What kind of gun was used to kill Lincoln?
On Friday, April 14, 1865, President Lincoln and his wife Mary attended a performance of the comedy “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater, located about five blocks from the White House. About 10:13 p.m., during the third act of the play, John Wilkes Booth shot the president in the head at point-blank range using a small muzzle-loading derringer pistol which measured only six inches in length, but fired a bullet measuring nearly a half-inch in diameter. Lincoln never regained consciousness and died at 7:22 the next morning.
