The Insane Story of the Guy Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Boston Corbett, the self-castrated hatmaker who was John Wilkes Booth’s Jack Ruby

On April 26, 1865, soldiers had John Wilkes Booth cornered in a burning barn near Port Royal, Virginia, before Boston Corbett shot him. Illustration by Roy Knipe

The fire in the tobacco barn was starting to rage, and inside was the most wanted man in America: John Wilkes Booth, the traitor who had shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre 12 days earlier. Continue ...