History Detectives: Booth Letter

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." Is this letter a hoax? Or does assassination run in the Booth blood?

PBS | May 8, 2011

Tags:. .scoundrel. .hoax. .whilst. .throat. .abraham