#7 Suckiest Person -- John Wilkes Booth

It's been a while since my last post on the Top 10 Suckiest People List. I know everyone has been on pins and needles waiting for #7, and as you can see in the headline, the nod goes to John Wilkes Booth.

Some of you may be wondering why John Wayne Gacy isn't ranked higher than Booth, and my answer is that Booth's act of assassinating Abraham Lincoln impacted far more people's lives.

After the Confederacy loss in the Civil War, Booth held Lincoln responsible and wanted to get revenge for all of the South by taking out Lincoln and other key members of his cabinet.

Booth thought he would be hailed as a hero in the South, but when he escaped Ford's Theater, he found out pretty quickly that he had misjudged how the South would feel about his act of vengeance. He survived for 12 days, until Union troops shot him down at the Garrett farm in Maryland. (If you are interested in reading about the 12-day chase for Booth, pick up James Swanson's Manhunt -- probably the best book I've ever read.)

Although no one will ever know, I feel Booth's assassination of Lincoln prolonged the reconstruction era for years, and made it harder for the country to heal from the wounds of the Civil War. Lincoln was an advocate for a quick resolution following the war, and wanted the southern states to be readmitted to the Union as soon as possible.

Following his death, Andrew Johnson was in charge, and he wanted to make the South pay for what it had done. Georgia, the last state to be accepted back in the Union, didn't get full statehood until 1877, when Union troops were finally withdrawn.

I also believe that had Lincoln lived, he would have helped introduce legislation that would have made life easier for millions of black Americans. But, again, we'll never know because of the #7 suckiest person, John Wilkes Booth.

RoadRage