Existing comment:
John Wilkes Booth, 1838-1865:
A member of one of America's most famous theatrical families, John Wilkes Booth was fiercely dedicated to the South. By the final months of the Civil War, he had become obsessed with his deep hatred of President Lincoln. In late 1864, thinking that the Confederate cause could be salvaged with Lincoln out of the way, he conspired to kidnap the Union president and deliver him into Confederate hands in Richmond. After that scheme failed, he began planning Lincoln's assassination. On the evening of April 14, 1865, his plan tragically unfolded when he fatally shot Lincoln as the president sat watching a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC. |