George Atzerodt

Quick Facts

• Role: German-born carriage painter and boatman drawn into John Wilkes Booth’s conspiracy; assigned to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson
• First appearance: Introduced as a reluctant recruit to the original kidnapping scheme, valued for his local waterways knowledge
• Occupation/Social standing: Working-class tradesman; described as “slow-witted” (p. 101) and visibly unpolished (photograph, p. 182)
• Key relationships: John Wilkes Booth; Lewis Powell; David Herold
• Intended victim: Andrew Johnson
• Fate: Captured, confessed, and executed on July 7, 1865 (pp. 111–112, 186)

Who They Are

Bold in talk but brittle in action, George Atzerodt embodies the shabby, unromantic edge of political violence. Unlike Booth’s theatrical zeal or Lewis Powell’s brutal single-mindedness, Atzerodt is the conspirator who cannot bring himself to cross the threshold from plotting to killing. His presence exposes the conspiracy’s weakest seam: a follower coaxed by charisma and threats, paralyzed when faced with real bloodshed. Even his appearance—bearded, unkempt, working-class—underscores how ordinary fear and ineptitude can warp into catastrophic historical consequence (pp. 101, 182).

Personality & Traits

Atzerodt’s defining qualities—impressionability, cowardice, and carelessness—do more than sketch a character; they shape the outcome of the plot. His refusal to act doesn’t emerge from moral clarity so much as terror, and his loose tongue after the murder becomes an instrument of the conspiracy’s collapse.

• Impressionable and submissive: Pulled into Booth’s circle by the actor’s charm and the lure of action, Atzerodt consistently follows rather than leads, taking cues from stronger personalities.
• Cowardly (p. 25): When the plan turns from kidnapping to assassination, he immediately balks. He agrees only after Booth’s threats imply he’ll hang regardless—fear, not conviction, drives him.
• Irresolute (p. 41): Assigned to kill Johnson at the Kirkwood House, he spends the night drinking at the bar instead of acting—his nerve fails at the decisive moment.
• Careless and boastful (p. 101): While hiding, he jokes he is the man who killed Lincoln, a reckless flourish that accelerates his exposure and arrest.
• Unreliable: His failure to carry out his mission exposes the conspiracy’s fragility and speaks to the book’s theme of Conspiracy and Betrayal, where trust within the cabal is as brittle as its members’ courage.

Character Journey

Atzerodt’s arc is one of disintegration rather than development. Initially useful for a kidnapping scheme reliant on river routes, he becomes an ill-fitting assassin when Booth escalates to murder. On April 14, 1865, he receives the order to kill Johnson and immediately recoils (p. 25). At the Kirkwood House, fear overwhelms him: he drinks, dithers, and disappears into the night instead of climbing a single flight of stairs to Johnson’s room (p. 41). In the aftermath, his sloppy flight—marked by loose talk at his cousin’s table—betrays both himself and his associates (p. 101). Captured in bed on April 20, he surrenders without resistance and quickly confesses, implicating others (pp. 111–112). The hanging that follows (p. 186) finalizes a tragic irony: the conspirator who could not kill is executed for the plot that his own cowardice helped unravel.

Key Relationships

• John Wilkes Booth: Atzerodt is a subordinate orbiting Booth’s charisma and intimidation. Booth’s threats convert his reluctance into reluctant compliance, revealing a dynamic built on manipulation rather than loyalty (p. 25). The relationship highlights Booth’s need to conscript weaker men to fill roles his plan demanded—but they fail him when resolve is required.

• Lewis Powell and David Herold: Standing beside Powell’s savage assault on the Seward household and Herold’s dutiful guiding of Booth, Atzerodt’s inaction is stark. Their grim competence throws his timidity into relief; while they do their parts—however brutal or misguided—he drinks, dithers, and flees.

• Andrew Johnson: Johnson’s survival is less a triumph of security than the consequence of Atzerodt’s fear. The would-be assassin never even approaches the vice president’s door, turning a planned three-pronged assassination into a lopsided atrocity.

Defining Moments

Atzerodt’s story pivots on moments where decision gives way to avoidance, and avoidance turns into exposure.

• The final meeting, April 14, 1865 (p. 25): Booth assigns him to kill Johnson; Atzerodt protests, then yields under threat. Why it matters: It marks him as the conspiracy’s weak link and shows coercion, not conviction, driving the plan.
• Failure at the Kirkwood House (p. 41): He drinks at the bar instead of carrying out the attack. Why it matters: Johnson lives, and the plot’s coordination collapses.
• The boast at dinner (p. 101): He answers “Yes” when teased about killing Lincoln. Why it matters: A reckless bid for bravado becomes a breadcrumb trail for investigators.
• Capture and confession (pp. 111–112): Found in bed by manhunters, he surrenders and “confessed all,” implicating Dr. Samuel A. Mudd and Mary Surratt. Why it matters: His quick confession deepens the net around the conspiracy.
• Execution (p. 186): Hanged alongside Powell, Herold, and Mary Surratt. Why it matters: The man who could not kill is put to death—an ending that underscores the pitiless calculus of wartime justice.

Symbolism & Significance

Atzerodt symbolizes conspiracy’s least glamorous truth: grand designs depend on fearful, fallible people. As Booth’s foil, he strips the plot of melodrama and exposes its human frailty. In the book’s exploration of Heroism vs. Villainy, he is neither heroic nor formidable—just weak—and that weakness shapes history as surely as Powell’s violence or Booth’s fanaticism.

Essential Quotes

“Booth proposed,” aspiring kidnapper George Atzerodt recalled, “that we should kill the president.” It would, said Booth, “be the greatest thing in the world.”
— Page 25

This recollection captures the pivotal escalation from kidnapping to murder and reveals Booth’s seductive grandiosity. Atzerodt’s passive framing—“Booth proposed”—positions him as a bystander to the conspiracy’s moral free fall, already signaling his reluctance.

Atzerodt had doubts about his assignment. He would not do it, he said. Booth then threatened Atzerodt, implying that he might as well kill Johnson, because if he didn’t, Booth would accuse him anyway and get him hanged.
— Page 25

Here the power dynamic is naked: threat substitutes for loyalty. Atzerodt’s compliance stems from self-preservation, not belief, explaining both his later paralysis and his ultimate willingness to confess when the tide turns.

One of the guests had known him for years, and when Atzerodt arrived he teased him. “Are you the man that killed Abe Lincoln?” The joke must have frozen Atzerodt in his tracks. Atzerodt laughed and said, “Yes.”
— Page 101

This moment condenses his recklessness and need for bravado into a single word. The ill-timed boast undermines the conspiracy as effectively as any detective, proving that vanity and fear can be as fatal to a plot as courage and resolve.