Historians say the plot to assassinate U.S. President Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago today can tie both its origin and its ending to Canada.
They say Lincoln's killer, John Wilkes Booth, was actively hatching plans to take down the anti-confederate president when he travelled to Montreal six months before the assassination.
Canadian historian John Boyko says Wilkes and a number of sympathizers chose Montreal to discuss their pro-southern sentiments because it was known to be a hotbed of confederate activity.
Months later, after Lincoln had been gunned down at Ford's Theatre in Washington, Boyko says it was a Canadian-born soldier that ultimately led the mission that took down the president's killer.
Boyko says Edward Doherty, who was serving in the U.S. army despite being born in Quebec, was in charge of the detail tasked with tracking Booth down after the assassination.
He says one of Doherty's soldiers defied orders by shooting Booth as he hid in a barn rather than bringing him out alive.
