Mary Todd Lincoln’s Behavior Baffled America – But A Scientist Explained Why She Was So Bizarre

During Mary’s time, no one could quite understand why she behaved that way. Sadly, she also suffered from depressive episodes and violent mood swings, and these bouts of ill health may have led some to call her insane. Mary’s eldest son, Robert, even had her institutionalized later in life.

Since then, experts have considered exactly what caused Mary’s unhappiness. In particular, they have wondered if her physical symptoms – including pale skin and intense headaches – had something to do with it all. But Soros thinks he has the answer. And his theory links all of the first lady’s issues to a single diagnosis.

While in her native Lexington, Kentucky, Mary had an idyllic childhood – at least, at first. Her mother, Eliza, cared for her children, while her father, Robert, provided well for the family by running a local shop. But the birth of sixth child George was too much for Eliza’s body. And while doctors came to the Todd household, they couldn’t do anything to help. Mary’s mother died in 1825 at just 31 years old.

Even though she was just six years old at the time, Mary felt completely devastated by the loss of her beloved mother. Making matters worse, her father became engaged to a woman named Elizabeth “Betsey” Humphreys within six months of Eliza’s death. And, sadly, Betsey apparently had no interest in helping to raise Mary and the other kids.

Instead, people noticed how cruelly Betsey treated her stepchildren and that she relied on shame and embarrassment to discipline. And while Mary’s older sister Elizabeth eventually stepped in to nurture her younger siblings, the Todd children still had to live with their stepmother’s obvious animosity. She seemingly wasn’t all that fond of the nine kids she would have with Robert, either.

Yet while Robert kept emotionally distant from his children, he wanted all of his offspring – even his daughters – to receive good educations. So, he enrolled Mary at the Shelby Female Academy, where she studied subjects including French, natural science, arithmetic, and geography. Of course, back then, female students learned less in school than their male peers, as it was believed that over-educated women would scare away potential husbands.

Still, despite the limitations placed on her at the time, Mary was undeterred. And when she completed her schooling at Shelby, she didn’t want to stop learning. Her next stop was Mentelle’s for Young Ladies, which was a boarding school run by a 62-year-old woman from France. And although the institution was close to the Todd family residence, Mary was eventually allowed to board on site.

Mary flourished at Mentelle’s – especially in theater and plays. Here, too, she finally got some attention after growing up as one of 15 children in the Todd household. By the time she finished her time at school, the young woman was a noted beauty, a wonderful conversationalist, and a go-getter. And like her older sisters before her, Mary decided that she had to leave Lexington.

Mary’s siblings Elizabeth and Francis had moved from Kentucky to Springfield, Illinois, and she decided to follow suit. But around the same time Mary arrived in the state capital, a new member of the Illinois assembly named Abraham Lincoln was also settling in the city. And he had a much different reputation in Springfield than Mary did.

You see, Mary was known for her wonderful ability to chat and converse, and that didn’t stop in Springfield. She welcomed plenty of visitors to her sister Elizabeth’s house, where she lodged over the summer of 1837. By contrast, Abraham was often considered to be a little odd and a bit of a loner.

Abraham also came from a very different background to Mary. The future president had spent his childhood as a farmer’s son, and he would go on to work as a farmhand, a carpenter, and a ferry employee before he started to practice law. People often called him “humble Abraham Lincoln” – a nickname that may have helped him win his seat in the state assembly.

But Mary didn’t meet Abraham during her first summer in Springfield, and at first it appeared as though she may never have the chance to do so. At the end of the season, you see, Elizabeth had to send Mary home, as she and her husband weren’t able to afford to look after both younger sisters. Mary regretfully returned to Lexington, where she found a job as an apprentice teacher.

Fortunately for Mary, fate would quickly bring her back to Springfield. Francis got married and left Elizabeth’s house, which meant there was room for the fledgling teacher to move in again. So, Mary rushed back to Illinois and kicked off her active social life once more. But while Elizabeth threw plenty of parties to help Mary meet the city’s eligible bachelors, the young woman had one stipulation: she wanted to marry for love.

Interestingly, when Mary first met Abraham, she didn’t seem to think he’d be the one she’d marry. While the two became friends, the Lexington native saw the politician as nothing to write home about. Then, in 1840, their relationship transformed from platonic to romantic. That was despite the fact that Elizabeth didn’t approve of her sister’s choice of partner – given how differently Mary and Abraham had grown up.

Abraham feared he couldn’t give Mary the life she wanted, either, and their differences came to a head on the first day of 1841. That evening, the state politician was supposed to escort his girlfriend to a party, but he arrived late. So, Mary went ahead to the soiree on her own, where her beau ultimately found her flirting with someone else. And with that, Abraham cut ties – although the breakup didn’t last long.

A year after their blow-up, Abraham and Mary mended their relationship. First, the two resumed a friendship, which once again became a romantic bond. This time, they made it to the finish line and gave their family and friends just one day’s notice before their wedding on November 4, 1842. Touchingly, the couple exchanged bands etched with the reminder “Love Is Eternal.”

Then, soon enough, the newly minted family added another member. In 1843 the pair welcomed their first son, Robert Todd Lincoln, who was named after Mary’s father; their second, Edward, arrived three years later. And as the Lincoln clan grew, Abraham’s political career progressed. This often left Mary at home alone with her children, and she started experiencing anxiety as a result.

Mary’s behavior also made her a polarizing figure, even as Abraham’s political star rose. She spoke her mind, for instance, and didn’t hold back – which was precisely the opposite of how women at the time were expected to comport themselves. At home, by contrast, Mary excelled at creating a loving environment for her children and husband. Even so, she needed to carve out quiet corners to deal with her migraines and the depressive episodes she’d experienced since losing her mother.

And things got worse for Mary when she suffered a string of debilitating losses. First, her father died in the summer of 1849 after a battle with cholera. Then, in February of the following year, she and her husband witnessed Edward succumb to tuberculosis. Apparently, Mary believed in destiny, and she felt that her son’s death was fate working directly against her.

But Mary’s fortune changed with the births of two more sons: William in late 1850 and Thomas three years later. And during the same decade, Abraham’s political career reached the highest possible level when the Republican Party tapped him as their nominee for president. As history shows, of course, he went on to win the election and assume office in 1860.

While the Lincolns were in the White House, Mary’s mental and physical health seemed to decline further. For one thing, she injured her head in a carriage accident, ultimately making her headaches even worse. And along with bouts of depression, the mother of four experienced erratic mood swings and a violent temper. She would even have outbursts in public, which was not the behavior expected of a president’s wife at the time.

Plus, as we mentioned earlier, Mary had a bad reputation for spending wildly while in the White House, transforming the presidential residence into a regal estate with all-new decor. At some point, her reckless dealings with money enraged her husband, who warned her that she’d burn through his presidential salary before he even left his post.

Mary’s family ties brought her negative press, too. You see, while her husband led the Union into the Civil War, three of her half-brothers actually fought on the Confederacy’s side. Yet Mary had long held the same views as Abraham. Even as a teenager, she had been anti-slavery.

Still, it was Mary’s state of mind that was her most pressing issue, and this would only worsen in 1862. That year, her third-born and favorite son, William, contracted typhoid fever and swiftly passed away. Losing William then pushed Mary into a dark depression, and she stayed in bed for weeks. The first lady also experienced sleeplessness and nightmares, leaving her barely able to take care of her youngest son, Tad. Ultimately, the president hired a nurse to supervise Mary.

However, the day would come when Abraham couldn’t look after Mary, either. After his re-election in 1964 and the end of the Civil War, he and his wife thought they had survived the worst. They would be very wrong. On Mary and Abraham’s April 1865 trip to Ford’s Theater, John Wilkes Booth snuck up behind the president and shot him. Mary had been holding her husband’s hand at the time and screamed in horror when he slumped beside her.

Abraham didn’t die immediately, and so he was rushed across the street to a private house. Meanwhile, Mary descended into an understandable fit of hysteria – one that the men caring for her husband couldn’t deal with. Instead of trying to calm the first lady down, the helpers removed her from the room and away from her husband. And when Mary saw Abraham again, she fainted; sadly, the president passed away before she came to.

Losing Abraham naturally pushed Mary into yet another depressive episode. She didn’t go to his funeral; instead, she spent 40 days in bed. After that, the widow had to decide where to go next, as she was no longer the nation’s first lady. Mary couldn’t bear to return to Springfield, and instead she and her two living sons, Robert and Tad, moved to Chicago.

In Chicago, Mary finally began to grieve her husband’s death, but she did so in private – to the point where she became a recluse. Then came one final tragedy: her youngest son, Tad, died. This heartbreak only made Mary behave more erratically, and her depression worsened to boot.

So, four years later, Mary’s eldest and only living son, Robert, had her committed to an Illinois asylum. The former first lady felt so helpless about the decision that she went on to visit multiple pharmacies, hoping to get enough medication to end her life. Thankfully, an employee at one of these establishments sensed her plan and gave Mary a placebo, thwarting her suicide attempt.

Mary later left the mental health facility and traveled around Europe for four years. Fate would bring her back to Springfield in the end, though, as the widow ultimately moved in with Elizabeth in the town where she’d met her ill-fated husband. It was there in 1882 that Mary slipped into a coma and suffered a stroke on the 11th anniversary of Tad’s death. Sadly, she died the next day.

And in the years since Mary’s passing, psychologists and historians have debated what had caused her to behave in such a strange way. After all, she had once been a well-spoken, charming young lady; as time went on, however, she had become moody, depressed, and erratic. But while experts had plenty of theories to explain Mary’s decline, none of them seemed to fit the situation perfectly.

Immediately after Mary’s death, for instance, her doctor noted how divisive of a personality she had been in life. He warned others, too, against judging someone who had cerebral disease, or mental illness. Other experts have credited her mood swings and erratic spending to bipolar disorder.

But in 2016 Dr. John Sotos presented an entirely different hypothesis about Mary’s behavior. He had looked at the former first lady’s remaining medical records, which had come from her four-month stint in a mental health facility. And according to Sotos, the information was more than enough to diagnose Mary with pernicious anemia.

Pernicious anemia is not as scary today as it once was. The condition stems from a deficiency in vitamin B12, which the body needs to produce red blood cells and nerves and make sure a person’s DNA is working as it’s supposed to. Before doctors isolated vitamin B12, though, they had no idea why people were getting sick and suffering from the illness.

Many of Mary’s noted symptoms actually match those of pernicious anemia. For one, the condition is a degenerative disease – meaning it gets worse over time. And both Mary’s behavior and health did indeed decline as the years passed. She suffered from a laundry list of pernicious anemia-related side effects, including headaches, pallor, and the sensation of needles poking her body.

Pernicious anemia also comes with psychological side effects, meaning Mary may have dealt with hallucinations and delusions that she considered very real. Without B12, the brain shrinks in size – something that can cause paranoia. In old age, the former first lady lost her ability to talk and see as well.

Unfortunately for Mary, doctors of the period were not aware of pernicious anemia, so they had no way of explaining her declining mental and physical health. Mary and others who suffered from the condition basically had a death sentence, and that wouldn’t change until the mid-1920s.

In 1926, you see, doctors George Whipple, William Murphy, and George Minot found that consuming a half-pound of raw liver a day could overcome pernicious anemia. Their discovery was such a huge breakthrough that, in 1934, the trio won a Nobel Prize – regardless of how unsavory their treatment method was.

In 1948 experts then isolated B12 as the cause of pernicious anemia, leading them to develop a shot that could replenish stores of the vitamin. Yet Mary didn’t have that luxury, which is why Sotos wants the world to consider that she suffered from the degenerative disease. In 2016 the doctor told CNN that he hoped his theory would help others to reconsider the former first lady, whom he labeled as the “notoriously difficult-to-understand partner to one of the most consequential figures in world history.”

Today, we’d probably look on Mary more kindly. Think of all the losses she had to endure – including, most famously, the death of her beloved husband. And even today, we’re still discussing Abraham’s assassination. Before he died, for instance, he whispered six words to Mary – ones that have provoked a fierce debate among historians.

Lincoln’s assassination actually came hot on the heels of a great victory. The devastating American Civil War had ended only five days earlier. After the Battle of Appomattox Court House, Confederate General Robert E. Lee had surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. And Booth – the gunman – was a known Confederate sympathizer. So his assassination of Lincoln was part of a three-pronged attack on the U.S. government and was seemingly intended to resuscitate the cause.

Booth had stayed in the north during the conflict, despite the fact that the Confederacy was based in the south. He’d actually pursued his acting career while the war raged for four bloody years. But after Lee surrendered his army, Booth – who’d previously hatched a failed plan to kidnap Lincoln – conspired to commit a far more devastating act.

So when Booth discovered that the Lincolns would be attending the theater that fateful night, he put his plan into action. He also enlisted co-conspirators to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson – and these two assassinations should have happened as the actor pulled the trigger on Lincoln. See, Booth apparently believed that the murders of the president and his two potential successors would likely throw the country into chaos.

Booth felt that Lincoln’s presence in the theater gave him a unique opportunity to get close to him. He had actually performed there several times himself and was therefore familiar with the layout of the building. The actor was also known to the staff and apparently used his connections to gain easier access to Lincoln’s private box.

That evening, Lincoln and his wife were in their box above the stage with army officer Henry Rathbone and his fiancé Clara Harris. who was New York senator Ira Harris’ daughter. However, Lincoln and his group had arrived late to the theater. So in response, the orchestra momentarily halted proceedings to play “Hail to the Chief,” and all 1,700 patrons got to their feet to applaud.

But the president wasn’t without security at the event. In fact, a police officer named John Frederick Parker had been assigned the duty of protecting the president’s private box. During the play’s intermission, however, the officer accompanied Lincoln’s coachman and footman to a local watering hole. This left the box unguarded – meaning Booth was able to slip in easily and bar the door behind him to prevent anyone from escaping.

Booth knew the play well, and he timed his attack to coincide with a particularly funny line uttered by actor Harry Hawk. Lincoln was reportedly laughing when Booth snuck up behind him and shot him behind his left ear. The actor used a single-shot .44-caliber derringer pistol, and the bullet passed through Lincoln’s brain – fracturing both orbital plates.

Rathbone turned to see Booth standing over the fallen president and immediately rushed him. But the young army officer was stabbed in the left forearm in the struggle. Booth then jumped the 12-foot drop from the box to the stage, landing badly and hurting his left foot in the process.

The actor then reportedly held his bloody knife above his head and addressed the audience. At this point, most of the people in attendance thought the commotion was simply part of the performance. It’s generally accepted that Booth yelled, “Sic semper tyrannis!” This is the Virginia state motto and means, “Thus always to tyrants!”

The assassin then ran across the stage toward an exit door, stabbing the orchestra leader William Withers Jr. en route. And after Booth escaped from the theater, he mounted a horse that he had positioned in the alleyway ahead of time. He rode off into the Washington night and soon became the subject of an exhaustive manhunt.

Booth’s motivation for slaying the president may still seem unclear, but it was firmly rooted in the role Lincoln played during the American Civil War. You see, the infamous murder can be traced back to the president’s actions during the conflict – and one in particular set Booth on edge.

The conflict played out between two opposing forces known as the Union and the Confederacy. Union referred to the United States of America – or more specifically, the 20 free states and four border ones where slavery was either illegal or in the process of being phased out. And these regions included Washington, D.C., New York, California, Michigan, Illinois and Pennsylvania.

Conversely, the Confederate States of America was formed by the seven states in the lower south of the country whose inhabitants largely didn’t want slavery to be abolished. So as a result, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama, Texas, Georgia and Louisiana seceded from the union and became an unrecognized republic. And in particular, the Confederacy believed slavery was threatened by then-presidential candidate Lincoln. He had run on a platform opposing its expansion into the western part of the country, you see.

Yes, although Lincoln was not an abolitionist, he did believe that slavery was morally wrong and questioned the protections it had been awarded in the Constitution of the United States. And in a three-hour speech in 1854 Lincoln admitted that he didn’t know precisely what the right course of action was regarding slavery.

In 1858 – during a debate with his opponent Stephen Douglas in the Illinois race for the U.S. Senate – Lincoln was accused of supporting “negro equality.” And according to History.com, the future president responded, “I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.” Furthermore, he went on to argue that African-Americans shouldn’t have the right to vote, hold office, serve on juries or marry white people.

Lincoln did believe, however, that African-Americans had the right to improve their societal position through hard work and enjoy the benefits of their labor. And according to the future president, as slavery made this kind of advancement in society impossible, the institution was morally wrong.

But Lincoln’s views regarding racial equality would grow and evolve over the course of his time in office. On April 11, 1865, for instance – the date of the last speech that he ever gave – he argued that any black man who had served the Union during the Civil War should be granted the right to vote. And this stance seemingly indicates that the president’s position had changed somewhat from the Senate debate seven years earlier.

Lincoln’s position on race has been viewed differently by successive generations, too. After all, even though he successfully freed the slaves, he still held some opinions that many today would consider to be problematic. In 2009 The Root’s editor-in-chief Henry Louis Gates Jr. argued that the president held some surprisingly liberal opinions for that period, though. He said, “By the standards of his time, Lincoln’s views on race and equality were progressive and truly changed minds, policy and – most importantly – hearts for years to come.”

But what of Lincoln’s assassin? Well, Booth came from a prominent family of actors in Maryland. His father, Junius Brutus, and his brothers, Edwin and Junius Brutus Jr., all worked in the trade, and Booth followed in their footsteps. And by the end of the 1850s, he was a genuinely wealthy and famous actor – earning the equivalent of around $570,000 today.

Before the American Civil War began, in fact, Booth was held in high esteem as an actor in the southern states. However, during the conflict, he chose to remain in the north and reportedly grew angry when audiences didn’t react to him as well as they had back home. Booth held strong political views, too, as he had a fiercely outspoken hatred of abolitionists and Lincoln – a loathing that even some members of his family didn’t share.

For instance, Booth apparently didn’t see eye to eye with his brother Edwin during the war. Edwin did not share his siblings’ public support of slavery, for one, and he even refused to perform in their native south. But Booth’s condemnation of the Union was so severe that he was arrested in St. Louis in 1863 and charged with “treasonous” remarks. This came, according to several reports, after he was heard saying he wished that “the president and the whole damn government would go to hell.”

So these extreme differences in political opinion meant that eventually Edwin told Booth that he was not welcome in his home anymore. Yes, apparently the actor’s hatred of Lincoln had only become more intense over time. And according to Asia Booth Clarke’s book John Wilkes Booth: A Sister's Memoir, he had told her, “That man’s appearance… and his policy are a disgrace to the seat he holds. He is made the tool of the north to crush out slavery.”

In a cruel twist of fate, though, President Lincoln may have actually been a fan of Booth. It was known that the president had watched him perform in several plays. And fellow actor Frank Mordaunt even corroborated a claim that Lincoln had invited Booth to visit him at the White House. But the actor reportedly turned down the invitation, and according to the website Civil War Saga, he apparently told his friends, “I would rather have the applause of a negro to that of the president.”

Yet as Lincoln was doubtless unaware of how April 14 would end, he had begun the day with a cabinet meeting. The topics were the treatment of the defeated Confederate leaders as well as the nature of any economic aid that was to be offered to the south. And the president then had lunch with his wife, Mary Todd, before engaging in more meetings – including one with a former slave called Nancy Bushrod. Afterwards, Lincoln indulged in an afternoon carriage ride with his spouse.

Later that night, the Lincolns’ carriage picked up army officer Rathbone and his fiancé Harris at her father’s home, and the four subsequently made their way to the theater. After the stirring rendition of “Hail to the Chief,” everyone took their seats, and Mary apparently flirted with her husband as she held his hand. And according to Stephen Mansfield’s book Lincoln’s Battle with God, she asked, “What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?”

Mansfield added that Lincoln’s wife Mary had something of a reputation for being fiercely jealous. She would apparently scream at any woman who dared to walk near her husband, for instance. But this jealousy seemingly didn’t rear its head in the theater, and Lincoln apparently replied, “Why, she will think nothing of it.”

For many years, these were traditionally believed to have been Lincoln’s last words. But in 1882 a friend of the family named Reverend N.M. Miner claimed that Mary had told him her husband’s final words were quite different. Miner wrote about this revelation in a lecture entitled “Personal Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln.”

And Mansfield wrote that Lincoln told his wife that following the war they would “not return immediately to Springfield.” This is no doubt a reference to where the family had lived before he became president: Springfield, Illinois. According to the author, Lincoln continued, “We will go abroad among strangers where I can rest.” He then leaned in closely to Mary and whispered his next words.

“We will visit the Holy Land,” Lincoln apparently declared. “We will visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footsteps of the Savior. There is no place I so much desire to see as Jerusalem.” The bullet fired by Booth then did its terrible work, and Lincoln subsequently succumbed to his injuries the next morning at 7:22 a.m.

In his book, Mansfield acknowledged that these final words – which allude to a deep faith – are often not included in works concerning Lincoln’s assassination. The author said, “It is natural that some should doubt. Schoolchildren do not learn them as they do the other facts of Lincoln’s life.”

Mansfield then argued that Lincoln’s last words are likely omitted from most historical accounts because of the hesitancy of scholars to declare him to be a religious man. He added, “Lincoln was, after all, a religious oddity. He never joined a church. In fact, he went through periods in his life when he was openly anti-religion – even anti-God.”

And the author went on, “Surely, critics will say, to insist that these words are true, or that they are any reflection of Lincoln’s faith, is part of a religious re-working of his life – part of a misguided attempt by the pious to refashion him into a gleaming religious icon of some imagined national religion.” Mansfield continued, “Surely this is the fruit of bad research and pitiful scholarship: more myth than history.”

Mansfield also argued that prominent Lincoln scholars over the years have attested to the validity of these words – in spite of criticism. After all, it was the president’s wife herself who had apparently relayed the words to Reverend Miner. And as a result, prominent Lincoln scholars such as Allen C. Guelzo, Wayne Temple and Doris Kearns Goodwin apparently regard them as the truth.

Dr. James Cornelius is the curator of the Lincoln Collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois, and he has referred to Mary’s account of her husband’s last words. He said, “We believe [them] to be substantiated.” Perhaps this really was the last thing that Lincoln said. And, if this is true, it highlights his complicated views regarding religion.

But what happened in the aftermath of Lincoln uttering his last words and passing away the next morning? Well, his body was put in a temporary casket that was draped in the American flag. The cadaver was then taken by armed escort to the White House. Here, an autopsy was conducted, and Mary reportedly requested that a lock of her husband’s hair be removed for her to keep.

The nation went into mourning, too. By the end of the day of Lincoln’s death, for instance, flags all across the country were flying at half-mast and businesses shut down. And when his body was taken by train to Springfield, Illinois, tens of thousands stood by the railroad route – waiting to pay their final respects to the fallen president.

Lincoln was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery alongside his son William Wallace Lincoln, who had died of typhoid fever three years earlier. And Mary, for her part, was apparently so consumed by grief after losing her husband that she retreated to her bed for weeks. She didn’t attend the funeral and was soon looked down upon by society due to her vocal mourning.

Unfortunately for Mary, women of her high position in society were expected to maintain their composure in public – even during times of grief. Instead of suppressing her emotions, however, Mary displayed them for all to see. A number of modern scholars now believe that she may have been bipolar, but her contemporaries simply ostracized her.

As for John Wilkes Booth, he was found hiding in a Maryland barn after a 12-day manhunt. But he remained inside, even after Union soldiers set the structure on fire to draw him out. Booth was eventually shot in the neck and dragged into the open – where he died three hours later. Four of his co-conspirators were later hanged, too, for their involvement in Lincoln’s assassination. Sadly, because of Booth’s actions, the president never got to see Jerusalem – and we’ll never know what actually greeted him upon his death.