The ‘Lincoln Conspiracy'

Was Booth a solo performer or was he part of a larger cast? Monroe - Monroe-Woodbury High School teacher and Lincoln expert Paul Ellis-Graham will discuss whether John Wilkes Booth acted alone in killing President Abraham Lincoln or whether he was working with the support of the Confederate government at the Monroe Historical Society’s meeting this Saturday, April 8. The conversation begins at 10 a.m. in McGarrah’s Inn Masonic Hall at Maple and Stage Roads. Ellis-Graham, who holds master’s degrees in American history from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and New York University, has taught American history at M-W for the past 18 years. He is past president of the Monroe Historical Society and past commander of Ellis Camp #124 in Goshen, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. He also serves on the executive committee of the Lincoln Group of New York. According to the society’s current president, Jim Nelson, the topic of Booth’s role in Lincoln’s assassination has received much attention in recent years due to such books at Michael Kaufman’s “American Brutus” and Edward Steers’ “Blood on the Moon.” Traditional interpretations describe Booth as a lonely, crazed assassin who was seeking a name for himself by killing the president. The real version, according to the historians, is much more complex. Booth was a Confederate operative working with the support of the Confederate government. Nelson noted that Ellis-Graham also will discuss the important link between the Lincoln conspiracy and Orange County history.