Louisville Medicine Volume 64, Issue 9 | Page 11

BOOK REVIEW

THE CONSPIRACY BETWEEN JOHN WILKES BOOTH AND THE UNION ARMY TO ASSASSINATE ABRAHAM LINCOLN

By Dr . Robert E . Arnold © 2016 WaveCloud Corporation
Reviewed by
Andy Dzenitis , MD with Aaron Burch

The retired Louisville surgeon Robert Arnold , MD , upon completion of his naval duties , has written a book recording events surrounding Abraham Lincoln ’ s assassination . Shelves are full of books on the subject . What makes this account , The Conspiracy Between John Wilkes Booth and the Union Army to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln , unique is its interpretation of original documents . Dr . Arnold gained access to records of the National Archives , and has carefully studied the handwritten documents that might have been ignored or glossed-over , which contradict the commonly accepted accounts of the event .

Dr . Arnold asserts that any of the documents on the proceedings , inquiries and records have never been touched since they were filed some 160 years ago , according to this book . For instance , the alleged cervical spine of John Wilkes Booth , along with other documents , was simply stored in a drawer . On Dr . Arnold ’ s examination of the specimen , the angle of the bullet tracked raises the question of the accuracy of previous accounts .
The assassination was no sudden decision of a sociopath with a supporting gang of dissidents . The fingerprints of a highly placed government official , Secretary of War Edwin Stanton , are evident throughout the account . Spying , planning , negligent security , executed assassination and getaway all come in to play . Tracking , capture , arrest and identification of John Wilkes Booth ’ s remains are all reminiscent of Keystone Cops incompetence . Even the post-mortem examination of Booth ’ s body with positive markings was poorly conducted .
Where is the fractured fibula , the most positive identification of John Wilkes Booth ’ s descent to the stage ? Absent ! Dr . Arnold has included many handwritten pages from the microfilms , purposefully left in to show the authenticity of the events .
There are many players in this tragi-comedy : the escape , tracking , arrest , trials and finally the executions . Several sinners walk free . A couple of inadvertent participants suffer the pain of life imprisonment ( Dr . Sam Mudd ) or death by bungled hanging ( Mary Surrat ).
Exhaustively researched and well-written , the book stands as an important historical document of one of our most trying times .
Dr . Dzenitis is a retired neurological surgeon .
Thanks and congratulations to GLMS member Dr . Arnold for authoring such an interesting book on the assassination of President Lincoln .
FEBRUARY 2017 9