Growing up can be pretty scary. There are many creatures of the dark out to get you at all times. However, instead of the boogeyman or Bloody Mary, one adorable child has developed a fear of the long-gone assassin John Wilkes Booth.
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For those who need a little reminder, John Wilkes Booth is the man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 at Ford's Theatre. It seems his reign of terror is continuing even today, as a poor child has been haunted by him.
Mother Cassie Litton has been sharing daughter Lainey's fears of John Wilkes Booth with her TikTok audience. She also recently spoke to PEOPLE about the strange phobia.
Her irrational fear (well, being scared of an assassin is pretty rational, to be completely fair) began when Cassie thought to take her family down to the Ford's Theatre Museum while they were in Washington, D.C. for Thanksgiving.
There, she learned all about John Wilkes Booth, and the man stuck with her.
Lainey, being ever curious, likely asked her mother about what happened at the theater, and Cassie told her what happened in a kid-friendly way. But she made the mistake of naming the assassin. From that moment, "John Wilkes Booth" was etched into her psyche.
Living With A Child Afraid Of The Centuries-Dead Assassin
Cassie has stressed to Lainey that John Wilkes Booth isn't around anymore, but Lainey can't shake the feeling that a 19th-century assassin might be hiding around the corner.
For the rest of the trip, Lainey was pretty fixated on the president. Matters were made worse, however, when they went to the Lincoln Memorial a few days later. She recognised an Abraham Lincoln statue as the man who "got shot."
I suppose it would be surreal as a kid to see a human representation of the man who was assassinated.
Thankfully, John Wilkes Booth isn't "an everyday occurrence," although the topic "tend to find its way into just our day-to-day conversations."
It's clear she's pretty shaken by him, though. Cassie recalled one dark and stormy night, "She was afraid to lie in her bed one night. I said, 'It's okay. You're safe. You're in your room. Nobody can bother you in your own house.' She said, 'Yeah, but what if John Wilkes Booth is under my bed? Like, what if he's hiding?'"
Hopefully, little Lainey gets over this fear of Booth before long. Even all these years later, his name strikes fear.
