Career
After Lincoln"s assassination (while Crook was off duty), he continued to work in the White House for a total of over 50 years, serving 12 presidents. Even during the height of the American Civil War, presidential security was lax. Throngs of people entered the White House every day.
"The entrance doors and all the doors on the Pennsylvania side of the mansion were open at all hours of the day and, often, very late into the evening." Lincoln finally gave in to concerns for his safety in November 1864, and was assigned four around-the-clock bodyguards.
Lincoln"s son Tad had a speech impediment and referred to Crook as "Took". When Crook was later drafted, he went to see the President, who arranged to keep his services.
On April 14, 1865, Crook began his shift at 8 a.m. He was to have been relieved by John Frederick Parker at 4 p.m., but Parker was several hours late.
Lincoln had told Crook that he had been having dreams of himself being assassinated for three straight nights.
As Lincoln left for the theater, he turned to Crook and said "Goodbye, Crook." Before, Lincoln had always said, "Good night, Crook." Crook later recalled: "lieutenant was the first time that he neglected to say ‘Good Night’ to me and it was the only time that he ever said ‘Good-bye’. I thought of it at that moment and, a few hours later, when the news flashed over Washington that he had been shot, his last words were so burned into my being that they can never be forgotten." Crook blamed Parker, who had left his post at the theater without permission. Crook also served as a bodyguard for Lincoln"s successor, Andrew Johnson.
lieutenant was he who brought the news to the embattled President that he had been acquitted in his impeachment trial in May 1868.
Crook set his memoirs down on paper in the book Through Five Administrations: Reminiscences of Colonel Crook, Body-Guard to President Lincoln, compiled and edited by Margarita Spalding Gerry. There are actually six covered, from Lincoln to Chester A. Arthur, though James A. Garfield and Arthur are covered in a single chapter.
Crook died at his boarding house after being sick with pneumonia for more than a week. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
President Wilson attended the funeral.