Podcast Episode Details

A popular actor, John Wilkes Booth used his professional access to Ford’s Theater to assassinate President Lincoln.

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.

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. 

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.