Letter From Lincoln’s Assassin Sells for $68,000

A Beverly Hills historical document dealer paid a record sum Sunday for a letter written by Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

Joe Maddalena, owner of the company Profiles In History, bid $68,000 at a Boston auction house for the letter, which is dated Feb. 9, 1865 -- about two months before Booth fatally shot Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.

In the chatty, three-page note, Booth asks a friend to arrange for the shipment of a dozen copies of a photo of Booth seated “with cane & black cravat.” It was the same photo that would later circulate on Booth’s wanted poster, said Stuart Whitehurst, vice president of Boston auction house Skinner Inc.

The total cost of the letter, with fees, was $79,900. Whitehurst said it was the highest price ever paid for a letter from Booth. Of roughly 300 known Booth letters, only 17 are in private hands, Whitehurst said.

Maddalena, whose company specializes in historical autographs and documents, was excited about the purchase Sunday, calling it one of the most sought-after autographs of a historic American figure.

Though Booth was a well-known actor, he rarely signed his name for autograph seekers. And after he shot Lincoln, Booth’s acquaintances “immediately burned everything with his name on it because they didn’t want to be linked to the conspiracy,” Maddalena said.

In the letter, Booth -- a Lincoln-hater and supporter of the Confederate cause -- sends cheerful regards to his friend, Orlando Tompkins, and talks about his successful investments. In closing, Booth writes he “will get any letter sent to Fords Theatre.”

On April 14, 1865, Booth learned that Lincoln would be attending the theater for a performance of the comedy “Our American Cousin.” He shot Lincoln in the head, then leaped onto the stage, declaring “Sic semper tyrannis!” (“Thus always to tyrants!”) and “The South is avenged!”

He was killed 12 days later in Virginia after a confrontation with federal troops.

Maddalena set the world record for the most ever paid for any letter in 1991, when he successfully bid $748,000 for an 1863 letter from Lincoln discussing the Emancipation Proclamation.