Manhunt: The Aftermath of the Lincoln Assassination - General Discussion

[CountryGirl]

Here is your Manhunt topic.

Quote

Based on the best-selling book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson, Manhunt follows Lincoln’s war secretary and friend Edwin Stanton (played by Tobias Menzies), who was nearly driven to madness by his quest to catch assassin John Wilkes Booth and carry out Lincoln’s legacy.

The limited series, which will air on Apple TV, is described as part historical fiction and part conspiracy thriller and will center on the aftermath of the first American presidential assassination and the fight to preserve and protect the ideals that were the foundation of Lincoln’s Reconstruction plans.

It also will feature Black historical figures whose lives intertwined with the escape, manhunt and subsequent high-crimes investigation, including Mary Simms, a former slave of the doctor who treated Booth’s injury and gave him safe harbor after his crime.

Release date is TBA.

[BetterButter]

 

[ms gilly]

No one here yet? Watched the first two episodes and I’m kinda mesmerized.  The idea of how to catch a criminal and unearth a potential conspiracy without modern investigative technology and media is so interesting.  And Tobias Menzies is so good. 

[Ceindreadh]

On 3/17/2024 at 3:40 PM, ms gilly said:

No one here yet? Watched the first two episodes and I’m kinda mesmerized.  The idea of how to catch a criminal and unearth a potential conspiracy without modern investigative technology and media is so interesting.  And Tobias Menzies is so good. 

I wonder if people are overlooking this thread because they think it's an older series.  I know I didn't realise it was the right thread until I clicked through.

I'm enjoying it so far, but from the point of view of a non-American, a lot of it is so new to me, since my history lessons would have only covered the basics of the assassination, if that. 

[ms gilly]

On 1/12/2022 at 12:56 PM, CountryGirl said:

Here is your Manhunt topic.

Quote

Based on the best-selling book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson, Manhunt follows Lincoln’s war secretary and friend Edwin Stanton (played by Tobias Menzies), who was nearly driven to madness by his quest to catch assassin John Wilkes Booth and carry out Lincoln’s legacy.

The limited series, which will air on Apple TV, is described as part historical fiction and part conspiracy thriller and will center on the aftermath of the first American presidential assassination and the fight to preserve and protect the ideals that were the foundation of Lincoln’s Reconstruction plans.

It also will feature Black historical figures whose lives intertwined with the escape, manhunt and subsequent high-crimes investigation, including Mary Simms, a former slave of the doctor who treated Booth’s injury and gave him safe harbor after his crime.

Expand  

Release date is TBA.

@CountryGirl or mods--anyone know how to change the topic title so it refers to the 2024 Apple series (rather than 2022)?  I'm not much of an active poster, so I don't know the drill.

[CountryGirl]

On 3/19/2024 at 10:28 AM, ms gilly said:

@CountryGirl or mods--anyone know how to change the topic title so it refers to the 2024 Apple series (rather than 2022)?  I'm not much of an active poster, so I don't know the drill.

A mod, which I am not anymore, would need to edit it. 

[lovett1979]

On 3/18/2024 at 5:01 PM, Ceindreadh said:

I'm enjoying it so far, but from the point of view of a non-American, a lot of it is so new to me, since my history lessons would have only covered the basics of the assassination, if that. 

Don't worry, we Americans don't learn much more than "John Wilkes Booth killed Abraham Lincoln because he was unhappy the South lost the Civil War."

[Paws]

We are two episodes in and enjoying it. Tobias Menzies is good in everything, and he’s holding this together. I like that Mrs Keckley was given more than passing notice and I got to tell dh about her while we watched. Seeing Matt Walsh as an evil doctor is an adjustment…I’m used to him as the goof on Veep!  The weakest part for me is the portrayal of Lincoln…not sure there’s anything anyone can do about the fact that we now think of Lincoln as Daniel Day Lewis and anyone else just looks someone pretending to be Daniel Day Lewis, rather than Lincoln.  In any event, I’m learning a lot here that I never knew and it’s very entertaining, except that it’s hard to tell all these white guys apart. 

[Linderhill]

it took me until now to find this thread after searching for it for a while.  and yeah, that 2022 threw me off but decided to click on in anyway.  I've been enjoying it, interesting to see many of the characters fleshed out.

[Linderhill]

watching the latest episode:  I'd read about what a crap president Johnson was but this series definitely shows it.   I can't help but wonder how our country would be if Lincoln's reconstruction plan had been followed.

[Spartan Girl]

On 4/5/2024 at 8:06 PM, Linderhill said:

watching the latest episode:  I'd read about what a crap president Johnson was but this series definitely shows it.   I can't help but wonder how our country would be if Lincoln's reconstruction plan had been followed.

We all do.

[Spartan Girl]

Okay, I know this was fictionalized and I was willing to overlook the inaccuracies but two in the finale I cannot abide:

1) The part about the doctor lying to Mary about Willie getting better so that the party would go on but Lincoln knowing the truth was BULLSHIT. Both the Lincolns thought Willie was going to recover, otherwise they would’ve cancelled that party.

2) Jefferson Davis was NOT one of the conspirators nor was he accused of it seriously.

Edited April 20 by Spartan Girl

[merylinkid]

I love how John Surratt, Jr. who was in the conspiracy up to his neck was found not guilty but his mother Mary Surratt who likely did nothing more than rent a room to Booth as her son's friends was hung.   Pisses me off time I think of it.

Oh and Mudd had his sentence commuted later.    After he had helped out with a yellow fever outbreak at Fort Jefferson on Dry Tortugas.   The army surgeon had died and he was the only doctor around.   Mudd had been sent to Fort Jefferson as a security measure because he kept trying to escape.   He even tried to escape on a boat from Dry Tortugas.   You can't see his prison cell because that wing of the fort is blocked, but there is a sign.

Edited April 20 by merylinkid

[Spartan Girl]

6 hours ago, merylinkid said:

I love how John Surratt, Jr. who was in the conspiracy up to his neck was found not guilty but his mother Mary Surratt who likely did nothing more than rent a room to Booth as her son's friends was hung.   Pisses me off time I think of it.

She might have been more complicit than that. She had Confederate loyalties, no doubt. It was possible she at least knew about the kidnapping/murder plot and did nothing to stop it.

Still, what kind of man doesn’t have the guts to turn himself in to save his own mother? He later claimed he had no idea she was arrested, but what a fucking coward. He should've hung instead.

Edited April 20 by Spartan Girl

[GHScorpiosRule]

I’ve just finished the first episode and could they have cast a worse Lincoln? Dude just didn’t have the gravitas that Daniel Day-Lewis and Hal Holbrook had when they played him. And I suppose we can’t know, but did men back then hug each other? It just seems anachronistic as I consider that a more modern thing?

Thus far, Menzies is the only thing I’m enjoying about this. He is so very good. I loved him as Brutus and learned to HATE AND LOATHE  his Frank and Black Jack Randall.

I work a block from Ford’s theatre and it’s eerie seeing how it was made to look in 1865. And oddly enough, I’ve never visited the museum near there. I just may do that now.

Edited April 21 by GHScorpiosRule

[Spartan Girl]

41 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I work a block from Ford’s theatre and it’s eerie seeing how it was made to look in 1865. And oddly enough, I’ve never visited the museum near there. I just may do that now.

I went to DC in sixth grade. We visited Fords Theater and the museum. We couldn’t believe how tiny the gun that shot Lincoln was.

Agree I don’t like the actor playing Lincoln. Nobody is Daniel Day-Lewis, but come on, they could’ve done way better. Also, where the hell was Tad? We just see Robert and Mary!

[GHScorpiosRule]

On 4/19/2024 at 8:25 PM, Spartan Girl said:

Okay, I know this was fictionalized and I was willing to overlook the inaccuracies but two in the finale I cannot abide:

1) The part about the doctor lying to Mary about Willie getting better so that the party would go on but Lincoln knowing the truth was BULLSHIT. Both the Lincolns thought Willie was going to recover, otherwise they would’ve cancelled that party.

2) Jefferson Davis was NOT one of the conspirators nor was he accused of it seriously.

This pissed me off so much. This isn't The Crown, for fuck's sake.

So they needed to dirty up Stanton as well, eh? Showing him destroying what, I can only assume is exculpatory evidence against Booth? Or changing that Booth's family did identify his body? Sure, there are rumors abounding it was a fake Booth that was killed, and another claiming to be him, blah, blah, blah.  So of course I'm going to go down that rabbit hole to see if I can find out more-credible-not gossip or rumors. If I can.

But I think there is enough to cull through to give a good show without these made up changes.

And yet, no shock at Weichman's confession that he was a homosexual and Surrat's lover, or any kind of action taken against him. I mean, this is the 19th Century in the United States.

Interesting that in my looking to find out and compare it to this, that the wiki page at least, did not mention that Stanton had barricaded himself inside his office for three months to oppose Johnson's unconstitutional appointment of another Secretary of War.

I'm ambivalent as to whether I want to watch Franklin next or not.

I won't lie-I fast forwarded the whining blathering of Booth while he and Herold were on the run to Richmond.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Well, after reading up on Davis in Wiki (I think I need to find another source as well), there was a statement that he had been "incriminated" in the assassination plot against Lincoln. I looked at the footnote, which appeared to be a book released in 1977? The biblio on wiki is confusing to say the least. But nowhere did it state that he was actually charged-so we know the testimony of Conovar/Wallace/whatever, was all made up for "creative license/drama" unlike Mary Simms' testimony, which at the tag stated her testimony transcript is in the National Archives? So I can at least go there and read it!

So before I totally eat crow, I want to confirm if the incrimination was that book's author's speculation, or if there is proof/charges that Jefferson Davis was incriminated. All I've found was that he was caught in Irwinville, draped in a shawl, which led to mocking him as wearing women's (or his wife's) clothes.

ETA: Well it seems that Davis was incriminated and that since there wasn't enough to charge him, the other choice was to charge him with treason. At least, according to the article here in this link.

So I guess, it wasn't all made up then, about Davis.

Edited April 23 by GHScorpiosRule

[Spartan Girl]

@GHScorpiosRule Well, damn, I never knew that.

But I still stand by calling bullshit everything else, especially how they portrayed Willie’s death and the Tad erasure!

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, Spartan Girl said:

@GHScorpiosRule Well, damn, I never knew that.

But I still stand by calling bullshit everything else, especially how they portrayed Willie’s death and the Tad erasure!

Me either.

I also found an article in the L.A. Times with the creator and author of the book this series was based on from March, and it seems that Mary's testimony was a combination of hers with two other teenagers; so then why the tag at the end that her testimony is available to read at the Archives?

And that the theatre they used was set in Philadelphia, because the one here wasn't available for them to use.

Seward's attack had left his face disfigured in real life.

But yes, I agree about Willie and Tad.