John Wilkes Booth: A Life from Beginning to End

By the age of 26, John Wilkes Booth had achieved success on the stage. He had rugged good looks and the fame he craved. Yet that wasn’t enough for the fanatical actor. On April 14, 1865, just a few days following the end of the American Civil War, Booth stepped into the presidential box at Ford’s Theatre in Washington and shot Abraham Lincoln. He subsequently managed an incredible escape until he himself was killed.

What would drive a man who had everything going for him to commit such a heinous act? What were his motives? This book unravels a tale of fanatical hate and deadly vengeance. John Wilkes Booth saw himself as a southern hero—the rest of the world will remember him as a stone-cold assassin.