John Wilkes Booth will simply go down in history as the man who assassinated Lincoln. But there is much more to Booth than what is just on the surface. He was a talented actor, considered one of the best actors of the 19th century. He was so popular that women had to be held back from literally ripping the clothes off his body as he walked out of the stage and towards his hotel. He was dark, handsome and charming, but he was also a man obsessed. He thought that Lincoln was going to make himself into the King of America, that, Booth as a white man was entitled to own slaves. Most of all, he knew in his heart, if he killed Abraham Lincoln then he would be lauded as a hero. His name would be shouted from every rooftop as glory would shine upon him. But that never happened. Instead he died, slowly, painfully from a gunshot wound that came from a Union soldier’s rifle. Well... allegedly anyway. There is also a theory that Booth didn’t actually die that night, that he got a secret password from Vice President Andrew Johnson that allowed him to escape far away from Washington D.C.

Thanks to Mike Meyers for the theme music, you can follow him on X @themikeshow42.

(Ambient) Breath, Kirk Osamayo, Free Music Archive, CC BY, https://tinyurl.com/ambientbreathkirk

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