John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracy (Part One)

A popular actor, John Wilkes Booth used his professional access to Ford's Theater to assassinate President Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth In April of 1865, Booth was an American celebrity. Having earned as much as 20,000 dollars a year, the equivalent of over 600, 000 dollars today, Booth was also described as the handsomest man in America and discretely involved with Lucy Hale, the daughter of a US Senator. But Booth was also a Confederate sympathizer and a virulent racist who was enraged by Lee’s surrender and negatively obsessed with Abraham Lincoln, especially after the President stated that black Union soldiers should be granted the right to vote. John Wilkes Booth's boyhood home, Tudor Hall Junius Booth provided his family a rural log cabin home near Bel Air as well as a residence in central Baltimore. Eventually, he constructed a more ornate residence near the log cabin which was called Tudor Hall. It was probably fortunate that John Wilkes was sent to boarding school as a teenager, a development that afforded him distance from his father’s glum and occasionally violent personality. The derringer used to kill President Abraham Lincoln Gripping and turning the doorknob, Booth timed his entrance perfectly, the entire audience focused on a highpoint of the play. Following this access, Booth reached into the deep right pocket of his jacket, retrieved his derringer and cocked the hammer. The knife used by Booth during the assassination The box was briefly illuminated by the flash of the gun’s muzzle, the .44 caliber round entering the President’s skull, at a diagonal which began at the lower left of the head, below the ear and, travelling upward, lodging behind the right eye. Abraham Lincoln slumped forward, his chin resting on his chest as if he had fallen asleep. For a split second the entire theater sat silently motionless and confused. Only Major Henry Rathbone moved towards the wild eyed intruder who had invaded the box. Booth raised his knife, fully intent on stabbing Rathbone to death but the Major was able to parry the assassin’s downward thrust with his arm, incurring a deep wound near the elbow. David Herold Of his three co-conspirators, Herold was the most valuable to Booth at this point of his flight. The 22 year old was an experienced outdoorsman and hunter who knew this area of the Maryland landscape, even in the darkness. Although jubilant about his attack, Booth’s broken leg was starting to cause him great difficulty. When the pair reached Surrattville, it was Herold who pounded on the door to wake up the already sleeping proprietor of the tavern, John Lloyd. Lloyd retrieved the two rifles and field glasses most likely mentioned by Mrs. Suratt earlier that evening, but Booth took only the field glasses, his injury wouldn’t allow him to hoist a gun. Herold got a bottle of whiskey as well and he and Booth took some generous swallows before paying the innkeeper a dollar as well as regaling him with the stunning news that they had killed the President and Secretary of State. Lloyd was terrified and reacted by beseeching both men to leave as quickly as possible. Lewis Powell, under arrest About a mile away on Madison Place, the home of Secretary of State William Seward was also the scene of terrible carnage. Seward was already convalescing from the effects of an April 9 carriage accident that broke his arm and jaw. Lewis Powell would use these injuries to gain entrance to Seward’s brick mansion. David Herold, a pharmacist assistant by trade, helped concoct a small butcher paper package tied with string that Powell would claim was medicine prescribed by Seward’s doctor. Powell and Herold waited until the rooms of the mansion were darkened and the occupants were heading for bed. As Herold looked on, Lewis Powell handed him his horse and made his way to Seward’s front door. A black, nineteen year old servant named William Bell answered the knock. In front of him stood a well dressed...