Where is John Parker? — Lincoln’s bodyguard on the night of April 14th, 1865.During the

Where is John Parker? — Lincoln’s bodyguard on the night of April 14th, 1865.During the Civil War John F. Parker was a police officer with the Washington D.C. police department, although not the best officer on the beat.  Originally a carpenter, Parker joined the police service in order to avoid being drafted into the Union Army.  Throughout his law enforcement career he was often reprimanded for sleeping on job, drinking on the job, and attending brothels, but he was never fired.  In fact, amazingly he would be given one of the most important responsibilities in the law enforcement community; guarding Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States.On the night of April 14th, 1865, the war had recently ended, and the Lincolns agreed to celebrate the occasion by attending a play at Ford’s Theater, an English comedy called My American Cousin.  The Lincolns had their own private box where Abraham, Mary, and two friends, Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancee Clara Harris were seated.  It was John Parker’s duty to guard the door the the President’s box, ensuring that no one entered.  During the intermission however, Parker must have decided that guard work was too monotonous, as he left Fords Theater to instead attended a local salloon, at one point even briefly conversing with the actor and soon to be assassin, John Wilkes Booth.Parker never returned to his post.  Little did he know that Booth was planning assassination, a desperate attempt to save the Confederacy by decapitating the head of the Union government.  Booth, seeing his chance, entered Lincoln’s box and shot him point blank in the head with a derringer pistol.  Booth managed to escape, but would later be killed during his capture.  The consequences for John Parker, however, were far less severe.  Parker was charged with dereliction of duty, but the charges were dropped on June 6th, 1865.  He would later be assigned to guard Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd, but she continuously blamed him for her husbands death.  Parker would resume his usual beat, only to be fired for sleeping on duty in 1868.  He died after a long career as a carpenter in 1890. -- source link

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