Junius provided his children with more than enough bad examples for several lifetimes. His father set a poor example for a son only too quick to follow his lead. He developed a history of fighting with other children at school and grew angry easily. The strains were evident on the family as well, and the impact on John Wilkes, born on May 10, 1838, was no exception. But his heavy drinking habits and mental aberrations were a constant strain on his managers as well as on the theatre owners where he was booked. His acting ability and experience were such that he had no trouble finding suitable engagements, and soon he was regarded as the foremost Shakespearean actor in America, a distinction he held with little competition for over thirty years. Junius, like his son John Wilkes, was an actor and before settling on a farm north of Baltimore near Belair, Maryland, he performed in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and the leading cities of the South. After visiting France and Madeira, the couple arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, in June of 1821 and travelled up and down the East coast.

Junius Booth had deserted his first wife, Mary Delancy, and infant son in 1821, leaving them in London while he departed with his new love, a London flower-seller whom he had discovered in the Bow Street Market. John Wilkes Booth was the ninth of ten children born to Junius Brutus Booth and Mary Ann Holmes.

Beginning about 10:25 on the evening of April 14, 1865, the time and date President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in Washington’s Ford Theatre by John Wilkes Booth, a mass of information including evidence and myths has accumulated regarding the act and those connected with it, particularJy about the assassin himself.

Edwin l drake friends