(1838-1865) the assassin of
President Abraham
Lincoln (sixteenth
president of the United
States from 1861 to 1865). On April 14, 1865, at
Ford's Theatre in
Washington,
DC, Booth gained entry to the
president's
private box where he found the
president and his guests unguarded. Booth
shot Lincoln in the back of the head and jumped to the
stage, breaking a bone in his leg in the
process. He still managed to escape on horseback, and
President Lincoln died from the wound the next morning. Booth was an outspoken
advocate of
slavery and sympathized with the
South during the
American Civil War. He also believed
Lincoln to be responsible for the
war. In the months preceding the assassination, Booth had
plotted unsuccessfully to kidnap the
President, but with the
American Civil War (1861-1865) ending, Booth changed his plans to
murder. He led a small
group to the
Ford Theatre where
Lincoln,
Vice-
President Andrew
Johnson,
Secretary of
State William Seward and
General Ulysses
Grant were all to be killed by his men; however, only Booth
succeeded among the
group.
Following his escape, Booth was trapped by authorities 12 days later, and refusing to surrender, was
shot to
death.