John Wilkes Booth

From Maryland to Virginia, it was essential for him to cross the Potomac River.

There may have never been any lost journal pages. Booth's journal was never in pristine condition and perhaps the days and nights in the swampy Maryland woods required something to kindle a warming fire. The lack of certain pages does not implicate anyone in a deeper and higher placed conspiracy theory.

Consider the possibility that some poorly paid clerk ripped out a dozen pages or so as a souvenir. Or a janitor, or file clerk, or security guard, or...

Tell mother, tell mother, I died for my country... useless... useless.

an actor.how did john wilkes booth actJohn Wilkes Booth was an actor

It was about 12 feet from Lincoln's box to the stage below.

He was American

It is a nice conspiracy story, but the John St Helens of Granbury, Texas and the David George of Enid, Oklahoma who once used the St Helens name and persona were not Lincoln's assassin despite deathbed confessions.

President Abraham Lincoln was at a opera house watching a show.

Most of his 11.3 days of freedom was spent in the swampy forests of western Maryland.

Pages are missing, but who removed them and for what purpose remains unknown.

During Booth's lifetime, not one person said he had a tattoo. The man shot by Boston Corbett had a tattoo below the knuckles on his left hand. On one knuckle he had a "J", on another he had a "W", and on the third he had a "B". Did the tattoo belong to John Wilkes Booth or James William Boyd?

no he dont

He did not go to jail he was shot several times in a barn in virgina.

Eight individuals were tried as conspirators: Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell. David Herold and George Atzerodt were hanged, Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlen got life and Edmund Spangler got six years.

Additional information by Troy Cowan.

Mary Surratt

After her husband's death, Mary moved her family to Washington to get her son away from his dangerous involvement with the South. She wanted him to find safe, gainful, employment in Washington. Mary Surratt had no knowledge of Lincoln's assassination and was not involved.

Lewis Powell

Lewis attempted to kill Secretary of State Seward.

(Seward was at home, in bed, convalescing from a carriage accident)

David Herold

David held Powell's horse while Lewis Powell went inside to kill Seward. Later he joined Booth in his escape.

George Atzerodt

George participated in the failed attempts to kidnap Lincoln. He participated on the condition that no one would be killed.

Samuel Mudd

Dr. Mudd helped Booth obtain a horse that was later used in the attempted killing of Seward. At the time of the sale, there were no plans to kill Seward, therefore, Dr. Mudd could have no knowledge of it. Dr. Mudd helped wounded or escaped Confederate soldiers get back south. The route that went through his farm was called the "Doctors Line". At the time Booth showed up at Mudd's house to get treatment for his injured leg, Dr. Mudd had no knowledge of Lincoln's assassination.

Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlen

They participated in several failed attempts to kidnap Lincoln. After one of the failures, both men quit the group. They had no knowledge of Lincoln's assassination.

Edmund Spangler

Spangler installed the brace on the hallway door leading to the president's box at 12 o'clock on the day of the assassination. That brace would be used to keep others from entering the hall after the shot was fired.

Spangler was also to turn out the house lights to help Lincoln's killer escape. When it was time to turn out the lights, Mr. Withers was sitting on the box that covered the valve, and Spangler could not turn off the lights.

John Surratt

John was traveling from Montreal to Washington when Lincoln was killed. He had no knowledge and did not participate in Lincoln's killing.

The masterminds behind Lincoln's assassination got away with the crime. You should consider three people: Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton; Vice-president, Andrew Johnson; and founder of the Knights of the Golden Circle, Albert Pike.

John St. Helen (aka John Wilkes Booth) said that Vice-president Johnson was working with him to kidnap Lincoln. At five p.m. on the afternoon of the killing, Booth went to Johnson and told him that he was giving up on kidnapping Lincoln and going back to acting. That is when Johnson talked Booth into killing Lincoln. That means Spangler installed the brace to the hallway door five hours before Booth and Johnson thought about killing Lincoln.

Someone else was planning to kill Lincoln. Albert Pike was working with Booth to kidnap Lincoln on the morning of the assassination and had no plans to kill Lincoln at that time. When Spangler was installing the brace and preparing the theater for Lincoln's assassination, Booth, Johnson, and Pike had no plans to kill Lincoln. Another person was planning Lincoln's assassination; this writer believes it was Edwin Stanton.

john Wilkes booth was a famous actor who killed Abraham Lincoln in the fords theatre 5 days after the civil war ended. Abe Lincoln was watching a play called "our American cousin" Lincoln died the next day at 7:22 am in the petersen house. john killed Abe because he thought that the country owed all their troubles to Abe and john's purpose in life is to punish him. when john W. Booth shot him in the head, he jumped down from the seat onto the stage and shouted " sic sempe tyrannis" which when translated to English means as always to tyrants and booth meant, "the south will rise again" :D im so smart

am sure he's called martin booth and my great great grandad is Bruce Jones from xfractor

He was killed after two weeks after the assissination of President Lincoln and therefore was never found guilty by a court of law. He never served any time in prison.

In Booth's dying moments, he reportedly whispered, "Tell my mother I died for my country". Asking that his hands be raised to his face so he could see them, Booth uttered his last words, "Useless, useless," and died as dawn was breaking.

"Sic semper tyrannis" meaning "Thus always to tyrants."

No. Twelve days after escaping from the theater where he had shot Lincoln, he was cornered in a shed in Virginia, which was set on fire. He was shot by Sgt Boston Corbett in the confusion, and then dragged from the shed still alive. However, he died shortly afterward. The bullet struck Booth in the neck, paralyzing him and making it difficult for him to talk. He died a short time later. Ironically, Boston Corbet eventually had problems and did something odd like robbed a bank and was confined to a mental ward. He escaped and disappeared and some say he comitted suicide.

Booth was shot through the neck, leaving him paralyzed. By "useless," he was referring to his hands. He died a short time later.

Booth shouted, "Sic semper tyrannis," which is Latin for "Thus always to tyrants."

Actually there is no concrete evidence that David E. George was John Wilkes Booth. While there was some evidence, such as similar broken bones (leg and thumb) keep in mind that when the Booth family finally received the body it was examined and the physician compared dental records and verified that the remains was Booth. Of course this was not a precise science then as it is today. There was no xray but rather just the visual examination and memory of the doctor. Also, the man who was shot and killed in that barn in Virginia was wearing a pin in his undershirt which was known that Booth wore. This was not a commonly known fact. The theory is that when Booth realized he left some personal items in the swamps he asked another man to go and retrieve them. The theory is that while the man was gone to retrieve these items, Booth took off and it was this man who was shot in the barn. This theory could explain why the man had Booth's items in his possession but would NOT explain why the man was wearing the pin that only Booth was known to wear. The only concrete way would be to find the body of George, which was mummified and do a DNA. We will probably never know for sure. Makes for a great story though.

John Wikes Booth assassinated President Lincoln in hopes of disrupting Union military tactics, as well as eliminating the possibility of the "Lincoln dynasty" in the words of Booth. He was concerned (as were many others) that Lincoln's tight association with the military and his tendency to act without or against the consent of congress may lead to a tyrannical takeover.

April 15, 1865

He did. He had an excellent reason for believing in state's rights: The 10th Amendment to the Unites States Constitution. The amendment says:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

The powers which WERE delegated to the United States (the Federal Government) were delegated BY the states. When the Constitution was drafted what the framers who wrote it had in mind was a central government of LIMITED POWERS. The states had all governmental power, and if they wished to surrender only a limited, specific amount of that power to the new central government, they were certainly entitled to do that, and that is in fact what they did. They were replacing the Articles of Confederation, which had allowed for a central government so weak as to be ineffective. They wished to strengthen the Federal Government some, but retain most governmental power at the state level.

The 10th Amendment is part of the original Bill of Rights. The proponents of the new Constitution had a hard job convincing people to support the new Constitution, and several states would not even consider ratifying the new Constitution until the Bill of Rights was attached to it. Thus this language was part of the Constitution from the start.

So Booth was far from alone in believing in "state's rights". "State's rights" was, in fact, the law of the land from the beginning. The Federal Government had only limited, specific functions. All other governmental power remained with the states.

The sad thing is, its STILL the law of the land. The 10th Amendment has never been repealed - its still right there in the Bill of Rights of which we are so proud. It just means absolutely nothing today. It was effectively nullified by the Civil War, without the agreement of the people. This is one result of the Civil War - though the nation started with a central government of limited powers, and people had to be persuaded to even agree to those limited powers, the Civil War, among other things, was a massive power shift from the state capitals to Washington. Governments LIKE power, so don't expect Washington DC to ever give back the primacy it obtained at gunpoint in the Civil War. What you can expect to see instead is continued growth of the Federal Government, and continued encroachment into every facet of the lives of every citizen of every state. This has been the long term trend since the Civil War ended. Its some of the worst hypocricy of American life that we continue to revere the Bill of Rights but nobody ever wants to mention little facts like these. You're supposed to believe the war was about nothing but slavery and evil southerners and you're not supposed to notice that somehow in there, we went from having a central government of limited powers to the monolithic colossus poking its nose into everything and everybody's business we have today, which is something that nobody agreed to, and which seldom serves the interests of the average person.