John Wilkes Booth will live in infamy for the assassination of President Lincoln; however he is still an enigma to most of us. Why did he murder Lincoln? Yes, he greatly admired the Southern ways and manners and once the war drums started beating, he was definitely in favor of the Confederacy. Nonetheless, what drove him to murder Lincoln?
In her extensively researched new novel Fates and Traitors, Jennifer Chiaverini sheds some light on Booth the man. Chiaverini chronicles Booth's life from the perspectives of the four women who may have known Booth the best : his mother, his sister Asia, Lucy Hale and Mary Surratt.
Through the women's accounts, Chiaverini does an admirable job leaving clues to Booth's behavior. She points out that
