john wilkes booth.

john wilkes booth is in my apartment.



okay, maybe not the real john wilkes booth, but an amazing painting my friend peter did. i've been after this painting for many months and yesterday, peter finally came down and delivered it. i'm quite happy with my first art purchase, especially because it's something from a close friend.



in the painting, booth is dead. the banner above reads his famous last words "useless. useless."

the stories of john wilkes booth, the assassination plot, and his escape are really fascinating. he truly believed that he would be seen as a savior of the confederacy and that his actions would create a groundswell of support that would renew the civil war. during the twelve days following the assassination, he slowly learned that the opposite was true. he was condemned almost universally in the public eye and in the press.

booth met his end in a burning barn, surrounded by union troops. he was shot in the neck by a union soldier through the wooden slots of the barn.

from wikipedia:

Booth, fatally wounded in the neck, was dragged from the barn to the porch of Garrett's farmhouse, where he died three hours later, at age 26. The bullet had pierced three vertebrae and partially severed his spinal cord, paralyzing him. In his last dying moments, he reportedly whispered "tell my mother I died for my country". Asking that his hands be raised to his face so he could see them, Booth uttered his last words, "Useless, useless," and died as dawn was breaking. In Booth's pockets were found a compass, a candle, pictures of five women including his fiancée Lucy Hale, and his diary, where he had written of Lincoln's death, "Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment."

i think more than anything, i'm fascinated by his death. how he seems to realizes the mistake he made, and sees it all unraveling before him. he dies knowing he will not be a martyr and there will be no revolution. instead he dies as just a murderer of a great man, which was never his intent.

sorry about the tangent - the bottom line is, i am so excited to finally have this painting. peter is the only person i know who nerds out more about the lincoln assassination story and the civil war more than i do. i'm so glad peter was willing to part with it.

thanks dude!