The Lincoln Conspiracy

The Leading Man

Imagine you're shopping  at the mall and you look up to see, standing beside you, Brad Pitt. He smiles, introduces himself and strikes up a conversation. Then he invites you join him for dinner at one of the city’s finest restaurants, followed by a nightcap at a nearby watering hole. As you relax with your favorite beverage, he leans close and says: “You know, I’m about to embark on a very special project and I think there is job that would be just perfect for you.”

Congratulations!  You have just joined a conspiracy against the President of the United States.

The notion that a marquee actor of Brad Pitt's stature might plot against the president may seem outrageous today.  Indeed, it was no less outrageous in the 1860's.  But it happened.  And the leading man of the drama was the Brad Pitt of his day.  His name was John Wilkes Booth.

He was -- quite literally -- born for the stage.  The ninth child of legendary tragedian Junius Brutus Booth, John Wilkes made his theatrical debut at the age of 17.  It was not a success.  But over the next several years, with coaching from his older brother Edwin, John Wilkes developed an energetic acting style that, coupled with his darkly handsome good looks, made him America's first matinee idol.  By 1863, he was arguably the country's most successful actor, earning the princely sum of $20,000 that year.  He was such a powerful draw that when he appeared on stage at Ford's Theatre in November of that year, the President of the United States was in the audience to cheer him on.  A year and a half later, Booth and Lincoln would meet again in that same theater, under very different circumstances.

Generations of school children have been taught that Abraham Lincoln was killed by a "failed actor" driven to madness.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  John Wilkes Booth was a star of the first magnitude and a member of America's premier theatrical family -- the Barrymores or Fondas of their day.  His participation in a plot against the president was a shock to Americans in 1865.  It was as shocking as Brad Pitt's (hypothetical) role in a criminal conspiracy would be to Americans today.