The Self-Castrated Hat Maker Who Shot The Murderer of Lincoln
Boston
Corbett is known for a couple of special achievements, one of them being the hat maker who castrated himself, using a pair of scissors, to avoid the allurements of prostitutes after the death of his wife. Another one, and the one that secures his place in the history of America is his killing John Wilkes Booth, the murderer of president Abraham Lincoln.
The assassination, April 14, 1865
Twelve days after the assassination of Lincoln John Wilkes Booth was rounded up with a friend and follower and shot by Boston Corbett. His spine was severed by the shot and a few hours later he died from this wound.
One might say that the main characters of this historical drama are Lincoln and Booth, but Boston Corbett shouldn't be forgotten. Actually he is interesting in his own personality and life story, although it's the Booth-incident that is remembered.
Boston Corbett (original name: Thomas Corbett) may not have been as crazy as The Hatter from the classic book by Lewis Carroll (also 1865), "Alice In Wonderland", but some of his actions prove that he came close.
When he emigrated from London to America he was a fully trained hat maker which paid his bills, so to speak. However, he had a habit of skipping his job and live as some sort of a vagrant for some time. When that happened he turned to alcohol, being a heavy drinker. After such incidents he changed back to the extremely pious man he also was when the spirit came upon him. Then he would scold his colleagues if they came to use a swear word of two, and he also sometimes turned to street preachings. At some point he started to keep his hair long in an attempt to attaining what he thought was a "Jesus look", and he always set The Bible before work or anything else. No matter what, if he felt like reading this so-called "holy book" that's what he did.
After the killing of Booth there was a dramatic deterioration of the mental health of Boston Corbett over the next 20 years. He was haunted by fears of being hunted down by Confederate soldiers for his killing of the murderer of Lincoln. After several "incidents" of an erratic and very threatening behavior he was declared insane in 1887 and committed to an asylum for the insane. The year after he escaped and from then on nobody really know what became of him: He seems to have disappeared altogether and nobody knows for sure when he died or where his grave is.
Wikipedia
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