Booth's Mental health

[Wild Bill]

No preference--they actually work together. But Scorpion is shorter

[Eva Elisabeth]

Welcome to the forum, Rosieo!

Certainly JWB was physically used to drink, and that "drinking did not knock him out" indicates this. I wonder what his blood alcohol level was in the evening of April 14.

However, re: "JWB needed medical detox and long-term rehab – just for his addiction" - I wonder if he would have agreed. I tend to believe he wouldn't have allowed and attempt to interfere in his lifestyle. He himself didn't seem to suffer (enough to give up drinking), nor did this influence his ability to manage life and making a living. He certainly could have gotten engagements if he hadn't been busy plotting.

I don't know US law about this, but in Germany you can only legally enforce someone undergoing such therapy when he becomes a danger to himself or others (that JWB turned out to be a deadly danger to Lincoln was probably not a consequence of his drinking). Likewise you cannot force smokers, binge-eaters etc to undergo a therapy however beneficial that might be to them/their health condition.

And I wonder by how many addicts of all kind of drugs (choral, opiates, cannabis, etc) JWB was surrounded in his days.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Off topic, but the "drinking did not knock him out" argument reminded me of that rulers in history used to consume a certain, increasing amount of arsenic each day to slowly get their body used to a dose that would kill people not used to it and prevent murder attempts by arsenic poisoning. I know there was one ruler who was particularly known for doing this, but cannot remember who it was. If anyone knows, please post!

[HerbS]

Roseio,welcome to the forum! I agree with you about JWBooth's drinking problem 100$.Well said!

[L Verge]

I have a very difficult time accepting assumptions that Booth was an alcoholic - even a functioning alcoholic. A frequent drinker, yes, but not an alcoholic.

I was raised with a father who was a functioning alcoholic for approximately forty years of his life, thanks to a family trait, World War II, and the Korean War. During the last few years of his life, I would classify my father as a pure alcoholic. I have also read many biographies of Booth as well as the full story of the assassination, and I just don't see enough evidence to indicate that Booth would be in the same category as, say John Surratt, Sr. The assassin's best biographers certainly have not branded him as an alcoholic.

I think that Booth was like most men of his day who were social drinkers. It really was a society thing in a day where water was unsafe, and people (even children) resorted to fermentation in order to quench their thirst. Remember that beer was the #1 drink of the day. The temperance movement had good reason to take offense at how freely liquor flowed.

While we are busy trying to blame the assassination on Booth's mental problems, have we ever stopped to consider that Lincoln and what Booth saw happening to the country that he loved (the whole U.S., not just the South) were what brought on his "insane" behavior (if you want to call it that) and drinking? I see things happening in my country today that make me very angry and upset -- and you are doing good to see me drink more than 5-6 wines or highballs in a year.

One of the best descriptions of Booth's motive appeared in a review of American Brutus in a Catholic publication. "Though vain and manipulative, John Wilkes Booth was an idealist whose deep-seated belief in the righteousness of the Confederate cause and the guilt of Abraham Lincoln led him to commit what has indeed gone down as one of the most spectacular dramatic acts in American history." If Booth drank heavily, which I don't believe he did in our modern interpretation, it was caused by the fury and grief that he was feeling against Lincoln and over the collapse of Southern culture.

NOW, ON A LIGHTER NOTE: Did you know that there is an alcoholic drink named "John Wilkes Booth?" You can blame it on a Yankee because it has its roots in colonial Pennsylvania, where the settlers stole a recipe from the Indians. There was once something known as Root Tea, which was an herbal remedy concocted from pretty much anything you wanted to throw in the pot. The main ingredient in most of the recipes, however, was sassafras. Over the years, this concoction developed into things like root beer (which was first introduced by Charles Hires in Pennsylvania) and sarsparilla (which even children sipped).

A few years ago, an entrepreneur from Pennsylvania decided to concoct a liquor based on the old root tea. However, sassafras is now outlawed for consumption because it has been classified a carcinogen. This business man experimented and found that brewing wintergreen, spearmint, orange and lemon peel produced the same taste. He began the distilling process and now sells a liquor named Root. Root is the basis for a drink that is named after John Wilkes Booth. Here's the recipe: 2 crushed cinnamon sticks, a spoonful of brown sugar, a few orange slices, 1 oz. of Root, 2 oz. of rye whiskey.

Place the orange and sugar in a cocktail shaker and add the crushed cinnamon. Muddle it until the sugar dissolves. Add ice, the Root. and the rye whiskey and shake, shake, shake. Double strain it to get all the crushed cinnamon pieces out and pour over ice into a rocks glass. Add a twist of orange peel to the rim.

Someone wrote an appropriate review of this John Wilkes Booth cocktail: "Smooth, like the actor. Fiery, like the rebel. Deceptive, like the conspirator. Be warned: This drink, like the assassin, will sneak up on you."

[Eva Elisabeth]

(07-16-2015 10:30 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  And I wonder by how many addicts of all kind of drugs (choral, opiates, cannabis, etc) JWB was surrounded in his days.

This reminds me of the Blue Mass Lincoln allegedly took.

"Henry C. Whitney reported that [John Todd] Stuart said: 'Lincoln’s digestion was organically defective so that the excreta escaped through the skin pores instead of the bowels'. Stuart said he 'advised him to take him to take Blue Mass and he did take it before he went to Washington and for five months while he was President but when I went to Congress he told me he had quit because it made him cross.'

Such blue mass pills included mercury as an ingredient and were intended as a laxative but they were also prescribed for a wide variety of ills. Mercury, according to medical researchers, was prescribed to treat 'hypochondriasis,' which covered a wide range of 'mental and intestinal distress.' Medical speculation has suggested that the mercury might have affected Mr. Lincoln’s physical and mental disposition – causing him irritation and insomnia before he ceased their use in 1861. One medical study in 2001 concluded that Mr. Lincoln might have been unable to handle the presidency had he not stopped using the patent medicine. The authors wrote: 'If blue pills prompted Abraham Lincoln’s remarkable behavior in the decade before he went to the White House, then his insightful decision to stop taking them may have been crucial to the outcome of the Civil War.'"

http://abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/abra...ns-health/

[L Verge]

"Alcoholism/addiction is a touchy subject and loved ones reasonably want to run from even thinking about it -- unless they have been captured by it, cannot escape, and are forced (as in: have no choice but) to confront it. (Drop in any AlAnon meeting and bring up this concept for an earful.)

"I am not blaming the assassination on drunkenness. Based on all I have read and heard so far, I am thinking Booth was a Confederate operative -- much as operatives around the world today are part of ISIL."

First, I need to clarify that I hold no malice against my father (and never have) because he dealt with his alcoholism without being abusive or spending the family "fortunes." He encouraged me in everything I attempted. Oldtimers on this forum know that I have spoken freely of his problems on several occasions. When I compare what I know about his problems with my thoughts on Booth, I am doing it (I hope) from a neutral standpoint.

Rosieo - as for your assessment of Booth being comparable to ISIL operatives today, I think you are right on target. There was a political and military motive that some of us refuse to take into consideration. Years ago, James O. Hall said that he thought the image of Booth as a "crazy actor" was actually started by Confederates themseves in order to distance themselves from the assassin and make him the sole perpetrator. Sounds logical to me.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Just curious - may I ask whom you wrote for and what about? (We have other journalists on the forum, too, btw.)

[Eva Elisabeth]

I'm an English and biology teacher, and additionally obtained a degree to teach special needs students. Long ago I worked at the Kiel opera and theater.

[HerbS]

Eva,your students must enjoy your style! I feel that you have to"dare to be different",and"catch kids being good"!-Herb

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks, Herb.

[Jenny]

(07-16-2015 06:05 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I have a very difficult time accepting assumptions that Booth was an alcoholic - even a functioning alcoholic. A frequent drinker, yes, but not an alcoholic.

While we are busy trying to blame the assassination on Booth's mental problems, have we ever stopped to consider that Lincoln and what Booth saw happening to the country that he loved (the whole U.S., not just the South) were what brought on his "insane" behavior (if you want to call it that) and drinking? I see things happening in my country today that make me very angry and upset -- and you are doing good to see me drink more than 5-6 wines or highballs in a year.

One of the best descriptions of Booth's motive appeared in a review of American Brutus in a Catholic publication. "Though vain and manipulative, John Wilkes Booth was an idealist whose deep-seated belief in the righteousness of the Confederate cause and the guilt of Abraham Lincoln led him to commit what has indeed gone down as one of the most spectacular dramatic acts in American history." If Booth drank heavily, which I don't believe he did in our modern interpretation, it was caused by the fury and grief that he was feeling against Lincoln and over the collapse of Southern culture.

I agree with all of those points for sure. Great post.

[HerbS]

Boy,that clears up the fog about Booth's and Lincoln's thoughts!

[L Verge]

Booth lived in a fog....of despair and hatred over what he thought Lincoln and the centralized government that was being created had done to his country and its Constitutional basis.

[L Verge]

(07-19-2015 02:56 PM)Rosieo Wrote:  

(07-19-2015 02:45 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Booth lived in a fog....of despair and hatred over what he thought Lincoln and the centralized government that was being created had done to his country and its Constitutional basis.

Man needed the light!

The light was what he thought he was bringing back to life with his deed.