Manhunt true story: How accurate is the Apple TV+ historical drama?

Alongside Menzies and Boyle, the show also stars Hamish Linklater, Patton Oswalt and Lovie Simone, among others. But how closely does the series follow the true story it is dramatising?

Read on for everything you need to know about the true story behind Manhunt, including exclusive quotes from Menzies and the show's creator, Monica Beletsky.

What is Manhunt about?

Manhunt tells the true story of the murder of Abraham Lincoln by actor and Confederate sympathiser John Wilkes Booth, and the 12-day manhunt searching for Booth which followed.

Booth was eventually found and killed, while many conspirators were later put on trial, and a number were executed.

The prosecution also tried to find a link between Booth and Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, but the case failed to stand up.

The series is based on the non-fiction book about these events by James L Swanson, Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, which was first published in 2006.

The official synopsis for the series says: "Based on The New York Times best-selling and Edgar Award-winning non-fiction book from author James L Swanson, Manhunt is a conspiracy thriller about one of the best known but least understood crimes in history, the astonishing story of the hunt for John Wilkes Booth in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination."

What is the true story behind Manhunt and how accurate is the series?

For the most part, the series does follow the major events which took place just before and after Lincoln's assassination, with creator Monica Beletsky and the show's other writers having used thorough research, alongside utilising that which is detailed in Swanson's book, to create a full picture of events.

This means the characters it depicts are almost all based on real people, from Patton Oswalt as Lafayette Baker to Betty Gabriel's Elizabeth Keckley.

The story has, however, been fleshed out for the screen - for instance, while we know that Lovie Simone's character, Mary Simms, was a former slave of one of the conspirators, Dr Samuel Mudd, and that she testified against him at his trial, other aspects of her story have been added, because little is known about her beyond her testimony.

Beletsky told Vanity Fair: "Mary Simms is someone that I came across in the transcript of the conspirators trial. I found her extremely compelling. I knew that she kept house for Dr Mudd and that her brother was considered Dr Mudd’s carpenter.

"So, with that in mind, when Booth needs a crutch, I have Milo, her brother, making the crutch."

The roles of major figures in the hunt have also been expanded or changed somewhat. For instance, Lincoln's war minister, Edwin Stanton, has been given a more central role in proceedings, so there could be a clear cat-and-mouse chase structure to the story between two figures.

Beletsky said in the same Vanity Fair interview: "I had done some research and come across the figure of Edwin Stanton, the secretary of war, and was so compelled by the fact that I had never been taught about the man. Essentially, the weight of everything after the assassination fell on his shoulders.

"I thought that there could be a show in the universal story behind him, which is avenging a friend’s death."

Before settling on the specific book to adapt, Beletsky simply saw the series as "more of a conspiracy thriller, more of a cat-and-mouse detective story". "I loved the idea of making Stanton the cat to Booth’s mouse," she added.

Speaking with RadioTimes.com exclusively, Stanton star Tobias Menzies admitted that the fact that the events they're dramatising took place a long time ago gave the team "a bit more leeway to create the character that we needed for the centre of this story".

He continued: "It goes without saying, it's not a documentary, it's a piece of reimagining. I guess I was keen to bring to it a sense of the kind of political creatures that were running the US then.

"They were men of, I get the sense, great moral purpose, a great deal of vision about what the country that they were building should or shouldn't be, and they were also men of argument, I think. You know, they could speak to a room, hold an argument over probably many hours.

"When you read the books, the political debate at the time was certainly not short on words."

Meanwhile, Beletsky explained to RadioTimes.com why Stanton was the right person to front the story, saying: "Stanton was someone who was really ahead of his time in terms of his advocacy for civil rights. He really pushed Lincoln's views more forward than they might have been.

"He did amazing things like [starting] Arlington Cemetery and [honouring] the soldiers, and believed in having Black soldiers, things like that."

She also explained why Menzies was perfect for the role, saying: "Tobias has a very innate sense of justice as a person, in his personal life, and he brings a real passion and righteousness to the work that I thought would really be a kindred spirit to Stanton."

Manhunt premiered on Apple TV+ on Friday 15th March 2024 with the first two episodes, then episodes will be released weekly. Sign up to Apple TV+ now.

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