The Ladykiller who Killed Lincoln: The Scandalous Love Life of John Wilkes Booth

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2018

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What if People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” assassinated a U.S. President? John Wilkes Booth has been despised as a traitor, hailed as a martyr, and dismissed as a lunatic. But in the 1860s he was considered the “handsomest man in America”? Before cementing his name in history by assassinating President Lincoln, this actor extraordinaire was the Leonardo DiCaprio of the 1860s. Women packed the audiences wherever Booth played, pawed him for autographs, and tore at his clothes for souvenirs.

Women could not resist him—nor could he resist them.

Today on the show I am joined by E. Lawrence Abel, author of the new book John Wilkes Booth and the Women Who Loved Him. He discusses stories of stories of infatuation, flings, and heartbreak that Booth interwove throughout his theatrical career and assassination plot. We specifically discussHow Actress Henrietta Irving attempted to kill him in a jealous rageThe “Star Sisters” broke up their act after a jealous falling-out over himPhotos of five women were found on Booth’s body, and only one was of his fiancée

Booth’s life was as dramatic as any play. Actor, lover, and assassin, Booth was a complex man whose shocking crime changed the course of American history and cast him forever in the role of an American villain.

Transcript

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0:00.0	War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding right down to the present.
0:06.2	Wars made the United States independent, kept it together, increased its size, and established it as a global superpower.
0:13.2	Hi, I'm James Early, host of the Key Battles of American History podcast.
0:17.6	In each episode I discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's Wars.
0:23.2	To start listening now, go to pathanonpodcast.com or search Key Battles of American History on your favorite podcast and platform.
0:36.1	The history of North America podcast is a sweeping historical saga of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, from their deep origins to our present epoch.
0:46.0	Join me, Mark Vinet, on this exciting, fascinating epic journey through time,
0:51.1	focusing on the compelling, wonderful, and tragic stories of North America's inhabitants, heroes, villains, leaders, environment, and geography.
1:01.4	I invite you to come along for the ride.
1:06.5	Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast.
1:09.4	The unscripted show that celebrates unsung heroes, myth busts historical lies, and rediscoveres the forgotten stories that changed our world.
1:19.6	I'm your host, Scott Rank.
1:28.0	When John Wilkes Booth was her team, a gypsy that was passing through the Maryland countryside in your John's boarding school at Kakisville, offered to read his palm for a few pennies.
1:37.0	He thought it might be fun to have his fortune told. He handed over the pennies and stuck out his palm.
1:42.3	With the gypsies holding with so a nerve-in, he wrote it down so he wouldn't forget it. He read and reread the gypsy's prophecy mulling over what to make of it.
1:50.6	Ah, you've got a bad hand. The lines all criss-cross. It's full enough of sorrow, full of trouble, trouble and plenty, everywhere I look.
1:58.1	The break-harts, they'll be nothing to you. You'll die young and leave many to mourn you, many to love you too.
2:04.7	You'll be rich, generous and free with your money. You're born under an unlucky star. You've got in your hand a thundering crowd of enemies.
2:12.6	Not one friend. You'll make a bad end and have plenty to love you afterwards. You'll have a fast life, short but a grand one.
2:20.3	Now, young sir, I've never seen a worst hand and I wish I hadn't seen it, but every word I've told is true by the signs.
2:26.4	John's stuff the prophecy back in his pocket. And I think all of us can make sense of the points that she said about making many enemies and coming to a terrible end
2:34.2	because he's of course the assassin of Abraham Lincoln.
	...

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