Haunted Ford’s Theatre

On the night of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, an actor by trade, entered the state box at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. and shot Abraham Lincoln in the head. 

Booth shooting Lincoln.

He then vaulted over the railing and jumped down to the stage. Even though he broke his leg as he did this, he managed to escape through the theatre’s back alley--known as Baptists' Alley. While still in the theatre he yelled out, “Sic semper tyrannis” (thus ever to tyrants). 

Just five days before this, General Lee of the Confederate army had surrendered in Virginia ending the American Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, had accompanied his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln that night to see a play, “Our American Cousin.” 

When Booth, a Confederate sympathizer shot Lincoln, Mary Todd screamed and pointed toward the stage. Other screams of “murder” rang out throughout the theatre. 

Lincoln was rushed across the street to what was then Petersen’s Boarding House and placed upon a bed. He died the following morning at 7:22. He never regained consciousness.

Twelve days after Booth killed Lincoln, he was found hiding in Richard Garrett’s barn in Bowling Green, Virginia. 

After riding and searching for 24  hours, the soldiers of the 16^th New York Calvary surrounded the barn, set it on fire and started to shoot. 

When Booth’s body was dragged from the collapsed barn, he was so severely burned, it could not be determined if he died from the fire or from a gunshot wound. In fact, the body could not be positively identified. 

Booth’s eight co-conspirators were found later. Some were hanged, one unjustly, * others were given prison sentences only to die in prison or were pardoned, one was never convicted. **

Abraham Lincoln was the first American president to be assassinated. After he was shot, Ford’s Theatre was immediately shut down. 

The United States government purchased the building and used it for storage, an Army Medical Museum, and then as a library for the Surgeon General’s office. By 1887 it was being used by the War Department as a clerk’s office. 

In June of 1893, another tragedy struck the building. It’s three upper floors collapsed, killing twenty-two clerks, and injuring another 100 government employees.

After this accident, rumors started to circulate that the building was cursed. So it once again was used just for government storage. After 193l, it sat unused. 

Then in 1964, the U.S. Congress approved its restoration. In 1968, the building once again opened its doors as a theatre.

Its basement was converted into a museum in honor of Abraham Lincoln. This museum contains artifacts from the Lincoln Assassination, including the derringer Booth used to shoot Lincoln, and the coat Lincoln wore to the performance. 

This theatre, along with the Petersen House across the street, is now preserved as a National Historic Site.

According to numerous witnesses, the building’s tragic events in 1865, still play out even today. People report hearing disembodied footsteps rushing into the state box, followed by a loud gunshot and screams. 

The ghost of Mary Todd has been seen leaning over Box 7’s railing and pointing toward the stage. Some have heard her cry out, “He has killed the president.”

John Wilkes Booth is believed to haunt the stage area at Ford’s Theatre. According to many actors, who have worked in productions at the theatre, one particular spot on the stage located at center-left is always icy cold.

In fact, several of these witnesses state that when they try to deliver their lines from this spot, they became ill, even nauseous, or they began to shake violently. 

Others have seen Booth’s ghost, running across the stage just as he did the night he assassinated Lincoln.

Some state Lincoln haunts Ford’s Theatre, but his apparition is seen more often at the Petersen House across the street where he died. His ghost is also seen at the White House. I talk about this in another post here. 

Before Ford’s Theatre closed in 2007, for major renovations, I took groups of around 100 teenage students over several Spring Breaks to tour Washington D.C., Ford’s Theatre was always one of our stops. 

We always ended up in the basement in the long lines waiting for the single stall restrooms.

Every time I was in this area, I really got some intense, creepy feelings. I have always wondered if some of the items in the basement museum are haunted. 

Each time I have been in this area since 2009, to attend plays, etc. I get the same overwhelming feelings. So when I was doing research for this post, I was surprised to find no one else has experienced these same feelings or mentioned this area of the theatre as being haunted.

* I wrote another post about Mary Surratt, and why I do not feel she was one of Booth’s co-conspirators.

** John Surratt, Mary’s younger son was also considered a co-conspirator, but he was the one who was never convicted.

The Archduke’s Cursed Car

It has been said over the years that the June 28, 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie at the hands of a Serbian nationalist secret society known as the “Black Hand” started World War l. 

This is not entirely true the reason being that the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef and most of the Austrian people, admitting it was a tragedy, were not exactly saddened by this event. The Archduke was not popular so actually no one cared. What really started World War l were events that occurred after the assassination.

Austria-Hungry had been looking for an excuse to engage in a war with Serbia in order to weaken or destroy them so they could take back territory in the Balkans that they had lost during the Balkan Wars. 

They needed Germany’s support in order to do this and with the assassination they were able to secure a promise from Germany that they would aid them with a war against Serbia and possibly Russia in the off chance they entered the war because of a treaty they held with Serbia. 

The Austro-Hungarians didn’t think this would occur, in fact they thought it would be a small war that would end quickly. Unfortunately, Russia did enter the war. World War l escalated into one of the bloodiest wars in human history. By the end, 15 million people had died.

So what does all this have to do with a cursed car? 

A Graf and Stift was the most luxurious automobile in the early 1900s. One of their most prestigious customers was the Austro-Hungarian court. When Archduke Franz Ferdinand went on that fateful state visit to Bosnia with his wife he took his new red Graf & Stift limousine. 

While driving through the crowded streets of Sarajevo, a Black Hand gunman approached the open touring car firing the shots that killed the two passengers.

The archduke’s car is called “the automobile that started World War I,” but as I discussed above it wasn’t the assassination—so this is a misnomer. 

The deaths of the archduke and his wife were just the beginning of a series of tragedies connected to this automobile. Some say that Ferdinand and Sophie left a ghostly imprint on the car. Regardless of whether this is true or not the car is truly cursed.

This is the archduke's Graf & Shift with a double phaeton body.
It is powered by a 4 cylinder engine with 32 HP.

The first owner after the Archdukes’ death was a General Potiorek. He developed mental problems and later died in an insane asylum. 

An army captain, the next owner; died in an accident after hitting and killing two peasants on the road. 

The governor of Yugoslavia bought the car, he had four accidents in four months while driving the car; the last resulted in the amputation of his right arm. 

The governor sold the car to a doctor, who lost his life when the car overturned and crushed him.

With each successive owner the tragedies continued. They were either injured or killed in accidents while in possession of the car. 

In all, thirteen people associated with the car died—it was then taken out of service. 

Today this supposedly haunted Graf & Stift automobile is displayed at the War History Museum in Vienna—the bullet holes from the assassination are still visible.