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Key West Art & Historical Society Distinguished Speaker Series guest Fred L. Borch to share insights on “The Lincoln Assassination and the Florida Keys”

On Thursday, December 20, Key West Art & Historical Society welcomes Distinguished Speaker Series guest Fred L. Borch to the Custom House Museum, 281 Front Street. His 6:00pm presentation, “The Lincoln Assassination and the Florida Keys,” provides insights into the murder of the 16th President of the United States and the imprisonment of four of the accused at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.

On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theater. After Lincoln died the next day, the government rounded up seven men and one woman and charged them with conspiring to murder the president. In July 1865, the eight defendants were prosecuted by a military commission. All were found guilty. Four were hanged and four received terms of imprisonment—which they served at Fort Jefferson.

“Why was Lincoln murdered?  Were the seven men and one woman guilty?  Did they deserve to hang?  Was justice done?  This talk answers these questions and more,” said Borch.

A retired Army officer and lawyer, Borch is currently Regimental Historian and Archivist for the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, the only full-time military legal historian in the U.S. Government. He was a consulting historian for the 2010 dramatic film “The Conspirator,” directed by Robert Redford, and appears in the 2011 documentary film, “The Conspirator: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Lincoln,” directed by Tom Jennings.

Distinguished Speaker Series presentation tickets are $5 for KWAHS members, $10 for non-members, and are available at kwahs.org, click ‘tickets.” Early ticket purchase is recommended.  Sponsored by the Helmerich Trust, Southernmost Beach Resort, and the State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs. For more information, contact Danielle Holliday at 305-295-6616 ext114. Your Museums.  Your Community.  It takes an Island.

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Key West Art & Historical Society welcomes Distinguished Speaker Series guest Fred L. Borch on Thursday, December 20 at the Custom House Museum.