O n Dec. John Wilkes Booth, billed as "Mr. Adam Goodheart wrote for The New York Times Opinionator: "Just 22 years old, trim and athletic, with tousled hair and lustrous eyes, he had an especially mesmerizing effect on the young ladies of Montgomery Booth would sign his own death warrant years ago when he shot the president at Ford's Theater in Washington, D. Lincoln died the next morning, April 15, Booth was tracked and killed 11 days later in the barn of the Garrett farm, while accused co-conspirators, including one from Alabama, would later stand trial and be hanged.
Two Alabamians helped keep the memory of John Wilkes Booth alive long after his death, including a Birmingham madam and a man who built a memorial to the assassin. The only known memorial to an assassin. In , 56 years after the end of the Civil War, officials in the town of Troy, Ala.
According to an article in the Troy Messenger on July 20, , town officials were receiving letters from across the country in protest of the actions of one of Troy's more eccentric citizens, Joseph Pinkney "Pink" Parker.
Pink, a Confederate veteran with a deep hatred for Abraham Lincoln, had a monument created to honor Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, and tried to donate it to the city. Although the town council refused to place the monument on the courthouse square, as Parker had hoped, several newspapers erroneously reported the marker was erected and angry letters poured in. Pink Parker was born in Coffee County to a wealthy family and served under Gen. Robert E. Lee during the Civil War.
When he returned after the war, he found his home burned, his livestock stolen, the slaves and family wealth gone. Impoverished, Pink moved to Troy where he worked as a police officer. Each year on April 15, the anniversary of Lincoln's death in , Pink would march through downtown Troy wearing a button with the date and the year of the anniversary and the words "Death of Old Abe Lincoln.
