The Incredibly Bad Timing of John Wilkes Booth

When John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago today on April 14, 1865, it happened to be a Good Friday.  I do not know if he and his associates thought about how this would be viewed by the American people of that time, including even most southerners, much less the longer run view of history, but the timing instantly turned a man who had been quite unpopular in many quarters even in the North into a martyred and sanctified Christlike figures.  Perhaps Booth thought people would view him that way, but he was mistaken.

Barkley Rosser