. I began researching in depth about Lincoln’s life, his presidency, his role in the Civil War, and Booth’s plans to first kidnap him, and then to assassinate him. A NECESSARY END combined two genres I’m passionate about—history and paranormal.My trips to Lincoln's home and tomb in Springfield, Illinois, Gettysburg, Ford’s Theater, and the house he died in, Petersen House, brought me close to Mr. Lincoln’s spirit. My travels also acquainted me with Booth’s brother Edwin, the most famous actor of his time, and his unconventional family.  A recording of Edwin’s voice reciting Shakespeare on one of Edison’s wax cylinders still exists.  Click here for Edwin Booth's recording. My paranormal experience includes investigations at several haunted homes, restaurants and graveyards. I’ve never seen a ghost, but I’ve received responses to my questions with my dowsing rods. 

Tragically, we’ll never hear Abraham Lincoln’s voice. But his spirit lives on. In my book, which is fiction--but we all know that novels are fictionalized truths--I gave Booth what was coming to him. He got his justice in real life, but in A NECESSARY END, he also got the paranormal twist he deserves.

And I enjoyed sticking it to him!

I paralleled the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar in this story because in the play, Caesar was known as a tyrant to the Senators, who feared losing their power, as Booth feared losing the Confederacy. Booth always considered Lincoln the tyrant, hence his proclamation ‘sic simper tyrannis’ (be it ever to tyrants) when he jumped to the stage after shooting Lincoln.

Caesar’s Senators, Brutus and Cassius among them, conspired to stab Caesar to death on an appointed day. Booth recruited a group of like-minded disciples to aid him in his insane plot, at first to kidnap Lincoln, then to kill him.

By day, Booth was a Confederate spy and courier, taking dangerous missions so that his beloved South could fight the North in the war that tore the nation in two. But in this story, an even darker secret plagues him–he believes he’s the reincarnation of Brutus, the man who slew the tyrant Caesar, and Booth’s destiny in this life is to murder the tyrant who’s ravaged the South—Abraham Lincoln. In obeying the spirit of Brutus, Booth devises a plot to assassinate the tyrant.

I wrote it as a paranormal instead of a straight historical novel  because spirituality was extremely popular in 1865 and all throughout Victorian times. Mary Lincoln was a staunch spiritualist. So stricken with grief after the deaths of her boys Willie and Eddie, she hired mediums such as Nettie Maynard to visit the White House and hold séances in attempts to contact her boys from beyond the grave.

The extent of séances, table-tapping, Ouija boards, Tarot cards, and otherworldly activities in this era fit perfectly with the story I wanted to tell. We could never enter Booth’s head, but his insane behavior begs the question: was he truly haunted by a spirit who drove him to his heinous act that changed history forever?

Or was he simply insane?

Excerpt:

“And I am Brutus, Marcus Brutus, I; Brutus, my country's friend; know me for Brutus!" Booth declared to the proud reflections in his three facing mirrors.

          The center mirror clouded over. Puzzled, he leaned into it to peer closer. His  reflection faded as if the mirror were clear glass, and another human form took shape, becoming sharper as the mist faded. He was astonished to be looking into the face of a man whose eyes bored into his, pinning him with an unnerving stare. Booth took a step back, glancing to the left, then to the right, but his own reflections were moving right along with him. He focused once more on the stranger in the center, the Roman nose giving the weathered features distinction. He’d seen this face before, but where?

          The head nodded and the hint of a pleased smile curled the thin lips. Without so much as a word, the figure faded into the mirror’s eternal depths, and Booth was once again looking at his own astonished face.

          “Damn you! Who are you?” He pounded the mirror and it wavered, his image jerking back and forth with the moving glass.

          Exasperated, he turned away.

          “I’ll find out who you are if I die doing it.” He twirled around to face the mirror, seeing only his three perplexed reflections.

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I had my website redesigned with up-to-the-minute graphics--and A NECESSARY END, about Booth's insane plot to murder President Lincoln with a paranormal twist, has been republished with Creativia, with a new cover.

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President Lincoln Died 151 Years Ago Today

You may know this morning at 7:22 is the anniversary of Lincoln's death even if you're not a Lincoln buff. I've been a huge Lincoln buff since about third grade. And a paranormal buff.

 

Ghost stories are great around Halloween, but they're a lot of fun any time of year, even summer...there's something about a midsummer twilight and slowly gathering dusk that always spooked me. But I took this photo last October at the old schoolhouse across from Old Parish Cemetery in York Village, Maine. I was amazed at all the orbs that appeared.

In 2006, I decided to combine my love of Lincoln and the paranormal. I began researching A NECESSARY END, my paranormal twist on John Wilkes Booth's insane plot to assassinate President Lincoln. It contains no fictional characters.

Abraham Lincoln has fascinated me since I was eight years old. I don’t know what got me started, but it might’ve been a book which I still have titled The Life of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 1, written in 1895. When I was in 3^rd grade, in the mid-60s (which shows how long I’ve been a Lincoln nut), my teacher asked us to bring a book to school from home, for a show & tell. My mother suggested I bring this Lincoln book, which even in 1966 was in bad shape—yellowed, stiffened strips of Scotch tape barely held the covers to the spine. With the wisdom of an 8-year-old that sadly, all of us outgrow, I demurred, saying, “This old book? She’ll think we’re poor!” My mother corrected me: “No, she’ll think we’re rich. Books like this are rare.” Then she proceeded to tape it up some more. Those 47-year-old Scotch tape fragments adhere to the book’s spine and pages to this day. My teacher, Miss Cohen, was duly impressed. I treasure that book to this day, and it’s one of many on my “Lincoln shelf” which holds books about our murdered president, his wife Mary, his assassin John Wilkes Booth and his family, the “Mad Booths of Maryland” and the conspirators who faced the gallows or years of hard labor because Booth, their charismatic leader, sucked these poor impressionable souls into his insane plot.

After writing 8 historicals set in England and New York City, I wanted to indulge my passion for Lincoln-lore. I began researching in depth about Lincoln’s life, his presidency, his role in the Civil War, and Booth’s plans to first kidnap him, and then to assassinate him. A NECESSARY END combined two genres I’m passionate about—history and paranormal.

 

I joined The Surratt Society, based in Maryland, and attended their conferences and tours. Through the Surratt Society I met several Lincoln/Booth/Civil War experts. One lady I’ll never forget meeting is Marjorie “Peg” Page, who by all accounts except definitive DNA testing, is John Wilkes Booth’s great granddaughter. My trips to Lincoln's home and tomb in Springfield, Illinois, Gettysburg, Ford’s Theater, and the house he died in, Petersen House, brought me close to Mr. Lincoln’s spirit. My travels also acquainted me with Booth’s brother Edwin, the most famous actor of his time, and his unconventional family.  A recording of Edwin’s voice reciting Shakespeare on one of Edison’s wax cylinders still exists at  http://www.britannica.com/shakespeare/browse?browseId=248018 My paranormal experience includes investigations at several haunted homes, restaurants and graveyards. I investigate with a group from Merrimack, NH, led by CC Carole, www.ccthehuntress.com. I’ve never seen a ghost, but I’ve received responses to my questions with my dowsing rods. Wishing I had my recorder with me, I made a ghost laugh at the Jumel Mansion in Harlem, New York City, (see the story and photos on my blog, www.dianarubinoauthor.blogspot.com)

Tragically, we’ll never hear Abraham Lincoln’s voice. But his spirit lives on. In my book, which is fiction--but we all know that novels are fictionalized truths--I gave Booth what was coming to him. He got his justice in real life, but in A NECESSARY END, he also got the paranormal twist he deserves.

And I enjoyed sticking it to him!

I paralleled the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar in this story because in the play, Caesar was known as a tyrant to the Senators, who feared losing their power, as Booth feared losing the Confederacy. Booth always considered Lincoln the tyrant, hence his proclamation ‘sic simper tyrannis’ (be it ever to tyrants) when he jumped to the stage after shooting Lincoln. 

Caesar’s Senators, Brutus and Cassius among them, conspired to stab Caesar to death on an appointed day. Booth recruited a group of like-minded disciples to aid him in his insane plot, at first to kidnap Lincoln, then to kill him. 

By day, Booth was a Confederate spy and courier, taking dangerous missions so that his beloved South could fight the North in the war that tore the nation in two. But in this story, an even darker secret plagues him–he believes he’s the reincarnation of Brutus, the man who slew the tyrant Caesar, and Booth’s destiny in this life is to murder the tyrant who’s ravaged the South—Abraham Lincoln. In obeying the spirit of Brutus, Booth devises a plot to assassinate the tyrant.  

I wrote it as a paranormal instead of a straight historical novel  because spirituality was extremely popular in 1865 and all throughout Victorian times. Mary Lincoln was a staunch spiritualist. So stricken with grief after the deaths of her boys Willie and Eddie, she hired mediums such as Nettie Maynard to visit the White House and hold séances in attempts to contact her boys from beyond the grave.  

The extent of séances, table-tapping, Ouija boards, Tarot cards, and otherworldly activities in this era fit perfectly with the story I wanted to tell. We could never enter Booth’s head, but his insane behavior begs the question: was he truly haunted by a spirit who drove him to his heinous act that changed history forever?

Or was he simply insane?

Excerpt:

“And I am Brutus, Marcus Brutus, I; Brutus, my country's friend; know me for Brutus!" Booth declared to the proud reflections in his three facing mirrors.

          The center mirror clouded over. Puzzled, he leaned into it to peer closer. His  reflection faded as if the mirror were clear glass, and another human form took shape, becoming sharper as the mist faded. He was astonished to be looking into the face of a man whose eyes bored into his, pinning him with an unnerving stare. Booth took a step back, glancing to the left, then to the right, but his own reflections were moving right along with him. He focused once more on the stranger in the center, the Roman nose giving the weathered features distinction. He’d seen this face before, but where?

          The head nodded and the hint of a pleased smile curled the thin lips. Without so much as a word, the figure faded into the mirror’s eternal depths, and Booth was once again looking at his own astonished face.

          “Damn you! Who are you?” He pounded the mirror and it wavered, his image jerking back and forth with the moving glass.

          Exasperated, he turned away.

          “I’ll find out who you are if I die doing it.” He twirled around to face the mirror, seeing only his three perplexed reflections.

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