It was 150 years ago, the morning of April 15, 1865 that a major turning point in world history occurred. President Abraham Lincoln died after being mortally wounded the night before as he watched a play in Ford’s Theater in Washington DC. His assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was on the run and there was a massive manhunt for him and his co-conspirators. In the urgency to catch Booth, one person that played a major role in the assassination escaped the attention of the authorities. His name was John Parker.

In hunting down Booth, the authorities left no rock unturned, or so it seemed. Lewis Powell had attempted to kill Secretary of State William Seward at the same time Lincoln was shot. Seward was badly slashed, but survived his wounds and Powell was arrested. George Atzerodt was supposed to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson at the same time, but he lost his nerve and never made the attempt. Atzerodt was also arrested, as were Mary Surratt, David Herold, and four other people associated with Booth, including the doctor who set his broken leg. They all were put on trial. Four of them were sentenced to hang. Four were sent to prison. But John Parker, possibly the person who, outside of Booth, could have, and many believe should have, been held responsible for the president’s death was overlooked.

What was John Parker’s role in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln? He was the policeman assigned to the president’s detail that evening – an 1860s version of his secret service agent. When Booth entered the president’s private box, he should have encountered Parker, the man who had been assigned to guard the Lincolns. Instead, Parker had left his post at the rear entrance to the viewing box, exited the theater and went to a saloon across the street to have a drink.

Parker’s dereliction of duty changed the world. It has left many people to speculate what would have happened if he had been doing his job that night. Booth was not a large man and did not carry enough ammunition to shoot everyone who was sitting in the president’s box. It is reasonable to believe that Booth would have been overcome and arrested without ever getting close to Lincoln. One person doing their assigned duty would have changed history.

Now this has all kinds of application to staying true to your work, being diligent and not getting distracted in the most mundane of tasks. One person doing their best can have a profound impact on all of us. However, the real application goes beyond this. Oddly enough, Parker was not fired from his job! In fact, he was left on the same White House detail, providing secret service duties for Mary Todd Lincoln after her husband’s death. He remained with the District of Columbia’s Metro Police Force for another three years before he was fired for, of all things, sleeping on the job. Leaving the president of the United States unguarded while you had a drink with friends was excused, but falling asleep on the job was not tolerated?