john wilkes booth

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John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838–April 26, 1865) was an American actor who is most famous for being the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. A professional and extremely popular stage actor of his day, Booth was a Confederate sympathizer who was dissatisfied by the outcome of the American Civil War.

Biography

Booth was born on a farm near Bel Air, Harford County, Maryland. His parents, Junius Brutus Booth and Mary Ann Holmes, were British and had moved to the United States in 1821. Junius was one of the most famous actors on the American stage; after he died in 1852 the poet Walt Whitman wrote, "There went the greatest and by far the most noble Roman of them all." Booth's brother, Edwin Booth, was the most influential Shakespearean actor in America in the late 19th Century. J. Wilkes Booth (as he was known professionally) made his stage debut at the age of 17 (in August 1855) when he played the Earl of Richmond in Shakespeare's Richard III. In 1858 he became a member of the Richmond Theatre, and his career started to take off. He was referred to in reviews as "the handsomest man in America." He stood 5 feet, 8 inches tall, had jet-black hair, and was lean and athletic. In 1859, Booth was present at the execution of John Brown, the abolitionist who had raided the armory at Harpers Ferry. He was excited that justice was done, he later wrote in his diary. Booth had joined a militia (the Richmond Greys) just to attend the event and stood near the scaffold with other armed men to guard against any rescue attempt. In early 1862, Booth was arrested and taken before a provost marshal in St. Louis for making anti-government remarks. On November 9, 1863, President Lincoln saw Booth playing Raphael in Charles Selby's The Marble Heart at Ford's Theater in Washington. Lincoln sat in the same box in which he was later assassinated. Other than that run, Booth made only one other acting appearance at Ford's. That occurred on March 18, 1865, when he played Duke Pescara in The Apostate in what was the last appearance of his career. Booth actually attended Lincoln's second inauguration on March 4, 1865 as the invited guest of his secret fiance Lucy Hale (Lucy's father John Hale was Lincoln's minister to Spain). Booth headed a loose-knit band of southern sympathizers in Washington, including from time to time, David Herold, the giant Lewis Paine, George Atzerodt, Edman "Ned" Spangler, Michael O'Laughlin, and John Surratt. The group's plan to kidnap Lincoln, spirit him to Richmond, and exchange him for enough Confederate prisoners to win the war came to naught. Some conspiracy theorists have claimed that Booth had been encouraged by agents of the Confederate government operating in Canada and had been supplied with funds for his activities from their budget. George Nicholas Sanders, a one-time government official, was believed to be associated with this group.

The assassination

On April 10, after hearing the news that Robert E. Lee has surrendered at Appomattox, Booth told a friend, Lou Weichmann, that he was done with the stage, and that the only play he wanted to present henceforth was Venice Preserved. Although Mr. Weichmann didn't understand the reference, Venice Preserved is about an assassination plot. On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Lincoln attended the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater. Booth, who as a famous actor and friend of owner John Ford had free access to all parts of the theater, snuck into Lincoln's box and shot him fatally in the back of the head with a .44 caliber Deringer pistol. Booth then jumped out of the President's box and fell to the stage, reportedly breaking his leg. Many historians now believe, however, Booth actually broke his leg when his horse fell on him later in the escape, and that the "diary" entry claiming it occurred jumping to the stage is a typical Booth dramatization. Some witnesses said he shouted "Sic semper tyrannis" from the stage, while others said he shouted "The South is avenged." He fled to the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who treated the broken leg. Mudd was later sentenced to life at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, but released early for his efforts in stemming a yellow fever epidemic. Ironically, one of the other plotters and fellow prisoners, whom he took into his care when he returned home, survived him. Booth was pursued by Union soldiers through Southern Maryland and across the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers to Richard Garrett's farm, near Bowling Green, Caroline County, Virginia. Early in the morning of April 26, 1865, the soldiers caught up with Booth. Trapped in a tobacco barn, Booth refused to surrender and the soldiers set the barn ablaze. Sergeant Boston Corbett, against orders, fired at Booth and fatally wounded him in the neck. Booth was dragged from the fire and he died on the porch of the farmhouse. Booth's body was taken to the Washington Navy Yard for identification and an autopsy. The body was then buried in a cell in the Old Penitentiary at the Washington Arsenal. In 1867, the body was exhumed, placed in a pine box, and locked in a warehouse at the prison. In 1869, the body was once again identified before being released to the Booth family, where it was buried in a family plot at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore.

"Booth escaped" theories

Some believe that Booth escaped the tobacco barn at Garrett's farm, with a look-alike double agent named James William Boyd dying in his place, and the government going to great pains to cover up the blunder. The Lincoln Conspiracy (ISBN 1568495315) details the assassination, the Boyd plot, and Booth's escape to the swamps. The Curse of Cain: The Untold Story of John Wilkes Booth (ISBN 1580060218) continues with the claim that Booth escaped, sought refuge in Japan and eventually returned to the United States where he died in Enid, Oklahoma in 1903.

Booth in popular culture

Booth is one of the characters portrayed in the musical Assassins by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman. He is referred to as "the pioneer" of presidential assassinations. Stopping Booth's assassination of Lincoln is also a popular theme in time travel-related fiction. Examples include an episode of The Twilight Zone (Back There), the Robert Silverberg short story "The Assassin", and the card game Chrononauts.