After the shot: Conspiracy theories surround Lincoln assassination [audio 28min]

On the night of April 14th 1865, in front of a thousand people at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Shouting Sic semper tyrannis--'Thus always to tyrants'--Booth believed that he was striking down a tyrant as surely as Brutus struck down Julius Caesar. Twelve days later Booth himself was shot dead in a barn in Virginia. From the moment Booth shot Lincoln, conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination have flourished--and 140 years later, for both historians and ordinary people, they are still very much alive. Some believe Booth was the ring leader of a small group; others are convinced he was simply a pawn in a grand conspiracy plot; while still others believe it wasn't really Booth who died in that Virginia barn. Jean Snedegar tries to unravel the truth--and a myriad of legends--about the assassination of a great American president. Webpage includes weblinks and bibliography.