You Are There (Special Report) | The Capture of John Wilkes Booth | B4TV Radio History Theater

Last Night – You were there at Ford’s Theater… Tonight… Twelve days after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth comes to a violent end in rural Virginia.You Are There, CBS Radio follows the final hours of Lincoln’s assassin as Federal soldiers close in on Booth and his accomplice David Herold near Richard Garrett’s farm.

Presented in the series’ signature “live news from history” format, the episode turns the end of one of America’s most infamous manhunts into urgent breaking coverage from April 1865.

After fleeing Ford’s Theatre on the night of Lincoln’s assassination, Booth spent nearly two weeks moving through Maryland and Virginia. Ford’s Theatre notes that Booth evaded capture for 12 days after the murder, while the National Park Service describes the escape route as covering roughly 90 miles through Washington, Maryland, and Virginia.

The chase ended on April 26, 1865, when Booth and Herold were found hiding in a barn near Port Royal, Virginia. Herold surrendered, but Booth refused to come out. The barn was set on fire, and Booth was shot by Union soldier Boston Corbett, dying a few hours later. The Smithsonian’s collection notes the scene as Booth and Herold hiding at Richard Henry Garrett’s property, surrounded by federal troops in the early morning of April 26.

This B4TV presentation features “The Capture of John Wilkes Booth,” listed in Archive.org’s circulated You Are There collection as originally broadcast June 5, 1949, episode 79.

For fans of old-time radio, American history, Civil War history, Lincoln assassination history, CBS radio drama, manhunt stories, and Golden Age broadcasting, this episode continues the story after Ford’s Theatre and follows it to its grim final act.

Presented by B4TV — preserving the Golden Age of Radio for a new generation.

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