Terry_Alford

The most surprising part was realizing what a really good actor he was.

He was an exceptional actor.

He was one of 4 or 5 great actors of the Civil War generation.

He had armies of fans. Tons of money. Critics loved him.

So he was a very serious actor. And of course, that is lost, once he shot Lincoln. Nobody thinks about that anymore.

In a way, he was kinda like Brad Pitt. He was that popular. Those good looks, that success.

And it was all overshadowed when he shot the President.

No. I think Booth is a cut above Lee Harvey Oswald. He had a serious profession that he was at the top of. People asked for his autograph BEFORE he shot the President.

He was somebody with something to lose, not a born loser. Nobody ever heard of Lee Harvey Oswald before, and if he hadn't have shot Kennedy, nobody would've.

Booth starred in THE WINTER GARDEN across America, and made tons of money. Lincoln saw him perform, loved his acting, and wanted to meet him.

One little known fact that I bring out in the book is when he was 12 years old, John Wilkes Booth killed cats.

Now, what was weird about that, was that he was VERY kind to other animals.

He protected dogs, horses, even butterflies. He'd go out of his way to not hurt a lightning bug. But he just had a cat-killing mania.

He killed all the neighborhood cats he could get to.

There are accounts from two friends of his that I include in my book that say how he would tie cats together, so if one moved, it would hurt the other one, that he would chase 'em across rooftops, trying to get ahold of 'em... obviously something was going on.

This is obviously a bad sign.

But weirdly, he was kind to other animals.

Apparently he grew out of it, because in a later story, in his 20's he was kind and rescued some kittens.

From what survives in the accounts, I'd like to think he outgrew that.

Recent discoveries in Russian archives reveal they were very suspicious of him (the Russian government was) and didn't think he was an appropriate person to work through. So my understanding of that was that he was just a flake. The Russian government watched him, they actually bugged his apartment.

Yes.

Particularly Oswald.

Both were politically fanatic type-people. Both would do something that a million other people wouldn't do. So they're not crazy when you look at 'em walking down the street, but one-to-one, face to face, they were not normal.

They were obsessive.