Weird History

A Timeline of the Hunt for John Wilkes Booth (2020x11)

Uitzenddatum: Feb 05, 2020

On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC. Much has been written about Booth's motivations: that he was a Confederate sympathizer, or suffering from professional jealousy, or simply wanted attention. Regardless, when Booth left Ford's Theatre that night, he had indelibly changed the course of history, slaying a man now considered one of the nation's greatest presidents. In the weeks, months, and years following the event, the nation grappled with the consequences of Booth's actions. But for Booth himself, the results were much more immediate. In John Wilkes Booth's final days, he ran. He ran for 13 days, from Ford's Theatre all the way to a small farm near Port Royal, VA. The search to find him was one of the biggest manhunts in history, with 10,000 federal troops involved.