Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth

[Gene C]

This weeks discussion is Letter III, I hope you have all finished your reading assignment, entitled The Murderer.

https://archive.org/stream/lifecrimecapt...8/mode/2up
you may need to enlarge this using the controls on the bottom of the page

Gath starts of fairly soon with a statement time has shown to be an interesting error.
"But Booth is the hero of a single deed, and the delineation of him may begin and be exhausted in a single article."

Our author goes into some detail about Booth's family, especially his father. "Fitful, powerful, passionate, his life was a succession of vices and triumphs....He threw off the wife of his bosom to fly from England with a flower-girl, and settling in Baltimore, dwelt with his younger companion, and brought up many children, while his first-possessed went down to a drunken and broken-hearted death.
Only his brother Edwin gets favorable comments.

About JWB, he is not described as a demon with no redeeming qualities
I found these comments about Booth interesting:
His acting career is examined, both good and bad
Booth was a school acquaintance of Fitzhugh Lee
Booth was frequently shooting cats
His investments (oil) all turned out profitably (p27 and not quite true)

There's much more, but I want to hear what did you read that you found interesting?