25 Facts About John Wilkes Booth, the Man Who Killed Abraham Lincoln
What do you REALLY know about the man who killed Lincoln? Keep reading to learn the insane facts kept out of the history books you read growing up!
1.
John Wilkes Booth attended the hanging of abolitionist leader John Brown. Booth stood near the scaffold and afterwards expressed great satisfaction with Brown's fate, although he admired the condemned man's bravery in facing death stoically.-u/TrashClear483
2.
John Wilkes Booth initially didn't plan to assassinate President Lincoln. The original plot involved 7 conspirators kidnapping him and taking him to the confederate capital of Richmond, VA.-u/gladman1101
3.
Kathy Bates' grandfather, Finis Bates, promoted a theory that John Wilkes Booth was not murdered by Union Army Soldiers on April the 26th, 1865, but successfully eluded capture altogether.-u/RaytheonAcres
4.
A statue of William Shakespeare in Central Park was paid for with funds raised by John Wilkes Booth.-u/JohnnyRoyall
5.
John Wilkes Booth was surprised to find little public sympathy after his assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Formerly anti-Lincoln newspapers condemned the act and while some Southerns were happy Lincoln was dead others feared it would spur retribution upon the already defeated Confederate states.-u/jamescookenotthatone
6.
When shooting Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth timed his shot so that the noise would be masked by the audience’s laughter. Being an actor, he knew the play Lincoln was watching by heart. Lincoln was laughing when shot.-u/Tokyono
7.
Boston Corbett, the man who killed John Wilkes Booth (earning him the nickname “Lincoln’s Avenger”), was a hatter/ milliner in early life. Mercury poisoning is thought to be the cause of his lifelong erratic behavior. He escaped from an asylum in 1888 and was never seen again.-u/BlakeBurna
8.
At Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, where John Wilkes Booth is buried, visitors often leave pennies (which feature President Lincoln's face) on the Booth family monument.-u/WouldbeWanderer
9.
87 men died on the Potomac after two ships collided while searching for John Wilkes Booth after he assassinated Abraham Lincoln.-u/ClaymoreJohnson
10.
There is a photograph featuring both Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth. It was taken one month before the assassination, at Lincoln's 2nd Presidential Inauguration. Booth wrote in his diary afterward: "What an excellent chance I had, if I wished, to kill the President on Inauguration day."-u/literally12sofus
11.
The descendants of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who harbored and set John Wilkes Booth’s broken leg after killing President Lincoln, still believe he was innocent and did not know it was Booth at his house that night, even though he was famous, Dr. Mudd had met him multiple times, and he knew of the plot.-u/FoosFights
12.
Lincoln’s bodyguard, a drunk previously reprimanded for drinking on the job, was not at his post to protect POTUS the night Lincoln died. Instead, he was at the Star Saloon next door drinking; the same saloon where John Wilkes Booth was seeking the liquid courage to assassinate the President.-u/mbradford03
13.
John Wilkes Booth was a well-known A-list actor, considered equivalent in status to Leonardo DiCaprio. He was a heartthrob and named “Sexiest Man Alive.”-u/Kimmm223
14.
The worst maritime disaster in US history was Steamboat Sultana, where 1192 souls perished after its boilers exploded just outside Memphis. Not very many people heard about it since news coverage focused on the killing of John Wilkes Booth the previous day.-u/TheLurkerSpeaks
15.
Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert, was once saved from being hit by a train when a man grabbed him off the tracks. The man was Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth.-u/CrewUnion
16.
On the night that John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, his co-conspirator was supposed to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson. The co-conspirator lost his nerve and got drunk instead.-u/archfapper
17.
A few days before delivering the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln saw John Wilkes Booth perform as a villain in a play at Ford's Theatre. Someone told Lincoln, "He almost seems to be reciting these lines to you." To which Lincoln replied, "He does talk very sharp at me, doesn't he?"-u/Canibuser
18.
Ulysses S. Grant was also planned to be assassinated along with Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth, but did not attend the play at Ford Theater because their wives were not on good terms.-u/ddvolt
19.
The man who tried to stop John Wilkes Booth from killing Lincoln, Henry Rathbone, went all "Shining" on his family and killed his wife and attempted to kill his children in a fit of rage.-u/AttilaTheMuun
20.
John Wilkes Booth is said to be the first actor to have his clothes torn by fans. His good looks and charm made him an early American heartthrob.-u/Antscannabis
21.
Lee Harvey Oswald was only 24 years old when he assassinated John F. Kennedy. John Wilkes Booth was only 26 when he assassinated Abraham Lincoln.-u/vienna95
22.
Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, had a father and a brother who were both named Junius Brutus, after the assassin of Julius Caesar. The three of them performed in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, and on the night of the assassination, Booth is alleged to have shouted "Sic semper tyrannis."-u/vosetirrumabo
23.
John Wilkes Booth wasn't really a lone gunman - he had 8 coconspirators who were convicted. And their plot was to kill not just Lincoln, but also the Vice President and Secretary of State.-u/espartz
24.
Boston Corbett, the soldier who killed John Wilkes Booth, castrated himself with a pair of scissors so he could resist the temptations of women.-u/NordyNed
25.
The day the Secret Service was created by Abraham Lincoln, April 15, 1865, was also the day he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.-u/TheVodkaBandit
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