The Incompetent Bodyguard Who Got Lincoln Killed

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln owes much to the fact that he had been assigned the most incompetent bodyguard to have ever been tasked with the protection of an American president. Below are some interesting facts about the incompetence that contributed to Lincoln’s assassination.

A Lax Attitude Towards Presidential Security

Attempted assassination of President Andrew Jackson in 1835. Pinterest

The protection of American presidents was an ad hoc affair for much of the country’s history. The Secret Service was created in 1865 to catch currency counterfeiters. It was not tasked with the protection of US presidents until 1902, after the assassination of President William McKinley. Before that, security was quite lax. For example, on the night that Lincoln was assassinated, only one man had been assigned to protect him. He was an inept and unreliable policeman named John Frederick Parker.

When Lincoln was in the White House, little thought was given to presidential security. This, despite earlier close calls, such as an 1835 attempt to assassinate President Andrew Jackson. It was foiled only because both of the would-be assassin’s pistols misfired. That lax attitude was nearly universal. Lincoln was himself quite cavalier about his personal safety, despite numerous threats and copious hate mail. In 1861, a plot was uncovered that sought to murder the then-recently-elected President Lincoln in Baltimore, on his way to take office in the Washington, DC. In 1864, as Lincoln rode at night unguarded, an unknown sniper fired a rifle shot. It pierced his hat and missed his head by inches.

Lincoln Often Went About Unescorted and Unprotected

Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Library of Congress

Despite close calls, numerous reports of plots against his life, and knowledge that many wished him ill in the worst possible way, Lincoln often went about unescorted. The tall, bearded, gangly, and quite easily identifiable president sometimes walked alone at night from the White House to the War Department. He often attended church or went to the theater without bodyguards, and generally disliked the fuss of a military escort. Ironically, the fateful night of April 14^th, 1865, was one of the relatively few times Lincoln had a bodyguard. Unfortunately, the bodyguard was incompetent.

By any measure, Officer John Frederick Parker (1830 – 1890) was a bad cop. One of the first officers to join Washington’s Metropolitan Police Force when it was created in 1861, Parker stood out for his ineptness and unsuitability as a policeman. He was often brought before the police oversight board on various charges, any of which could have gotten him fired. The most frequent accusation was conduct unbecoming an officer. He was let off each time with a slap on the wrist.

An Exceptionally Bad Cop

Officer John Frederick Parker. Washington Metropolitan Police

Parker’s infractions included but were not limited to the abuse of civilians. He was known to curse in public, frequent brothels while on duty, get drunk on the job, and sleep off his inebriation in streetcars instead of walk his assigned beat. Each time he was brought up on a disciplinary charge, he got away with no more than a reprimand. Despite that poor record, when the Metropolitan Police Force created the first permanent detail to guard the president in November, 1864, Parker was one of four officers assigned to guard Lincoln.

On the night of April 14^th, 1865, Officer John Frederick Parker escorted President Lincoln and his wife to their box seats in Ford’s Theater. Parker then grabbed a seat in the hallway behind Lincoln in the theater, but was unable to see the play from there. So he abandoned his post to watch from downstairs. The play bored him, however, so he left the theater altogether, to grab a drink in a nearby bar. There, Parker might have crossed paths with John Wilkes Booth, who was also at that bar for a last shot of liquid courage before he headed to Ford’s Theater.

Lincoln’s Bodyguard Was Drinking at a Bar When the President Was Assassinated

John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor, was a Confederate sympathizer. During the war, he lacked the courage of his convictions to take up arms and join the Confederate armies in the field. When it was all over and the Confederacy was defeated, he finally found enough courage – or at least bitterness – to do something. Booth hatched a plot to assassinate President Lincoln and some of his key cabinet members, and on the night of April 14^th, 1865, he and his accomplices fanned out across Washington, DC. Booth’s coconspirators failed to carry out their parts of the plot, but Booth got into Ford’s Theater. There, Officer John Frederick Parker had abandoned his post as presidential bodyguard to grab a drink at a nearby bar.

Booth snuck into the president’s private box, and shot Lincoln in the back of the head. He then made a dramatic escape, and went on the run for twelve days. A massive manhunt eventually tracked Booth to a Virginia barn, where he was killed in a shootout. It is unclear if Officer Parker ever returned to Ford’s Theater that night, or only found out about the assassination the next day. Parker was charged with failure to protect the president, but incredibly, the charge was dismissed and he kept his job as a Washington Metropolitan Police officer. He was even kept on the presidential protection detail for another three years, before he was finally fired when he was caught once again asleep on the job.