History is full of tragedy, but the web surrounding Abraham Lincoln’s assassination is especially riddled with strange fates. From the president’s own tormented childhood to the bizarre ends of the people who crossed his path, each story feels like a dark chapter in a macabre novel.

Strange Fates of Lincoln’s Circle

10 Mary Todd Lincoln

Many scholars argue that Mary Lincoln wrestled with bipolar disorder or perhaps narcissistic personality disorder, and a carriage accident that injured her head left her plagued by relentless migraines. Even while Abe was alive, her reckless spending raised eyebrows; after his death the habit exploded—she famously bought ten pairs of gloves at a time and amassed a collection of oddities. She also dabbled in spiritualism, claiming someone had tried to poison her and making outlandish supernatural assertions to her son Robert.

In 1875, Robert had his mother committed to an asylum. Mary fought back with letters to friends and the press, eventually winning her release. Once free, she tried to order a lethal dose of laudanum; the pharmacist, sensing her intent, slipped her a harmless placebo. She spent her remaining years with sister Elizabeth, crippled by cataracts and spinal injuries, and died at 63. She rests beside her husband in the family tomb.

9 Tad Lincoln

Thomas “Tad” Lincoln entered the world with a cleft lip and palate, giving him a speech impediment that only his father and closest confidants could decipher. Lincoln’s own rough upbringing made him unusually lenient with his children, and Tad and his brother Willie earned a reputation as “notorious hellions”—they roamed the White House, disrupted meetings, and turned the president’s offices upside down.

In February 1862, both brothers contracted typhoid fever. Willie succumbed, while Tad survived. After the loss, his parents let him run wild; he never attended a regular school, and tutors found him unmanageable.

When the president was shot, Tad was at a children’s play in nearby Grover’s Theatre. The manager announced the tragedy, and a terrified Tad fled screaming. He later spent time in Europe and Chicago with his mother, but his health continued to falter. He died at just 18, with the cause variously listed as pneumonia, tuberculosis, pleurisy, or a heart attack.

8 Lewis Powell

Lewis Powell was a former Confederate soldier drafted into John Wilkes Booth’s grand scheme to eliminate the entire federal leadership. His specific task: assassinate Secretary of State William H. Seward. Accompanied by co‑conspirator David Herold, Powell arrived at Seward’s house claiming to deliver medicine after the secretary’s carriage accident.

He lunged with a knife, but a splint protecting Seward’s throat saved the man from a fatal slash. The household fought back, and Powell wounded several before fleeing. He was captured when he tried to return to the Surratt boarding house, the conspirators’ headquarters.

Known for his gentlemanly demeanor, Powell reportedly told a young executioner, “I hope you die quick,” just before his own hanging. The noose lingered for over five minutes as he thrashed before finally going limp. Herold met the same fate.

7 George Atzerodt

George Atzerodt was assigned to eliminate Vice President Andrew Johnson. He checked into the hotel where Johnson was staying, but nerves got the better of him; he spent the night drinking heavily instead of carrying out the plot.

The following morning, a bartender reported Atzerodt’s suspicious habit of repeatedly asking about Johnson’s whereabouts. A search of his room uncovered a knife, a loaded revolver, and incriminating links to John Wilkes Booth.

Found guilty, Atzerodt was hanged. Even after the rope was dropped, his body jerked for several minutes before his life finally slipped away.

6 Mary Surratt

Mary Surratt owned the boarding house where Booth’s conspirators gathered, and she was the mother of John Surratt—someone Booth once considered for a kidnapping plot against Lincoln. Most historians believe her only crime was trying to shield her son during the investigation. While Atzerodt condemned her, Lewis Powell vouched for her innocence.

Appeals for clemency fell on deaf ears; she was executed alongside the male conspirators. Her death was swift, and her last words were “Please don’t let me fall.” Afterward, souvenir hunters swarmed the boarding house until police intervened. The building now operates as a restaurant. Notably, Mary Surratt became the first woman ever executed by the U.S. federal government.

5 John Wilkes Booth

John Wilkes Booth came from a celebrated acting dynasty and was the epitome of a dashing leading man—handsome, wealthy, and fiercely intelligent. A fervent Confederate sympathizer, Booth originally plotted to kidnap Lincoln and ransom him for the release of Confederate prisoners. When General Robert E. Lee surrendered, Booth concluded that the president had to die.

Six days after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Booth shot Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre. He fled on horseback into the Virginia wilderness, eventually cornered in a tobacco barn with accomplice David Herold. Refusing to surrender, Booth watched the barn blaze before Union soldier Thomas “Boston” Corbett shot him as he staggered through the flames.

Mortally wounded, Booth was dragged to a nearby farmhouse porch; a bullet had shattered his vertebrae, leaving him paralyzed. He lingered in agony for about three hours. His final words were “Useless, useless.”

4 Boston Corbett

Thomas “Boston” Corbett, the man who pulled the trigger on Booth, may have been the most disturbed figure on this list. A Union soldier turned hatter—a trade historically linked to madness because of mercury exposure—Corbett later became a devout Christian, grew his hair long to imitate Jesus, and even used scissors to castrate himself in an effort to avoid temptation.

Assigned to the 16th New York Cavalry, Corbett’s orders were to capture Booth alive. After a standoff in the tobacco barn, he shot Booth in the head, striking the same spot where Lincoln had been shot. Witnesses disputed his claim that Booth was reaching for a weapon, yet he received widespread praise.

After the incident, Corbett returned to hat‑making but spiraled into lunacy. He threatened people with his revolver, was confined to the Topeka Asylum for the Insane, escaped, claimed he was heading to Mexico, and then vanished. Some scholars think he built a cabin near Hinckley, Minnesota, and perished in a massive wildfire on September 1, 1894, but his ultimate fate remains a mystery.

3 Major Henry Rathbone

When the Lincolns attended Ford’s Theatre to watch *Our American Cousin*, they were accompanied by Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée (and stepsister) Clara Harris. During the chaos, Booth stabbed the major in the arm, nearly draining him of blood.

The couple later married, but the trauma haunted Rathbone. Over the years he slipped into madness. On Christmas Eve 1883, while staying in Germany, he shot Clara to death, then savagely attacked her corpse with a knife before turning the blade on himself six times. He spent the rest of his life confined to an asylum for the criminally insane.

2 Clara Harris

Clara Harris’s tragic fate extended beyond the night of the assassination. During the scuffle at Ford’s Theatre, Lincoln’s blood splattered across her face and dress. She kept vigil with Mary Lincoln for hours afterward, and the blood‑stained garment was never cleaned.

Clara claimed the dress brought visions of Lincoln’s ghost, and soon others reported seeing the apparition. The family eventually bricked the closet shut, entombing the cursed garment. In 1910, their son smashed the wall and burned the dress, believing it had haunted the family for generations.

1 Lincoln’s Ghost

Many swear that Abraham Lincoln never truly left the mortal realm. His specter is the most frequently reported ghost in the White House, with sightings by First Lady Grace Coolidge, Theodore Roosevelt, and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. He seemed especially active during Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s wartime presidency, appearing to multiple staffers, while Eleanor Roosevelt felt his presence without ever seeing him.

Perhaps the most amusing encounter comes from Winston Churchill. After a hot bath, the naked statesman returned to his room to find Lincoln leaning on the fireplace mantle. Churchill allegedly quipped, “Good evening, Mr. President. You seem to have me at a disadvantage,” to which Lincoln smiled and vanished.