Though brilliant on the stage, the elder Booth was an alcoholic, and prone to fits of madness. Though he sometimes threatened people with shotguns, he hated the killing of any living creature and once held an elaborate funeral for dead pigeons. Melancholy over the death of a friend, he also once hurled himself over the rail of a ship at sea, though he was rescued. His brood was quite sane, extremely talented and largely happy. According to sister Asia, life at Tudor Hall was an idyll, especially for her because of her days spent with brother Wilkes, as he was called, whom she adored.
Life is so short, and the world so beautiful.
Just to breathe is delicious. Asia was not the only woman to adore John Wilkes Booth. When he was killed after the assassination, he was carrying the photographs of five women, including his fiance, Lucy Hale, the daughter of a Republican U.S. senator. Some think that, driven by his ego and passion for the dramatic, he chose to murder the president as a last chance to play a highly public part in the Civil War saga. I may before my God, but not to man.