On April 14, 1865 John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater. Booth had played a minor role in another historical event — he witnessed the hanging of John Brown in 1859. PBS’ History Detectives recently uncovered another chapter in the saga of Booth’s animosity towards our 16th President; it happened here in Greenwich Village.

In 1864 an actor named Samuel K. Chester rented rooms at 45 Grove Street. He had been Booth’s childhood friend in Baltimore. Six months prior to the assassination, Booth and his brothers, Edwin and Junius Brutus, had appeared in Julius Caesar at New York’s Winter Garden Theater; Chester was a cast member.

One evening Booth visited Chester at home on Grove Street; the men went for drinks at a Houston Street bar called the House of Lords. Afterwards, they strolled to Washington Square Park where Booth revealed an elaborate plan for bringing down the Union — a conspiracy to kidnap members of the government, including Lincoln, and carry them to Richmond, the Confederacy’s capital. Booth offered to pay Chester for his help and then threatened him; Chester refused.

A week before the assassination, Booth again visited Chester but declared that he had given up the plot. Much relieved, Chester believed his friend. What Booth did not reveal was that an unsuccessful attempt to kidnap Lincoln had taken place on March 17. Lincoln was supposed to visit a hospital outside of Washington but changed his plans and attended a luncheon at the National Hotel which served as Booth’s home when he visited the city. Five days after Lee’s surrender at Appomattax, Booth shot and killed Abraham Lincoln. Samuel K. Chester continued to live in New York City until his death in 1921.

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