Book Review - "Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution"

"Lincoln's Assassins:   Their Trial and Execution", byt James L. Swanson & Daniel R. Weinberg, is an excellent addition to any Civil War historian's collection.  Many of the items and pictures included have either never been seen before in book form before or are presented in a new light.  Most interesting is the series of photos taken by photographer Gardner.  They are a series of shots of the hanging, beginning with the empty gallows, the arrival of the condemned, the reading of the sentences, the hooding and the tying of the legs of the condemned, and concluding with a rare action shot of the victims struggling in their nooses and one final shot taken of the dead and now still conspirators.  The last two are especially chilling.  These photographs, along with the obsessive collecting of souvenirs done, illustrate perfectly the ghoulish Victorian obsession with memorializing death.

All in all, a very illustrative view of the assassination, the conspirators, the trial, the hanging and the aftermath of all four.  As a side note, the main author of this book, "James L. Swanson" would write additional books in the Civil War canon.  The first is "Manhunt!" all about John Wilkes Booth's flight from Washington and the subsequent manhunt to find him.  The other is "Bloody Crimes" which concerns the funeral train of President Lincoln and the last days of President Davis' presidency.  Both are very exciting and would look at home on any Civil War historian's bookshelf.

This book is easily available to one and all via a paperback addition through Amazon.com.