Booth Files | Teen Ink

Booth Files

May 18, 2015
By Luke Gorlich BRONZE, St Charles, Illinois
Luke Gorlich BRONZE, St Charles, Illinois
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

It was April 15th 1865. John Wilkes Booth woke up in a pretty good mood. He was staying at the Hilton a few blocks away from the local AMC theatre where, little did he know later, Abraham Lincoln would be attending to see the “Despicable Me 3” Movie.  First, Booth needed his large Starbucks cappuccino. So around 10:00 AM, he hopped into his blue Honda Civic and drove up to get his coffee, and he saw a billboard that made him go from happy to extremely happy. The AD read:

Do YOU want to meet Abraham Lincoln?

If so then come to the AMC theatre on 5th avenue and meet the President!

It was a perfect plan for booth. He would be able to buy tickets to meet the president, then sneak into the Presidents box and shoot him later fleeing from the scene, maybe even leaving the country!

But now there was one problem. Now that had a plan for his assassination he needed a few things first. He needed a Kayak, some food and of course, gasoline, just in case he needs to burn a few things, which he probably will. But, most of all, John Wilkes Booth needed a new gun. He eventually decided on a .44 caliber pistol because it wasn’t too big, meaning he wouldn’t look suspicious and, best of all, the gun wouldn’t show at all.

Now that booth had a plan and a weapon he needed a route for escape. He was mostly planning on rural roads so people wont see him and shout “there he is!”.  Anyway, in 1865 there were plenty of rural roads. He would make his way into Pennsylvania and Virginia, stick his Prius on a raft and float across the Potomac river and hopefully be home free.

Booth had many friends out on his escape route. He knew these people because they agreed to help him with the earlier plot to carjack Lincoln and kidnap him, but when it fell through, they lost touch. Well, obviously they hadn’t lost touch for long because John Wilkes Booth is coming in for some more and needs their help. He planned to stay at their houses and when they heard that the assassinator was John Wilkes Booth, he would flee to the next house, kind of like the Underground Railroad. His first stop was Samuel Mudd’s House. Mudd was an old friend of Booths and little did he know, would be helping with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

Well, enough with planning, it was time for action.  The time was nearing 5:00 and the show started at 8. Lincoln would be arriving soon and watching the movie.  So Booth had to hide his weapons. His plan was to hide his gun and pocketknife behind the movie screen so, when the time came, he would sneak into the presidents box and, BAM! , The President of the United States has been shot. But little did he know, it wouldn’t be as easy as he thought. Abraham Lincoln obviously would obviously have guards after the amount of people that were mad at him about abolishing slavery in the south. I mean, who wouldn’t? So John Wilkes Booth would have to dress as a Secret Service member, pretend to deliver president Lincoln his desired bottle of tequila and when he was in the presidents box, Abraham Lincoln would be shot and in the next 5 minutes booth would be 10 blocks away trying to get across the bridge. With the invention of social media, the news would spread fast across the world, so the assassin would have to hide.

It was now approximately 8:00 PM, just ahead of schedule. Lincoln was already in the Presidents Box waiting for the movie to start. At about the middle of the film, Booth would swoop into action but, at this point he had more important things to do, he wanted to have a few drinks before he would be in captivity for the rest of his life. So, as he was sitting in the local Moe’s Tavern, there was a report on the news that the President was going to have a was going to stay for pictures after the movie ended.

Now nearing the middle of the movie, Booth was in the kitchen of the theater.  There he waited and waited until a secret service member came in to bring Lincoln a bottle of tequila. Booth held a gun to the man’s head and told him to take off his clothes, in which they were planning to change, and it actually worked. Now was Booths dream moment. He was heading up to the presidents box, scanned his card and was right behind Abraham Lincoln in his rocking chair. The assassin then pulled out his revolver and aimed for the Presidents head. But, the unthinkable happened, the president turned around and sprayed Booth in the face with pepper spray! Lincoln knew what was going to happen all along!

So after that moment, Booth was put in jail on a deserted island for the rest of his life and the Lincolns and the whole rest of the country lived happily ever after.


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John Wilkes Booth


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