Samuel J. Seymour witnessed the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in 1865 when he was only five years old. He recounted his experience on TV in 1956 and died two months later at 96. Lincoln’s assassination was part of a larger plot and led to the creation of the US Secret Service. Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the US government for conspiring to kill Lincoln.
Young children may have active imaginations, but there is surely no way Samuel J. Seymour could have imagined what he witnessed as a child. Seymour was only five years old when he attended the play Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater on the night of April 14, 1865. Instead, he witnessed the story: The Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth. Ninety-one years later, Seymour recounted his harrowing experience during an appearance on the popular TV show I’ve Got a Secret. In February 1956, when the show aired, Seymour was the last living witness to the Lincoln assassination. He died just two months later at the age of 96. Two years earlier, Seymour had given an interview about his recollections of the Lincoln assassination in which he recalled how “suddenly, a shot rang out – a shot that will always be remembered – and someone in the president’s box screamed.” Seymour said at the time he didn’t understand what had happened and was initially concerned about Booth, who had broken his leg when he jumped onto the stage from the presidential box.
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln:
Lincoln’s killing was part of a larger and failed plot to also kill Ulysses S. Grant, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward.
Lincoln signed the bill that created the United States Secret Service the same night of his assassination.
Mary Surratt was accused of conspiring to kill Lincoln and became the first woman executed by the US government.
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