John Wilkes Booth
| John Wilkes Booth | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | May 10, 1838 Bel Air, Maryland |
| Died | April 26, 1865 (aged 26) Port Royal, Virginia |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Known for | Assassination of Abraham Lincoln |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Parents | Junius Brutus Booth (1796–1852) Mary Ann, née Holmes |
John Wilkes Booth (10 May 1838 - 26 April 1865) was an American actor and the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln.
Life
Born in 1838 in Maryland, his parents, both noted British Shakespearean actors, had emigrated to the US from their native England in 1821. As a boy, Booth was athletic and popular, and he became skilled at horsemanship and fencing. He attended the Bel Air Academy. 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.
At the Milton school, students recited classical works by such authors as Cicero, Herodotus, and Tacitus. Students at St. Timothy's wore military uniforms and were subject to a regimen of daily formation drills and strict discipline. Booth left school at 14 after his father's death. Booth made his stage debut at age 17 on 14 August 1855, in the supporting role of the Earl of Richmond in Richard III at Baltimore's Charles Street Theatre.
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. He stood 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) tall, had jet-black hair, and was lean and athletic. Noted Civil War reporter George Alfred Townsend described him as a "muscular, perfect man" with "curling hair, like a Corinthian capital". As the 1850s drew to a close, Booth was becoming wealthy as an actor, earning $20,000 a year (equivalent to $700,000 in 2023).
During the American Civil War, Booth had been a supporter of the Confederate Army but did not enlist, as a promise to his mother, instead spending the years acting in theater. Booth had always been a outspoken critic of Lincoln, and after hearing the news that Robert E. Lee had surrendered he threatened to assassinate Lincoln. Family friend John T. Ford had opened 1,500-seat Ford's Theatre on 9 November 1863 in Washington, D.C. Booth was one of the first leading men to appear there, playing in Charles Selby's The Marble Heart. Lincoln, who enjoyed live theatrical performances at various venues around Washington DC, would visit the theatre at least 10 times during his presidency.
On the morning of 14 April 1865, Booth had learned that the President and his wife would be attending a theatrical engagement later that evening. Around 10pm that night during the play, Booth walked up to Lincoln and fired one shot into Lincoln's head from a .44 pistol. During the murder, Booth is reported to have said:
- "Sic semper tyrannis" (Translated from Latin to mean "Thus always to tyrants").
Death
Booth fled on horseback to Southern Maryland; twelve days later, at a farm in rural Northern Virginia, he was tracked down sheltered in a barn. Booth's companion David Herold surrendered, but Booth maintained a standoff. After the authorities set the barn ablaze, Union soldier Boston Corbett fatally shot him in the neck. Paralyzed, he died a few hours later. Of the eight conspirators later convicted, four were soon hanged.
