BOOTH, John Wilkes

Born into a prominent theatrical family, Booth was the son of acclaimed actor Junius Brutus Booth and younger brother of Edwin Booth, considered the greatest American actor of his generation. John Wilkes began his stage career in his teens, developing into a popular romantic lead known for his handsome appearance and dramatic intensity.

Unlike his Unionist family members, Booth developed fervent Confederate sympathies and white supremacist views. He remained in the North during the Civil War, continuing his acting career while secretly supporting Confederate causes, including smuggling medical supplies to the South and recruiting potential agents for Confederate intelligence operations.

By 1864, Booth had organized a conspiracy to kidnap Lincoln and exchange him for Confederate prisoners of war. His co-conspirators included Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, David Herold, and others with varying degrees of commitment to Confederate resurrection. The kidnapping plot failed to materialize due to changed presidential schedules and security precautions.

Following Confederate defeat at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, Booth transformed his kidnapping conspiracy into an assassination plot aimed at decapitating the Union government. He assigned Powell to kill Secretary of State William Seward, Atzerodt to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson, while reserving Lincoln for himself.

On April 14, learning that Lincoln would attend a performance of “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre, Booth leveraged his actor credentials to gain access to the presidential box during the third act. At approximately 10:15 PM, he shot Lincoln in the back of the head with a derringer pistol, then leaped to the stage shouting “Sic semper tyrannis!” (“Thus always to tyrants”).

Booth broke his leg in the jump but escaped on horseback, beginning a twelve-day manhunt across Maryland and Virginia. He and co-conspirator David Herold hid in safe houses, receiving medical treatment and assistance from Confederate sympathizers, including Dr. Samuel Mudd who set Booth’s leg.

Federal troops traced Booth to a tobacco barn on the Garrett farm near Port Royal, Virginia, on April 26. After the barn was set on fire to force surrender, Sergeant Boston Corbett shot Booth against orders, claiming the assassin was raising his weapon. Booth died several hours later, his final words reportedly being “Tell my mother I died for my country.”

Contemporary accounts and medical examination confirmed Booth’s death, though folk legends persisted for decades claiming he had escaped and lived under assumed identities. These survival theories, promoted by books like Finis Bates’s “The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth” (1907), have been thoroughly debunked by historians using documentary evidence and forensic analysis.