Latest news with #JohnWilkesBooth
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
New book sheds light on Lincoln's misunderstood killer: ‘He's not that person at all'
Scott Ellsworth's new book, Midnight on the Potomac, is about the last year of the American civil war and 'the crime of the century': the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by the actor John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre in Washington on 14 April 1865. Asked how the book came to follow The Ground Breaking, his acclaimed history of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, Ellsworth said his thoughts focused on two areas: historical parallels to the modern-day US, and the true crime genre. 'One thing that was driving it was the sense that in the past few years, the nation has never been that divided in my lifetime, and I'm old enough to remember the late 60s and early 70s,' Ellsworth said. 'And the only other time we had been so divided was in the 1850s and 1860s, so that was a natural draw right there. 'And I was thinking about, 'What was the crime of the 19th century in the United States? And it was clearly the murder of Lincoln. And once I dug in and started to turn up some stuff, I realized there was something there.' A professor in Afro-American and African studies at the University of Michigan, fascinated by the civil war since childhood, Ellsworth knew full well Lincoln is one of the most-written-about figures in history. But Ellsworth is not your average professor. Having been described as 'a historian with the soul of a poet', and having won a PEN/ESPN award for literary sports writing too, he knew he could tell the story his way. 'I'm trying to reach a broad audience,' he said. 'I'm trying to reach readers who wouldn't necessarily, or very rarely, pick up a piece of nonfiction, certainly history. And I was lucky in the sense that I had this surfeit of material that is so great and so dramatic, the question is just how to put it together. Story is very important. 'I've got some early responses from folks who've read a lot on the subject and said, 'I never really thought of it in these ways.' I think I managed to turn up some stuff that most civil war readers aren't aware of.' In the popular imagination, Booth has come to be seen as a dysfunctional personality turned lone assassin, the first in a line that includes Lee Harvey Oswald, who killed John F Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, in 1963, and Thomas Michael Crooks, who tried to kill Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, just a year ago. Ellsworth set out to shatter that idea. 'On the image of Booth, I go into detail about the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, everybody calling him this genius – people getting turned away by the hundreds from his performances, women trying to storm into his dressing room. The popular conception of who he is [is] just wrong. He's not that person at all. 'It lives on today. On Broadway right now, there's the show, Oh Mary! [about Lincoln's wife] which is very raunchy and very hilarious. But in that, again, Booth is this kind of loser. That's ingrained in us – that's who he was, a disturbed loser. He wasn't. He was a star. 'And so if I can help change your mind and open your eyes to a different version of Booth, then you can start to see him in a different light.' Booth did not act alone. Confederate conspiracies ranged wide, from planners in Richmond, Virginia, to agents in Canada and in northern states with whom Booth schemed. In November 1864, agents attempted to burn down New York City, an incident Ellsworth recreates vividly. Confederate agents plotted first to kidnap Lincoln, then to kill him. Last year, as Ellsworth worked, the national spotlight found the Confederate plot, when the leading Trump ally Steve Bannon told a reporter Trump's frequent use of the word 'retribution' on the campaign trail was a nod to codewords used by the plotters. Events during the plot are familiar too: a near-miss as Lincoln rode from the White House to the Soldiers' Home in northern DC; Booth's presence in the crowd for Lincoln's second inaugural on 4 March 1865, visible in a famous photograph; the actor's response to remarks Lincoln gave on 11 April, the promise of citizenship for Black men prompting Booth to tell associates: 'That is the last speech he will ever make.' But among aspects Ellsworth holds to new light is a much less-known near-miss, on a frigid night in January 1865 when Lewis Powell, one of Booth's co-conspirators, hid in the shadows outside the war department, close by the White House, and waited for Lincoln to show. Ellsworth writes: 'Here was his chance. A well-aimed shot, even from behind the bushes, might work. That, or a quick dash for one at close range. 'Only he had not counted on the second man. Probably a bodyguard, and more than likely armed. And then there was the ground itself. 'Could he even run on it at all? What if he fell? Powell hesitated. The two men walked away. The moment was lost.' Follow Ellsworth to his extensive notes, and they reveal a 1907 memoir by David Homer Bates, one of the first military telegraphists in Lincoln's war department. That obscure volume and another, on Civil War Weather in Virginia, furnish key details. Elsewhere on Ellsworth's wide canvas, a little less obscure but no less fascinating, is Lois Adams, a Michigan newspaper reporter who worked as a government clerk in Washington and sent detailed letters back to her state, which Ellsworth uses to enrich his picture of wartime DC. 'There was this wonderful librarian at Central Michigan University who discovered Adams's letters and put them together in a book,' Ellsworth said, referring to Evelyn Leasher. 'I ran into the book, and the more I read, I just thought of Adams, 'She's just dynamite.' She is a keen observer of lots of things … about Washington during the war. She added such a richness to things, and she saw through things immediately. 'And so I kept inserting her throughout the book, because I think she adds such a fascinating perspective but she sees she's really undeservedly forgotten. She needs a lot more attention.' Ellsworth also presents the stories of the former slaves who followed the Union armies to freedom as the war neared its end, and of African American leaders who sought to seize the chance of liberty, the remarkable Henry Highland Garnet prominent among them. After Lincoln's killing, Booth escaped into Virginia. After a 12-day chase – the subject of the recent Apple TV miniseries Manhunt – the killer was killed in turn. Lincoln's body was taken back to Springfield, Illinois, the funeral train retracing his journey to Washington in 1861. Ellsworth concludes his own story at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac from DC, on the grounds of the home of Robert E Lee, the leading Confederate general. In doing so, Ellsworth asks readers to look beyond the death of Lincoln, to the country he left behind, the 'Rebirth of America' of the subtitle to Ellsworth's book. At the cemetery, in section 27, people once enslaved lie with Black and white soldiers who died for the Union cause. Ellsworth said he set his final scene there in order 'to remind Americans of the glories of our past, and of the incredible Americans that have built this country. 'One thing I want people to know is how close we came to losing our country to the Confederacy, of slavery surviving in some form, for a while at least. It's just by the skin of our teeth that the Union is held together, but it was held together by this remarkable coalition which we'd never really seen before, in the US, of men and women, Black and white, native-born and immigrant people putting aside differences to come together, ultimately, to work for a common goal. 'We need to honor the courage and grit that these loyal citizens showed, to endure those four years of hell. One out of every 50 Americans died during the war. Every family in the north lost somebody, and they were able to hang in there through it all. I want us to recognize that, and to recognize that we have plenty of heroes in our past, and I think it's helpful to look toward them as some of our institutions are under attack now, and remember that they paid a very high price. 'The runaways, the formerly enslaved, the Union soldiers, they could not have imagined the America that we have today. But we wouldn't have it, had it not been for them. They helped to build it, and we owe them something.' Midnight on the Potomac is out now.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
New book sheds light on Lincoln's misunderstood killer: ‘he's not that person at all'
Scott Ellsworth's new book, Midnight on the Potomac, is about the last year of the American civil war and 'the crime of the century': the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by the actor John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre in Washington on 14 April 1865. Asked how the book came to follow The Ground Breaking, his acclaimed history of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, Ellsworth said his thoughts focused on two areas: historical parallels to the modern-day US, and the true crime genre. 'One thing that was driving it was the sense that in the past few years, the nation has never been that divided in my lifetime, and I'm old enough to remember the late 60s and early 70s,' Ellsworth said. 'And the only other time we had been so divided was in the 1850s and 1860s, so that was a natural draw right there. 'And I was thinking about, 'What was the crime of the 19th century in the United States? And it was clearly the murder of Lincoln. And once I dug in and started to turn up some stuff, I realized there was something there.' A professor in Afro-American and African studies at the University of Michigan, fascinated by the civil war since childhood, Ellsworth knew full well Lincoln is one of the most-written-about figures in history. But Ellsworth is not your average professor. Having been described as 'a historian with the soul of a poet', and having won a PEN/ESPN award for literary sports writing too, he knew he could tell the story his way. 'I'm trying to reach a broad audience,' he said. 'I'm trying to reach readers who wouldn't necessarily, or very rarely, pick up a piece of nonfiction, certainly history. And I was lucky in the sense that I had this surfeit of material that is so great and so dramatic, the question is just how to put it together. Story is very important. 'I've got some early responses from folks who've read a lot on the subject and said, 'I never really thought of it in these ways.' I think I managed to turn up some stuff that most civil war readers aren't aware of.' In the popular imagination, Booth has come to be seen as a dysfunctional personality turned lone assassin, the first in a line that includes Lee Harvey Oswald, who killed John F Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, in 1963, and Thomas Michael Crooks, who tried to kill Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, just a year ago. Ellsworth set out to shatter that idea. 'On the image of Booth, I go into detail about the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, everybody calling him this genius – people getting turned away by the hundreds from his performances, women trying to storm into his dressing room. The popular conception of who he is [is] just wrong. He's not that person at all. 'It lives on today. On Broadway right now, there's the show, Oh Mary! [about Lincoln's wife] which is very raunchy and very hilarious. But in that, again, Booth is this kind of loser. That's ingrained in us – that's who he was, a disturbed loser. He wasn't. He was a star. 'And so if I can help change your mind and open your eyes to a different version of Booth, then you can start to see him in a different light.' Booth did not act alone. Confederate conspiracies ranged wide, from planners in Richmond, Virginia, to agents in Canada and in northern states with whom Booth schemed. In November 1864, agents attempted to burn down New York City, an incident Ellsworth recreates vividly. Confederate agents plotted first to kidnap Lincoln, then to kill him. Last year, as Ellsworth worked, the national spotlight found the Confederate plot, when the leading Trump ally Steve Bannon told a reporter Trump's frequent use of the word 'retribution' on the campaign trail was a nod to codewords used by the plotters. Events during the plot are familiar too: a near-miss as Lincoln rode from the White House to the Soldiers' Home in northern DC; Booth's presence in the crowd for Lincoln's second inaugural on 4 March 1865, visible in a famous photograph; the actor's response to remarks Lincoln gave on 11 April, the promise of citizenship for Black men prompting Booth to tell associates: 'That is the last speech he will ever make.' But among aspects Ellsworth holds to new light is a much less-known near-miss, on a frigid night in January 1865 when Lewis Powell, one of Booth's co-conspirators, hid in the shadows outside the war department, close by the White House, and waited for Lincoln to show. Ellsworth writes: 'Here was his chance. A well-aimed shot, even from behind the bushes, might work. That, or a quick dash for one at close range. 'Only he had not counted on the second man. Probably a bodyguard, and more than likely armed. And then there was the ground itself. 'Could he even run on it at all? What if he fell? Powell hesitated. The two men walked away. The moment was lost.' Follow Ellsworth to his extensive notes, and they reveal a 1907 memoir by David Homer Bates, one of the first military telegraphists in Lincoln's War Department. That obscure volume and another, on Civil War Weather in Virginia, furnish key details. Elsewhere on Ellsworth's wide canvas, a little less obscure but no less fascinating, is Lois Adams, a Michigan newspaper reporter who worked as a government clerk in Washington and sent detailed letters back to her state, which Ellsworth uses to enrich his picture of wartime DC. 'There was this wonderful librarian at Central Michigan University who discovered Adams's letters and put them together in a book,' Ellsworth said, referring to Evelyn Leasher. 'I ran into the book, and the more I read, I just thought of Adams, 'She's just dynamite.' She is a keen observer of lots of things … about Washington during the war. She added such a richness to things, and she saw through things immediately. 'And so I kept inserting her throughout the book, because I think she adds such a fascinating perspective but she sees she's really undeservedly forgotten. She needs a lot more attention.' Ellsworth also presents the stories of the former slaves who followed the Union armies to freedom as the war neared its end, and of African American leaders who sought to seize the chance of liberty, the remarkable Henry Highland Garnet prominent among them. After Lincoln's killing, Booth escaped into Virginia. After a 12-day chase – the subject of the recent Apple TV miniseries Manhunt – the killer was killed in turn. Lincoln's body was taken back to Springfield, Illinois, the funeral train retracing his journey to Washington in 1861. Ellsworth concludes his own story at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac from DC, on the grounds of the home of Robert E Lee, the leading Confederate general. In doing so, Ellsworth asks readers to look beyond the death of Lincoln, to the country he left behind, the 'Rebirth of America' of the subtitle to Ellsworth's book. At the cemetery, in section 27, people once enslaved lie with Black and white soldiers who died for the Union cause. Ellsworth said he set his final scene there in order 'to remind Americans of the glories of our past, and of the incredible Americans that have built this country. 'One thing I want people to know is how close we came to losing our country to the Confederacy, of slavery surviving in some form, for a while at least. It's just by the skin of our teeth that the Union is held together, but it was held together by this remarkable coalition which we'd never really seen before, in the US, of men and women, Black and white, native-born and immigrant people putting aside differences to come together, ultimately, to work for a common goal. 'We need to honor the courage and grit that these loyal citizens showed, to endure those four years of hell. One out of every 50 Americans died during the war. Every family in the north lost somebody, and they were able to hang in there through it all. I want us to recognize that, and to recognize that we have plenty of heroes in our past, and I think it's helpful to look toward them as some of our institutions are under attack now, and remember that they paid a very high price. 'The runaways, the formerly enslaved, the Union soldiers, they could not have imagined the America that we have today. But we wouldn't have it, had it not been for them. They helped to build it, and we owe them something.' Midnight on the Potomac is out now.
Epoch Times
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Abraham Lincoln's Advice on Learning, Work, Smartphones, and Anxiety
When most Americans hear the name Abraham Lincoln, certain images jump to mind. He's the rail splitter who made it to the White House, served as president during the Civil War, wrote the Gettysburg Address, and was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. He was tall and lanky and often wore a stovepipe hat. His statue in Washington is encased by a facsimile of a Greek temple, the image of which appears on the back of our $5 bill. On the front is his careworn face with its sunken cheeks, trim beard, and rather large right ear. Dig deeper, and we find a man whose words and life have much to teach us today, particularly teens and 20-somethings. Let's take a look. Get Yourself an Education Had Lincoln depended only on his bits and pieces of formal schooling for his learning, he likely would have ended up semi-literate. Inspired by his stepmother, Sarah, and driven by a burning desire to read and to write well, he instead put the meager resources of his prairie cabin home to good use to
Chicago Tribune
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: Haitian President Jovenel Moïse assassinated
Today is Monday, July 7, the 188th day of 2024. There are 177 days left in the year. Today in History: On July 7, 2021, a squad of gunmen assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and wounded his wife in an overnight raid on their home. Also on this date: In 1865, four people were hanged in Washington, D.C. for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln: Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt and Mary Surratt, the first woman to be executed by the federal government. In 1898, President William McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution, approving the annexation of the Republic of Hawaii. In 1930, construction began on Boulder Dam (known today as Hoover Dam). In 1976, the United States Military Academy at West Point included female cadets for the first time as 119 women joined the Class of 1980. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1990, the first 'Three Tenors' concert took place as opera stars Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras performed amid the brick ruins of Rome's Baths of Caracalla on the eve of the FIFA World Cup final. In 2005, terrorist bombings in three Underground stations and a double-decker bus killed 52 people and four bombers in the worst attack on London since World War II. In 2010, Los Angeles police arrested and charged Lonnie Franklin Jr. in the city's 'Grim Sleeper' serial killings. (Franklin, who was sentenced to death for the killings of nine women and a teenage girl, died in prison in March 2020 at the age of 67.) In 2013, Andy Murray became the first British man in 77 years to win the Wimbledon title, beating Novak Djokovic in the final. In 2016, Micah Johnson, a Black Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, opened fire on Dallas police, killing five officers in an act of vengeance for the fatal police shootings of Black men; the attack ended with Johnson being killed by a bomb delivered by a police robot. Today's Birthdays: Musician-conductor Doc Severinsen is 98. Former Beatle Ringo Starr is 85. World Golf Hall of Famer Tony Jacklin is 81. Actor Joe Spano is 79. Actor Roz Ryan is 74. Actor Billy Campbell is 66. Basketball Hall of Famer Ralph Sampson is 65. Singer-songwriter Vonda Shepard is 62. Actor-comedian Jim Gaffigan is 59. Actor Amy Carlson is 57. Actor Jorja Fox is 57. Actor Robin Weigert is 56. Basketball Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie is 53. Actor Kirsten Vangsness ('Criminal Minds') is 53. Actor Berenice Bejo (Film: 'The Artist') is 49. Actor Hamish Linklater is 49. Olympic figure skating medalist Michelle Kwan is 45. Guitarist Synyster Gates (Avenged Sevenfold) is 44. Pop singer Ally Brooke (Fifth Harmony) (TV: 'The X Factor') is 32. Pop musician Ashton Irwin (5 Seconds to Summer) is 31. Country singer Maddie Font (Maddie and Tae) is 30.
UPI
07-07-2025
- Politics
- UPI
On This Day, July 7: London transit attacks kill 52
July 7 (UPI) -- On this date in history: In 1846, U.S. Navy Commodore J.D. Sloat proclaimed the annexation of California by the United States. In 1865, four people convicted of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln were hanged in Washington. In 1898, U.S. President William McKinley signed a joint resolution of Congress authorizing the annexation of Hawaii by the United States. In 1930, construction began on the Giant Boulder Dam, which in 1947 was renamed the Hoover Dam. In 1946, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917) became the first American to be canonized a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1976, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York enrolled female cadets for the first time in the institution's then-174-year-old history. In 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor was chosen by U.S. President Ronald Reagan to become the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. She was unanimously approved by the Senate. File Photo by Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI In 1999, a Miami-Dade County jury held the leading tobacco companies liable for various illnesses of Florida smokers. The class-action lawsuit, filed in 1994, was the first of its kind to reach trial. In 2005, terrorists struck the London transit system, setting off explosions in three subway cars and a double-decker bus in coordinated rush-hour attacks. Fifty-two people were killed and more than 700 injured. In 2010, a Paris court sentenced former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega to seven years in prison for money laundering. He was convicted of funneling about $3 million of Colombian drug money into French bank accounts. In 2012, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts married his longtime partner, Jim Ready, in a ceremony officiated by Gov. Deval Patrick. He was the first member of Congress to publicly come out as gay and first to marry a same-sex partner while in office. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI In 2013, Andy Murray became the first British player in 77 years to win the men's singles title at Wimbledon, defeating Serb Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the championship match. In 2016, a gunman opened fire at an otherwise peaceful Black Lives Matter rally in Dallas, killing four police officers and one transit officer, and injuring seven others. Police killed the gunmen, who was holed up in a parking garage, using a robot strapped with an explosive. In 2017, Elon Musk's Tesla Motors produced its first mass-market vehicle, the Model 3. In 2022, after months of scandal and calls for his resignation, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed to step down. In 2024, the Transportation Security Administration screened more than 3 million people, a new record for clearing passengers for air travel in the United States. The TSA most recently broke the record again in June 2025.
