Bill O’Reilly may have majored in history at Marist College and even gone on to teach high school history, but that doesn’t mean his latest book, Killing Lincoln, about the assassination of honest Abe, is historically accurate. At least that’s the verdict of a reviewer for the National Park Service, which manages Ford’s Theatre, where Lincoln was fatally shot in 1865. As a result of these shortcomings — including references to the Oval Office more than six decades before it was ever built and unearthing (without any backup) an old rumor that Lincoln’s Secretary of War was behind the plot — the Ford’s Theatre bookstore will not be selling the book. But riding high at no. 2 on the Times’ list of nonfiction bestsellers, O’Reilly and co-author Martin Dugard are unlikely to lose much sleep (or royalties) over the decision.
