President Lincoln’s Son: Robert Todd Lincoln and his Deadly Déjà Vu
Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln, lived a life eerily linked to presidential deaths. Born in 1843 as the eldest son of Abraham Lincoln, he carved out a distinguished career in law, politics, and diplomacy, including service as a Union Army captain, Secretary of War under James Garfield, and U.S. Minister to the United Kingdom. However, his legacy is overshadowed by an uncanny curse: direct connections to the assassinations of three U.S. presidents, his father Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, and William McKinley. This string of tragedies led Robert to view himself as jinxed, famously remarking on the “certain fatality” tied to his presence at such events, prompting him to avoid future presidential invitations altogether.
On April 14, 1865, Robert was at the White House when his father left for Ford’s Theatre. He declined to attend due to fatigue, missing John Wilkes Booth’s shot, but arrived at the Petersen House to watch Abraham die the next morning.
Robert was also present at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station in Washington, D.C., on July 2, 1881, when President James A. Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau. At the time, Robert served as Garfield’s Secretary of War and had accompanied the president to the station for a planned trip. He was nearby during the attack and helped attend to Garfield immediately afterward.
Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station July 2, 1881.
Twenty years on Robert was also connected to the assassination of President William McKinley on September 6, 1901, at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. He had been invited as a guest and arrived at the Temple of Music shortly after McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz. Robert did not witness the shooting but was on the scene in the immediate aftermath.
These incidents led Robert to later remark on a “certain fatality” in his life regarding presidential assassinations, and he reportedly avoided such events afterward.
Oh, and one last thing – in 1863 or 1864, Edwin Booth, the brother of his father’s killer, saved Robert’s life on a Jersey City N.J. train platform by pulling him from falling under a moving train.
On a crowded train platform in Jersey City, New Jersey, Robert slipped and nearly fell beneath the wheels of a moving locomotive. Edwin, a famous actor standing nearby, grabbed his collar and pulled him to safety.
