John Wilkes Booth
- "Sic...semper...tyrannis!"
- ―John Wilkes Booth after shooting Abraham Lincoln, 1865.[src]
John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor, Confederate sympathizer and affiliate of the Templar Order, who plotted and successfully executed the murder of American President Abraham Lincoln.
Biography
In April 1865, with the Confederate Army losing the American Civil War, Booth planned the kidnapping of of President Lincoln along with several other co-conspirators, plotting to hold him hostage and force the Union to release all Confederate POWs. The plan later was changed to assassination when the attempt to abduct him failed. Booth was to kill Lincoln, while the other conspirators were assigned to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward. However, only Booth was successful, shooting Lincoln in the back of the head before fleeing the scene.
Twelve days later, Booth was cornered by federal troops in northern Virginia, but refused to surrender. The soldiers set fire to the barn, and in the confusion, Booth was killed by the Assassins.
Trivia
- Booth once portrayed the Roman general Marcus Antonius in a production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar; additionally, his father and brother, both fellow actors, were both named Junius Brutus, after Caesar's assassin.