Booth Brothers: Drama, Fame, and the Death of President Lincoln
Many miles away John’s older brother Edwin was in hiding of another sort Edwin Booth ranked among the country’s best-known actors and he was accustomed to seeing his picture in the newspaper He was no stranger to being the subject of gossip But his brother’s actions had put his entire family under criminal suspicion Their older brother Junius known as June and John Clarke their brother-in-law had been jailed They were suspected of helping John Wilkes Booth plan his crime Edwin’s scheduled performances were all canceled Booth a last name that had drawn great crowds of paying customers into theaters had become overnight a lightning rod for hatred gossip and threats Edwin stayed in seclusion hoping to avoid John Wilkes Booth had enjoyed a successful career as a stage actor but he became consumed by resentment and anger during the Civil War both the public and the newspaper reporters He believed he might be taken into custody at any time He worried for his mother After reading in the newspaper of her brother’s crime and then only minutes later watching her husband’s arrest as a suspected accomplice his pregnant sister Asia Clarke had fallen ill Surely Edwin along with the rest of America wondered where John Wilkes Booth had gone Had he committed the crime of which he was accused Had others helped Edwin and his family members likely shared one worry that their fellow citizens did not Was their brother all right Feverish and aching in the cold dark barn John Wilkes Booth badly needed rest He knew he would have to move on when the sun rose Clearly his latest host Mr Richard H Garrett had become suspicious Initially John had passed himself off as a wounded
Confederate soldier trying to make his way home But Booth hadn’t played that part effectively He was too well armed and too eager to reach for his guns when Union soldiers passed by Also Garrett’s son John had heard that soldiers were scouring the area for an assassin What would happen if they should find such a man in his guest room After dinner John Garrett told his guest he was no longer welcome in his house but he offered to take Booth and Herold elsewhere in the morning And so denied the soft warm bed he’d enjoyed the last few nights John lay on a pile of hay in the old tobacco barn with his leg throbbing and his pride wounded It was after 2 o’clock in the morning when he jerked awake The sound of horse hooves fell on his ears The night air came alive with whispers and footsteps A dim flicker of candlelight bobbed between the barn slats growing brighter and closer Union soldiers were coming John Wilkes Booth pulled out his revolver He and David Herold dashed for the barn door But fearing Booth and Herold would steal their horses Garrett and his sons had trapped them The door was locked on the outside Furious Booth and Herold tried kicking some barn slats loose enough to crawl under But there was no escape for the most wanted man in America President Abraham Lincoln’s murderer had finally been found
Rewards totaling 100,000 were promised for the capture of John Wilkes Booth and two others involved in the assassination plot Booth had expected to be a hero in the South and he was dismayed when even Southern newspapers labeled him a villain
CHAPTER 2 WITNESS TO HISTORY ix years earlier John Wilkes Booth had a different experience with soldiers He played one not on the stage but in a real-life drama prior to the Civil War S John like his two older brothers had taken up acting They were all sons of the deceased Shakespearean actor Junius Brutus Booth and acting ran in the Booth family blood During a November 24 1859 rehearsal at a theater in Richmond Virginia for the comedy Timothy Toodles John stepped outside to take a break The streets were filled with uniformed soldiers waiting to board a train to Charlestown Virginia They had been called to duty to maintain order at an execution scheduled for December 2 The condemned man was John Brown a radical abolitionist who had been using violent means to fight against slavery Brown and his followers had tried to gain control of federal weapons stored in the town of Harper’s Ferry Virginia He planned to arm slaves and lead them in a revolution to abolish slavery But the plan had been foiled Brown and six of his followers were captured by soldiers and Brown was the first sentenced to hang The governor feared Brown’s supporters might show up at the execution to free him by force so he had called up 1,500 military men to act as guards Outside the Richmond theater John Wilkes Booth struck up a conversation with the waiting soldiers Upon hearing their destination Booth was eager to join them He claimed he wanted to find out what it felt like to be a soldier Given his political beliefs he may also have been keen to see an abolitionist swing by the neck
