Defense
attorney Joseph H. Bradley, whom we met in the last installment, had
this to say to the jury and spectators at John Surratt’s trial: “Who was
John Wilkes Booth? … He was a man of polished exterior, pleasing
address, highly respectable in every regard, received into the best
circles of society; his company sought after; exceedingly bold,
courteous, and considered generous to a fault; a warm and
liberal-hearted friend, a man who had obtained a reputation upon the
stage.”
The woman who once reported him for rape
in Philadelphia, and the irate, jealous husband who once severely
throttled him in Syracuse, New York, might disagree.
Francis Wilson, one of Booth’s biographers (John Wilkes Booth: Fact and Fiction of Lincoln’s Assassination),
posed the following question: “How was it possible for Booth to obtain
such power over a fellow human being as to command him to perform an act
of murder and to know that that command would be enthusiastically
obeyed?” A little over a century after the assassination of Lincoln,
prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi would ponder the very same question about a
guy by the name of Charlie Manson: “I tend to think that there is
something more, some missing link that enabled him to so rape and
bastardize the minds of his followers that they would go against the
most ingrained of all commandments, Thou shalt not kill, and willingly,
even eagerly, murder at his command.”
A friend of
Booth’s from childhood, John Deery, said that the John Wilkes Booth that
he knew “cast a spell over most men with whom he came in contact, and I
believe all women without exception.”
Junius Brutus Booth, father of John Wilkes Booth
So
who was this charismatic enigma known as John Wilkes Booth – the man
known to history as possibly the most famous assassin who ever lived?
Just about everyone knows that he was an actor, one of the finest and
arguably the most popular of his generation. But he was much more than
just that, a fact obscured by the century-and-a-half focus on John
Wilkes Booth the actor. In reality, John Wilkes Booth, and the Booth
family in general, were very deeply tied to the power structures
in Washington and London, and had been for a very, very long time. And
they still are today.
Booth’s most famous ancestor
was undoubtedly his namesake, John Wilkes, who lived from October 17,
1725 until December 26, 1797. Throughout his life, Wilkes served as a
Member of Parliament, a judge, a journalist and essayist, and the Lord
Mayor of London. A revered statesman, Wilkes was also a member of the
Hellfire Club and a noted libertine (other notable libertines throughout
history include the Marquis de Sade, Aleister Crowley, and Anton
LaVey). That would be the same Hellfire Club that included as a member a
‘Founding Father” by the name of Benjamin Franklin. And that would be
the same Benjamin Franklin whose London home from that era yielded the
remains of at least ten bodies, six of them children.
Lord Mayor of London John Wilkes
It
was the Hellfire Club, by the way, that first coined the phrase “Do
what thou wilt,” which was later appropriated by Aleister Crowley. And
it was the Hellfire Club that was widely rumored during its heyday to be
conducting black masses and other occult/Satanic rituals, along with
drunken orgies and various other acts of debauchery.
John
Wilkes was also notable for being considered during his lifetime the
ugliest man in all of England. He never though suffered from a shortage
of beautiful female companions. Aside from a nine-year marriage, Wilkes
remained single for his 72 years on this planet and was considered quite
the ladies man, fathering an unknown number of children. Like his
descendent and namesake, Wilkes apparently had a knack for “cast[ing] a
spell” over women.
Two
other of John Wilkes Booth’s famous ancestors were Henry Booth, the
1st Earl of Warrington, who lived from 1652 to 1694, and his son George
Booth, who lived from 1675 to 1758 and succeeded his father as the
2nd (and last) Earl of Warrington. At various times during his life,
Henry Booth served as a Member of Parliament, a member of the Privy
Council of England, a noted writer, and a mayor.
John
Wilkes Booth was also descended from Barton Booth, who lived from 1681
to 1733 and who was described by one biographer as the “most popular
actor with the English royalty known to history.” Many generations
later, namesake Sydney Barton Booth, a son of Junius Brutus Booth, Jr.,
would become an actor and writer of some renown before passing away in
1937.
Henry and George Booth, the 1st and 2nd Earls of Warrington
The
alleged assassin’s grandfather was Richard Booth, an eccentric English
barrister with a fondness for alcohol – a fondness that would be shared
by his son, Junius Brutus Booth, and his grandson, John Wilkes Booth.
Junius was born in London in 1796 and was performing on stage by the age
of seventeen. At nineteen, he married Marie Christine Adelaide
Delannoy. Less than five months later, she bore him his first child, who
died in infancy, as would a number of Junius Brutus Booth’s offspring.
In
June 1821, at the age of twenty-five, Junius set sail for America with
his mistress, Mary Ann Holmes, leaving behind his wife and only
surviving child, Richard Junius Booth. Junius and Mary Ann would pose as
man and wife for the next thirty years, producing no fewer than ten
illegitimate offspring, four of whom didn’t make it through childhood.
The pair weren’t actually married until 1851, the year Junius finally
divorced his actual wife, and were married just one year before Junius
passed away in November 1852.
During his lifetime,
Junius was considered to be one of the finest actors of his generation.
He was also regarded as a playwright, scholar, philosopher and linguist.
Named for one of the most notorious assassins of all time, Junius once
set a fine example for son John by sending a letter to then-President
Andrew Jackson threatening to slit his throat and/or have him burned at
the stake. And he thoughtfully signed that letter and included a return
address. It was, nevertheless, dismissed as either a hoax or a joke.
John Brown
Junius
and Mary Ann purchased a 150-acre estate in Maryland that would
ultimately feature a large pool, stables, and a Gothic home known as
Tudor Hall, listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Junius
began construction on the home shortly before his death and so never
lived there, though his offspring, including John Wilkes Booth, did. Ned
Spangler, it will be recalled, was involved in the construction of the
home.
John Wilkes Booth, the ninth of Junius and
Mary Ann’s ten offspring, was born on May 10, 1838. A well educated
young man, he was regarded as an excellent horseman and marksman as well
as a talented athlete. Like his father, he made his acting debut at
seventeen, in an 1855 production of Richard III. By 1861, he was one of
the most popular actors in America and there was considerable demand for
his services.
Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth at Lincoln’s second inaugural address
On
December 2, 1859, John Wilkes Booth was among the soldiers standing
guard on the scaffold when probable agent provocateur John Brown was
hanged. Booth was not a soldier though – he purportedly either borrowed
or stole a militia uniform and posed as a soldier to secure the
position. On March 4, 1865, Booth found himself prominently placed among
the onlookers at Lincoln’s second inaugural address. He was there as a
guest of US Senator John P. Hale.
Unknown at the
time was that Booth was secretly engaged to Hale’s daughter, Lucy Hale.
Senator Hale had worked closely with fellow Senator William Seward
before Seward’s appointment as Secretary of State. Notably, Hale was a
northern senator, representing New Hampshire, and he was known for his
staunchly abolitionist views. It makes perfect sense then that his
daughter would be engaged to an alleged Confederate operative.
Senator John P. Hale
During
John Wilkes Booth’s lifetime, there was another member of the
Booth/Wilkes clan who achieved a considerable amount of public
notoriety. Charles Wilkes was a US naval officer who ultimately attained
the rank of rear admiral, as well as a celebrated explorer who led the
United States Exploring Expedition from 1838 to 1842. He was also a
great-nephew of John Wilkes, making him a blood relative of John Wilkes
Booth and his numerous siblings.
Charles
Wilkes was raised by his aunt, Elizabeth Ann Seton, who was a woman of
considerable social prominence who later became the first American-born
woman to be canonized by the Catholic Church. In the 1820s, Wilkes
counted among his associates a genocidal Grand Master Mason by the name
of Andrew Jackson – the same Andrew Jackson who was also, by some
reports, a friend of Junius Brutus Booth, the guy who ‘jokingly’
threatened to assassinate him.
Charles Wilkes
Many
years later, another member of the Booth clan, Theresa Cara Booth, was
born on September 23, 1954. Theresa is a direct descendent of Algernon
Booth, Junius Brutus Booth’s brother and John Wilkes Booth’s uncle. She
became an attorney in 1976 and a member of the Queen’s Counsel in 1995.
Two years later, Theresa Booth – better known as Cherie Blair, wife of
Tony Blair – became the First Lady of Downing Street. Nothing unusual
about that, I suppose.
In the aftermath of
the Lincoln assassination, actors were viewed with considerable
suspicion across the country. The entire cast of Our American Cousin was
arrested and numerous other productions closed for a time due to the
lynch-mob mentality that was sweeping the nation. No one was above
suspicion and, as previously noted, more than 2,000 people were arrested
as possible co-conspirators. Those with only the loosest connections to
the accused coup plotters were scooped up and held for varying lengths
of time.
Two of John Wilkes Booth’s brothers, Edwin
and Junius Brutus, Jr., were fellow actors. Clearly then they had two
big strikes against them, which should have put them at the very top of
the government’s round-up list. And yet not a single member of the Booth
clan was arrested in the frenzy of arrests and accusations. Not one. It
always helps to have friends in high places.
*********************************
The Op-Ed page of the Los Angeles Times apparently
now operates in part as a forum for unpaid advertisements for
intelligence agency-approved works of fiction. I say that because just a
few days ago that page featured what was essentially a half-page ad for
Jeff Bauman’s hopelessly fraudulent account of the Boston Marathon
bombings. And yesterday that same page featured a barely disguised
advertisement for a book written by a professional liar by the name of
Mel Ayton.
Ayton has apparently penned a whole
series of disinformational books on various presidential assassinations
and attempted assassinations. His latest, Hunting the President: Threats, Plots and Assassination Attempts – From FDR to Obama, carries on in that fine tradition. The following paragraph is from his wildly inaccurate Op-Ed piece:
“Lincoln was
the first American president to be assassinated. But the motivations
that drove his assassin were unfortunately not unique. Understanding the
nature of those who want to kill a president goes considerably further
toward explaining assassinations than looking to fanciful conspiracy
theories.”
Cherie Blair, aka Theresa Cara Booth
Let’s
now take a peek at what “fanciful” theory it is that Ayton is pitching:
“Booth’s desire for fame and recognition is a common theme among
assassins. In researching a book on presidential killers and would-be
killers, I found that they tended to share certain personality traits.
While some had been treated for mental illness, an even more predominant
characteristic is that many of them were disillusioned with and
resentful of American society after a lifetime of failure. And most of
them also had a burning desire for notoriety. Killing an American
president, most would-be assassins believed, would win them a place in
history, making a ‘somebody’ out of a ‘nobody.’”
Every
single word of the preceding paragraph can only be described as
complete and utter bullshit. Booth already had fame and recognition
beyond his wildest dreams. He was far from being a “nobody.” To the
contrary, he was making upwards of $20,000 a year, a staggering amount
in those days, and had the love, respect and admiration of men and women
all across the country. He was wealthy, good looking, supremely
talented, and had lived a very charmed life. And given that he was only
twenty-six at the time of the assassination, it is hardly accurate to
say that he had faced a “lifetime” of failure. In truth, he had never
known failure at all in his short life.
Compulsive
liar Ayton’s body of work is, unfortunately, typical of what has been
written about Lincoln and his alleged assassin over the last 149 years.
Listed below, in order of the date of release, are some of the more
honest books that have been published (some decidedly better than
others).
Bates, Finis L. The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth, J.L Nichols & Company, 1907
Wilson, Francis John Wilkes Booth: Fact and Fiction of Lincoln’s Assassination, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1929
Eisenschiml, Otto Why Was Lincoln Murdered?, Little, Brown and Company, 1937
Eisenschiml, Otto In the Shadow of Lincoln’s Death, Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1940
Roscoe, Theodore The Web of Conspiracy, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1959
Shelton, Vaughan Mask for Treason: The Lincoln Murder Trial, Stackpole Books, 1965
Balsiger, David and Charles Sellier, Jr. The Lincoln Conspiracy, Schick Sunn Classic Books, 1977
Jameson, W.C. Return of Assassin: John Wilkes Booth, Republic of Texas Press, 1999
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