By Steven Hoskins, Staff Writer
SPRINGFIELD — “John Wilkes Booth was not a born loser like so many would-be or actual presidential assassins,” Dr. Terry Alford told a packed room in the Trutter Center on April 23. “He was already a famous man, an incredibly accomplished actor, one anyone would have wanted an autograph of, or a picture of. That’s what attracted me to the man, he had something to lose.”
Alford, author of “Fortune’s Fool,” the first full biography on John Wilkes Booth, and the award-winning “Prince Among Slaves,” spoke at the Honoring Lincoln Symposia.
Alford is a nationally recognized scholar on both John Wilkes Booth and the assassination that made Booth infamous.
The presentation came to Lincoln Land as part of the Lincoln Funeral re-enactment events. The organizers contacted the college about hosting an event, said Michelle Burger, student engagement coordinator.
The event was sponsored by LLCC Loggers Activities Board and The 2015 Lincoln Funeral Coalition with by the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation.
“We saw it as a good opportunity to help give the school some good recognition during the Funeral Train celebrations,” Burger said. “Plus, where else would it be better to talk about Lincoln than the place with his name on it.”
Alford’s presentation, “John Wilkes Booth: A New Look at an Old Story,” gave an in-depth look at a man who would change the world in a single act.
Alford opened the presentation with history on Booth.
He told the crowd of Booth’s early years as an actor. He was so good that he would have to calm down his co-stars when he played a villain, of an alcoholic father, who, despite being against it, would inspire three of his children into acting careers and an overprotective mother, who would prevent Booth from enlisting in the Confederate Army.
Alford, though, was not the only speaker at the presentation.
It also included five actors giving eyewitness testimony of the assassination.
Matthew Reuker, an LLCC alum with a master’s in public history, portrayed Harry Ford, stagehand, treasurer and brother of the Ford’s Theatre’s owner.
“I have been doing stuff like this for nine years,” Reuker said. “And it’s always exciting to educate people.”
Kevin Lust, the college’s Small Business Development Center director, portrayed Joseph B. Stewart, an attorney attending the play.
Lust said he found his character, “In a room packed with military folk, he was the only one to jump up and chase after Booth. In all that confusion, he was the one to act.”
Alford ended his presentation with a series of slides that told of Booth’s last moments. Alfrod showed pictures of some artifacts, such as the pistol Booth did the deed with and a picture of a small piece of wood, thought to be a piece of Booth’s crutch, humorously referred to as The True Crutch.
When asked why he choose Booth to focus on Alford said, “He’s a strange man who did an unheard of thing, and I needed to know why.”
Steven Hoskins can be reached at [email protected] or (217) 786-2311.
