WASHINGTON—Touting the coin as the first in American history to feature an assassin, the United States Mint introduced a controversial new John Wilkes Booth penny Friday. “With this one-cent coin, we honor John Wilkes Booth, a man who, while not perfect, altered the course of our nation in indelible ways,” said the mint’s director, Ventris […]
Booth was a pretty famous actor in his day, and was regarded as handsome. He had very dark eyes which was unusual.
His plan to kill Lincoln was sort of spur of the moment. He had actually planned to kidnap him, but decided to assassinate him when the opportunity arose. After killing Lincoln, Booth went on stage (I think this was the point where he injured his foot) and said that he did it because Lincoln was a tyrant. So he essentially confessed on the spot.
His escape plan was similarly poorly thought out and executed.
He’s basically the Civil War era’s version of an influencer who has bought into conservative propaganda out of sheer stupidity. Were he alive today, no doubt he’d have been one of those insurrectionists on Jan 6 2021.
thanks. I didn’t know that. I was duckgoobing with less nuance.