John Wilkes Booth was a twenty-six years old, vain and talented actor, “Impossibly vain, an extremely talented actor. (P.10) He loved expensive clothing, food and beautiful women. As an actor, he had a flair for the dramatic and carefully plotted out the steps of his supposed glorious plan to assassinate President Lincoln. He was clever, yet wicked, he implicated some of his co-conspirators in a letter that he would publish in newspapers. Atzerodt knew thew details of the assassination plan that was unfolding. (P. 28) As a person, one can see that John Wilkes Booth was a very evil man.

John Wilkes Booth was a confident thrillseeker. “A Confident Booth, well known for his good looks and fine clothes, in all his splendor, much like he was dressed the night he shot the president”.(P. 20-21) He was so confident that he took a pistol over a six shot revolver, as he sought revenge, “Booth left behind no explanation for why he chose the pistol over the revolver.”(P. 20) which would be “The greatest thing in the world.” (P. 26) John Wilkes Booth thought he would be the greatest man alive and that he would be a victory for the confederacy.

John Wilkes Booth had crazy, illogical dreams of Glory, about killing Abraham Lincoln and saving the confederacy. After he shot the president in the back of his head on the lower left side,” (P. 41) Booth shouted “Freedom!” and jumped out of the stage, thrusting a bloody knife in the air victoriously,” Rathbone saw a large shiny knife, its blade pointed directly down at him.” (P. 42-43) he then happily yelled “thus always be tyrants. The South is avenged!” (P. 43)  He escaped, but eventually he was trapped in John Garett David Herold, an accomplice, wanted him to surrender, but he refused and wanted to script his own end like a theater performance, (P. 170) but his wish wasn’t granted, he got shot in the spine and was “carried out of the barn, paralized!” (P. 173) Afterwards he died. His evil dreams of Glory were finally over!

John Wilkes Booth was a vain, smart actor, who crazily dreamed of revenging the confederacy's defeat, by assassinating President Abraham Lincoln! He thought he would be a hero for dramatically killing Lincoln, but Booth is known by the total opposite. The real hero is Abraham Lincoln, who reunited the country and ended slavery. I thought this book was sad, but I learned a lot more about John Wilkes Booth and a little bit about Abraham Lincoln!