Booth, John Wilkes

1. The assassin of Abraham Lincoln . Booth, an actor, was fanatically devoted to the Confederate cause in the Civil War . While Lincoln was attending a play, Booth stole into his theater box and shot him in the head at pointblank range. He then leaped down to the stage, breaking his leg, and escaped. Cornered later in a barn, he died of gunshot wounds, possibly inflicted by himself.