Historian's View of American Presidents

JFK and Abraham Lincoln Conspiracy Theory

Abraham Lincoln and JFK conspiracy theorists are out in full force in light of the recent presidential election. This is what the conspiracy attests:

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946. Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960. Both were particularly concerned with civil rights. Both wives lost their children while living in the White House. Both Presidents were shot on a Friday. Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Lincoln’s secretary was named Kennedy. Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln. Both were assassinated by Southerners. Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson. Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808. Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908. John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839. Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names. Both names are composed of 15 letters. Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford.' Kennedy was shot in a car called ' Lincoln ' made by 'Ford.' Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse. Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theater.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials. A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland. A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

Disecting the Facts: Truth vs. Lies

John F. Kennedy was moved to act when James Meredith was refused entry to class at Mississippi State University and several acts of violence, including the bombing of a Baptist church in Birmingham Alabama, led to widespread civil unrest across the US. Lyndon B. Johnson signed the civil and voting rights acts.

Jackie Kennedy married JFK in 1952 and had a miscarriage in 1955 and then gave birth to a stillborn baby girl in 1956, years before she ever set foot in the oval office. She gave birth to Patrick Bouvier Kennedy in August of ’63 and he died of a respiratory disease.

Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln’s son Willie died of typhoid at the age of 11 in 1862. Mary Lincoln also had a 4-year-old son Edward Baker Lincoln who died in 1850. The Lincolns were older than the Kennedys by the time Abraham entered the Whitehouse, while Jacqueline Kennedy had problems with childbirth prior to her husband becoming President.

Both men were shot on a Friday, however, the likelihood of this happening is 1 in 7. Lincoln was pronounced dead the next day while JFK was pronounced dead the same day. Both men were shot in the head; Abraham Lincoln suffered a single shot to the head from close range, whereas JFK was shot through the hand, neck/shoulder and then the head from distance.

Abraham Lincoln’s secretary was not called Kennedy; he had two secretaries, John G. Nicolay and John Hay. President Kennedy did have a secretary called Evelyn Lincoln, born Evelyn Maurine Norton. Neither of President Lincoln’s secretaries told him not to go to the theater.

During a President's term it is typical to receive many death and kidnapping threats. Abraham Lincoln was told not to attend his own inauguration in 1861. John Wilkes Booth was born in Maryland, but was a Southern sympathizer. Lee Harvey Oswald was born in New Orleans, but was not motivated by any regional affiliation with the South.

Both men were succeeded by Southerners because they appointed Southerners as Vice-Presidents, probably in Abraham Lincoln’s case to appeal to the Southern voters in the grips of a civil war. JFK represented New England so having Texan Lyndon B. Johnson as his running mate was judicious.

The name Johnson is still the second most populous surname in the United States. JFK and Lincoln ruled 100 years apart, so the fact that their Vice-Presidents were born 100 years apart seems likely. John Wilkes Booth was often billed as J. Wilkes Booth or simply John Wilkes, his father and brother also had the initial J for their first names so to differentiate himself he used Wilkes.

Conspiracy or Coincidence?

Henry Leland who sold the Lincoln motor company to the Ford Motor Company in 1922 named the Lincoln after his hero Abraham Lincoln. President Roosevelt loved his Lincoln Sunshine and Presidents Johnson, Hoover, Carter and Ford all used Lincolns.

Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and then escaped across state lines and was captured several days later in a tobacco shed. Oswald shot Kennedy from a textbook warehouse then remained in Dallas and was arrested in a movie theater an hour later.

Both men were shot dead before their trials, but Booth was surrounded in a tobacco shed eleven days after the assassination of Lincoln with co-conspirator David Herold, who gave himself up. Booth refused to leave the barn and it was set ablaze, one of the soldiers then shot Booth in the neck, either because he didn’t want Booth to burn alive or because he was going for his weapon.

Marilyn Monroe died more than a year before Kennedy, so he couldn’t have been with her a month before his own death. These coincidences between the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and JFK highlight the fact that if you repeat a lie enough times, especially on the Internet, it eventually becomes fact for too many people.