Why did John Wilkes Booth shoot President Abraham Lincoln just as the Civil War came to an end? Who were the powers behind the assassination? Were there powers behind the assassination? Who were the men who believed Lincoln was the right man to lead during the war, but the wrong man to lead in peacetime? Who gave the order that allowed Booth to escape across the Anacostia Bridge, but allowed no traffic into Washington for the three crucial hours after the assassination? How did the telegraph lines into the War Department get crossed? Why did Secretary of War Edwin Stanton warn General Grant not to attend the performance at Ford's Theater with President Lincoln? Was the assassination an act of one Confederate sympathizer seeking revenge or part of a coup attempt to take over the government? Why was Mary Surratt hung? Why was John Surratt never tried a second time after his first trial ended with a hung jury?