The Crazy Life of the Man Who Killed John Wilkes Booth

Kind of looks like Johnny Depp right?

Boston Corbett was born in London and moved as a young child to Troy, New York.

In his youth, he apprenticed as a hatter, a profession known to drive people a little loopy because of the excessive inhalation of mercury nitrate. It has been known to cause hallucinations, a loss of connection to reality, and give the "hatter's shakes".

His first known major trauma was the death of his wife and baby, who died during birthing.

He began drinking heavily and it led to eventual homelessness, both of which he conquered after "finding Jesus". After becoming a devout Methodist, he began to imitate Jesus by growing his hair out like a hippy.

Boston got his life back together and started hatting again, where he reported did good work but was really in people's face about religion. His hobby was to street-preach, I guess that was more of a thing back then.

High on mercury nitrate and bible verses, one night, he was propositioned with sex by some hookers. So what did he do? Castrate himself with a regular old pair of scissors, of course.

So what does one do after cutting off his own testicles?

Join the Union Army!

Unfortunately, he was very argumentative with his superiors and holding his own prayer meetings to the point where it was getting disruptive. He "verbally reprimanded" a Colonel for taking the Lord's name in vane, for which he was punished and told to apologize. Boston refused and was ordered to be shot for insubordination, which was reduced to a discharge (spoiler alert, he hasn't done his most famous act yet!).

So they kicked him out, then he went and re-enlisted in another company!

Then he got captured by the Confederate Army, returned several months later in a prisoner trade, and got promoted to sergeant upon return!

How has no one made a movie about this guy!?!

Boston Corbett and his men pursued John Wilkes Booth to a barn in Virginia. They surrounded the barn and set it on fire in hopes of driving out Booth and his accomplice, Dave Herold. While Herold surrendered peacefully, Corbett claimed that Booth was aiming his rifle with no such intentions. So Corbett shot him with a revolver. Great job, right?

Well....

The Union had specific instruction to not kill Booth, so they arrested Corbett.

The War Department finally released him, ruling that Corbett acted in self-defense.

When Corbett addressed the public after his release, he said,

" I aimed at his body. I did not want to kill him....I think he stooped to pick up something just as I fired. That may probably account for his receiving the ball in the head. [W]hen the assassin lay at my feet, a wounded man, and I saw the bullet had taken effect about an inch back of the ear, and I remembered that Mr. Lincoln was wounded about the same part of the head, I said: "What a God we have...God avenged Abraham Lincoln. "

After his discharge from the military, Corbett went back to hatting and became more and more eccentric. He was still unable to hold a job because of his excessive religious practices at work.

He later tried to cash in on the "Lincoln's Avenger" title by giving speeches, which were not well received because he was going kind of crazy.

At a Soldier Reunion in Ohio, an infuriated, 43 year old Corbett pulled his gun on some men who questioned whether Corbett really killed Booth at all.

In 1887, he was given a job as an assistant doorkeeper at the Kansas House of Representatives. About a month later, he felt discriminated against and started running around with his revolver out and chasing people out of the building. No one was hurt but he was arrested.

The judge had Corbett sent to the Topeka Asylum for the Insane, probably where he needed to be a long time before then.

A year later, this crazy hatter escaped on horseback where he stayed with a friend who knew from the Army briefly before saying he was leaving for Mexico.

No one really knows what happened to crazy old Boston Corbett after that but it was highly speculated that he retreated to a cabin in Minnesota where he could be as crazy as he was.

Seriously.

How is this not a movie?

~If you enjoyed this article, check out my last one about The Gladiator Games.