System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!John Wilkes Booth
d. 1865
John Wilkes Booth, the actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, died in a shootout on April 26, 1865. He was 27.
Booth was born in Bel Air, Maryland in 1838. He came from an acting family, and became a well-known Shakespearean actor. By 1860 he had a national reputation.
Booth, a southern sympathizer, reportedly hatched a plot in 1863 to abduct President Lincoln and hold him hostage in Richmond until he could be exchanged for Confederate prisoners held by the North during the Civil War.
The abduction of Lincoln failed, and Booth decided he would kill Lincoln instead.
On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was attending a presentation of the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington. Booth and his henchmen planned to kill Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward.
And while Johnson and Seward escaped injury due to a failure of Booth's men to carry out their assignments, Booth did get behind Lincoln at the theater and shot him in the back of the head. Lincoln died the next morning, never regaining consciousness.
Booth jumped from the theater's balcony onto the stage, breaking his leg. He escaped by horse and made his way with one of his men to the office of Dr. Samuel Mudd where Booth's injuries were attended.
Authorities caught up with Booth at a nearby barn on the Rappahannock River. The barn was set afire. Booth died from a gunshot to the neck, but it is unclear who fired the shot---authorities or Booth himself. The date was April 26, 1865.
