John Wilkes Booth: Difference between revisions

'''John Wilkes Booth''' (May 10, 1838 - April 26, 1865) was an actor and fanatic to the South who [http://real-life-villains.wikia.com/wiki/Assassination_of_Abraham_Lincoln assassinated] the 16th President of the United States [http://real-life-heroes.wikia.com/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln Abraham Lincoln]. 

John Wilkes Booth was born on a farm near Bel Air, Maryland, about 25 miles from Baltimore. He was born on May 10, 1838. 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 personality 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.

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, 1865, two days after Lee's army surrendered to Grant, 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. The President on April 14, 1865 on Good Friday attended a play entitled ''"Our American Cousin" ''at Ford’s Theatre'' ''and Booth stalked him. Between 10:15 and 10:30 pm, actor Harry Hawk stood alone onstage. He was putting on a wonderful preformance: "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!" And right then, the audience laughed and Booth opened the door to the president's box. He had earlier took out a knife and gouged a hole in the door where he looked upon the profile of Abraham Lincoln as he watched the play. 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; Lincoln 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".