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John Wilkes Booth

1838 – 1865

dead

John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in 1865 as part of a broader conspiracy against the federal government during a pivotal moment in American history. A Confederate sympathizer who vehemently denounced Lincoln, he committed the murder largely because he opposed the abolition of slavery and sought vengeance for the Confederacy's defeat. His act of political violence robbed the nation of its leader at the dawn of Reconstruction and cemented his legacy as one of American history's most notorious criminals.