George Andrew Atzerodt was a German American repairman, Confederate sympathizer, and conspirator with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of US President Abraham Lincoln.
13 Facts About George Atzerodt
2.
George Atzerodt was assigned to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson, but lost his nerve and made no attempt.
3.
George Atzerodt was born in Dorna, in the Prussian Province of Saxony, Thuringia, Germany.
4.
George Atzerodt immigrated to the United States in 1843 at the age of eight.
5.
In January 1865, some years after opening his failed carriage repair business, George Atzerodt was introduced to John Wilkes Booth in Washington, DC, by John Surratt.
6.
George Atzerodt was willing to join in Booth's earlier conspiracy to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln, as he later admitted in his trial.
7.
On that morning, George Atzerodt booked room 126 at the Kirkwood House in Washington, where Johnson was staying.
8.
George Atzerodt spent the rest of the night drunkenly walking the streets of Washington.
9.
George Atzerodt dropped his knife in a nearby gutter; a sharp-eyed woman saw this and reported it to the police immediately.
10.
George Atzerodt said he first heard about Booth's plan to assassinate the President just two hours before the shooting.
11.
George Atzerodt said that Booth really wanted David Herold to assassinate Vice President Johnson because he thought that Herold had "more pluck" than George Atzerodt did.
12.
George Atzerodt said Booth wanted him to "back up" Herold and "give him more courage".
13.
George Atzerodt appears in the season 1 episode "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln" of Timeless, portrayed by Travis MacDonald.