Robert Lincoln’s Uncanny Life

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In all of U.S. history, four Presidents have been assassinated. Robert Lincoln personally experienced three of these killings, and he had an uncanny connection to the fourth.

In 1865, Robert’s father invited him to join him at Ford’s Theatre. That was the night that John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln, and Robert was at his father’s side when he died.

Sixteen years later, Robert was accompanying President James Garfield when Garfield was struck down. In 1901, President William McKinley invited Robert to join him at the World’s Fair in Buffalo, New York; Robert was just steps away when McKinley was shot.

After that, Robert steered clear of Presidents, believing himself to be bad luck. He made an exception for his last public appearance (pictured here) when he joined President Warren G. Harding at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial. Harding would die in office less than a year later, albeit from natural causes. Robert’s audience that day included a five-year-old John F. Kennedy.

Throughout all this time, Robert secretly owed his life to John Wilkes Booth’s brother. In 1863, Robert had fallen off a rail platform and was nearly crushed by a train. Edwin Booth was the one who pulled him to safety. Robert never spoke of this publicly, although he did mention it to friends, and he remembered Booth’s heroism for the rest of his life.

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