John Wilkes Booth by Nick Abramson period 6

Booth was the ninth of ten children and born to the hard drinking actor, Jinius Booth. Booth was a highly successful actor, even started as early as 17, and traveled all over the United States with his acting company. Before the Civil War, Booth joined the Know Nothing party and even aided in the capture of John Brown. During the Civil War, Booth was a Confederate secret agent. By the summer of 1864 Booth began to form his plan to kidnap President Lincoln. He recruited about 8 co-conspirators who help similar radical views as he did. On April 14, 1865 Booth heard a speech the Lincoln gave involving negro suffrage and then decided to change his kidnapping plan into an assassination plan. He tried to convince his co-conspirators to assassinate other high profile citizens, such as the vice president, but few were willing. During the performance of Our American Cousin, Booth went up to the presidential box and proceeded to shoot Lincoln in the back of the head shouting "Revenge for South" as he did it. He then escaped General Rathbone, who was seated next to Lincoln, by cutting him badly along the arm. He jumped from the presidential box to the stage, where he fractured his leg in process, and yelled his famous lines, "sic semper tyrannus!" He escaped the theater on horseback as a friend was waiting for him outside. He later hid in a barn belonging to Willie Jett. Officials soon closed in on their whereabouts and tracked them to the barn. There they gave them the option of either coming out of the barn or they would set the barn on fire. Booth's companion left and was arrested. Booth decided to stay, so the investigators lit the barn on fire. While it was burning, Booth came out of the barn carrying a gun and was immediately shot. He died a painful death as he slowly bled out from his wound. Some believe that Booth was not actually killed that night at the barn and that the man shot was not actually Booth because of the mystery surrounding his autopsy and subsequent burial. It is said that the officials quickly covered it up that they had the wrong man though to avoid embarressment.

 

"Biography and Images of John Wilkes Booth, Assassin of Abraham Lincoln." UMKC School of Law. Web. 07 Dec. 2011. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lincolnconspiracy/booth.html.

 

"John Wilkes Booth: His Life and Plot." Information, Photographs, Etc. Related to the Life, Death, and Family of Abraham Lincoln. Web. 07 Dec. 2011. http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln72.html.

 

"The Postmortem Career of John Wilkes Booth." HistoryBuff.com. Web. 07 Dec. 2011. <http://www.historybuff.com/library/refbooth.html>.