BOOTH LETTER
AIRED: Season 7, Episode 3
THE DETECTIVE: Tukufu Zuberi
THE PLACE: Nashville, Tennessee & Washington, DC
THE CASE:
History Detectives investigates a letter which indicates that thirty years before John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, Booth’s father threatened to kill another sitting president, Andrew Jackson.
The letter to Jackson reads, “You damn’d old scoundrel… …I will cut your throat whilst you are sleeping.” It’s signed “Junius Brutus Booth.” The writer insists Jackson pardon two men who were sentenced to death. Why did the fate of these two men enrage such fury?
Was the Booth letter a hoax? Or does assassination run in the Booth blood?
Feature: Document Examination
Find out how to determine the authenticity and authorship of a document.
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