John Wilkes Booth

This is the man who assassinated President Lincoln on April 15th 1865. After reading Jay Winnik's "April 1865" the story of this man has become a little more clear. It turns out that Booth has had an obsession with the president from the moment he stepped into office. Booth, who was a former famous actor who frequently performed at Ford's Theater in washington D.C. (where the president was assassinated), hated the president because he was a die hard southerner who was also a white supremacist. He was the youngest of 10 from a Maryland family, and always identified himself as a southerner even though where he lived was considered a borderline state. For years he had been secretly plotting to either kill, kidnap, or torure the president. He followed him on his routes to meetings, leisure time, and even back to the white house. He made sure to keep a far enough distance so the president's security would not pick up on anything suspicious. eventually when Lincoln gave his final speech, Booth was the one that determined it would be his last. He was absolutely fed up and disgusted by Lincoln's wanting to emancipate the slaves and untimately put an end to the war. The assassin wanted nothing more than to continue the fight and show his loyalty to his southern roots. When he eventually pulled the trigger and lodged the bullet into the back of his head, he immediately headed back to the south to brag about his success. In his mind this man truly felt that he did the entire nation a good deed and took care of a nationwide problem...

Who would have ever guessed that the man that killed President Lincoln was once actually a well known and famous actor who the President himself actually loved watching in his performances...