Lithograph entitled: Satan tempting Booth to the murder of the President. Lincoln's assassin, actor John Wilkes Booth, is goaded by a Mephistophelian figure to shoot the unsuspecting President, who is visible in a theater box beyond. Booth stands erect, his left arm behind his back and a small pistol in his right hand. He stares straight ahead, seemingly mesmerized by Satan, who stands close behind him, pointing with one hand at the pistol and with the other at Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 - April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. He was a Confederate sympathizer who denounced the Lincoln Administration and was outraged by the South's defeat in the Civil War. He opposed the abolition of slavery and Lincoln's proposal to extend voting rights to recently emancipated slaves. Booth and a group of co-conspirators planned to kill Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward in a bid to help the Confederacy's cause. After the the shooting, Booth fled on horseback making his way to a farm in rural northern Virginia. He was tracked down and shot by Boston Corbett, a Union soldier who acted against orders. He was 26 years old at the time of his death. Eight other conspirators or suspects were tried and convicted, and four were hanged shortly thereafter.