Editing John Wilkes Booth (section)

== Biography ==

=== Early Life ===
John Wilkes Booth was born on May 10<sup>th</sup>, 1838 on a farm near Bel Air, Maryland, about 25 miles from Baltimore. He was the ninth of ten children of Junius Booth and Mary Ann Holmes. John's parents were British and had moved to the United States in 1821. In addition to the farm at Bel Air (where the Booth family had slaves), the family also owned a home on North Exeter Street in Baltimore where the colder months of the year were spent. Junius was one of the most famous actors on the American stage although he was an eccentric person who had problems with alcohol and spells of madness. As a young man, John attended several private schools including a boarding school operated by Quakers at Cockeysville.

As a teenager Booth attended St. Timothy's Hall, an Episcopal military academy in Catonsville, Maryland. During the 1850's young Booth apparently became a Know-Nothing in politics. The Know-Nothing Party was formed by American nativists who wanted to preserve the country for native-born white citizens.

John eventually left school after his father died in 1852. John spent several years working at the farm near Bel Air. However, according to his sister, Asia Booth Clarke, Booth's dreams went beyond working at a farm. His goal was to be a famous actor like his father had been.

In August 1855, when he was only 17 years old, Booth made his stage debut as the Earl of Richmond in Shakespeare's Richard III. Two years passed before he made another appearance on stage. In 1857, Booth played stock in Philadelphia, but he frequently missed cues and forgot his lines. He persevered, however, and came of age in 1858 as a member of the Richmond Theatre. It was in Richmond where he truly became enamored with the Southern people and way of life. As his career gained momentum, many called him "the handsomest man in America." He stood 5-8, had jet black hair, ivory skin, and was lean and athletic. He had an easy charm about him that attracted women.

John Wilkes Booth worked as an actor at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford%27s_Theatre Ford's Theatre] in Washington, D.C. He was the lead in some of William Shakespeare's most famous works. Additionally, he was a [[Racism|racist]] and a supporter of [[slavery]].

He was also present at the hanging of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(abolitionist) John Brown] in 1859.

=== Adult life and Lincoln assassination ===
In late 1860, Booth had been initiated in the pro-[[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_the_Golden_Circle Knights of the Golden Circle] in Baltimore.

He hated Abraham Lincoln who represented everything Booth was against. Booth blamed Lincoln for all the South's ills. He wanted revenge.

He originally planned on kidnapping the President and holding him for ransom. However, on April 11<sup>th</sup>, 1865, two days after Lee's army surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House which effectively marked the end of the [[American Civil War]], Booth attended a speech at the White House in which Lincoln promoted voting rights for blacks; he became so fed up, that it eventually led him to murder. "That is the last speech he will ever give!" Booth said.

After learning that President Lincoln would attend Ford's Theater, Booth made arrangements of the plans for an assassination, including renting a horse from James Pumphrey and gave Mary Surrat a package, which contains binoculars. 

At 8:45 pm in the Herdon House, Booth and his henchmen were at a final meeting about the plans to save the South. He told [[Lewis Powell]] to kill State Secretary William Seward, who was confined to bed at his house while [[David Herold]] would guide Powell out of the city to the Navy Yard Bridge. Booth also told his German henchman, [[George Atzerodt]], to kill Vice President [[Andrew Johnson]] at the Kirkwood House, where Booth had previously dropped the letter. The only change in the plan is that Booth won't attend ''Aladdin'' at Grover's Theater; instead, he will kill Lincoln at Ford's Theater during the play, "Our American Cousin". All the attacks were supposed to take place at about fifteen minutes past 10 P.M..

Once the Lincolns and their substitute guests arrived at Ford's Theater, Booth arrived one hour later in the back of the theater, just shortly before 10 P.M. After spending time in the saloon, he re-entered Ford's Theatre through the front door at 10:10 P.M.. Making his way to the box, he saw that John Parker went to the saloon. The person standing by the door that led to the box was Lincoln's valet and messenger, [http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/residents-visitors/employees-and-staff/employees-staff-charles-forbes/ Charles Forbes]. Once he handed Forbes a card, Booth enters the hallway, barricaded the door, and waited for the biggest laugh line of the play. At the seconds between 10:14 P.M. and 10:15 P.M., as Booth opened the door to the state box, actor [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Hawk Harry Hawk] stood alone onstage. He was putting on a wonderful performance: "Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal - you sockdologizing old mantrap!"

As the audience laughed, Booth took out a pistol and aimed his pistol at the back of Lincoln's head at near point-blank range. Booth pulled the trigger. Lincoln was laughing at this line when he was shot; he immediately lost consciousness, but he passed into unconsciousness with laughter and a smile on his face; Katherine M. Evans, a young actress in the play, who was offstage in Ford's green room when Lincoln was shot, rushed on the stage after Booth's exit, and said; "I looked and saw President Lincoln unconscious, his head dropping on his breast, his eyes closed, but with a smile still on his face".

One of Lincoln's guest in the box, [[Henry Rathbone|Major Henry Rathbone]], lept to his feet and grabbed John Wilkes Booth, who dropped his pistol. They struggled and fought, but Booth pulled out the knife and stabbed Rathbone near his shoulder before pushing him against the wall. Booth then turned to jump from the balcony and Rathbone sat up and grabbed onto Booth's coat, causing him to dangle over the balcony. He landed awkwardly on the stage, allegedly spraining his left leg. He yelled the Virginia state motto, "Sic Semper Tyrannis!" (in Latin, it translates to "Thus always to tyrants!") and “The South is avenged!" Just as Rathbone shouted "Stop that man!", Booth exited out the side door. On his way, he bumped into William Withers, Jr., the orchestra leader and stabbed him. Upon leaving the building, Booth approached the horse he had waiting outside over a half hour early. Booth struck Joseph "Peanuts" (also called "Peanut Johnny") Burroughs, who was holding Booth's horse in the forehead with the handle of his knife, leaped onto the horse, apparently also kicking Burroughs in the chest with his good leg and rode away.

An army surgeon named [https://real-life-heroes.fandom.com/wiki/Charles_Leale Charles Leale] saw that Lincoln's wound was mortal as he attended him of his condition and head wound. Following this, the dying President was taken across the street from the theater to the Petersen House, where he remained in a coma for eight hours before dying early the next morning.  

=== Death ===
[[File:Booth's_Grave.jpg|thumb|link=Special:FilePath/Booth's_Grave.jpg]]

After being on the run for twelve days, John Wilkes Booth and David Herold were eventually cornered at a farm. While Herold surrendered, Booth refused to surrender. After a short firefight, a sergeant named [https://real-life-heroes.fandom.com/wiki/Boston_Corbett Boston Corbett] crept up behind the barn and shot Booth, severing his spinal cord with the bullet wound being in "the back of the head about an inch below the spot where his [Booth's] shot had entered the head of Mr. Lincoln". Booth was carried out onto the steps of the barn. A soldier poured water into his mouth, which Booth immediately spatting out, unable to swallow. He told the soldier: "Tell my mother I die for my country." In agony, unable to move his limbs, he asked a soldier to lift his hands before his face. His last words were "Useless, useless." when he asked for his hands to be raised to his face. 26-year-old John Wilkes Booth died at 7:29 A.M on April 26, 1865.

John Wilkes Booth's body was buried in a storage room at the Old Arsenal Penitentiary, then in a warehouse and finally interred in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland, four years after his death.