Season 7, Episode 3

History Detectives stares down the barrel of a shotgun for clues that one of Al Capone's men fired it in a Chicago gang massacre that shocked the nation. The gun came to our contributor's family after it was handed down through two generations of prominent Chicago families. History Detectives combs through physical evidence to see if the gun can be placed at the scene of the crime.

History Detectives investigates a letter which indicates that thirty years before John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, Booth's father threatened to kill another sitting president, Andrew Jackson. The letter to Jackson reads, "You damn'd old scoundrel... I will cut your throat whilst you are sleeping." Is this letter a hoax? Or does assassination run in the Booth blood?

1941, a new instrumental "Take the 'A' Train," becomes the signature song of pianist Duke Ellington. But was the young composer denied full credit for the hit song? Our contributor has discovered boxes of sheet music and metal sheets that look like printing plates for this song. History Detectives investigates the story behind these plates and determines the role they played in this jazz classic.