THERE IS A CERTAIN FATALITY TO PRESIDENTIAL FUNCTIONS WHEN I AM PRESENT.
- ROBERT TODD LINCOLN
ONLY ONE PERSON IN HISTORY HAS BEEN WITNESS TO AND INVOLVED IN THREE DIFFERENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ASSASSINATIONS - ROBERT TODD LINCOLN.
IN 1865, WHEN ABRAHAM LINCOLN, WAS SHOT AT FORD'S THEATER IN WASHINGTON D.C., HIS SON ROBERT WAS IMMEDIATELY CALLED TO HIS FATHER'S SIDE. HE WAS THERE COMFORTING HIS MOTHER WHEN HIS FATHER DIED THE NEXT DAY.
FIFTEEN YEARS LATER, IN 1881, LINCOLN WAS SECRETARY OF WAR UNDER PRESIDENT JAMES GARFIELD. HE CAME TO WASHINGTON STATION TO SEE THE PRESIDENT OFF ON A TRIP. JUST AS HE ARRIVED, A DISGRUNTLED OFFICE-SEEKER GUNNED DOWN THE PRESIDENT. LINCOLN WAS AT GARFIELD'S SIDE WITHIN A FEW SECONDS OF THE SHOOTING.
SOME TWENTY YEARS LATER, IN 1901, LINCOLN WAS ON HIS WAY TO THE PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION IN BUFFALO, NEW YORK. PRESIDENT WILLIAM MCKINLEY WAS THERE MAKING A SPEECH. WHEN HE RECEIVED WORD THAT PRESIDENT MCKINLEY HAD BEEN SHOT BY AN ANARCHIST, LINCOLN RUSHED TO HIS SIDE. MCKINLEY WAS EXPECTED TO RECOVER FROM THE GUNSHOT, BUT HE DIED A WEEK LATER.
IN LIFE, ROBERT TODD LINCOLN WAS WITNESS TO THREE PRESIDENTIAL ASSASSINATIONS.
IN DEATH, HE LIES IN ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, JUST A FEW STEPS AWAY FROM JOHN F. KENNEDY, THE ONLY OTHER U.S. PRESIDENT GUNNED DOWN BY AN ASSASSIN.
