John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth | |
---|---|
Born | Bel Air, Maryland, U.S. | May 10, 1838
Died | April 26, 1865 | (aged 26)
Cause of death | Gunshot wound |
Resting place | Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland |
Other names |
|
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1855–1865 |
Known for | Assassination of Abraham Lincoln |
Political party | Know Nothing |
Family | Booth |
Signature | |
John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who assassinated United States President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the prominent 19th-century Booth theatrical family from Maryland,[1] he was a noted actor who was also a Confederate sympathizer; denouncing President Lincoln, he lamented the then-recent abolition of slavery in the United States.[2]
Originally, Booth and his small group of conspirators had plotted to kidnap Lincoln to aid the Confederate cause. They later decided to murder him, as well as Vice President
Booth shot President Lincoln once in the back of the head. Lincoln's death the next morning completed Booth's piece of the plot. Seward, severely wounded, recovered, whereas Vice President Johnson was never attacked. 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.
Background and early life
Booth's parents were noted British
Booth's father built Tudor Hall on the Harford County property as the family's summer home in 1851, while also maintaining a winter residence on Exeter Street in Baltimore.[10][11][12][13] The Booth family was listed as living in Baltimore in the 1850 census.[14]
As a boy, Booth was athletic and popular, and he became skilled at horsemanship and fencing.
While attending the Milton Boarding School, Booth met a
By age 16, Booth was interested in the theater and in politics, and he became a delegate from Bel Air to a rally by the Know Nothing Party for Henry Winter Davis, the anti-immigrant party's candidate for Congress in the 1854 elections.[22] Booth aspired to follow in the footsteps of his father and his actor brothers Edwin and Junius Brutus Jr. He began practicing elocution daily in the woods around Tudor Hall and studying Shakespeare.[23]
Theatrical career
1850s
Booth made his stage debut at age 17 on August 14, 1855, in the supporting role of the Earl of Richmond in
Later that year, Booth played the part of
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.[34][35] He stood 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) tall, had jet-black hair, and was lean and athletic.[36] Noted Civil War reporter George Alfred Townsend described him as a "muscular, perfect man" with "curling hair, like a Corinthian capital".[37] Booth's stage performances were often characterized by his contemporaries as acrobatic and intensely physical, with him leaping upon the stage and gesturing with passion.[36][38] He was an excellent swordsman, although a fellow actor once recalled that Booth occasionally cut himself with his own sword.[36]
Historian
1860s
Booth embarked on his first national tour as a leading actor after finishing the 1859–1860 theatre season in Richmond, Virginia. He engaged Philadelphia attorney Matthew Canning to serve as his agent.[40] By mid-1860, he was playing in such cities as New York; Boston; Chicago; Cleveland; St. Louis; Columbus, Georgia; Montgomery, Alabama; and New Orleans.[28][41] Poet and journalist Walt Whitman said of Booth's acting, "He would have flashes, passages, I thought of real genius."[42] The Philadelphia Press drama critic said, "Without having [his brother] Edwin's culture and grace, Mr. Booth has far more action, more life, and, we are inclined to think, more natural genius."[42] In October 1860, while performing in Columbus, Georgia, Booth was shot accidentally in his hotel, leaving a wound some thought would end his life.[43]
When the Civil War began on April 12, 1861, Booth was starring in
Starting in January 1863, he returned to the Boston Museum for a series of plays, including the role of villain Duke Pescara in The Apostate, that won him acclaim from audiences and critics.
Family friend John T. Ford opened 1,500-seat Ford's Theatre on November 9 in Washington, D.C. Booth was one of the first leading men to appear there, playing in Charles Selby's The Marble Heart.[52][53] In this play, Booth portrayed a Greek sculptor in costume, making marble statues come to life.[53] Lincoln watched the play[54] from his box. At one point during the performance, Booth was said to have shaken his finger in Lincoln's direction as he delivered a line of dialogue. Lincoln's sister-in-law was sitting with him in the same presidential box where he was later slain; she turned to him and said, "Mr. Lincoln, he looks as if he meant that for you."[55] The President replied, "He does look pretty sharp at me, doesn't he?"[55] On another occasion, Lincoln's son Tad saw Booth perform. He said that the actor thrilled him, prompting Booth to give Tad a rose.[55] Booth ignored an invitation to visit Lincoln between acts.[55]
On November 25, 1864, Booth performed for the only time with his brothers
Business ventures
Booth invested some of his growing wealth in various enterprises during the early 1860s, including land speculation in Boston's
Booth was already growing more obsessed with the South's worsening situation in the Civil War and angered at Lincoln's re-election. He withdrew from the oil business on November 27, 1864, with a substantial loss of his $6,000 investment ($1,122,638 today).[62][63]
Civil War years
Booth was strongly opposed to the
Lincoln was elected president on November 6, 1860, and the following month Booth drafted a long speech, apparently never delivered, that decried Northern abolitionism and made clear his strong support of the South and the institution of
As a popular actor in the 1860s, Booth continued to travel extensively to perform in the North and South, and as far west as New Orleans. According to his sister Asia, Booth confided to her that he also used his position to smuggle the anti-malarial drug quinine, which was crucial to the lives of residents of the Gulf coast, to the South during his travels there, since it was in short supply due to the Northern blockade.[61]
Booth was pro-Confederate, but his family was divided, like many Marylanders. He was outspoken in his love of the South, and equally outspoken in his hatred of Lincoln.[55][73] As the Civil War went on, Booth increasingly quarreled with his brother Edwin, who declined to make stage appearances in the South and refused to listen to John Wilkes' fiercely partisan denunciations of the North and Lincoln.[61] In early 1863, Booth was arrested in St. Louis while on a theatre tour, when he was heard saying that he "wished the President and the whole damned government would go to hell."[74][75] He was charged with making "treasonous" remarks against the government, but was released when he took an oath of allegiance to the Union and paid a substantial fine.
Booth is alleged to have been a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret society whose initial objective was to acquire territories as slave states.[76]
In February 1865, Booth became infatuated with Lucy Lambert Hale, the daughter of U.S. Senator John P. Hale of New Hampshire, and they became secretly engaged when Booth received his mother's blessing for their marriage plans. "You have so often been dead in love," his mother counseled Booth in a letter, "be well assured she is really and truly devoted to you."[77] Booth composed a handwritten Valentine card for his fiancée on February 13, expressing his "adoration". She was unaware of Booth's deep antipathy towards Lincoln.[77]
Plot to kidnap Lincoln
As the 1864 presidential election drew near, the Confederacy's prospects for victory were ebbing, and the tide of war increasingly favored the North. The likelihood of Lincoln's re-election filled Booth with rage towards the President, whom Booth blamed for the war and all of the South's troubles. Booth had promised his mother at the outbreak of war that he would not enlist as a soldier, but he increasingly chafed at not fighting for the South, writing in a letter to her, "I have begun to deem myself a coward and to despise my own existence."[78] He began to formulate plans to kidnap Lincoln from his summer residence at the Old Soldiers Home, three miles (4.8 km) from the White House, and to smuggle him across the Potomac River and into Richmond, Virginia. Once in Confederate hands, Lincoln would be exchanged for Confederate Army prisoners of war held in Northern prisons and, Booth reasoned, bring the war to an end by emboldening opposition to the war in the North or forcing Union recognition of the Confederate government.[78][79][80][81]
Throughout the Civil War, the Confederacy maintained a network of underground operators in southern Maryland, particularly Charles and St. Mary's Counties, smuggling recruits across the Potomac River into Virginia and relaying messages for Confederate agents as far north as Canada.[82] Booth recruited his friends Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlen as accomplices.[83] They met often at the house of Confederate sympathizer Maggie Branson at 16 North Eutaw Street in Baltimore.[29] He also met with several well-known Confederate sympathizers at The Parker House in Boston.
In October, Booth made an unexplained trip to Montreal, which was a center of clandestine Confederate activity. He spent ten days in the city, staying for a time at St. Lawrence Hall, a rendezvous for the Confederate Secret Service, and meeting several Confederate agents there.[84][85] No conclusive proof has linked Booth's kidnapping or assassination plots to a conspiracy involving the leadership of the Confederate government, but historian David Herbert Donald states that "at least at the lower levels of the Southern secret service, the abduction of the Union President was under consideration."[86] Historian Thomas Goodrich concludes that Booth entered the Confederate Secret Service as a spy and courier.[87]
Lincoln won a landslide re-election in early November 1864, on a platform that advocated abolishing slavery altogether, by
By this time, John was arguing vehemently with his older, pro-Union brother Edwin about Lincoln and the war, and Edwin finally told him that he was no longer welcome at his New York home. Booth also railed against Lincoln in conversations with his sister Asia. "That man's appearance, his pedigree, his coarse low jokes and anecdotes, his vulgar similes, and his policy are a disgrace to the seat he holds. He is made the tool of the North, to crush out slavery."[92] Asia recalled that he decried Lincoln's re-election, "making himself a king", and that he went on "wild tirades" in 1865, as the Confederacy's defeat became more certain.[93]
Booth attended Lincoln's second inauguration on March 4 as the guest of his secret fiancée Lucy Hale. In the crowd below were Powell, Atzerodt, and Herold. There was no attempt to assassinate Lincoln during the inauguration. Later, Booth remarked about his "excellent chance...to kill the President, if I had wished."[78] On March 17, he learned that Lincoln would be attending a performance of the play Still Waters Run Deep at a hospital near the Soldier's Home. He assembled his team on a stretch of road near the Soldier's Home in hope of kidnapping Lincoln en route to the hospital, but the President did not appear.[94] Booth later learned that Lincoln had changed his plans at the last moment to attend a reception at the National Hotel in Washington — where Booth was staying.[78]
Assassination of Lincoln
On April 11, 1865, Booth was in the crowd outside the White House when Lincoln gave an impromptu speech from his window. During the speech, Lincoln stated that he was in favor of granting suffrage to former slaves; infuriated, Booth vowed to kill him and declared that it would be the last speech that Lincoln would ever make.[94][95][96]
On April 12, 1865, Booth heard the news that Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House. He told Louis J. Weichmann, a friend of John Surratt and a boarder at Mary Surratt's house, that he was done with the stage and that the only play he wanted to present henceforth was Venice Preserv'd. Weichmann did not understand the reference; Venice Preserv'd is about an assassination plot. Booth's scheme to kidnap Lincoln was no longer feasible with the Union Army's capture of Richmond and Lee's surrender, and he changed his goal to assassination.[97]
On the morning of Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Booth went to Ford's Theatre to get his mail. While there, he was told by John Ford's brother that the President and Mrs. Lincoln would be attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre that evening, accompanied by Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant.[98] He immediately set about making plans for the assassination, which included making arrangements with livery stable owner James W. Pumphrey for a getaway horse and an escape route. Later that night, at 8:45 pm, Booth informed Powell, Herold, and Atzerodt of his intention to kill Lincoln. He assigned Powell to assassinate Secretary of State William H. Seward and Atzerodt to do so to Vice President Andrew Johnson. Herold would assist in their escape into Virginia.[99]
Historian Michael W. Kauffman wrote that, by targeting Lincoln and his two immediate successors to the presidency, Booth seems to have intended to
Booth had free access to all parts of Ford's Theatre as a famous and popular actor who had frequently performed there and who was well known to its owner John T. Ford, even having his mail sent there.[103] Many believe that Booth had bored a spyhole into the door of the presidential box earlier that day, so that he could observe the box's occupants and verify that the President had made it to the play. Conversely, an April 1962 letter from Frank Ford, son of the theatre manager Harry Clay Ford, to George Olszewski, a National Park Service historian, includes: "Booth did not bore the hole in the door leading to the box [...]. The hole was bored by my father ... [to] allow the guard ... to look into the box".[104]
After spending time at the saloon during intermission, Booth entered Ford's Theatre one last time at 10:10 pm. In the theater, he slipped into Lincoln's box at around 10:14 p.m. as the play progressed and shot the President in the back of the head with a .41 caliber Deringer pistol.[105] Booth's escape was almost thwarted by Major Henry Rathbone, who was in the presidential box with Mary Todd Lincoln.[106] Booth stabbed Rathbone when the startled officer lunged at him.[82] Rathbone's fiancée Clara Harris was also in the box but was not harmed.
Booth then jumped from the President's box to the stage, where he raised his knife and shouted "Sic semper tyrannis". (Latin for "Thus always to tyrants," attributed to Brutus at Caesar's assassination; state motto of Virginia and mentioned in the new "Maryland, My Maryland", future anthem of Booth's Maryland.) According to some accounts, Booth added, "I have done it, the South is avenged!"[36][107][108] Some witnesses reported that Booth fractured or otherwise injured his leg when his spur snagged a decorative U.S. Treasury Guard flag while leaping to the stage.[109] Historian Michael W. Kauffman questioned this legend in his book American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies, writing that eyewitness accounts of Booth's hurried stage exit made it unlikely that his leg was broken then. Kauffman contends that Booth was injured later that night during his flight to escape when his horse tripped and fell on him, calling Booth's claim to the contrary an exaggeration to portray his own actions as heroic.[110]
Booth was the only one of the assassins to succeed. Powell was able to stab Seward, who was bedridden as a result of an earlier carriage accident; Seward was seriously wounded but survived. Atzerodt lost his nerve and spent the evening drinking alcohol, never making an attempt to kill Johnson.
Reaction and pursuit
Booth fled Ford's Theatre by a stage door to the alley, where his getaway horse was held for him by Joseph "Peanuts" Burroughs.[111] The owner of the horse had warned Booth that the horse was high-spirited and would break halter if left unattended. Booth had left the horse with Edmund Spangler and Spangler arranged for Burroughs to hold it.
Booth rode into southern Maryland, accompanied by David Herold, having planned his escape route to take advantage of the sparsely settled area's lack of
The duo then continued southward, stopping before dawn on April 15 for treatment of Booth's injured leg at the home of
Federal troops combed the rural area's woods and swamps for Booth in the days following the assassination, as the nation experienced an outpouring of grief. On April 18, mourners waited seven abreast in a mile-long line outside the White House for the public viewing of the slain president, reposing in his open walnut casket in the black-draped East Room.[118] A cross of lilies was at the head and roses covered the coffin's lower half.[119] Thousands of mourners arriving on special trains jammed Washington for the next day's funeral, sleeping on hotel floors and even resorting to blankets spread outdoors on the Capitol's lawn.[120] Prominent African American abolitionist leader and orator Frederick Douglass called the assassination an "unspeakable calamity".[121] Great indignation was directed towards Booth as the assassin's identity was telegraphed across the nation. Newspapers called him an "accursed devil," "monster," "madman," and a "wretched fiend."[122] Historian Dorothy Kunhardt writes: "Almost every family who kept a photograph album on the parlor table owned a likeness of John Wilkes Booth of the famous Booth family of actors. After the assassination Northerners slid the Booth card out of their albums: some threw it away, some burned it, some crumpled it angrily."[123] Even in the South, sorrow was expressed in some quarters. In Savannah, Georgia, the mayor and city council addressed a vast throng at an outdoor gathering to express their indignation, and many in the crowd wept.[124] Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston called Booth's act "a disgrace to the age".[125] Robert E. Lee also expressed regret at Lincoln's death by Booth's hand.[121]
Not all were grief-stricken. In New York City, a man was attacked by an enraged crowd when he shouted, "It served Old Abe right!" after hearing the news of Lincoln's death.[124] Elsewhere in the South, Lincoln was hated in death as in life, and Booth was viewed as a hero as many rejoiced at news of his deed.[121] Other Southerners feared that a vengeful North would exact a terrible retribution upon the defeated former Confederate states. "Instead of being a great Southern hero, his deed was considered the worst possible tragedy that could have befallen the South as well as the North," writes Kunhardt.[126]
Booth continued hiding in the Maryland woods, waiting for an opportunity to cross the Potomac River into Virginia. He read the accounts of national mourning reported in the newspapers brought to him by Jones each day.[126] By April 20, he was aware that some of his co-conspirators had already been arrested: Mary Surratt, Powell (or Paine), Arnold, and O'Laughlen.[127] Booth was surprised to find little public sympathy for his action, especially from those anti-Lincoln newspapers that had previously excoriated the President in life. News of the assassination reached the far corners of the nation, and indignation was aroused against Lincoln's critics, whom many blamed for encouraging Booth to act. The San Francisco Chronicle editorialized:
Booth has simply carried out what...secession politicians and journalists have been for years expressing in words...who have denounced the President as a "tyrant," a "despot," a "usurper," hinted at, and virtually recommended.[128]
Booth wrote of his dismay in a journal entry on April 21, as he awaited nightfall before crossing the Potomac River into Virginia (see map):
For six months we had worked to capture. But our cause being almost lost, something decisive and great must be done. I struck boldly, and not as the papers say. I can never repent it, though we hated to kill.[129][130]
That same day, the nine-car funeral train bearing Lincoln's body departed Washington on the
In the cities where the train stopped, 1.5 million people viewed Lincoln in his coffin.[121][132][134] Aboard the train was Chauncey Depew, a New York politician and later president of the New York Central Railroad, who said, "As we sped over the rails at night, the scene was the most pathetic ever witnessed. At every crossroads the glare of innumerable torches illuminated the whole population, kneeling on the ground."[132] Dorothy Kunhardt called the funeral train's journey "the mightiest outpouring of national grief the world had yet seen."[136]
Mourners were viewing Lincoln's remains when the funeral train steamed into Harrisburg at 8:20 pm, while Booth and Herold were provided with a boat and compass by Jones to cross the Potomac at night on April 21.[82] Instead of reaching Virginia, they mistakenly navigated upriver to a bend in the broad Potomac River, coming ashore again in Maryland on April 22.[137] The 23-year-old Herold knew the area well, having frequently hunted there, and recognized a nearby farm as belonging to a Confederate sympathizer. The farmer led them to his son-in-law, Col. John J. Hughes, who provided the fugitives with food and a hideout until nightfall, for a second attempt to row across the river to Virginia.[138] Booth wrote in his diary:
With every man's hand against me, I am here in despair. And why; For doing what Brutus was honored for... And yet I for striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew am looked upon as a common cutthroat.[138]
The pair finally reached the Virginia shore near Machodoc Creek before dawn on April 23.[139] There, they made contact with Thomas Harbin, whom Booth had previously brought into his erstwhile kidnapping plot. Harbin took Booth and Herold to another Confederate agent in the area named William Bryant who supplied them with horses.[138][140]
While Lincoln's funeral train was in New York City on April 24, Lieutenant
Garrett's 11-year-old son Richard was an eyewitness to the event. In later years, he became a
Death
Conger tracked down Jett and interrogated him, learning of Booth's location at the Garrett farm. Before dawn on April 26, the soldiers caught up with the fugitives, who were hiding in Garrett's
Shortly after Booth's death, his brother Edwin wrote to his sister Asia, "Think no more of him as your brother; he is dead to us now, as he soon must be to all the world, but imagine the boy you loved to be in that better part of his spirit, in another world."[152] Asia also had in her possession a sealed letter that Booth had given her in January 1865 for safekeeping, only to be opened upon his death.[153] In the letter, Booth had written:
I know how foolish I shall be deemed for undertaking such a step as this, where, on one side, I have many friends and everything to make me happy ... to give up all ... seems insane; but God is my judge. I love justice more than I do a country that disowns it, more than fame or wealth.[83]
Booth's letter was seized by Federal troops, along with other family papers at Asia's house, and published by The New York Times while the manhunt was still underway. It explained his reasons for plotting against Lincoln. In it he decried Lincoln's war policy as one of "total annihilation", and said:
I have ever held the South was right. The very nomination of Abraham Lincoln, four years ago, spoke plainly war upon Southern rights and institutions. ...And looking upon African Slavery from the same stand-point held by the noble framers of our constitution, I for one, have ever considered it one of the greatest blessings (both for themselves and us,) that God has ever bestowed upon a favored nation. ...I have also studied hard to discover upon what grounds the right of a State to secede has been denied, when our very name, United States, and the Declaration of Independence, both provide for secession.[2]
Aftermath
Booth's body was shrouded in a blanket and tied to the side of an old farm wagon for the trip back to Belle Plain.
Eight others implicated in Lincoln's assassination were tried by a
Forty years later, when the centenary of Lincoln's birth was celebrated in 1909, a border state official reflected on Booth's assassination of Lincoln: "Confederate veterans held public services and gave public expression to the sentiment, that 'had Lincoln lived' the days of
Theories of Booth's motivation
Author Francis Wilson was 11 years old at the time of Lincoln's assassination. He wrote an epitaph of Booth in his 1929 book John Wilkes Booth: "In the terrible deed he committed, he was actuated by no thought of monetary gain, but by a self-sacrificing, albeit wholly fanatical devotion to a cause he thought supreme."[169] Others have seen more selfish motives, such as shame, ambition, and sibling rivalry for achievement and fame.[9]
Theories of Booth's escape
In 1907, Finis L. Bates wrote Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth, contending that a Booth look-alike was mistakenly killed at the Garrett farm while Booth eluded his pursuers.[170] Booth, said Bates, assumed the pseudonym "John St. Helen" and settled on the Paluxy River near Glen Rose, Texas, and later moved to Granbury, Texas. He fell gravely ill and made a deathbed confession that he was the fugitive assassin, but he then recovered and fled, eventually committing suicide in 1903 in Enid, Oklahoma, under the alias "David E. George".[11][170][171] By 1913, more than 70,000 copies of the book had been sold, and Bates exhibited St. Helen's mummified body in carnival sideshows.[11]
In response, the
The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977) contended that there was a government plot to conceal Booth's escape, reviving interest in the story and prompting the display of St. Helen's mummified body in Chicago that year.[174] The book sold more than one million copies and was made into a feature film called The Lincoln Conspiracy which was theatrically released later that year.[175] The 1998 book The Curse of Cain: The Untold Story of John Wilkes Booth contended that Booth had escaped, sought refuge in Japan, and eventually returned to the United States.[176]
In 1994, two historians together with several descendants sought a court order for the exhumation of Booth's body at Green Mount Cemetery which was, according to their lawyer, "intended to prove or disprove longstanding theories on Booth's escape" by conducting a photo-superimposition analysis.[177][178] The application was blocked by Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Joseph H. H. Kaplan, who cited, among other things, "the unreliability of petitioners' less-than-convincing escape/cover-up theory" as a major factor in his decision. The Maryland Court of Special Appeals upheld the ruling.[156][179]
In December 2010, descendants of Edwin Booth reported that they obtained permission to exhume the Shakespearean actor's body to obtain DNA samples to compare with a sample of his brother John's DNA to refute the rumor that John had escaped after the assassination. Bree Harvey, a spokesman from the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Edwin Booth is buried, denied reports that the family had contacted them and requested to exhume Edwin's body.[180] The family hoped to obtain samples of John Wilkes's DNA from remains such as vertebrae stored at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Maryland.[181] On March 30, 2013, museum spokesperson Carol Johnson announced that the family's request to extract DNA from the vertebrae had been rejected.[182]
In popular culture
Film
- Booth was portrayed by Raoul Walsh in the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation.
- He was played by Ian Keith in D. W. Griffith's early sound film Abraham Lincoln (1930)
- John Wilkes Booth was played by John Derek in the film Prince of Players (1955), a biography of Edwin Booth (played by Richard Burton).[183]
- James Marsden plays Booth in a flashback cameo in the comedy Zoolander (2001).
- Chris Conner portrayed John Wilkes Booth in the director's cut of the 2003 film Gods and Generals.
- Christian Camargo depicts Booth in National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007).
- Booth is portrayed by Toby Kebbell in the Robert Redford film The Conspirator (2010).[184]
- Jesse Johnson plays Booth in the telefilm Killing Lincoln (2013), where he is the main character.[185]
Literature
- In G. J. A. O'Toole's 1979 historical fiction-mystery novel The Cosgrove Report, a present-day private detective investigates the authenticity of a 19th-century manuscript that alleges Booth survived the aftermath of the Lincoln assassination. (
- In Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith, Booth is transformed into a vampire a few years before the Civil War and assassinates Lincoln out of natural sympathy for the Confederate States, whose slave population provides America's vampires with an abundant source of blood.
Stage productions
- Booth is featured as a central character of Stephen Sondheim's musical Assassins, in which his assassination of Lincoln is depicted in a musical number called "The Ballad of Booth".[188]
- Austin-based theatre company The Hidden Room developed a staged reading of John Wilkes Booth's Richard III based on the manuscript promptbook in the collection of the Harry Ransom Center.[189] The promptbook is one of only two known surviving promptbooks created by John Wilkes Booth and uses the Colley Cibber adaptation of Shakespeare's text. The full book with the actor's handwritten notations has been digitized.[190] The other promptbook is also for Richard III and can be found in the Harvard Theatre Collection.
Television
- Jack Lemmon played Booth live onstage in the sixth Ford Star Jubilee episode "The Day Lincoln Was Shot" (1956).[191]
- The Wagon Train episode "The John Wilbot Story" (1958) is based on the premise that Booth survived and moved west; the character John Wilbot is played by Dane Clark.[192]
- Booth was portrayed by John Lasell in The Twilight Zone episode "Back There" (1961).[193]
- All three Booth brothers interact with the Morehouses and with Elizabeth in New York City in episode 9 of season 1 ("A Day to Give Thanks") of the BBC America series Copper.[194]
- Booth was portrayed by Kelly Blatz in "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln" episode (S01E02) of Timeless.[195]
- In the early 1990s, an episode of the American TV show, Unsolved Mysteries, presented originally by Robert Stack, examined sympathetically the theory that John Wilkes Booth was not killed in Maryland but escaped, dying in Oklahoma in 1903. The episode was re-edited and hosted by Dennis Farina in 2009.[196]
- Booth was played by Rob Morrow in a 1998 remake of the television film The Day Lincoln Was Shot.[197]
- In the 2019 web television series Blame the Hero, Booth is portrayed by Anthony Padilla. In the series, multiple time travelers prevent Booth from killing President Lincoln.
- In the 2024 Apple TV+ miniseries Manhunt, John Wilks Booth is portrayed by Anthony Boyle.[198]
Music
- "John Wilkes Booth" is a song written by Mary Chapin Carpenter, commissioned and notably interpreted by Tony Rice. The song is included on his recording Native American.[199]
Video games
- In the 2013 video game BioShock Infinite, John Wilkes Booth is viewed as a hero in the fictional airborne city of Columbia. A cult's headquarters features a large statue of Booth in its lobby, as well as a painting depicting Booth as a saint while assassinating a devil version of Abraham Lincoln.[200]
See also
- Ogarita Booth Henderson
- Charles Guiteau, assassin of President James Garfield
- Leon Czolgosz, assassin of President William McKinley
- Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President John Kennedy
References
Footnotes
- ISBN 0-87805-883-4.
- ^ a b "The murderer of Mr. Lincoln" (PDF). The New York Times. April 21, 1865.
- ^ Hamner, Christopher. "Booth's Reason for Assassination Archived December 2, 2010, at the Wayback Machine". Teachinghistory.org. Accessed July 12, 2011.
- ISBN 0-671-76713-5.
- ISBN 0-375-50785-X.
- ^ Smith, p. 18.
- ^ Booth's uncle Algernon Sydney Booth was an ancestor of Cherie Blair (née Booth), wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. – Westwood, Philip (2002). "The Lincoln-Blair Affair". Genealogy Today. Retrieved February 2, 2009. – Coates, Bill (August 22, 2006). "Tony Blair and John Wilkes Booth". Madera Tribune. Archived from the original on September 18, 2008. Retrieved February 2, 2009.
- ^ Smith, pp. 43–44.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4165-8605-0.
- LCCN 69019162.
- ^ Tronc.
- ^ John Wilkes Booth's boyhood home of Tudor Hall still stands on Maryland Route 22 near Bel Air. It was acquired by Harford County in 2006 to be eventually opened to the public as a historic site and museum.
- Washington Post. Washington DC: Nash Holdings LLC. Retrieved September 29, 2018.[permanent dead link][permanent dead link][dead link]
- ^ Tom (September 12, 2013). "John Wilkes Booth's Family on North Exeter Street". Ghosts of Baltimore. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
- ISBN 978-0-9764805-3-2.
- ^ Kimmel, p. 70.
- ^ Clarke, pp. 39–40.
- ^ ISBN 0-375-50785-X.
- ISBN 0-253-32599-4.
- ^ a b Clarke, pp. 43–45.
- ^ a b Goodrich, p. 211.
- ^ Smith, p. 60.
- ^ Smith, p. 49.
- ^ Tom (September 9, 2013). "Original Ad For John Wilkes Booth's Acting Debut". Ghosts of Baltimore. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
- ^ a b c d Smith, pp. 61–62.
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 95.
- ^ "Original Ad for John Wilkes Booth's Acting Debut". Ghosts of Baltimore. September 9, 2013. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
- ^ LCCN 54012170.
- ^ ISBN 0-9612670-7-0.
- ^ Kimmel, p. 149.
- ISBN 1-56849-531-5.
- ^ Kimmel, p. 150.
- ^ a b Kimmel, pp. 151–153.
- ^ a b Goodrich, pp. 35–36.
- ^ Bishop, p. 23.
- ^ ISBN 0-684-80846-3.
- ^ Townsend, p. 26.
- ^ LCCN 52006425.
- ^ Smith, pp. 71–72.
- ^ Kimmel, p. 157.
- ^ Smith, pp. 72–73.
- ^ a b c Smith, p. 80.
- ^ Gardiner, Richard. "John Wilkes Booth was Shot at the Rankin". Columbus State University. Retrieved September 25, 2018.
- ^ Kimmel, p. 159.
- ^ Smith, p. 86.
- ^ Kimmel, pp. 166–167.
- LCCN 74091588.
- ^ Kimmel, p. 170.
- ^ Smith, p. 97.
- ^ Kimmel, p. 172.
- ^ Goodrich, p. 37.
- ^ Smith, p. 101.
- ^ ISBN 0-316-50600-1.
- ^ "John Wilkes Booth Arranges to Appear in Ford's Theatre Play Which Lincoln Would Come to See, 1863". SMF Primary Sources. Shapell Manuscript Foundation. Archived from the original on June 15, 2013. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f Kunhardt, Jr., A New Birth of Freedom, pp. 342–343
- ^ a b Smith, p. 105.
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 149.
- ^ Kimmel, p. 177.
- ^ Clarke, p. 87.
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 188.
- ^ a b c Clarke, pp. 81–84.
- ^ a b c d Lockwood, John (March 1, 2003). "Booth's oil-field venture goes bust". The Washington Times.
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 127–128 and 136.
- ^ ISBN 0-87044-876-5.
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 105.
- ^ Goodrich, pp. 60–61.
- ISBN 0-252-02347-1.
- ^ Mitchell, p.87
- ^ "States Which Seceded". eHistory. Civil War Articles. Ohio State University. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
- ^ a b "Teaching American History in Maryland – Documents for the Classroom: Arrest of the Maryland Legislature, 1861". Maryland State Archives. 2005. Archived from the original on January 11, 2008. Retrieved February 6, 2008.
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 81 and 137.
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 114–117.
- LCCN 56027706.
- ^ Smith, p. 107.
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 124.
- ISBN 978-0-7432-1968-6.
- ^ LCCN 62015660.
- ^ ISBN 0-394-56285-2.
- ^ Smith, p. 109.
- ^ Wilson, p. 43.
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 131 and 166.
- ^ ISBN 0-9612670-0-3.
- ^ a b Bishop, p. 72.
- ^ Townsend, p. 41.
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 140–141.
- ^ Donald, p. 587.
- ^ Goodrich, p. 61.
- ^ Kunhardt III, Philip B. (February 2009). "Lincoln's Contested Legacy". Smithsonian. Vol. 39, no. 11. Smithsonian Institution. p. 38.
- ^ a b Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 143–144.
- ^ "John Wilkes Booth Letter February 1865: Lincoln Conspiracy, Fords Theatre". SMF Primary Resources. Shapell Manuscript Foundation. Archived from the original on June 15, 2013. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
- ^ a b Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 177–184.
- ^ Clarke, p. 88.
- ^ Clarke, p. 89.
- ^ a b Donald, p. 588.
- ^ Wilson, p. 80.
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 210.
- LCCN 99215784.
- ^ Goodrich, pp. 37–38.
- ^ a b c Townsend, pp. 42–43.
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 353.
- ^ Bomboy, Scott (August 11, 2017). "Five little-known men who almost became president". Constitution Daily. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: National Constitution Center. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
- ^ Goodrich, pp. 39 and 97.
- ^ Bishop, p. 102.
- ^ Emerson, Rae (November 12, 2011). "Ford's Theatre historical review of Bill O'Reilly's 'Lincoln' book". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 227.
- ^ Townsend, p. 8.
- ^ Smith, p. 154.
- ^ Goodrich, p. 97.
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 15.
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 272–73.
- ^ Pitman, Benn, ed. (1865). The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators. Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin. p. vi.
- ^ Bishop, p. 66.
- ^ "The Death of John Wilkes Booth". eyewitnesstohistory.com. Retrieved August 15, 2010.
- ^ a b Smith, p. 174.
- ^ Mudd, Samuel A. (1906). Mudd, Nettie (ed.). The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd (4th ed.). New York and Washington: Neale Publishing Company. pp. 20–21, 316–318.
- ^ Balsiger and Sellier, Jr., p. 191.
- ^ Kunhardt, Twenty Days, pp. 106–107. The 26 soldiers who caught Booth were eventually awarded $1,653.85 each by Congress, along with $5,250 for Lieut. Doherty, who led the detachment, and $15,000 for Col. Lafayette Baker.
- ^ Kunhardt, Twenty Days, p. 120.
- ^ Townsend, p. 14.
- ^ Kunhardt, Twenty Days, p. 123.
- ^ a b c d e f Kunhardt III, Philip B., "Lincoln's Contested Legacy," Smithsonian, pp. 34–35.
- ^ Smith, p. 184.
- ^ Kunhardt, Twenty Days, p. 107.
- ^ a b Kunhardt, Twenty Days, pp. 89–90.
- ^ Allen, p. 309.
- ^ a b Kunhardt, Twenty Days, p. 203.
- ^ Stern, p. 251.
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 80.
- ^ Smith, p. 187.
- ^ Kunhardt, Twenty Days, p. 178.
- ^ Goodrich, p. 195.
- ^ ISSN 0041-0934.
- ^ "Introduction: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln". American Experience. PBS. Retrieved April 7, 2013.
Along the way, some seven million people lined the tracks or filed past Lincoln's open casket to pay their respects to their fallen leader.
- ^ a b Smith, p. 192.
- ^ Kauffman, American Brutus, p. 291.
- ^ Kunhardt, Twenty Days, p. 139.
- ^ a b "John Wilkes Booth's Escape Route". Ford's Theatre, National Historic Site. National Park Service. December 22, 2004. Archived from the original on January 25, 2008. Retrieved October 15, 2007.
- ^ a b c Smith, pp. 197–198.
- ^ Kimmel, pp. 238–240.
- ^ Stern, p. 279.
- ^ a b Smith, pp. 203–204.
- ^ Townsend, p. 29.
- ^ a b c d "John Wilkes Booth's Last Days" (PDF). The New York Times. July 30, 1896. Retrieved February 1, 2009.
- ^ JSTOR 4246969.
- ^ Morris, Jeffrey B., and Richard B. Morris (1996), 7th ed. Encyclopedia of American History, p. 274. HarperCollins.
- ^ Stern, p. 306.
- ^ Theodore Roscoe, The Web of Conspiracy (New York, 1959, p. 376), footnoted in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 71, No. 4 (October 1963), Virginia Historical Society, p. 391.
- ^ a b c d Smith, pp. 210–213.
- ^ a b c Johnson, Byron B. (1914). John Wilkes Booth and Jefferson Davis – a true story of their capture. Boston: The Lincoln & Smith Press. pp. 35–36.
- ISBN 0-252-01361-1.
- ^ Donald, p. 597.
- ^ Clarke, p. 92.
- ^ Bishop, p. 70.
- ^ Townsend, p. 38.
- ^ Kunhardt, Twenty Days, pp. 181–182.
- ^ a b Kauffman, American Brutus, pp. 393–394.
- ^ Schlichenmeyer, Terri (August 21, 2007). "Missing body parts of famous people". CNN. Retrieved January 28, 2009.
- ^ a b Smith, pp. 239–241.
- ^ a b Freiberger, Edward (February 26, 1911). "Grave of Lincoln's Assassin Disclosed at Last" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved February 10, 2009.
- ^ Kauffman, Michael W. (1978). "Fort Lesley McNair and the Lincoln Conspirators". Lincoln Herald. 80: 176–188.
- ^ "On the 18th of February, 1869, Booth's remains were deposited in Weaver's private vault at Green Mount Cemetery awaiting warmer weather for digging a grave. Burial occurred in Green Mount Cemetery on June 22, 1869. Booth was an Episcopalian, and the ceremony was conducted by the Reverend Minister Fleming, James of Christ Episcopal Church, where Weaver was a sexton." (T. 5/25/95 at p. 117; Ex. 22H). Gorman & Williams Attorneys at Law: Sources on the Wilkes Booth case. The Court of Special Appeals of Maryland (September 1995), No. 1531; Archived January 3, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "About fifty persons, mostly ladies, were present". Alford, Terry, "John Wilkes Booth's Death and Burials", in Final Resting Places: Reflections on the Meaning of Civil War Graves, edited by Brian Matthew Jordan and Jonathan W. White. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 2023, p. 284.
- ISBN 978-0-8131-2217-5.
- ^ Surratt was the first woman to be executed in the U.S. In 1976, Surratt House and Gardens were restored and opened to the public. The site includes a museum. See: Surratt House Museum.
- ^ Kunhardt, pp. 204–206.
- ^ Smith, p. 239.
- ^ Goodrich, p. 294.
- ^ Goodrich, p. 289.
- ^ Wilson, p. 19.
- ^ LCCN 45052628.
- ^ Coppedge, Clay (September 8, 2009). "Texas Trails: Man of Mystery". Country World News. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011.
- Maryland Historical Society: 1–4.
- ^ Johnston, Alva (February 10, 1938). "John Wilkes Booth on Tour". The Saturday Evening Post. CCX: 34–38. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.
- ^ "Dredging up the John Wilkes Booth body argument". The Baltimore Sun. December 13, 1977. pp. B1–B5.
- ^ Balsiger and Sellier, Jr., front cover.
- ISBN 1-58006-021-8.
- ^ "New Scrutiny on John Wilkes Booth". The New York Times. October 24, 1994. Retrieved November 6, 2008.
- ^ Kauffman, Michael (May–June 1995). "Historians Oppose Opening of Booth Grave". Civil War Times.
- ^ Gorman, Francis J. (1995). "Exposing the myth that John Wilkes Booth escaped". Gorman and Williams. Archived from the original on January 3, 2009. Retrieved February 2, 2009.
- ^ "Cambridge cemetery waiting to hear from John Wilkes Booth's family about digging brother up". Cantabrigia. Archived from the original on May 30, 2011. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
- ^ "Brother of John Wilkes Booth to Be Exhumed". The Philadelphia Inquirer. December 23, 2010. Archived from the original on December 27, 2010.
- ^ Colimore, Edward (March 30, 2013). "Booth mystery must remain so – for now". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 28, 2016.
- ^ Prince of Players at the TCM Movie Database
- ^ The Conspirator at AllMovie
- ^ Killing Lincoln official website
- ^ "The Cosgrove Report". Kirkus Reviews. November 23, 1979. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
- ^ The Cosgrove Report. February 10, 2009. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help) - ^ "Assassins". IBDB.com. Internet Broadway Database.
- ^ Harry Ransom Center (February 2, 2016), Staged reading of "Richard III", archived from the original on December 11, 2021, retrieved March 15, 2017
- ^ "John Wilkes Booth's Promptbook for Richard III". hrc.contentdm.oclc.org. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
- ^ "Hollywood, CA- Bent on assassinating President Lincoln, John Wilkes".
- Salt Lake City Tribune. June 11, 1958. p. 12. Archived from the originalon April 26, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2018.(subscription required)
- ISBN 9781495046100. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
- ^ Zaman, Farihah (October 14, 2012). "Copper: "A Day To Give Thanks"". TV Club. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
- ^ "Timeless – Season 1, Episode 2: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln". TVGuide.com. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
- ^ "John Wilkes Booth". Unsolved Mysteries. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
- ^ Hill, Michael E. (April 12, 1998). "Morrow Adds Depth To John Wilkes Booth". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
- ^ Christopher, Kuo (March 15, 2024). "Anthony Boyle Is Moving Forward by Looking Backward". The New York Times. Retrieved March 15, 2024.
- ^ Montgomery, David (April 18, 1999). "Happy Boothday to you: An intrepid correspondent rides, rolls and rows his way into history chasing the ghost of John Wilkes Booth". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
- ^ Quan-Madrid, Alejandro (December 7, 2012). "BioShock Infinite forces players to confront racism (hands-on preview)". VentureBeat. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
Bibliography
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- Balsiger, David; Sellier, Charles Jr. (1994). The Lincoln Conspiracy. Buccaneer. ISBN 1-56849-531-5.
- LCCN 45052628.
- LCCN 54012170.
- ISBN 0-87805-883-4.
- Coates, Bill (August 22, 2006). "Tony Blair and John Wilkes Booth". Madera Tribune. Archived from the original on September 18, 2008.
- ISBN 0-684-80846-3.
- Freiberger, Edward (February 26, 1911). "Grave of Lincoln's Assassin Disclosed at Last" (PDF). The New York Times.
- Garrett, Richard Baynham; Garrett, R. B. (October 1963). Fleet, Betsy (ed.). "A Chapter of Unwritten History: Richard Baynham Garrett's Account of the Flight and Death of John Wilkes Booth". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 71 (4). Virginia Historical Society: 387–407. JSTOR 4246969.
- Goodrich, Thomas (2005). The Darkest Dawn. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University. ISBN 0-253-32599-4.
- Gorman, Francis J. (1995). "Exposing the myth that John Wilkes Booth escaped". Gorman and Williams. Archived from the original on January 3, 2009.
- Hanchett, William (1986). The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies. ISBN 0-252-01361-1.
- Hansen, Peter A. (February 2009). "The funeral train, 1865". ISSN 0041-0934.
- Johnson, Byron B. (1914). John Wilkes Booth and Jefferson Davis – a true story of their capture. Boston: The Lincoln & Smith Press.
- Johnston, Alva (February 19, 1928). "John Wilkes Booth on Tour". The Saturday Evening Post. CCX.
- Kauffman, Michael W. (2004). American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-50785-X.
- Kauffman, Michael W. (1978). "Fort Lesley McNair and the Lincoln Conspirators". Lincoln Herald. 80.
- Kauffman, Michael W. (May–June 1995). "Historians Oppose Opening of Booth Grave". Civil War Times.
- Kimmel, Stanley (1969). The Mad Booths of Maryland. New York: Dover. LCCN 69019162.
- Kunhardt, Dorothy; Kunhardt, Philip Jr. (1965). Twenty Days. North Hollywood, Calif.: Newcastle. LCCN 62015660.
- Kunhardt, Philip Jr. (1983). A New Birth of Freedom. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-50600-1.
- Kunhardt III, Philip B. (February 2009). "Lincoln's Contested Legacy". Smithsonian. 39 (11).
- Lockwood, John (March 1, 2003). "Booth's oil-field venture goes bust". The Washington Times.
- LCCN 56027706.
- McCardell, Lee (December 27, 1931). "The body in John Wilkes Booth's grave". The Baltimore Sun.
- Mudd, Samuel A. (1906). Mudd, Nettie (ed.). The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd (4th ed.). New York and Washington: Neale Publishing Company.
- "John Wilkes Booth's Escape Route". Ford's Theatre, National Historic Site. National Park Service. December 22, 2004. Archived from the original on January 25, 2008. Retrieved October 15, 2007.
- Nottingham, Theodore J. (1998). The Curse of Cain: The Untold Story of John Wilkes Booth. Sovereign. ISBN 1-58006-021-8.
- Pegram, William M. (December 1913). "The body of John Wilkes Booth". Journal. Maryland Historical Society.
- Rhodehamel, John; Taper, Louise, eds. (1997). Right or Wrong, God Judge Me: The Writings of John Wilkes Booth. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois. ISBN 0-252-02347-1.
- Schlichenmeyer, Terri (August 21, 2007). "Missing body parts of famous people". CNN.
- Serup, Paul (2010). Who Killed Abraham Lincoln?: An investigation of North America's most famous ex-priest's assertion that the Roman Catholic Church was behind the assassination of America's greatest President. Prince George, B.C.: Salmova Press. ISBN 978-0-9811685-0-0.
- Sheads, Scott; Toomey, Daniel (1997). Baltimore During the Civil War. Linthicum, Md.: Toomey Press. ISBN 0-9612670-7-0.
- Smith, Gene (1992). American Gothic: the story of America's legendary theatrical family, Junius, Edwin, and John Wilkes Booth. New York: ISBN 0-671-76713-5.
- ISBN 978-0-8131-2217-5.
- LCCN 99215784.
- "Dredging up the John Wilkes Booth body argument". The Baltimore Sun. December 13, 1977.
- "Harford expected to OK renovation of Booth home". The Baltimore Sun. September 8, 2008.
- LCCN 52006425.
- "The murderer of Mr. Lincoln" (PDF). The New York Times. April 21, 1865.
- "John Wilkes Booth's Last Days" (PDF). The New York Times. July 30, 1896.
- "New Scrutiny on John Wilkes Booth". The New York Times. October 24, 1994.
- Toomey, Daniel Carroll (1983). The Civil War in Maryland. Baltimore, Md.: Toomey Press. ISBN 0-9612670-0-3.
- ISBN 978-0-9764805-3-2.
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- Westwood, Philip (2002). "The Lincoln-Blair Affair". Genealogy Today.
- Wilson, Francis (1972). John Wilkes Booth. New York: Blom. LCCN 74091588.
Further reading
- Bak, Richard (1954). The Day Lincoln Was Shot. Dallas, Texas: Taylor. ISBN 0-87833-200-6.
- Goodrich, Thomas (2005). The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University. ISBN 0-253-34567-7.
- Reck, W. Emerson (1987). A. Lincoln: His Last 24 Hours. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. ISBN 0-89950-216-4.
- Swanson, James L. (2006). Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 0-06-051849-9.
- Titone, Nora (2010). My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy. Free Press. ISBN 978-1-4165-8605-0.
- Turner, Thomas R. (1999). The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Malabar, Fla.: Krieger. ISBN 1-57524-003-3.