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An alumnus who's a Civil War buff has written an historical novel that also takes a novel look at the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

Dead Wrong: The Second Assassination of Abraham Lincoln was written by Bill Dantini '75, of Raleigh, NC. Its premise is that a double -- not the actual Lincoln -- was shot at Ford's Theatre that fateful night.

Dantini, co-founder and chairman of BtB Marketing Communications in Raleigh, has been a professional writer for more than 25 years, though this is his first published fiction. A native of Amsterdam, NY, he graduated from St. Lawrence with a degree in English, and holds a master's degree from the University of Louisville. An avid Lincoln and Civil War buff, XLibris Publishing says that "Dantini [has] brewed the plot of Dead Wrong since his college days. While he doesn't consider himself a history revisionist, he likes to put 'what-if' spins on historical events."

XLibris' publicity states, "Fearing an assassination attempt, and sensitive to his poor health, the president's security officer sends an impersonator to accompany Mary Todd Lincoln to a performance of Our American Cousin playing evening at Ford's Theatre...The story unfolds through excerpts from Malachi Rudd's diary and a narrative that relates the concurrent movements of John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln, and Lincoln's tormented, guilt-ridden abductors. Dr. Martin Rudd is the vehicle for relating the contemporary part of the novel. From Charleston, SC, through upstate New York and the Sacandaga River Valley, to the Canadian border, the plot propels the reader to a dramatic climax on April 14th, 1870, between Lincoln, Booth and Malachi Rudd in the desolation of the St. Lawrence River Valley."

Click here to read an excerpt from Dead Wrong, by Bill Dantini '75

Posted: January 6, 2003