Anatomy of a Presidential Assassination, Part V
April 19, 2014 // http://www.davesweb.cnchost.com/Lincoln5.html
oh ! the dots ,dots, dots !! that just "lead" up 2 Our very ....day :0 "they" r there u just refuse 2 C em :0 er errrr um "connect" um :o
Junius Brutus Booth, father of John Wilkes Booth
Lord Mayor of London John Wilkes
Henry and George Booth, the 1st and 2nd Earls of Warrington
John Brown
Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth at Lincoln's second inaugural address
Senator John P. Hale
Charles Wilkes
Cherie Blair, aka Theresa Cara Booth
April 19, 2014 // http://www.davesweb.cnchost.com/Lincoln5.html
oh ! the dots ,dots, dots !! that just "lead" up 2 Our very ....day :0 "they" r there u just refuse 2 C em :0 er errrr um "connect" um :o
Defense attorney
Joseph H. Bradley, whom we met in the last installment, had
this to say to the jury and spectators at John Surratt’s
trial: “Who was John Wilkes Booth? … He was a man of polished
exterior, pleasing address, highly respectable in every
regard, received into the best circles of society; his company
sought after; exceedingly bold, courteous, and considered
generous to a fault; a warm and liberal-hearted friend, a man
who had obtained a reputation upon the stage.”
The woman who
once reported him for rape in Philadelphia,
and the irate, jealous husband who once severely throttled him
in Syracuse,
New York, might
disagree.
Francis Wilson,
one of Booth’s biographers (John Wilkes Booth: Fact
and Fiction of Lincoln’s Assassination), posed the
following question: “How was it possible for Booth to obtain
such power over a fellow human being as to command him to
perform an act of murder and to know that that command would
be enthusiastically obeyed?” A little over a century after the
assassination of Lincoln, prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi would
ponder the very same question about a guy by the name of
Charlie Manson: “I tend to think that there is something more,
some missing link that enabled him to so rape and bastardize
the minds of his followers that they would go against the most
ingrained of all commandments, Thou shalt not kill, and
willingly, even eagerly, murder at his command.”
A friend of
Booth’s from childhood, John Deery, said that the John Wilkes
Booth that he knew “cast a spell over most men with whom he
came in contact, and I believe all women without exception.”
Junius Brutus Booth, father of John Wilkes Booth
So who was this
charismatic enigma known as John Wilkes Booth – the man known
to history as possibly the most famous assassin who ever
lived? Just about everyone knows that he was an actor, one of
the finest and arguably the most popular of his generation.
But he was much more than just that, a fact obscured by the
century-and-a-half focus on John Wilkes Booth the actor. In
reality, John Wilkes Booth, and the Booth family in general,
were very deeply tied to the power structures in Washington and London, and had been for
a very, very long time. And they still are today.
Booth’s most
famous ancestor was undoubtedly his namesake, John Wilkes, who
lived from October 17, 1725 until December 26, 1797.
Throughout his life, Wilkes served as a Member of Parliament,
a judge, a journalist and essayist, and the Lord Mayor of London.
A revered statesman, Wilkes was also a member of the Hellfire
Club and a noted libertine (other notable libertines
throughout history include the Marquis de Sade, Aleister
Crowley, and Anton LaVey). That would be the same Hellfire
Club that included as a member a ‘Founding Father” by the name
of Benjamin Franklin. And that would be the same Benjamin
Franklin whose London
home from that era yielded the remains of at least ten bodies,
six of them children.
Lord Mayor of London John Wilkes
It was the
Hellfire Club, by the way, that first coined the phrase “Do
what thou wilt,” which was later appropriated by Aleister
Crowley. And it was the Hellfire Club that was widely rumored
during its heyday to be conducting black masses and other
occult/Satanic rituals, along with drunken orgies and various
other acts of debauchery.
John Wilkes was
also notable for being considered during his lifetime the
ugliest man in all of England. He
never though suffered from a shortage of beautiful female
companions. Aside from a nine-year marriage, Wilkes remained
single for his 72 years on this planet and was considered
quite the ladies man, fathering an unknown number of children.
Like his descendent and namesake, Wilkes apparently had a
knack for “cast[ing] a spell” over women.
Two other of
John Wilkes Booth’s famous ancestors were Henry Booth, the 1st
Earl of Warrington, who lived from 1652 to 1694, and his son
George Booth, who lived from 1675 to 1758 and succeeded his
father as the 2nd (and last) Earl of Warrington. At
various times during his life, Henry Booth served as a Member
of Parliament, a member of the Privy Council of England, a
noted writer, and a mayor.
John Wilkes
Booth was also descended from Barton Booth, who lived from
1681 to 1733 and who was described by one biographer as the
“most popular actor with the English royalty known to
history.” Many generations later, namesake Sydney Barton
Booth, a son of Junius Brutus Booth, Jr., would become an
actor and writer of some renown before passing away in 1937.
Henry and George Booth, the 1st and 2nd Earls of Warrington
The alleged
assassin’s grandfather was Richard Booth, an eccentric English
barrister with a fondness for alcohol – a fondness that would
be shared by his son, Junius Brutus Booth, and his grandson,
John Wilkes Booth. Junius was born in London in 1796 and was
performing on stage by the age of seventeen. At nineteen, he
married Marie Christine Adelaide Delannoy. Less than five
months later, she bore him his first child, who died in
infancy, as would a number of Junius Brutus Booth’s offspring.
In June 1821, at
the age of twenty-five, Junius set sail for America
with his mistress, Mary Ann Holmes, leaving behind his wife
and only surviving child, Richard Junius Booth. Junius and
Mary Ann would pose as man and wife for the next thirty years,
producing no fewer than ten illegitimate offspring, four of
whom didn’t make it through childhood. The pair weren’t
actually married until 1851, the year Junius finally divorced
his actual wife, and were married just one year before Junius
passed away in November 1852.
During his
lifetime, Junius was considered to be one of the finest actors
of his generation. He was also regarded as a playwright,
scholar, philosopher and linguist. Named for one of the most
notorious assassins of all time, Junius once set a fine
example for son John by sending a letter to then-President
Andrew Jackson threatening to slit his throat and/or have him
burned at the stake. And he thoughtfully signed that letter
and included a return address. It was, nevertheless, dismissed
as either a hoax or a joke.
John Brown
Junius and Mary
Ann purchased a 150-acre estate in Maryland that would
ultimately feature a large pool, stables, and a Gothic home
known as Tudor Hall, listed in the National Register of
Historic Places. Junius began construction on the home shortly
before his death and so never lived there, though his
offspring, including John Wilkes Booth, did. Ned Spangler, it
will be recalled, was involved in the construction of the
home.
John Wilkes
Booth, the ninth of Junius and Mary Ann’s ten offspring, was
born on May 10, 1838. A well educated young man, he was
regarded as an excellent horseman and marksman as well as a
talented athlete. Like his father, he made his acting debut at
seventeen, in an 1855 production of Richard III. By 1861, he
was one of the most popular actors in America and
there was considerable demand for his services.
Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth at Lincoln's second inaugural address
On December 2,
1859, John Wilkes Booth was among the soldiers standing guard
on the scaffold when probable agent provocateur John Brown was
hanged. Booth was not a soldier though – he purportedly either
borrowed or stole a militia uniform and posed as a soldier to
secure the position. On March 4, 1865, Booth found himself
prominently placed among the onlookers at Lincoln’s second
inaugural address. He was there as a guest of US Senator John
P. Hale.
Unknown at the
time was that Booth was secretly engaged to Hale’s daughter,
Lucy Hale. Senator Hale had worked closely with fellow Senator
William Seward before Seward’s appointment as Secretary of
State. Notably, Hale was a northern senator, representing New Hampshire,
and he was known for his staunchly abolitionist views. It
makes perfect sense then that his daughter would be engaged to
an alleged Confederate operative.
Senator John P. Hale
During John
Wilkes Booth’s lifetime, there was another member of the
Booth/Wilkes clan who achieved a considerable amount of public
notoriety. Charles Wilkes was a US naval
officer who ultimately attained the rank of rear admiral, as
well as a celebrated explorer who led the United States
Exploring Expedition from 1838 to 1842. He was also a
great-nephew of John Wilkes, making him a blood relative of
John Wilkes Booth and his numerous siblings.
Charles Wilkes
was raised by his aunt, Elizabeth Ann Seton, who was a woman
of considerable social prominence who later became the first
American-born woman to be canonized by the Catholic Church. In
the 1820s, Wilkes counted among his associates a genocidal
Grand Master Mason by the name of Andrew Jackson – the same
Andrew Jackson who was also, by some reports, a friend of
Junius Brutus Booth, the guy who ‘jokingly’ threatened to
assassinate him.
Charles Wilkes
Many years
later, another member of the Booth clan, Theresa Cara Booth,
was born on September 23, 1954. Theresa is a direct descendent
of Algernon Booth, Junius Brutus Booth’s brother and John
Wilkes Booth’s uncle. She became an attorney in 1976 and a
member of the Queen’s Counsel in 1995. Two years later,
Theresa Booth – better known as Cherie Blair, wife of Tony
Blair – became the First Lady of Downing Street. Nothing
unusual about that, I suppose.
In the aftermath
of the Lincoln
assassination, actors were viewed with considerable suspicion
across the country. The entire cast of Our American Cousin
was arrested and numerous other productions closed for a time
due to the lynch-mob mentality that was sweeping the nation.
No one was above suspicion and, as previously noted, more than
2,000 people were arrested as possible co-conspirators. Those
with only the loosest connections to the accused coup plotters
were scooped up and held for varying lengths of time.
Two of John
Wilkes Booth’s brothers, Edwin and Junius Brutus, Jr., were
fellow actors. Clearly then they had two big strikes against
them, which should have put them at the very top of the
government’s round-up list. And yet not a single member of the
Booth clan was arrested in the frenzy of arrests and
accusations. Not one. It always helps to have friends in high
places.
*********************************
The Op-Ed page
of the Los Angeles
Times apparently now operates in part as a forum for
unpaid advertisements for intelligence agency-approved works
of fiction. I say that because just a few days ago that page
featured what was essentially a half-page ad for Jeff Bauman’s
hopelessly fraudulent account of the Boston Marathon bombings.
And yesterday that same page featured a barely disguised
advertisement for a book written by a professional liar by the
name of Mel Ayton.
Ayton has
apparently penned a whole series of disinformational books on
various presidential assassinations and attempted
assassinations. His latest, Hunting the President:
Threats, Plots and Assassination Attempts – From FDR to
Obama, carries on in that fine tradition. The following
paragraph is from his wildly inaccurate Op-Ed piece:
“Lincoln
was the first American president to be assassinated. But the
motivations that drove his assassin were unfortunately not
unique. Understanding the nature of those who want to kill a
president goes considerably further toward explaining
assassinations than looking to fanciful conspiracy theories.”
Cherie Blair, aka Theresa Cara Booth
Let’s now take a
peek at what “fanciful” theory it is that Ayton is pitching:
“Booth’s desire for fame and recognition is a common theme
among assassins. In researching a book on presidential killers
and would-be killers, I found that they tended to share
certain personality traits. While some had been treated for
mental illness, an even more predominant characteristic is
that many of them were disillusioned with and resentful of
American society after a lifetime of failure. And most of them
also had a burning desire for notoriety. Killing an American
president, most would-be assassins believed, would win them a
place in history, making a ‘somebody’ out of a ‘nobody.’”
Every single
word of the preceding paragraph can only be described as
complete and utter bullshit. Booth already had fame and
recognition beyond his wildest dreams. He was far from being a
“nobody.” To the contrary, he was making upwards of $20,000 a
year, a staggering amount in those days, and had the love,
respect and admiration of men and women all across the
country. He was wealthy, good looking, supremely talented, and
had lived a very charmed life. And given that he was only
twenty-six at the time of the assassination, it is hardly
accurate to say that he had faced a “lifetime” of failure. In
truth, he had never known failure at all in his short life.
Compulsive liar
Ayton’s body of work is, unfortunately, typical of what has
been written about Lincoln and his alleged assassin over the
last 149 years. Listed below, in order of the date of release,
are some of the more honest books that have been published
(some decidedly better than others).
Bates, Finis L. The Escape and Suicide of
John Wilkes Booth, J.L Nichols & Company, 1907
Wilson, Francis John Wilkes Booth: Fact
and Fiction of Lincoln’s Assassination, Houghton Mifflin
Company, 1929
Eisenschiml,
Otto Why Was Lincoln
Murdered?, Little, Brown and Company, 1937
Eisenschiml,
Otto In the Shadow of
Lincoln’s Death, Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1940
Roscoe, Theodore The Web of Conspiracy,
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1959
Shelton, Vaughan Mask for Treason: The Lincoln
Murder Trial, Stackpole Books, 1965
Balsiger, David
and Charles Sellier, Jr.
The Lincoln
Conspiracy, Schick Sunn Classic Books, 1977
Jameson, W.C. Return of Assassin: John
Wilkes Booth, Republic of Texas Press, 1999
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