John Wilkes Booth

File:JohnWilkesBooth.jpg

John Wilkes Booth ( 1838-1865) was an actor and fanatic to the South best known for his assassination of the 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865).

History

John Wilkes Booth worked as an actor at Ford's Theather in Washington,D.C. He was a racist and confederate sympathizer. He originally planned on kidnapping the President and holding him for ransom. However, he was so fed up with anger of the South's defeat, and his hatred for Lincoln, that it eventually led him to murder. The President on April 14, 1865 on Good Friday attended a play entitled "Our American Cousin" and Booth stalked him. At about 10:15 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 booth. 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 and Lincoln was mortally wounded. Lincoln's guest in the box, Major Henry Rathbone lept to his feet and grabbed John Wilkes Booth and Booth dropped his pistol. They struggled and fought, but Booth pulled out his knife and stabbed Rathbone near his shoulder before pushing him against the wall. Booth then turned to jump from the balcony and Lincoln sat up and grabbed onto Booth's coat causing him to dangle over the balcony, Booth fell down from the stage, yelled "Sic semper tyrannis!" (This is the fate of every tyrant.) and escaped leaving the dying President behind. Some witnesses state that he also yelled "The South's is avenged!" An army surgeon saw that Lincoln's wound was mortal. The President was taken across the street from the theater to the Petersen House, where he lapsed into a coma for nine hours before dying early the next morning. Rathbone recovered from his wounds but his mental state deteriorated in the years following Lincoln's death as he anguished over his perceived inability to thwart the assassination attempt. His mental decline culminated in his murdering his wife, Clara Harris (who was also in the box with Lincoln) on December 23, 1883, fatally shooting her then stabbing her several times. After he killed Clara, Rathbone attempted to kill himself. When the police arrived, the bleeding Rathbone claimed there were people hiding behind the pictures on the wall. The couple's children, who were also almost killed by their father, were taken to live with their uncle, William Harris, in the United States. Rathbone spent the rest of his life in the asylum for the criminally insane. It seems that John Wilkes Booth continued to kill way beyond that fateful evening and destroyed more than one great life.

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Booth eventually was captured and shot at a farm. The bullet struck Booth in "the back of the head about an inch below the spot where his [Booth's] shot had entered the head of Mr. Lincoln" and exited the front of his neck, serving his spinal cord. Unconcious, Booth was carried out onto the steps of the barn. A soldier poured water into his mouth, which Booth woke up by immediatly spatting out, unable to swallow. Booth 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 dying words were "Useless, useless." when he asked for his hands to be raised to his face. Booth fell unconcious a second time. He died two hours after later, he never regained conciuness.

External links

John Wilkes Booth at Assassination Wiki

• John Wilkes Booth at Find a Grave