John Wilkes Booth and the Women Who Loved Him (Five Stars)

Much has been written about John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. However, this is only one I know of that looks, not just at the man, but at how he related to women. Booth, an actor, was the closest thing they had in the Civil War era to a movie star and like movie stars he had a number of relationships... some based on sex, some based on real sentiment, and one perhaps based on cold-blooded political need. Abel looks at Booth's women and their role in his life up to the assassination... then looks at their lives AFTER Booth. It is interesting too to look at how Booth's sex life might have had an effect on his acting skills and maybe even his plan to kill Vice-President Andrew Johnson. Well-illustrated with photos.