text:
John Wilkes Booth
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
John Wilkes Booth
Booth c. 1865
Born
(1838-05-10)May 10, 1838
Bel Air, Maryland, U.S.
Died
April 26, 1865(1865-04-26) (aged 26)
Port Royal, Virginia, U.S.
38°08′19″N 77°13′49″W / 38.1385°N 77.2302°W / 38.1385; -77.2302 (Site of the Garrett Farm where John Wilkes Booth met fatality)
Cause of death
Gunshot wound
Resting place
Green Mount Cemetery,
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Other names
J.B. Wilkes
Occupation
Actor
Years active
1855–1865
Known for
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Family
Booth
Signature
John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was the American actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865. He was a member of the prominent 19th-century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and a well-known actor in his own right.[1] He was also a Confederate sympathizer, vehement in his denunciation of Lincoln and strongly opposed to the abolition of slavery in the United States.[2]
Booth and a group of co-conspirators originally plotted to kidnap Lincoln but later planned to kill him, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William H. Seward in a bid to help the Confederacy's cause.[3] Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had surrendered four days earlier, but Booth believed that the American Civil War was not yet over because Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's army was still fighting the Union Army.
Only Booth was completely successful in carrying out his part of the plot. He shot Lincoln once in the back of the head, and the President died the next morning. Seward was severely wounded but recovered, and Vice President Johnson was never attacked.
After the assassination, Booth fled on horseback to southern Maryland and, 12 days later, arrived at a farm in rural northern Virginia where he was tracked down. Booth's companion gave himself up, but Booth refused and was shot by Union soldier Boston Corbett after the barn in which he was hiding was set ablaze. Eight other conspirators were tried and convicted, and four were hanged shortly after.
Contents
1 Background and early life
2 Theatrical career
2.1 1850s
2.2 1860s
3 Business ventures
4 Civil War years
4.1 Plot to kidnap Lincoln
5 Assassination of Lincoln
6 Reaction and pursuit
7 Death
8 Aftermath
8.1 Theories of Booth's motivation
8.2 Theories of Booth's escape
9 In popular culture
9.1 Film
9.2 Literature
9.3 Stage productions
9.4 Television
9.5 Music
9.6 Video games
10 See also
11 References
11.1 Footnotes
11.2 Bibliography
12 Further reading
12.1 For younger readers
13 External links
Background and early life
Booth's parents were noted British Shakespearean actor Junius Brutus Booth and his mistress Mary Ann Holmes, who moved to the United States from England in June 1821.[4] They purchased a 150-acre (61 ha) farm near Bel Air, Maryland, where John Wilkes Booth was born in a four-room log house on May 10, 1838, the ninth of ten children.[5] He was named after English radical politician John Wilkes, a distant relative.[6][7] Junius' wife Adelaide Delannoy Booth was granted a divorce in 1851 on grounds of adultery, and Holmes legally wed Junius on May 10, 1851, John Wilkes' 13th birthday.[8] Nora Titone suggests in her book My Thoughts Be Bloody (2010) that the shame and ambition of Junius Brutus Booth's illegitimate actor sons Edwin and John Wilkes eventually spurred them to strive for achievement and acclaim as rivals—Edwin as a Unionist and John Wilkes as the assassin of Abraham Lincoln.[9]
Booth's father built Tudor Hall on the Harford County property as the family's summer home in 1851, while also maintaining a winter residence on Exeter Street in Baltimore.[10][11][12]
Tudor Hall in 1865
As a boy, Booth was athletic and popular, and he became skilled at horsemanship and fencing.[13] He attended the Bel Air Academy and was an indifferent student whom the headmaster described as "not deficient in intelligence, but disinclined to take advantage of the educational opportunities offered him. Each day he rode back and forth from farm to school, taking more interest in what happened along the way than in reaching his classes on time".[14] In 1850–1851, he attended the Quaker-run Milton Boarding School for Boys located in Sparks, Maryland, and later St. Timothy's Hall, an Episcopal military academy in Catonsville, Maryland.[15] At the Milton school, students recited classical works by such authors as Cicero, Herodotus, and Tacitus.[16] Students at St. Timothy's wore military uniforms and were subject to a regimen of daily formation drills and strict discipline.[17] Booth left school at 14 after his father's death.[18]
While attending the Milton Boarding School, Booth met a Gypsy fortune-teller who read his palm and pronounced a grim destiny, telling him that he would have a grand but short life, doomed to die young and "meeting a bad end".[19] His sister recalled that he wrote down the palm-reader's prediction, showed it to his family and others, and often discussed its portents in moments of melancholy.[19][20]
By age 16, Booth was interested in the theater and in politics, and he became a delegate from Bel Air to a rally by the Know Nothing Party for Henry Winter Davis, the anti-immigrant party's candidate for Congress in the 1854 elections.[21] Booth aspired to follow in the footsteps of his father and his actor brothers Edwin and Junius Brutus, Jr. He began practicing elocution daily in the woods around Tudor Hall and studying Shakespeare.[22]

Theatrical career
1850s
The Richmond Theatre, Richmond, Virginia in 1858, when Booth made his first stage appearance there
Booth made his stage debut at age 17 on August 14, 1855 in the supporting role of the Earl of Richmond in Richard III at Baltimore's Charles Street Theatre.[23][24][25] The audience jeered at him when he missed some of his lines.[23][26] He also began acting at Baltimore's Holliday Street Theater, owned by John T. Ford, where the Booths had performed frequently.[27] In 1857, he joined the stock company of the Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia, where he played for a full season.[28] At his request, he was billed as "J.B. Wilkes", a pseudonym meant to avoid comparison with other members of his famous thespian family.[23][29] Jim Bishop wrote that Booth "developed into an outrageous scene stealer, but he played his parts with such heightened enthusiasm that the audiences idolized him."[26] In February 1858, he played in Lucrezia Borgia at the Arch Street Theatre. On opening night, he experienced stage fright and stumbled over his line. Instead of introducing himself by saying, "Madame, I am Petruchio Pandolfo", he stammered, "Madame, I am Pondolfio Pet—Pedolfio Pat—Pantuchio Ped—dammit! Who am I?", causing the audience to roar with laughter.[23][30]
Later that year, Booth played the part of Mohegan Indian Chief Uncas in a play staged in Petersburg, Virginia, and then became a stock company actor at the Richmond Theatre in Virginia, where he became increasingly popular with audiences for his energetic performances.[31] On October 5, 1858, he played the part of Horatio in Hamlet, alongside his older brother Edwin in the title role. Afterward, Edwin led him to the theater's footlights and said to the audience, "I think he's done well, don't you?" In response, the audience applauded loudly and cried, "Yes! Yes!"[31] In all, Booth performed in 83 plays in 1858. Among them were William Wallace and Brutus,[clarification needed] having as their theme the killing or overthrow of an unjust ruler.[32] Booth said that, of all Shakespearean characters, his favorite role was Brutus, the slayer of a tyrant.[33]
A Carte de visite of John Wilkes Booth
Some critics called Booth "the handsomest man in America" and a "natural genius", and noted his having an "astonishing memory"; others were mixed in their estimation of his acting.[33][34] He stood 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) tall, had jet-black hair, and was lean and athletic.[35] Noted Civil War reporter George Alfred Townsend described him as a "muscular, perfect man" with "curling hair, like a Corinthian capital".[36] Booth's stage performances were often characterized by his contemporaries as acrobatic and intensely physical, with him leaping upon the stage and gesturing with passion.[35][37] He was an excellent swordsman, although a fellow actor once recalled that Booth occasionally cut himself with his own sword.[35]
Historian Benjamin Platt Thomas wrote that Booth "won celebrity with theater-goers by his romantic personal attraction", but that he was "too impatient for hard study" and his "brilliant talents had failed of full development."[37] Author Gene Smith wrote that Booth's acting may not have been as precise as his brother Edwin's, but his strikingly handsome appearance enthralled women.[38] As the 1850s drew to a close, Booth was becoming wealthy as an actor, earning $20,000 a year (equivalent to about $545,000 today).[39]
1860s
Booth embarked on his first national tour as a leading actor after finishing the 1859–1860 theatre season in Richmond, Virginia. He engaged Philadelphia attorney Matthew Canning to serve as his agent.[40] By mid-1860, he was playing in such cities as New York, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis, Columbus, Georgia, Montgomery, Alabama, and New Orleans.[26][41] Poet and journalist Walt Whitman said of Booth's acting, "He would have flashes, passages, I thought of real genius."[42] The Philadelphia Press drama critic said, "Without having [his brother] Edwin's culture and grace, Mr. Booth has far more action, more life, and, we are inclined to think, more natural genius."[42]
Boston Museum playbill advertising Booth in Romeo and Juliet, May 3, 1864
When the Civil War began on April 12, 1861, Booth was starring in Albany, New York. He was outspoken in his admiration for the South's secession, publicly calling it "heroic." This so enraged local citizens that they demanded that he be banned from the stage for making "treasonable statements".[43] Albany's drama critics were kinder, giving him rave reviews. One called him a genius, praising his acting for "never fail[ing] to delight with his masterly impressions."[44] As the Civil War raged across the divided land in 1862, Booth appeared mostly in Union and border states. In January, he played the title role in Richard III in St. Louis and then made his Chicago debut. In March, he made his first acting appearance in New York City.[45] In May 1862, he made his Boston debut, playing nightly at the Boston Museum in Richard III (May 12, 15 and 23), Romeo and Juliet (May 13), The Robbers (May 14 and 21), Hamlet (May 16), The Apostate (May 19), The Stranger (May 20), and The Lady of Lyons (May 22). Following his performance of Richard III on May 12, the Boston Transcript's review the next day called Booth "the most promising young actor on the American stage".[46]
Starting in January 1863, he returned to the Boston Museum for a series of plays, including the role of villain Duke Pescara in The Apostate that won acclaim from audiences and critics.[47] Back in Washington in April, he played the title roles in Hamlet and Richard III, one of his favorites. He was billed as "The Pride of the American People, A Star of the First Magnitude," and the critics were equally enthusiastic. The National Republican drama critic said that Booth "took the hearts of the audience by storm" and termed his performance "a complete triumph".[48][49] At the beginning of July 1863, Booth finished the acting season at Cleveland's Academy of Music, as the Battle of Gettysburg raged in Pennsylvania. Between September–November 1863, Booth played a hectic schedule in the northeast, appearing in Boston, Providence, Rhode Island, and Hartford, Connecticut. Each day he received fan mail from infatuated women.[50]
Family friend John T. Ford opened 1,500-seat Ford's Theatre on November 9 in Washington, D.C. Booth was one of the first leading men to appear there, playing in Charles Selby's The Marble Heart.[51][52] In this play, Booth portrayed a Greek sculptor in costume, making marble statues come to life.[52] Lincoln watched the play[53] from his box. At one point during the performance, Booth was said to have shaken his finger in Lincoln's direction as he delivered a line of dialogue. Lincoln's sister-in-law was sitting with him in the same presidential box where he was later slain; she turned to him and said, "Mr. Lincoln, he looks as if he meant that for you."[54] The President replied, "He does look pretty sharp at me, doesn't he?"[54] On another occasion, Lincoln's son Tad saw Booth perform. He said that the actor thrilled him, prompting Booth to give Tad a rose.[54] Booth ignored an invitation to visit Lincoln between acts.[54]
L-to-r: Booth with brothers Edwin and Junius, Jr. in Julius Caesar
On November 25, 1864, Booth performed for the only time with his brothers Edwin and Junius in a single engagement production of Julius Caesar at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York.[55] He played Mark Antony and his brother Edwin had the larger role of Brutus in a performance acclaimed as "the greatest theatrical event in New York history."[54] The proceeds went towards a statue of William Shakespeare for Central Park which still stands today.[55][56] In January 1865, he acted in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in Washington, again garnering rave reviews. The National Intelligencer said of Booth's Romeo, "the most satisfactory of all renderings of that fine character," especially praising the death scene.[57] Booth made the final appearance of his acting career at Ford's on March 18, 1865, when he again played Duke Pescara in The Apostate.[58][59]
Business ventures
Booth invested some of his growing wealth in various enterprises during the early 1860s, including land speculation in Boston's Back Bay section.[60] He also started a business partnership with John A. Ellsler, manager of the Cleveland Academy of Music, and with Thomas Mears to develop oil wells in northwestern Pennsylvania, where an oil boom had started in August 1859, following Edwin Drake's discovery of oil there,[61] initially calling their venture Dramatic Oil but later renaming it Fuller Farm Oil. The partners invested in a 31.5-acre (12.7 ha) site along the Allegheny River at Franklin, Pennsylvania in late 1863 for drilling.[61] By early 1864, they had a producing 1,900-foot (579 m) deep oil well named Wilhelmina for Mears' wife, yielding 25 barrels (4 kL) of crude oil daily, then considered a good yield. The Fuller Farm Oil company was selling shares with a prospectus featuring the well-known actor's celebrity status as "Mr. J. Wilkes Booth, a successful and intelligent operator in oil lands".[61] The partners were impatient to increase the well's output and attempted the use of explosives, which wrecked the well and ended production.
Booth was already growing more obsessed with the South's worsening situation in the Civil War and angered at Lincoln's re-election. He withdrew from the oil business on November 27, 1864, with a substantial loss of his $6,000 investment ($81,400 in 2010 dollars).[61][62]
Civil War years
Booth was strongly opposed to the abolitionists who sought to end slavery in the U.S. He attended the hanging of abolitionist leader John Brown on December 2, 1859, who was executed for leading a raid on the Federal armory at Harpers Ferry in present-day West Virginia.[63] Booth had been rehearsing at the Richmond Theatre when he abruptly decided to join the Richmond Grays, a volunteer militia of 1,500 men traveling to Charles Town for Brown's hanging, to guard against an attempt by abolitionists to rescue Brown from the gallows by force.[63][64] When Brown was hanged without incident, Booth stood in uniform near the scaffold and afterwards expressed great satisfaction with Brown's fate, although he admired the condemned man's bravery in facing death stoically.[42][65]
Lincoln was elected president on November 6, 1860, and the following month Booth drafted a long speech, apparently undelivered, that decried Northern abolitionism and made clear his strong support of the South and the institution of slavery.[66] On April 12, 1861, the Civil War began, and eventually 11 Southern states seceded from the Union. In Booth's native Maryland, some of the slaveholding portion of the population favored joining the Confederate States of America. Although the Maryland legislature voted decisively (53–13) against secession on April 28, 1861,[67][68] it also voted not to allow federal troops to pass south through the state by rail, and it requested that Lincoln remove the growing numbers of federal troops in Maryland.[69] The legislature seems to have wanted to remain in the Union, while also wanting to avoid involvement in a war against southern neighbors.[69] Adhering to Maryland's demand that its infrastructure not be used to wage war on seceding neighbors would have left the federal capital of Washington, D.C. vulnerable and would have made the prosecution of war against the South impossible, which was no doubt the legislature's intention, so Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus and imposed martial law in Baltimore and portions of the state, ordering the imprisonment of many Maryland political leaders at Ft. McHenry and the stationing of Federal troops in Baltimore.[70] Many Marylanders, including Booth, agreed with the ruling of Marylander, and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, Roger B. Taney in Ex parte Merryman that Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus in Maryland was unconstitutional.[71]
As a popular actor in the 1860s, Booth continued to travel extensively to perform in the North and South, and as far west as New Orleans, Louisiana. According to his sister Asia, Booth confided to her that he also used his position to smuggle the anti-malarial drug quinine, which was crucial to the lives of residents of the Gulf coast, to the South during his travels there, since it was in short supply due to the Northern blockade.[60]
Lucy Lambert Hale, Booth's fiancée in 1865
Booth was pro-Confederate, but his family was divided, like many Marylanders. He was outspoken in his love of the South, and equally outspoken in his hatred of Lincoln.[54][72] As the Civil War went on, Booth increasingly quarreled with his brother Edwin, who declined to make stage appearances in the South and refused to listen to John Wilkes' fiercely partisan denunciations of the North and Lincoln.[60] In early 1863, Booth was arrested in St. Louis while on a theatre tour, when he was heard saying that he "wished the President and the whole damned government would go to hell."[73][74] He was charged with making "treasonous" remarks against the government, but was released when he took an oath of allegiance to the Union and paid a substantial fine.
In February 1865, Booth became infatuated with Lucy Lambert Hale, the daughter of U.S. Senator John P. Hale of New Hampshire, and they became secretly engaged when Booth received his mother's blessing for their marriage plans. "You have so often been dead in love," his mother counseled Booth in a letter, "be well assured she is really and truly devoted to you."[75] Booth composed a handwritten Valentine card for his fiancée on February 13, expressing his "adoration". She was unaware of Booth's deep antipathy towards President Lincoln.[75]
Plot to kidnap Lincoln
As the 1864 Presidential election drew near, the Confederacy's prospects for victory were ebbing, and the tide of war increasingly favored the North. The likelihood of Lincoln's re-election filled Booth with rage towards the President, whom Booth blamed for the war and all of the South's troubles. Booth had promised his mother at the outbreak of war that he would not enlist as a soldier, but he increasingly chafed at not fighting for the South, writing in a letter to her, "I have begun to deem myself a coward and to despise my own existence."[76] He began to formulate plans to kidnap Lincoln from his summer residence at the Old Soldiers Home, three miles (4.8 km) from the White House, and to smuggle him across the Potomac River into Richmond, Virginia. Once in Confederate hands, Lincoln would be exchanged for Confederate Army prisoners of war held in Northern prisons and, Booth reasoned, bring the war to an end by emboldening opposition to the war in the North or forcing Union recognition of the Confederate government.[76][77][78][79]
Throughout the Civil War, the Confederacy maintained a network of underground operators in southern Maryland, particularly Charles and St. Mary's counties, smuggling recruits across the Potomac River into Virginia and relaying messages for Confederate agents as far north as Canada.[80] Booth recruited his friends Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlen as accomplices.[81] They met often at the house of Confederate sympathizer Maggie Branson at 16 North Eutaw Street in Baltimore.[27] He also met with several well-known Confederate sympathizers at The Parker House in Boston.
The Old Soldiers Home, where Booth planned to kidnap Lincoln
In October, Booth made an unexplained trip to Montreal, which was a center of clandestine Confederate activity. He spent ten days in the city, staying for a time at St. Lawrence Hall, a rendezvous for the Confederate Secret Service, and meeting several Confederate agents there.[82][83] No conclusive proof has linked Booth's kidnapping or assassination plots to a conspiracy involving the leadership of the Confederate government, but historian David Herbert Donald states that, "at least at the lower levels of the Southern secret service, the abduction of the Union President was under consideration."[84] Historian Thomas Goodrich concludes that Booth entered the Confederate Secret Service as a spy and courier.[85]
Lincoln won a landslide re-election in early November 1864 on a platform that advocated the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery altogether.[86] Booth, meanwhile, devoted increasing energy and money to his kidnap plot.[87][88] He assembled a loose-knit band of Southern sympathizers, including David Herold, George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell (also known as Lewis Payne or Paine), and rebel agent John Surratt.[80][89] They began to meet routinely at the boarding house of Surratt's mother Mary Surratt.[89]
By this time, Booth was arguing vehemently with his older, pro-Union brother Edwin about Lincoln and the war, and Edwin finally told him that he was no longer welcome at his New York home. Booth also railed against Lincoln in conversations with his sister Asia. "That man's appearance, his pedigree, his coarse low jokes and anecdotes, his vulgar similes, and his policy are a disgrace to the seat he holds. He is made the tool of the North, to crush out slavery."[90] Asia recalled that he decried Lincoln's re-election, "making himself a king", and that he went on "wild tirades" as the Confederacy's defeat became more certain in 1865.[91]
Booth attended Lincoln's second inauguration on March 4 as the guest of his secret fiancée Lucy Hale. In the crowd below were Powell, Atzerodt, and Herold. There was no attempt to assassinate Lincoln during the inauguration. Later, Booth remarked about his "excellent chance… to kill the President, if I had wished."[76] On March 17, he learned that Lincoln would be attending a performance of the play Still Waters Run Deep at a hospital near the Soldier's Home. He assembled his team on a stretch of road near the Soldier's Home in hope of kidnapping Lincoln en route to the hospital, but the president did not appear.[92] Booth later learned that Lincoln had changed his plans at the last moment to attend a reception at the National Hotel in Washington—where Booth was staying.[76]
Assassination of Lincoln
Main article: Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
March 18, 1865, Ford's Theatre playbill—Booth's last acting appearance
On April 12, 1865, Booth heard the news that Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House. He told Louis J. Weichmann, a friend of John Surratt and a boarder at Mary Surratt's house, that he was done with the stage and that the only play he wanted to present henceforth was Venice Preserv'd. Weichmann did not understand the reference; Venice Preserv'd is about an assassination plot. Booth's scheme to kidnap Lincoln was no longer feasible with the Union Army's capture of Richmond and Lee's surrender, and he changed his goal to assassination.[93]
The previous day, Booth was in the crowd outside the White House when Lincoln gave an impromptu speech from his window. Lincoln stated that he was in favor of granting suffrage to the former slaves, and Booth declared that it would be the last speech that Lincoln would ever make.[92][94][95]
On the morning of Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Booth went to Ford's Theatre to get his mail. While there, he was told by John Ford's brother that President and Mrs. Lincoln would be attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre that evening, accompanied by Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant.[96] He immediately set about making plans for the assassination, which included making arrangements with livery stable owner James W. Pumphrey for a getaway horse and an escape route. Booth informed Powell, Herold, and Atzerodt of his intention to kill Lincoln. He assigned Powell to assassinate Secretary of State William H. Seward and Atzerodt to do so to Vice President Andrew Johnson. Herold would assist in their escape into Virginia.[97]
Currier and Ives depiction of Lincoln's assassination. L-to-r: Maj. Rathbone, Clara Harris, Mary Todd Lincoln, Pres. Lincoln, and Booth
By targeting Lincoln and his two immediate successors to the presidency, Booth seems to have intended to decapitate the Union government and throw it into a state of panic and confusion.[98] The possibility of assassinating the Union Army's commanding general as well was foiled when Grant declined the theatre invitation at his wife's insistence. Instead, the Grants departed Washington by train that evening for a visit to relatives in New Jersey.[27] Booth had hoped that the assassinations would create sufficient chaos within the Union that the Confederate government could reorganize and continue the war if one Confederate army remained in the field or, that failing, to avenge the South's defeat.[99]
Booth had free access to all parts of the theater as a famous and popular actor who had frequently performed at Ford's Theatre and who was well known to its owner John T. Ford, even having his mail sent there.[100] He bored a spyhole into the door of the presidential box earlier that day so that he could check that his intended victim had made it to the play and observe the box's occupants.
John Wilkes Booth slipped into Lincoln's box that evening at around 10 pm as the play progressed and shot the President in the back of the head with a .41 caliber Deringer.[101] Booth's escape was almost thwarted by Major Henry Rathbone, who was present in the presidential box with Mary Todd Lincoln.[102] Booth stabbed Rathbone when the startled officer lunged at him.[80] Rathbone's fiancée Clara Harris was also present in the box but was unhurt.
Booth then jumped from the president's box to the stage, where he raised his knife and shouted "Sic semper tyrannis" (Latin for "Thus always to tyrants," attributed to Brutus at Caesar's assassination and the Virginia state motto), while others said that he added, "I have done it, the South is avenged!"[35][103][104] Various accounts state that Booth injured his leg when his spur snagged a decorative U.S. Treasury Guard flag while leaping to the stage.[105] Historian Michael W. Kauffman questioned this legend in his book American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies, writing in 2004 that eyewitness accounts of Booth's hurried stage exit made it unlikely that his leg was broken then. Kauffman contends that Booth was injured later that night during his flight to escape when his horse tripped and fell on him, calling Booth's claim to the contrary an exaggeration to portray his own actions as heroic.[106]
Booth was the only one of the assassins to succeed. Powell was able to stab Seward, who was bedridden as a result of an earlier carriage accident. Seward was badly wounded but he survived. Atzerodt lost his nerve and spent the evening drinking alcohol; he never made an attempt to kill Johnson.
Reaction and pursuit
In the ensuing pandemonium inside Ford's Theatre, Booth fled by a stage door to the alley, where his getaway horse was held for him by Joseph "Peanuts" Burroughs.[107] The owner of the horse had warned Booth that the horse was high spirited and would break halter if left unattended. Booth left the horse with Edmund Spangler and Spangler arranged for Burroughs to hold it.
The fleeing assassin galloped into southern Maryland, accompanied by David Herold, having planned his escape route to take advantage of the sparsely settled area's lack of telegraphs and railroads, along with its predominantly Confederate sympathies.[97][108] He thought that the area's dense forests and the swampy terrain of Zekiah Swamp made it ideal for an escape route into rural Virginia.[87][97][109] At midnight, Booth and Herold arrived at Surratt's Tavern on the Brandywine Pike, 9 miles (14 km) from Washington, where they had stored guns and equipment earlier in the year as part of the kidnap plot.[110]
The fugitives then continued southward, stopping before dawn on April 15 for treatment of Booth's injured leg at the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd, St. Catharine, 25 miles (40 km) from Washington.[110] Mudd later said that Booth told him the injury occurred when his horse fell.[111] The next day, Booth and Herold arrived at the home of Samuel Cox around 4 a.m. As the two fugitives hid in the woods nearby, Cox contacted Thomas A. Jones, his foster brother and a Confederate agent in charge of spy operations in the southern Maryland area since 1862.[80][112] The War Department advertised a $100,000 reward ($1.6 million in 2018 USD) by order of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton for information leading to the arrest of Booth and his accomplices, and Federal troops were dispatched to search southern Maryland extensively, following tips reported by Federal intelligence agents to Col. Lafayette Baker.[113]
Booth's escape route
Federal troops combed the rural area's woods and swamps for Booth in the days following the assassination, as the nation experienced an outpouring of grief. On April 18, mourners waited seven abreast in a mile-long line outside the White House for the public viewing of the slain president, reposing in his open walnut casket in the black-draped East Room.[114] A cross of lilies was at the head and roses covered the coffin's lower half.[115] Thousands of mourners arriving on special trains jammed Washington for the next day's funeral, sleeping on hotel floors and even resorting to blankets spread outdoors on the Capitol's lawn.[116] Prominent abolitionist leader and orator Frederick Douglass called the assassination an "unspeakable calamity" for African Americans.[117] Great indignation was directed towards Booth as the assassin's identity was telegraphed across the nation. Newspapers called him an "accursed devil," "monster," "madman," and a "wretched fiend."[118] Historian Dorothy Kunhardt writes: "Almost every family who kept a photograph album on the parlor table owned a likeness of John Wilkes Booth of the famous Booth family of actors. After the assassination Northerners slid the Booth card out of their albums: some threw it away, some burned it, some crumpled it angrily."[119] Even in the South, sorrow was expressed in some quarters. In Savannah, Georgia, the mayor and city council addressed a vast throng at an outdoor gathering to express their indignation, and many in the crowd wept.[120] Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston called Booth's act "a disgrace to the age".[121] Robert E. Lee also expressed regret at Lincoln's death by Booth's hand.[117]
Not all were grief-stricken. In New York City, a man was attacked by an enraged crowd when he shouted, "It served Old Abe right!" after hearing the news of Lincoln's death.[120] Elsewhere in the South, Lincoln was hated in death as in life, and Booth was viewed as a hero as many rejoiced at news of his deed.[117] Other Southerners feared that a vengeful North would exact a terrible retribution upon the defeated former Confederate states. "Instead of being a great Southern hero, his deed was considered the worst possible tragedy that could have befallen the South as well as the North," writes Kunhardt.[122]
Booth lay in hiding in the Maryland woods, waiting for an opportunity to cross the Potomac River into Virginia. He read the accounts of national mourning reported in the newspapers brought to him by Jones each day.[122] By April 20, he was aware that some of his co-conspirators were already arrested: Mary Surratt, Powell (or Paine), Arnold, and O'Laughlen.[123] Booth was surprised to find little public sympathy for his action, especially from those anti-Lincoln newspapers that had previously excoriated the President in life. News of the assassination reached the far corners of the nation, and indignation was aroused against Lincoln's critics, whom many blamed for encouraging Booth to act. The San Francisco Chronicle editorialized:
Booth has simply carried out what ... secession politicians and journalists have been for years expressing in words ... who have denounced the President as a "tyrant," a "despot," a "usurper," hinted at, and virtually recommended.[124]
Booth wrote of his dismay in a journal entry on April 21, as he awaited nightfall before crossing the Potomac River into Virginia (see map):
For six months we had worked to capture. But our cause being almost lost, something decisive and great must be done. I struck boldly, and not as the papers say. I can never repent it, though we hated to kill.[125][126]
That same day, the nine-car funeral train bearing Lincoln's body departed Washington on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, arriving at Baltimore's Camden Station at 10 a.m., the first stop on a 13-day journey to Springfield, Illinois, its final destination.[80][127][128] The funeral train slowly made its way westward through seven states, stopping en route at Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Trenton, New York, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis during the following days. About 7 million people[129] lined the railroad tracks along the 1,662-mile (2,675 km) route, holding aloft signs with legends such as "We mourn our loss," "He lives in the hearts of his people," and "The darkest hour in history."[130][131]
Broadside advertising reward for capture of Lincoln assassination conspirators, illustrated with photographic prints of John Surratt, John Wilkes Booth, and David Herold
In the cities where the train stopped, 1.5 million people viewed Lincoln in his coffin.[117][128][130] Aboard the train was Clarence Depew, president of the New York Central Railroad, who said, "As we sped over the rails at night, the scene was the most pathetic ever witnessed. At every crossroads the glare of innumerable torches illuminated the whole population, kneeling on the ground."[128] Dorothy Kunhardt called the funeral train's journey "the mightiest outpouring of national grief the world had yet seen."[132]
Mourners were viewing Lincoln's remains when the funeral train steamed into Harrisburg at 8:20 p.m., while Booth and Herold were provided with a boat and compass by Jones to cross the Potomac at night on April 21.[80] Instead of reaching Virginia, they mistakenly navigated upriver to a bend in the broad Potomac River, coming ashore again in Maryland on April 22.[133] The 23-year-old Herold knew the area well, having frequently hunted there, and recognized a nearby farm as belonging to a Confederate sympathizer. The farmer led them to his son-in-law, Col. John J. Hughes, who provided the fugitives with food and a hideout until nightfall, for a second attempt to row across the river to Virginia.[134] Booth wrote in his diary:
With every man's hand against me, I am here in despair. And why; For doing what Brutus was honored for ... And yet I for striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew am looked upon as a common cutthroat.[134]
The pair finally reached the Virginia shore near Machodoc Creek before dawn on April 23.[135] There, they made contact with Thomas Harbin, whom Booth had previously brought into his erstwhile kidnapping plot. Harbin took Booth and Herold to another Confederate agent in the area named William Bryant who supplied them with horses.[134][136]
While Lincoln's funeral train was in New York City on April 24, Lieutenant Edward P. Doherty was dispatched from Washington at 2 p.m. with a detachment of 26 Union soldiers from the 16th New York Cavalry Regiment to capture Booth in Virginia,[137] accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel Everton Conger, an intelligence officer assigned by Lafayette Baker. The detachment steamed 70 miles (113 km) down the Potomac River on the boat John S. Ide, landing at Belle Plain, Virginia at 10 p.m.[137][138] The pursuers crossed the Rappahannock River and tracked Booth and Herold to Richard H. Garrett's farm, about 2 miles (3 km) south of Port Royal, Caroline County, Virginia. Booth and Herold had been led to the farm on April 24 by William S. Jett, a former private in the 9th Virginia Cavalry whom they had met before crossing the Rappahannock.[133] The Garretts were unaware of Lincoln's assassination; Booth was introduced to them as "James W. Boyd", a Confederate soldier, they were told, who had been wounded in the battle of Petersburg and was returning home.[139]
Garrett's 11-year-old son Richard was an eyewitness. In later years, he became a Baptist minister and widely lectured on the events of Booth's demise at his family's farm.[139] In 1921, Garrett's lecture was published in the Confederate Veteran as the "True Story of the Capture of John Wilkes Booth."[140] According to his account, Booth and Herold arrived at the Garretts' farm, located on the road to Bowling Green, around 3 p.m. on Monday afternoon. Confederate mail delivery had ceased with the collapse of the Confederate government, he explained, so the Garretts were unaware of Lincoln's assassination.[140] After having dinner with the Garretts that evening, Booth learned of the surrender of Johnston's army, the last Confederate armed force of any size. Its capitulation meant that the Civil War was unquestionably over and Booth's attempt had failed to save the Confederacy by Lincoln's assassination.[141] The Garretts also finally learned of Lincoln's death and the substantial reward for Booth's capture. Booth, said Garrett, displayed no reaction other than to ask if the family would turn in the fugitive should they have the opportunity. Still not aware of their guest's true identity, one of the older Garrett sons averred that they might, if only because they needed the money. The next day, Booth told the Garretts that he intended to reach Mexico, drawing a route on a map of theirs.[140] Biographer Theodore Roscoe said of Garrett's account, "Almost nothing written or testified in respect to the doings of the fugitives at Garrett's farm can be taken at face value. Nobody knows exactly what Booth said to the Garretts, or they to him."[142]
Death
The porch of the Garrett farmhouse, where Booth died in 1865
The guns in Booth's possession when he was captured, Ford's Theatre National Historic Site (2011)
Conger tracked down Jett and interrogated him, learning of Booth's location at the Garrett farm. Before dawn on April 26, the soldiers caught up with the fugitives, who were hiding in Garrett's tobacco barn. David Herold surrendered, but Booth refused Conger's demand to surrender, saying, "I prefer to come out and fight." The soldiers then set the barn on fire.[143][144] As Booth moved about inside the blazing barn, Sergeant Boston Corbett shot him. According to Corbett's later account, he fired at Booth because the fugitive "raised his pistol to shoot" at them.[144] Conger's report to Stanton stated that Corbett shot Booth "without order, pretext or excuse," and recommended that Corbett be punished for disobeying orders to take Booth alive.[144] Booth, fatally wounded in the neck, was dragged from the barn to the porch of Garrett's farmhouse, where he died three hours later, aged 26.[139] The bullet had pierced three vertebrae and partially severed his spinal cord, paralyzing him.[20][143] In his dying moments, he reportedly whispered, "Tell my mother I died for my country."[139][143] Asking that his hands be raised to his face so that he could see them, Booth uttered his last words, "Useless, useless," and died as dawn was breaking.[143][145] In Booth's pockets were found a compass, a candle, pictures of five women (actresses Alice Grey, Helen Western, Effie Germon, Fannie Brown, and Booth's fiancée Lucy Hale), and his diary, where he had written of Lincoln's death, "Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment."[146]
Shortly after Booth's death, his brother Edwin wrote to his sister Asia, "Think no more of him as your brother; he is dead to us now, as he soon must be to all the world, but imagine the boy you loved to be in that better part of his spirit, in another world."[147] Asia also had in her possession a sealed letter that Booth had given her in January 1865 for safekeeping, only to be opened upon his death.[148] In the letter, Booth had written:
I know how foolish I shall be deemed for undertaking such a step as this, where, on one side, I have many friends and everything to make me happy ... to give up all ... seems insane; but God is my judge. I love justice more than I do a country that disowns it, more than fame or wealth.[81]
Booth's letter was seized by Federal troops, along with other family papers at Asia's house, and published by The New York Times while the manhunt was underway. It explained his reasons for plotting against Lincoln. In it he decried Lincoln's war policy as one of "total annihilation" and said:
I have ever held the South was right. The very nomination of Abraham Lincoln, four years ago, spoke plainly war upon Southern rights and institutions... And looking upon African Slavery from the same stand-point held by the noble framers of our constitution, I for one, have ever considered it one of the greatest blessings (both for themselves and us,) that God has ever bestowed upon a favored nation... I have also studied hard to discover upon what grounds the right of a State to secede has been denied, when our very name, United States, and the Declaration of Independence, both provide for secession.[2]
Aftermath
The Historic Site marker on U.S. Route 301 near Port Royal, where the Garrett barn and farmhouse once stood in what is now the highway's median (2007)
Booth's body was shrouded in a blanket and tied to the side of an old farm wagon for the trip back to Belle Plain.[149] There, his corpse was taken aboard the ironclad USS Montauk and brought to the Washington Navy Yard for identification and an autopsy. The body was identified there as Booth's by more than ten people who knew him.[150] Among the identifying features used to make sure that the man that was killed was Booth was a tattoo on his left hand with his initials J.W.B., and a distinct scar on the back of his neck.[151] The third, fourth, and fifth vertebrae were removed during the autopsy to allow access to the bullet. These bones are still on display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C.[152] The body was then buried in a storage room at the Old Penitentiary, later moved to a warehouse at the Washington Arsenal on October 1, 1867.[153] In 1869, the remains were once again identified before being released to the Booth family, where they were buried in the family plot at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, after a burial ceremony conducted by Fleming James, minister of Christ Episcopal Church, in the presence of more than 40 people.[153][154][155][156] Russell Conwell visited homes in the vanquished former Confederate states during this time, and he found that hatred of Lincoln still smoldered. "Photographs of Wilkes Booth, with the last words of great martyrs printed upon its borders ... adorn their drawing rooms".[117]
Eight others implicated in Lincoln's assassination were tried by a military tribunal in Washington, D.C. and found guilty on June 30, 1865.[157] Mary Surratt,[158] Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt were hanged in the Old Arsenal Penitentiary on July 7, 1865.[159] Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlen were sentenced to life imprisonment at Fort Jefferson in Florida's Dry Tortugas. Edmund Spangler was given a six-year term in prison.[75] O'Laughlen died in a yellow fever epidemic there in 1867. The others were eventually pardoned in February 1869 by President Andrew Johnson.[160]
Forty years later, when the centenary of Lincoln's birth was celebrated in 1909, a border state official reflected on Booth's assassination of Lincoln. "Confederate veterans held public services and gave public expression to the sentiment, that 'had Lincoln lived' the days of reconstruction might have been softened and the era of good feeling ushered in earlier".[117] The majority of Northerners viewed Booth as a madman or monster who murdered the savior of the Union, while in the South, many cursed Booth for bringing upon them the harsh revenge of an incensed North instead of the reconciliation promised by Lincoln.[161] A century later, Goodrich concluded in 2005, "For millions of people, particularly in the South, it would be decades before the impact of the Lincoln assassination began to release its terrible hold on their lives".[162]
Theories of Booth's motivation
Author Francis Wilson was 11 years old at the time of Lincoln's assassination. He wrote an epitaph of Booth in his 1929 book John Wilkes Booth: "In the terrible deed he committed, he was actuated by no thought of monetary gain, but by a self-sacrificing, albeit wholly fanatical devotion to a cause he thought supreme."[163] Others have seen less unselfish motives such as shame, ambition, and sibling rivalry for achievement and fame.[9]
Theories of Booth's escape
Main article: James William Boyd
In 1907, Finis L. Bates wrote Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth, contending that a Booth look-alike was mistakenly killed at the Garrett farm while Booth eluded his pursuers.[164] Booth, said Bates, assumed the pseudonym "John St. Helen" and settled on the Paluxy River near Glen Rose, Texas, and later moved to Granbury, Texas. He fell gravely ill and made a deathbed confession that he was the fugitive assassin, but he then recovered and fled, eventually committing suicide in 1903 in Enid, Oklahoma under the alias "David E. George".[11][164][165] By 1913, more than 70,000 copies of the book had been sold, and Bates exhibited St. Helen's mummified body in carnival sideshows.[11]
Booth Family gravesite, Green Mount Cemetery, where Booth is buried in an unmarked grave (2008)
Visitors to the Booth family plot often leave pennies, which depict Lincoln on their obverse, on the large monument of Booth's father Junius
In response, the Maryland Historical Society published an account in 1913 by Baltimore mayor William M. Pegram, who had viewed Booth's remains upon the casket's arrival at the Weaver funeral home in Baltimore on February 18, 1869, for burial at Green Mount Cemetery. Pegram had known Booth well as a young man; he submitted a sworn statement that the body which he had seen in 1869 was Booth's.[166] Others positively identified this body as Booth at the funeral home, including Booth's mother, brother, and sister, along with his dentist and other Baltimore acquaintances.[11] Earlier, The New York Times had published an account by their reporter in 1911 detailing the burial of Booth's body at the cemetery and those who were witnesses.[154] The rumor periodically revived, as in the 1920s when a corpse was exhibited on a national tour by a carnival promoter and advertised as the "Man Who Shot Lincoln". According to a 1938 article in The Saturday Evening Post, the exhibitor said that he obtained St. Helen's corpse from Bates' widow.[167]
The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977) contended that there was a government plot to conceal Booth's escape, reviving interest in the story and prompting the display of St. Helen's mummified body in Chicago that year.[168] The book sold more than one million copies and was made into a feature film called The Lincoln Conspiracy which was theatrically released in 1977.[169] The 1998 book The Curse of Cain: The Untold Story of John Wilkes Booth contended that Booth had escaped, sought refuge in Japan, and eventually returned to the United States.[170] In 1994 two historians together with several descendants sought a court order for the exhumation of Booth's body at Green Mount Cemetery which was, according to their lawyer, "intended to prove or disprove longstanding theories on Booth's escape" by conducting a photo-superimposition analysis.[171][172] The application was blocked by Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Joseph H. H. Kaplan, who cited, among other things, "the unreliability of petitioners' less-than-convincing escape/cover-up theory" as a major factor in his decision. The Maryland Court of Special Appeals upheld the ruling.[151][173]
In December 2010, descendants of Edwin Booth reported that they obtained permission to exhume the Shakespearean actor's body to obtain DNA samples to compare with a sample of his brother John's DNA to refute the rumor that John had escaped after the assassination. Bree Harvey, a spokesman from the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts where Edwin Booth is buried, denied reports that the family had contacted them and requested to exhume Edwin's body.[174] The family hoped to obtain samples of John Wilkes's DNA from remains such as vertebrae stored at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Maryland.[175] On March 30, 2013, museum spokeswoman Carol Johnson announced that the family's request to extract DNA from the vertebrae had been rejected.[176]
In popular culture
Film
John Wilkes Booth is played by John Derek in the film Prince of Players (1955), a biography of Edwin Booth (played by Richard Burton).[177]
Booth is played by Rob Morrow in the television film The Day Lincoln Was Shot (1998).[178][better source needed]
Booth is portrayed by Toby Kebbell in the Robert Redford film The Conspirator (2010).[179]
Jesse Johnson plays Booth in the telefim Killing Lincoln (2013), where he is the main character.[180]
Literature
In David O. Stewart's novel, The Lincoln Deception (ISBN 978-0758290670), two people in 1900 try to discover the true motive behind Booth's plot.
Booth is a kidnapper in the children's historical novel Assassin by Anna Myers (ISBN 0-439-86621-9).
In G. J. A. O'Toole's 1979 historical fiction-mystery novel The Cosgrove Report, a present-day private detective investigates the authenticity of a 19th-century manuscript that alleges Booth survived the aftermath of the Lincoln assassination. (ISBN 978-0802144072)[181][182]
Stage productions
Booth is featured as a central character of Stephen Sondheim's musical Assassins, in which his assassination of Lincoln is depicted in a musical number called "The Ballad of Booth".[183]
Austin-based theatre company The Hidden Room developed a staged reading of John Wilkes Booth's Richard III based on the manuscript promptbook in the collection of the Harry Ransom Center.[184] The promptbook is one of only two known surviving promptbooks created by John Wilkes Booth, and uses the Colley Cibber adaptation of Shakespeare's text. The full book with the actor's handwritten notations has been digitized.[185] The other promptbook is also for Richard III, and can be found in the Harvard Theatre Collection.
Television
The Wagon Train episode "The John Wilbot Story" (1958) is based on the premise that Booth survived and moved west; the character John Wilbot is played by Dane Clark.[186]
Booth was portrayed by John Lasell in The Twilight Zone episode "Back There" (1961).[187]
All three Booth brothers interact with the Morehouses and with Elizabeth in New York City in episode 9 of season 1 ("A Day to Give Thanks") of the BBC America series Copper. John Wilkes is particularly taken with Elizabeth, who is helping them raise funds for the brothers' 1864 benefit performance of Julius Caesar at the Winter Garden Theatre.[188]
Booth is portrayed by Kelly Blatz in "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln" episode (S01E02) of Timeless.[189]
In the early 1990s, an episode of the American TV show, Unsolved Mysteries, presented originally by Robert Stack, examined sympathetically the theory that John Wilkes Booth was not killed in Maryland but escaped, dying in Oklahoma in 1903. The episode was re-edited and hosted by Dennis Farina in 2009.[190]
In The Simpsons episode "I Love Lisa" (9F13), Bart Simpson plays the part of John Wilkes Booth in a condensed version of Lincoln's assassination, and Lincoln is played by Milhouse Van Houten. Bart jokingly models his performance after The Terminator and his most famous line ("Hasta La Vista, Abey") before being dragged off stage.
Music
"John Wilkes Booth" is a song written by Mary Chapin Carpenter, commissioned and notably interpreted by Tony Rice. The song is included on his recording Native American. The commissioning originated with Rice's interest in this historical figure.[191]
Video games
In the 2013 video game BioShock Infinite, John Wilkes Booth is viewed as a hero in the fictional airborne city of Columbia. A cult's headquarters features a large statue of Booth in its lobby, as well as a painting depicting Booth as a saint while assassinating a devil version of Abraham Lincoln.[192]
See also
Biography portal
Ogarita Booth Henderson
References
Footnotes
Jump up ^ Clarke, Asia Booth (1996). Terry Alford, ed. John Wilkes Booth: A Sister's Memoir. Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi. p. ix. ISBN 0-87805-883-4.
^ Jump up to: a b "The murderer of Mr. Lincoln" (PDF). The New York Times. April 21, 1865.
Jump up ^ Hamner, Christopher. "Booth's Reason for Assassination Archived December 2, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.." Teachinghistory.org. Accessed July 12, 2011.
Jump up ^ Smith, Gene (1992). American Gothic: the story of America's legendary theatrical family, Junius, Edwin, and John Wilkes Booth. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 23. ISBN 0-671-76713-5.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, Michael W. (2004). American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies. New York: Random House. pp. 81–82. ISBN 0-375-50785-X.
Jump up ^ Smith, p. 18.
Jump up ^ Booth's uncle Algernon Sydney Booth was an ancestor of Cherie Blair (née Booth), wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. – Westwood, Philip (2002). "The Lincoln-Blair Affair". Genealogy Today. Retrieved February 2, 2009. – Coates, Bill (August 22, 2006). "Tony Blair and John Wilkes Booth". Madera Tribune. Archived from the original on September 18, 2008. Retrieved February 2, 2009.
Jump up ^ Smith, pp. 43–44.
^ Jump up to: a b Nora Titone. My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy. New York: Simon and Schuster; 2010 [cited September 24, 2011]. ISBN 978-1-4165-8605-0.
Jump up ^ Kimmel, Stanley (1969). The Mad Booths of Maryland. New York: Dover. p. 68. LCCN 69019162.
^ Jump up to: a b c d McCardell, Lee (December 27, 1931). "The body in John Wilkes Booth's grave". The Baltimore Sun.
Jump up ^ John Wilkes Booth's boyhood home of Tudor Hall still stands on Maryland Route 22 near Bel Air. It was acquired by Harford County in 2006 to be eventually opened to the public as a historic site and museum (reference: "Harford expected to OK renovation of Booth home." The Baltimore Sun. September 8, 2008, p. 4).
Jump up ^ Townsend, George Alfred (1865). The Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth (1977 ed.). New York: Dick and Fitzgerald. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-9764805-3-2.
Jump up ^ Kimmel, p. 70.
Jump up ^ Clarke, pp. 39–40.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 87.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 91.
Jump up ^ Goodrich, Thomas (2005). The Darkest Dawn. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University. p. 210. ISBN 0-253-32599-4.
^ Jump up to: a b Clarke, pp. 43–45.
^ Jump up to: a b Goodrich, p. 211.
Jump up ^ Smith, p. 60.
Jump up ^ Smith, p. 49.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Smith, pp. 61–62.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 95.
Jump up ^ "Original Ad for John Wilkes Booth's Acting Debut". Ghosts of Baltimore. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
^ Jump up to: a b c Bishop, Jim (1955). The Day Lincoln Was Shot. Harper & Row. pp. 63–64. LCCN 54012170.
^ Jump up to: a b c Sheads, Scott; Toomey, Daniel (1997). Baltimore During the Civil War. Linthicum, Md.: Toomey Press. pp. 77–79. ISBN 0-9612670-7-0.
Jump up ^ Kimmel, p. 149.
Jump up ^ Balsiger, David; Sellier, Charles Jr. (1994). The Lincoln Conspiracy. Buccaneer. p. 24. ISBN 1-56849-531-5.
Jump up ^ Kimmel, p. 150.
^ Jump up to: a b Kimmel, pp. 151–153.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 100.
^ Jump up to: a b Goodrich, pp. 35–36.
Jump up ^ Bishop, p. 23.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 585. ISBN 0-684-80846-3.
Jump up ^ Townsend, p. 26.
^ Jump up to: a b Thomas, Benjamin P. (1952). Abraham Lincoln, a Biography. New York: Knopf. p. 519. LCCN 52006425.
Jump up ^ Smith, pp. 71–72.
Jump up ^ Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Community Development Project. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
Jump up ^ Kimmel, p. 157.
Jump up ^ Smith, pp. 72–73.
^ Jump up to: a b c Smith, p. 80.
Jump up ^ Kimmel, p. 159.
Jump up ^ Smith, p. 86.
Jump up ^ Kimmel, pp. 166–167.
Jump up ^ Wilson, Francis (1972). John Wilkes Booth. New York: Blom. pp. 39–40. LCCN 74091588.
Jump up ^ Kimmel, p. 170.
Jump up ^ Smith, p. 97.
Jump up ^ Kimmel, p. 172.
Jump up ^ Goodrich, p. 37.
Jump up ^ Smith, p. 101.
^ Jump up to: a b Kunhardt, Jr., Philip (1983). A New Birth of Freedom. Boston: Little, Brown. p. 43. ISBN 0-316-50600-1.
Jump up ^ "John Wilkes Booth Arranges to Appear in Ford's Theatre Play Which Lincoln Would Come to See, 1863". SMF Primary Sources. Shapell Manuscript Foundation.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Kunhardt, Jr., A New Birth of Freedom, pp. 342–343
^ Jump up to: a b Smith, p. 105.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 149.
Jump up ^ Kimmel, p. 177.
Jump up ^ Clarke, p. 87.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 188.
^ Jump up to: a b c Clarke, pp. 81–84.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Lockwood, John (March 1, 2003). "Booth's oil-field venture goes bust". The Washington Times.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 127–128 and 136.
^ Jump up to: a b Allen, Thomas B. (1992). The Blue and the Gray. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society. p. 41. ISBN 0-87044-876-5.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 105.
Jump up ^ Goodrich, pp. 60–61.
Jump up ^ Rhodehamel, John and Taper, Louise, eds. (1997). Right or Wrong, God Judge Me: The Writings of John Wilkes Booth. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois. pp. 55–64. ISBN 0-252-02347-1. CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter (link)
Jump up ^ Mitchell, p.87
Jump up ^ "States Which Seceded". eHistory. Civil War Articles. Ohio State University. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
^ Jump up to: a b "Teaching American History in Maryland – Documents for the Classroom: Arrest of the Maryland Legislature, 1861". Maryland State Archives. 2005. Archived from the original on January 11, 2008. Retrieved February 6, 2008.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 81 and 137.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 114–117.
Jump up ^ Lorant, Stefan (1954). The Life of Abraham Lincoln. New American Library. p. 250. LCCN 56027706.
Jump up ^ Smith, p. 107.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 124.
^ Jump up to: a b c Kunhardt, Dorothy and Philip, Jr. (1965). Twenty Days. North Hollywood, Calif.: Newcastle. p. 202. LCCN 62015660. CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
^ Jump up to: a b c d Ward, Geoffrey C. (1990). The Civil War – an illustrated history. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 361–363. ISBN 0-394-56285-2.
Jump up ^ Smith, p. 109.
Jump up ^ Wilson, p. 43.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 131 and 166.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Toomey, Daniel Carroll. The Civil War in Maryland. Baltimore, Md.: Toomey Press. pp. 149–151. ISBN 0-9612670-0-3.
^ Jump up to: a b Bishop, p. 72.
Jump up ^ Townsend, p. 41.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 140–141.
Jump up ^ Donald, p. 587.
Jump up ^ Goodrich, p. 61.
Jump up ^ Kunhardt III, Philip B. (February 2009). "Lincoln's Contested Legacy". Smithsonian. Smithsonian Institution. 39 (11): 38.
^ Jump up to: a b Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 143–144.
Jump up ^ "John Wilkes Booth Letter February 1865: Lincoln Conspiracy, Fords Theatre". SMF Primary Resources. Shapell Manuscript Foundation.
^ Jump up to: a b Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 177–184.
Jump up ^ Clarke, p. 88.
Jump up ^ Clarke, p. 89.
^ Jump up to: a b Donald, p. 588.
Jump up ^ Stern, Philip Van Doren (1955). The Man Who Killed Lincoln. Garden City, NY: Dolphin. p. 20. LCCN 99215784.
Jump up ^ Wilson, p. 80.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 210.
Jump up ^ Goodrich, pp. 37–38.
^ Jump up to: a b c Townsend, pp. 42–43.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 353.
Jump up ^ Goodrich, pp. 39 and 97.
Jump up ^ Bishop, p. 102.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 227.
Jump up ^ Townsend, p. 8.
Jump up ^ Smith, p. 154.
Jump up ^ Goodrich, p. 97.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 15.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 272–273.
Jump up ^ Pitman, Benn, ed. (1865). The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators. Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin. p. vi.
Jump up ^ Bishop, p. 66.
Jump up ^ "The Death of John Wilkes Booth". eyewitnesstohistory.com. Retrieved August 15, 2010.
^ Jump up to: a b Smith, p. 174.
Jump up ^ Mudd, Samuel A. (1906). Mudd, Nettie, ed. The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd (4th ed.). New York and Washington: Neale Publishing Company. pp. 20–21, 316–318.
Jump up ^ Balsiger and Sellier, Jr., p. 191.
Jump up ^ Kunhardt, Twenty Days, pp. 106–107. The 26 soldiers who caught Booth were eventually awarded $1,653.85 each by Congress, along with $5,250 for Lieut. Doherty who led the detachment and $15,000 for Col. Lafayette Baker.
Jump up ^ Kunhardt, Twenty Days, p. 120.
Jump up ^ Townsend, p. 14.
Jump up ^ Kunhardt, Twenty Days, p. 123.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Kunhardt III, Philip B., "Lincoln's Contested Legacy," Smithsonian, pp. 34–35.
Jump up ^ Smith, p. 184.
Jump up ^ Kunhardt, Twenty Days, p. 107.
^ Jump up to: a b Kunhardt, Twenty Days, pp. 89–90.
Jump up ^ Allen, p. 309.
^ Jump up to: a b Kunhardt, Twenty Days, p. 203.
Jump up ^ Stern, p. 251.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 80.
Jump up ^ Smith, p. 187.
Jump up ^ Kunhardt, Twenty Days, p. 178.
Jump up ^ Goodrich, p. 195.
^ Jump up to: a b c Hansen, Peter A. (February 2009). "The funeral train, 1865". Trains. Kalmbach. 69 (2): 34–37. ISSN 0041-0934.
Jump up ^ "Introduction: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln". American Experience. PBS. Retrieved April 7, 2013. Along the way, some seven million people lined the tracks or filed past Lincoln's open casket to pay their respects to their fallen leader.
^ Jump up to: a b Smith, p. 192.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 291.
Jump up ^ Kunhardt, Twenty Days, p. 139.
^ Jump up to: a b "John Wilkes Booth's Escape Route". Ford's Theatre, National Historic Site. National Park Service. December 22, 2004. Archived from the original on January 25, 2008. Retrieved October 15, 2007.
^ Jump up to: a b c Smith, pp. 197–198.
Jump up ^ Kimmel, pp. 238–240.
Jump up ^ Stern, p. 279.
^ Jump up to: a b Smith, pp. 203–204.
Jump up ^ Townsend, p. 29.
^ Jump up to: a b c d "John Wilkes Booth's Last Days" (PDF). The New York Times. July 30, 1896. Retrieved February 1, 2009.
^ Jump up to: a b c Garrett, Richard Baynham; Garrett, R. B. (October 1963). Fleet, Betsy, ed. "A Chapter of Unwritten History: Richard Baynham Garrett's Account of the Flight and Death of John Wilkes Booth". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Virginia Historical Society. 71 (4): 391–395. JSTOR 4246969.
Jump up ^ Stern, p. 306.
Jump up ^ Theodore Roscoe, The Web of Conspiracy (New York, 1959, p. 376), footnoted in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 71, No. 4 (October 1963), Virginia Historical Society, p. 391.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Smith, pp. 210–213.
^ Jump up to: a b c Johnson, Byron B. (1914). John Wilkes Booth and Jefferson Davis – a true story of their capture. Boston: The Lincoln & Smith Press. pp. 35–36.
Jump up ^ Hanchett, William (1986). The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies. University of Illinois Press. pp. 140–141. ISBN 0-252-01361-1.
Jump up ^ Donald, p. 597.
Jump up ^ Clarke, p. 92.
Jump up ^ Bishop, p. 70.
Jump up ^ Townsend, p. 38.
Jump up ^ Kunhardt, Twenty Days, pp. 181–182.
^ Jump up to: a b Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 393–394.
Jump up ^ Schlichenmeyer, Terri (August 21, 2007). "Missing body parts of famous people". CNN. Retrieved January 28, 2009.
^ Jump up to: a b Smith, pp. 239–241.
^ Jump up to: a b Freiberger, Edward (February 26, 1911). "Grave of Lincoln's Assassin Disclosed at Last" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved February 10, 2009.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, Michael W. (1978). "Fort Lesley McNair and the Lincoln Conspirators". Lincoln Herald. 80: 176–188.
Jump up ^ "On the 18th of February, 1869, Booth's remains were deposited in Weaver's private vault at Green Mount Cemetery awaiting warmer weather for digging a grave. Burial occurred in Green Mount Cemetery on June 22, 1869. Booth was an Episcopalian, and the ceremony was conducted by the Reverend Minister Fleming, James of Christ Episcopal Church, where Weaver was a sexton." (T. 5/25/95 at p. 117; Ex. 22H). Gorman & Williams Attorneys at Law: Sources on the Wilkes Booth case. The Court of Special Appeals of Maryland (September 1995), No. 1531; Archived January 3, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
Jump up ^ Steers, Jr., Edward (2001). Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 222–7. ISBN 978-0-8131-2217-5.
Jump up ^ Surratt was the first woman to be executed in the U.S. In 1976, Surratt House and Gardens were restored and opened to the public. The site includes a museum. See: Surratt House Museum.
Jump up ^ Kunhardt, pp. 204–206.
Jump up ^ Smith, p. 239.
Jump up ^ Goodrich, p. 294.
Jump up ^ Goodrich, p. 289.
Jump up ^ Wilson, p. 19.
^ Jump up to: a b Bates, Finis L. (1907). Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth. Atlanta, Ga.: J. L. Nichols. pp. 5–6. LCCN 45052628.
Jump up ^ Clay Coppedge (September 8, 2009). "Texas Trails: Man of Mystery". Country World News. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011.
Jump up ^ Pegram, William M. (December 1913). "The body of John Wilkes Booth". Journal. Maryland Historical Society: 1–4.
Jump up ^ Johnston, Alva (February 10, 1938). "John Wilkes Booth on Tour". The Saturday Evening Post. CCX: 34–38. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.
Jump up ^ "Dredging up the John Wilkes Booth body argument". The Baltimore Sun. December 13, 1977. pp. B1–B5.
Jump up ^ Balsiger and Sellier, Jr., front cover.
Jump up ^ Nottingham, Theodore J. (1998). The Curse of Cain: The Untold Story of John Wilkes Booth. Sovereign. p. iv. ISBN 1-58006-021-8.
Jump up ^ "New Scrutiny on John Wilkes Booth". The New York Times. October 24, 1994. Retrieved November 6, 2008.
Jump up ^ Kauffman, Michael (May–June 1995). "Historians Oppose Opening of Booth Grave". Civil War Times.
Jump up ^ Gorman, Francis J. (1995). "Exposing the myth that John Wilkes Booth escaped". Gorman and Williams. Archived from the original on January 3, 2009. Retrieved February 2, 2009.
Jump up ^ "Cambridge cemetery waiting to hear from John Wilkes Booth's family about digging brother up". Cantabrigia. Archived from the original on May 30, 2011. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
Jump up ^ "Brother of John Wilkes Booth to Be Exhumed". The Philadelphia Inquirer. December 23, 2010. Archived from the original on December 27, 2010.
Jump up ^ Edward Colimore (March 30, 2013). "Booth mystery must remain so – for now". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 28, 2016.
Jump up ^ Prince of Players at the TCM Movie Database
Jump up ^ The Day Lincoln Was Shot on IMDb
Jump up ^ The Conspirator at AllMovie
Jump up ^ Killing Lincoln official website
Jump up ^ "The Cosgrove Report". Kirkus Reviews. November 23, 1979. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
Jump up ^ "The Cosgrove Report". Grove Atlantic. February 10, 2009. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
Jump up ^ Assassins at the Internet Broadway Database
Jump up ^ Harry Ransom Center (February 2, 2016), Staged reading of "Richard III", retrieved March 15, 2017
Jump up ^ "John Wilkes Booth's Promptbook for Richard III". hrc.contentdm.oclc.org. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
Jump up ^ "TV Theatre". Salt Lake City Tribune. June 11, 1958. p. 12. (subscription required)
Jump up ^ Thompson, Dave (November 1, 2015). The Twilight Zone FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Fifth Dimension and Beyond. Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. p. 343. ISBN 9781495046100. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
Jump up ^ Zaman, Farihah (October 14, 2012). "Copper: "A Day To Give Thanks"". TV Club. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
Jump up ^ "Timeless – Season 1, Episode 2: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln". TVGuide.com. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
Jump up ^ "John Wilkes Booth". Unsolved Mysteries. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
Jump up ^ Montgomery, David (April 18, 1999). "Happy Boothday to you: An intrepid correspondent rides, rolls and rows his way into history chasing the ghost of John Wilkes Booth". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
Jump up ^ Quan-Madrid, Alejandro (April 18, 1999). "BioShock Infinite forces players to confront racism (hands-on preview)". VentureBeat. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
Bibliography
Allen, Thomas B. (1992). The Blue and the Gray. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society. ISBN 0-87044-876-5.
Balsiger, David; Sellier, Charles Jr. (1994). The Lincoln Conspiracy. Buccaneer. ISBN 1-56849-531-5.
Bates, Finis L. (1907). Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth. Atlanta, Ga.: J. L. Nichols. LCCN 45052628.
Bishop, Jim (1955). The Day Lincoln Was Shot. Harper & Row. LCCN 54012170.
Clarke, Asia Booth (1996). Terry Alford, ed. John Wilkes Booth: A Sister's Memoir. Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 0-87805-883-4.
Coates, Bill (August 22, 2006). "Tony Blair and John Wilkes Booth". Madera Tribune. Archived from the original on September 18, 2008.
Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-80846-3.
Freiberger, Edward (February 26, 1911). "Grave of Lincoln's Assassin Disclosed at Last" (PDF). The New York Times.
Garrett, Richard Baynham; Garrett, R. B. (October 1963). Fleet, Betsy, ed. "A Chapter of Unwritten History: Richard Baynham Garrett's Account of the Flight and Death of John Wilkes Booth". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Virginia Historical Society. 71 (4): 387–407. JSTOR 4246969.
Goodrich, Thomas (2005). The Darkest Dawn. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University. ISBN 0-253-32599-4.
Gorman, Francis J. (1995). "Exposing the myth that John Wilkes Booth escaped". Gorman and Williams. Archived from the original on January 3, 2009.
Hanchett, William (1986). The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-01361-1.
Hansen, Peter A. (February 2009). "The funeral train, 1865". Trains. Kalmbach. 69 (2). ISSN 0041-0934.
Johnson, Byron B. (1914). John Wilkes Booth and Jefferson Davis – a true story of their capture. Boston: The Lincoln & Smith Press.
Johnston, Alva (February 19, 1928). "John Wilkes Booth on Tour". The Saturday Evening Post. CCX.
Kauffman, Michael W. (2004). American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-50785-X.
Kauffman, Michael W. (1978). "Fort Lesley McNair and the Lincoln Conspirators". Lincoln Herald. 80.
Kauffman, Michael W. (May–June 1995). "Historians Oppose Opening of Booth Grave". Civil War Times.
Kimmel, Stanley (1969). The Mad Booths of Maryland. New York: Dover. LCCN 69019162.
Kunhardt, Dorothy and Philip, Jr. (1965). Twenty Days. North Hollywood, Calif.: Newcastle. LCCN 62015660. CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
Kunhardt, Jr., Philip (1983). A New Birth of Freedom. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-50600-1.
Kunhardt III, Philip B. (February 2009). "Lincoln's Contested Legacy". Smithsonian. 39 (11).
Lockwood, John (March 1, 2003). "Booth's oil-field venture goes bust". The Washington Times.
Lorant, Stefan (1954). The Life of Abraham Lincoln. New American Library. LCCN 56027706.
McCardell, Lee (December 27, 1931). "The body in John Wilkes Booth's grave". The Baltimore Sun.
Mudd, Samuel A. (1906). Mudd, Nettie, ed. The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd (4th ed.). New York and Washington: Neale Publishing Company.
"John Wilkes Booth's Escape Route". Ford's Theatre, National Historic Site. National Park Service. December 22, 2004. Archived from the original on January 25, 2008. Retrieved October 15, 2007.
Nottingham, Theodore J. (1998). The Curse of Cain: The Untold Story of John Wilkes Booth. Sovereign. ISBN 1-58006-021-8.
Pegram, William M. (December 1913). "The body of John Wilkes Booth". Journal. Maryland Historical Society.
Rhodehamel, John and Taper, Louise, eds. (1997). Right or Wrong, God Judge Me: The Writings of John Wilkes Booth. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois. ISBN 0-252-02347-1. CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter (link)
Schlichenmeyer, Terri (August 21, 2007). "Missing body parts of famous people". CNN.
Serup, Paul (2010). Who Killed Abraham Lincoln?: An investigation of North America's most famous ex-priest's assertion that the Roman Catholic Church was behind the assassination of America's greatest President. Prince George, B.C.: Salmova Press. ISBN 978-0-9811685-0-0.
Sheads, Scott; Toomey, Daniel (1997). Baltimore During the Civil War. Linthicum, Md.: Toomey Press. ISBN 0-9612670-7-0.
Smith, Gene (1992). American Gothic: the story of America's legendary theatrical family, Junius, Edwin, and John Wilkes Booth. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-76713-5.
Steers, Jr., Edward (2001). Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-2217-5.
Stern, Philip Van Doren (1955). The Man Who Killed Lincoln. Garden City, NY: Dolphin. LCCN 99215784.
"Dredging up the John Wilkes Booth body argument". The Baltimore Sun. December 13, 1977.
"Harford expected to OK renovation of Booth home". The Baltimore Sun. September 8, 2008.
Thomas, Benjamin P. (1952). Abraham Lincoln, a Biography. New York: Knopf. LCCN 52006425.
"The murderer of Mr. Lincoln" (PDF). The New York Times. April 21, 1865.
"John Wilkes Booth's Last Days" (PDF). The New York Times. July 30, 1896.
"New Scrutiny on John Wilkes Booth". The New York Times. October 24, 1994.
Toomey, Daniel Carroll. The Civil War in Maryland. Baltimore, Md.: Toomey Press. ISBN 0-9612670-0-3.
Townsend, George Alfred (1865). The Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth (1977 ed.). New York: Dick and Fitzgerald. ISBN 978-0-9764805-3-2.
Ward, Geoffrey C. (1990). The Civil War – an illustrated history. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-56285-2.
Westwood, Philip (2002). "The Lincoln-Blair Affair". Genealogy Today.
Wilson, Francis (1972). John Wilkes Booth. New York: Blom. LCCN 74091588.
Further reading
Bak, Richard (1954). The Day Lincoln Was Shot. Dallas, Texas: Taylor. ISBN 0-87833-200-6.
Goodrich, Thomas (2005). The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University. ISBN 0-253-34567-7.
Reck, W. Emerson (1987). A. Lincoln: His Last 24 Hours. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. ISBN 0-89950-216-4.
Swanson, James L. (2006). Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 0-06-051849-9.
Titone, Nora (2010). My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy. Free Press. ISBN 1-4165-8605-9.
Turner, Thomas R. (1999). The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Malabar, Fla.: Krieger. ISBN 1-57524-003-3.
For younger readers
Giblin, James Cross (2005). Good Brother, Bad Brother. New York: Clarion. ISBN 0-618-09642-6.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Wilkes Booth.
John Wilkes Booth's Promptbook for Richard III, from the collections at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin
Cervical (Neck) Vertebrae preserved at National Museum of Health and Medicine
Autopsy
Lieut. Doherty's report to the War Department on 29 April 1865, recounting Booth's capture
Booth: Escape and wanderings until final ending of the trail by suicide at Enid, Oklahoma, January 12, 1903 (1922) Digitized by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library
The life, crime, and capture of John Wilkes Booth, with a full sketch of the conspiracy of which he was the leader, and the pursuit, trial and execution of his accomplices (1865) Digitized by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library.
"John Wilkes Booth FBI file". Federal Bureau of Investigation. October 17, 2006. Archived from the original on October 17, 2006. These records contain correspondence dated 1922–1923 of William J. Burns, former Director of the Bureau of Investigation, concerning a theory that Booth lived many years after the assassination of President Lincoln.
Geringer, Joseph (2008). "John Wilkes Booth: The Story of Abraham Lincoln's Murderer". truTV. Archived from the original on February 14, 2009. Retrieved January 28, 2009.
Linder, Douglas (2002). "Last Diary Entry of John Wilkes Booth". University of Missouri–Kansas City. Archived from the original on December 29, 2010.
"Hunt for Abraham Lincoln's Assassin, John Wilkes Booth". History.com. A&E Television Networks. 2008. Archived from the original on November 1, 2007.
Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Booth Legend
The Dramatic Oil Company Article describing John Wilkes Booth's brief and unsuccessful career in the booming Pennsylvania oilfields.
Lincoln Assassination Books
On this date: April 24, 1865 – Hancock issues proclamation!
On this day: April 26, 1865 – John Wilkes Booth killed!
The Lincoln Assassination: New Research Unravels Old Myths
Rare shot of Booth probably by J. A. Keenan, the same Philadelphia photographer who photographed him in this attire including riding crop
Booth In the Confederate Secret Service
Authority control
WorldCat Identities
BNE: XX4817561
BNF: cb11970317v (data)
GND: 119060639
ISNI: 0000 0001 0773 016X
LCCN: n79061239
NARA: 10582830
NDL: 01065107
SNAC: w6gt5n06
SUDOC: 027721035
VIAF: 10647377
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Wilkes_Booth&oldid=852131249"
Categories:
1838 births
1865 deaths
19th-century American criminals
19th-century American Episcopalians
19th-century American male actors
American assassins
American diarists
American male Shakespearean actors
American people of English descent
American proslavery activists
Assassins of Presidents of the United States
Booth family (theatre)
Burials at Green Mount Cemetery
Criminals from Maryland
Deaths by firearm in Virginia
Lincoln assassination conspirators
Male actors from Maryland
People from Baltimore County, Maryland
People from Bel Air, Maryland
People of Maryland in the American Civil War
People shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States
Hidden categories:
CS1: Julian–Gregorian uncertainty
Webarchive template wayback links
CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter
CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter
Official website not in Wikidata
Articles with IBDb links
Pages containing links to subscription-only content
Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages
Use mdy dates from May 2018
Biography with signature
Articles with hCards
Wikipedia articles needing clarification from March 2016
All articles lacking reliable references
Articles lacking reliable references from April 2018
Good articles
Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers
Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers
Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers
Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers
Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers
Wikipedia articles with NARA identifiers
Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers
Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers
Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers
Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Namespaces
Article
Talk
Variants
Views
Read
View source
View history
More
Search
Navigation
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
In other projects
Wikimedia Commons
Wikisource
Languages
Afrikaans
العربية
Azərbaycanca
Bikol Central
Български
Brezhoneg
Català
Čeština
Dansk
Deutsch
Eesti
Ελληνικά
Español
Esperanto
فارسی
Français
Gaeilge
گیلکی
한국어
Հայերեն
Ido
Bahasa Indonesia
Íslenska
Italiano
עברית
Latina
Latviešu
Magyar
മലയാളം
Bahasa Melayu
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk
Norsk nynorsk
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Simple English
Српски / srpski
Suomi
Svenska
தமிழ்
ไทย
Türkçe
Українська
Tiếng Việt
中文
39 more
Edit links
This page was last edited on 26 July 2018, at 21:00 (UTC).
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Cookie statement
Mobile view
Enable previews

key: html

type: local

value: div

attrs: id class

values: mw-page-base noprint

values: mw-head-base noprint

value: a

value: img

attrs: alt src width height srcset data-file-width data-file-height

values: This is a good article. Follow the link for more information.

attrs: href title

values: mw-indicator-good-star mw-indicator

values: mw-indicator-pp-default mw-indicator

attrs: id class lang

values: firstHeading firstHeading en

values: siteSub noprint

attrs: class href

values: mw-jump-link #mw-head

values: mw-jump-link #p-search

value: p

value: span

attrs: colspan style

attrs: href class

value: abbr

value: td

values: Maps, aerial photos, and other data for this location

values:
/wiki/Baltimore,_Maryland
mw-redirect
Baltimore, Maryland

values: checkbox button toctogglecheckbox toctogglecheckbox display:none

values:
/wiki/Unionist_(United_States)
mw-redirect
Unionist (United States)

attrs: alt src width height class srcset data-file-width data-file-height

values:
/wiki/Religious_Society_of_Friends
mw-redirect
Religious Society of Friends

values:
/wiki/Junius_Brutus_Booth,_Jr.
mw-redirect
Junius Brutus Booth, Jr.

values:
/wiki/Mohegan_Indian_Tribe
mw-redirect
Mohegan Indian Tribe

values:
/wiki/Stock_company_(acting)
mw-redirect
Stock company (acting)

values:
/wiki/Marcus_Junius_Brutus
mw-redirect
Marcus Junius Brutus

values: The text near this tag may need clarification or removal of jargon. (March 2016)

values:
noprint Inline-Template
margin-left:0.1em; white-space:nowrap;

values:
/wiki/Benjamin_Platt_Thomas
mw-redirect
Benjamin Platt Thomas

values:
/wiki/Boston,_Massachusetts
mw-redirect
Boston, Massachusetts

values:
/wiki/Chicago,_Illinois
mw-redirect
Chicago, Illinois

values:
/wiki/Cleveland,_Ohio
mw-redirect
Cleveland, Ohio

values:
/wiki/St._Louis,_Missouri
mw-redirect
St. Louis, Missouri

values:
/wiki/New_Orleans,_Louisiana
mw-redirect
New Orleans, Louisiana

values:
/wiki/Border_states_(Civil_War)
mw-redirect
Border states (Civil War)

values:
/wiki/Romeo_Montague
mw-redirect
Romeo Montague

values:
/wiki/Back_Bay,_Boston,_Massachusetts
mw-redirect
Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts

values:
/wiki/Armory_(military)
mw-redirect
Armory (military)

values:
/wiki/Richmond_Grays
mw-redirect
Richmond Grays

values:
/wiki/Ft._McHenry
mw-redirect
Ft. McHenry

values: United States presidential election, 1864

values: President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National Monument

values:
/wiki/The_Parker_House
mw-redirect
The Parker House

values: Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

values:
/wiki/Lewis_Powell_(assassin)
mw-redirect
Lewis Powell (assassin)

values: Appomattox Court House National Historical Park

values: Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

values:
/wiki/Marcus_Junius_Brutus#Influence
mw-redirect
Marcus Junius Brutus

values:
/wiki/Edwin_M._Stanton
mw-redirect
Edwin M. Stanton

values:
/wiki/African_American
mw-redirect
African American

values:
/wiki/Belle_Plain,_Virginia
mw-redirect
Belle Plain, Virginia

values:
/wiki/Historical_marker
mw-redirect
Historical marker

values:
/wiki/Military_tribunal
mw-redirect
Military tribunal

values:
/wiki/Fort_Jefferson,_Florida
mw-redirect
Fort Jefferson, Florida

values: IMDb is not a reliable source (April 2018)

values: noprint Inline-Template noprint noexcerpt Template-Fact

values: Assassin (Myers novel) (page does not exist)

values: Anna Myers (novelist) (page does not exist)

values: display:table-cell;padding:0.2em 0.2em 0.2em 0.3em;vertical-align:middle

values: margin:0.5em 0 0.5em 1em;border:solid #aaa 1px

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.teachinghistory.org

values:
nofollow
external text
//lccn.loc.gov/69019162

values:
/wiki/Dick_and_Fitzgerald
mw-redirect
Dick and Fitzgerald

values:
nofollow
external text
//lccn.loc.gov/54012170

values:
nofollow
external text
//lccn.loc.gov/52006425

values:
nofollow
external text
//lccn.loc.gov/74091588

values: Category:CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter

values:
nofollow
external text
//lccn.loc.gov/56027706

values:
nofollow
external text
//lccn.loc.gov/62015660

values: Category:CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter

values:
nofollow
external text
//lccn.loc.gov/99215784

values:
nofollow
external text
//www.worldcat.org/issn/0041-0934

values:
nofollow
external text
//www.jstor.org/stable/4246969

values:
/wiki/Edward_Steers,_Jr.
mw-redirect
Edward Steers, Jr.

values:
nofollow
external text
//lccn.loc.gov/45052628

values:
nofollow
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140613/
external text

values:
nofollow
external text
https://www.allmovie.com/movie/v503155

values:
/wiki/Salt_Lake_City_Tribune
mw-redirect
Salt Lake City Tribune

values: -moz-column-width: 20em; -webkit-column-width: 20em; column-width: 20em; list-style-type: decimal;

values: -moz-column-width: 30em; -webkit-column-width: 30em; column-width: 30em;

values:
nofollow
external text
http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln83.html

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.civilwarhome.com/booth.htm

values:
nofollow
external text
http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/booth.htm

values:
/wiki/A%26E_Television_Networks
mw-redirect
A&E Television Networks

attrs: alt src width height style srcset data-file-width data-file-height

values:
nofollow
external text
https://d-nb.info/gnd/119060639

values:
nofollow
external text
http://isni.org/isni/000000010773016X

values: National Archives and Records Administration

values:
nofollow
external text
https://www.idref.fr/027721035

values:
nofollow
external text
https://viaf.org/viaf/10647377

values: Category:19th-century American male actors

values: Category:American male Shakespearean actors

values: Category:American people of English descent

values: Category:Assassins of Presidents of the United States

values: Category:Burials at Green Mount Cemetery

values: Category:People from Baltimore County, Maryland

values: Category:People of Maryland in the American Civil War

values: Category:People shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States

values: Category:Webarchive template wayback links

values: Category:Official website not in Wikidata

values: Category:Pages containing links to subscription-only content

values: Category:Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages

values: Category:Wikipedia articles needing clarification from March 2016

values: Category:All articles lacking reliable references

values: Category:Articles lacking reliable references from April 2018

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with NARA identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers

values: Discussion about edits from this IP address [ctrl-alt-n]

values: A list of edits made from this IP address [ctrl-alt-y]

values: You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory

values: You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [ctrl-alt-o]

values:
/wiki/John_Wilkes_Booth
View the content page [ctrl-alt-c]
c

values: Discussion about the content page [ctrl-alt-t]

values: p-namespaces navigation vectorTabs p-namespaces-label

values:
p-variants
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-variants-label

values:
This page is protected.
You can view its source [ctrl-alt-e]

values: Past revisions of this page [ctrl-alt-h]

values: p-views navigation vectorTabs p-views-label

values:
p-cactions
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-cactions-label

values:
mw-wiki-logo
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page

values:
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page [ctrl-alt-z]
z

values: Featured content – the best of Wikipedia

values: portal navigation p-navigation p-navigation-label

values: Guidance on how to use and edit Wikipedia

values: About the project, what you can do, where to find things

values: A list of recent changes in the wiki [ctrl-alt-r]

values: portal navigation p-interaction p-interaction-label

values: List of all English Wikipedia pages containing links to this page [ctrl-alt-j]

values: Recent changes in pages linked from this page [ctrl-alt-k]

values:
/wiki/Wikipedia:File_Upload_Wizard
Upload files [ctrl-alt-u]
u

values: A list of all special pages [ctrl-alt-q]

values: Permanent link to this revision of the page

values: Link to connected data repository item [ctrl-alt-g]

values: Printable version of this page [ctrl-alt-p]

values: portal navigation p-wikibase-otherprojects p-wikibase-otherprojects-label

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-af
display: none;

values: جون ويلكس بوث – Arabic

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-az
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-bcl
display: none;

values: Джон Уилкс Бут – Bulgarian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-bg
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-br
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ca
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-cs
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-da
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-et
display: none;

values: Τζον Γουίλκς Μπουθ – Greek

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-el
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-eo
display: none;

values: جان ویلکس بوث – Persian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-fa
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ga
display: none;

values: جان ویلکس بوث – Gilaki

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-glk
display: none;

values: 존 윌크스 부스 – Korean

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ko
display: none;

values: Ջոն Ուիլքս Բութ – Armenian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-hy
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-io
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-is
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-it
display: none;

values: ג'ון וילקס בות' – Hebrew

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-he
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-la
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-lv
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-hu
display: none;

values: ജോൺ വിൽക്കിസ് ബൂത്ത് – Malayalam

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ml
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-nl
display: none;

values: ジョン・ウィルクス・ブース – Japanese

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ja
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-no
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-nn
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-pl
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ro
display: none;

values: Бут, Джон Уилкс – Russian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-simple
display: none;

values: Џон Вилкс Бут – Serbian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-sr
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-fi
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-sv
display: none;

values: ஜான் வில்க்ஸ் பூத் – Tamil

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ta
display: none;

values: จอห์น วิลค์ส บูธ – Thai

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-th
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-tr
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-uk
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-vi
display: none;

values: 约翰·威尔克斯·布斯 – Chinese

values: All languages (initial selection from common choices by you and others)

values: mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-John_Wilkes_Booth rootpage-John_Wilkes_Booth skin-vector action-view