Part Three
(8) Booths body was positively identified in Washington
Discussion-Critical evidence collected during the time of Booth’s capture, death and burial was sealed for seventy years. Photographs of Booth’s autopsy disappeared within 48 hours on the personal orders of Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton who was in charge of the proceedings. Once the body came to Washington, there was intense interest by the public in identification, but no public viewing was ever allowed. It soon became necessary in order to satisfy public curiously that someone closely associated with Booth must be allowed to observe the body. Dr. May, Booth’s physician was called in and immediately remarked it looked nothing like Booth. After a private meeting with Secretary of War, Stanton, Dr. May changed his story very quickly and agreed it was Booth, but added he did not remember that his patient had red hair and freckles. The Hotel Clerk who identified Booth did so by claiming he recognized a scar on Booth's head where his doctor had removed a tumor which would have required the hair to be lifted to see it at all. In addition, the Hotel Clerk mentions Booth's famous tattoo in India Ink on his hand. Conflicting information is mentioned so often about the tattoo, including reporting it on both hands, on the wrist and arm that the subject is a long discussion in itself. The only thing we know for certain is that his sister tells us later in a book she published that as a child Booth tattooed his initials on his hand in India Ink.
It is apparent that Secretary Stanton and other members of the government were not at all sure they had Booth and had no wish to open the subject up to the public at large. Booth broke his left leg when he jumped from the stage at Ford’s Theater although there is evidence that a skittish horse was the culprit with said horse arriving at Dr. Mudd's house lame. Witnesses indicated the corpse’s right leg was broken and then reported it was his left. After the autopsy the body was placed in a wooden rifle case and hastily buried under the floor of the Washington Arsenal Prison.. Four years later, the body was given to the Booth family for reburial in their family plot at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore. One witness at this viewing said that the body had red hair, but the following day, claimed he had been misquoted.
It is also apparent the thought had crossed the mind of those in charge that by the time this body came to Washington, if it wasn’t Booth, he was far, far away. There must have also been some fear on the part of the government that an escaped Booth would boast of his survival from some far-away place like the Bahamas, (the destination Booth sent his belongings and theatrical truck on board a ship the day before the assassination) however this would have resulted in another full scale manhunt. Had he made his identify known at the time, or if his family had done anything other than identify his body, an escaped Booth would eventually surely have reached the hangman’s noose.
The Garrett sons, Willie and Jack were arrested, taken to Washington and put in jail, but were then put up for a number of days in a hotel in the city and then released. Their stay was used mainly by leaders of the posse to corroborate their claims on who had laid hands on Booth first and who should get the reward. They were never asked if they believed the body on their porch to be Booth and they stuck to their story they had no idea they were harboring the presidential assassin. Neither they nor anyone connected with the Caroline events that could have shed light on the identity of the dead man were ever allowed to testify in the trial of the conspirators. After watching their elderly father nearly hanged in the front yard, it benefited neither young man to open an already growing can of worms. The Garretts were also promised restitution for damages to their farm where the assassin was killed. A large part of the justification for the claim was that the Garrett's had no idea who they were harboring and were innocent victims, also leaving less reason for them to open up to authorities about the body taken from their barn.
In 1921, Willie Garrett wrote an account of the events at Garrett Farm which were published in Confederate Veteran Magazine. In a supreme irony, his mission appeared to be to make sure that the public did not blame his brother for betraying Booth and points the finger to Rollins who talked to the posse on the shore of the Rappahannock. Even this many years later, it is quite important to Willie that his family not be blamed for the betrayal of the assassin.. It is clear where his loyalty lay even then. But how could they be blamed when they claim to not know who he was? There would have been no reason to betray anyone. This is at least evidence that they had a pretty good idea of who their guest really was from day one and rather than betray him, it is more than likely they helped him. It should also be noted that William Rollins asked to be arrested in order to be able to face his neighbors later.
(9) The Old Star Hotel in Bowling Green which figures prominently in the pursuit of Booth was known as a “Haven for Spies”
Discussion-This huge rambling building with equally huge, wrap-around, columned porch known as the Star Hotel was built about 1825. During the Civil War, a mysterious family named Gouldman from King George operated the hotel. We know very little about them except for one thing, they moved out just after the war was over and they were involved in the Confederate Secret Service. Spy, Belle Boyd stayed in the hotel a number of times and more than one young man was brought here to recuperate after receiving wounds during the war. The Gouldmans had four daughters, the youngest of whom sixteen year old, Izora, was being courted by Willie Jett, a private in the 9th Virginia Cavalry who had been nursed at the hotel doing his own recovery from a wound.
Just a few weeks before the assassination, the Gouldman’s son, Jesse who had been severely wounded was brought home to the Star Hotel to be attended by his mothers and sisters. Shortly after midnight on April 26th, the 30 members of the Union posse, hunting John Wilkes Booth under detectives, Baker, Conger and Lt. Edward Doherty arrived at the Star Hotel having been sent there by the wife of the ferryman in Port Royal, William Rollins. They first attempted to pull Jesse Gouldman from his bed (very much a Booth look-alike) and then came upon Jett. After being threatened, Jett admitted he had left a man fitting Booth’s description at Garrett’s Farm, but added he doubted if the man was still there. The posse returned to Garrett’s with Jett in tow and after the killing the man in the barn, Baker allowed Willie Jett to “escape.”
Willie and Izora’s romance ended that night and Jett became known as the one who betrayed Booth. Curious since it was the ferryman Rollins who assured Doherty he would find Booth at the Star Hotel. Jett became a hermit and an outcast and died very young. A friend reports that in his last days he paced the floor all night, wringing his hands, in an attempt to divest himself of “innocent blood.” If Jett was talking about Booth, what could be innocent about the man who shot President Lincoln. Or was he talking about someone else?
Judge E. C. Moncure, a highly respected citizen of Caroline County in his memories of the war stops at the Star Hotel on the very day Herold and another man are deposited there by the Confederate horsemen. The two men are wearing Confederate uniforms and are identified to Moncure as a Captain Lewis and Captain Dangerfield from a command in North Carolina. Moncure later surmises from newspaper accounts that one of the men was Herold and mistakenly surmises the other man to be a co-conspirator named George Atzerodt who was also hung. Atzerodt was never in Caroline County but had been arrested much earlier in Washington D.C. So who was with Herold on his trip to Bowling Green? Booth? Did he continue on west and out of reach of his pursuers leaving Herold to walk back to Garrett’s alone? Or did he go with Herold back to Garrett’s and become the “body in the barn” while Booth having been warned many hours earlier at Garrett’s was miles away?
Discussion-Critical evidence collected during the time of Booth’s capture, death and burial was sealed for seventy years. Photographs of Booth’s autopsy disappeared within 48 hours on the personal orders of Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton who was in charge of the proceedings. Once the body came to Washington, there was intense interest by the public in identification, but no public viewing was ever allowed. It soon became necessary in order to satisfy public curiously that someone closely associated with Booth must be allowed to observe the body. Dr. May, Booth’s physician was called in and immediately remarked it looked nothing like Booth. After a private meeting with Secretary of War, Stanton, Dr. May changed his story very quickly and agreed it was Booth, but added he did not remember that his patient had red hair and freckles. The Hotel Clerk who identified Booth did so by claiming he recognized a scar on Booth's head where his doctor had removed a tumor which would have required the hair to be lifted to see it at all. In addition, the Hotel Clerk mentions Booth's famous tattoo in India Ink on his hand. Conflicting information is mentioned so often about the tattoo, including reporting it on both hands, on the wrist and arm that the subject is a long discussion in itself. The only thing we know for certain is that his sister tells us later in a book she published that as a child Booth tattooed his initials on his hand in India Ink.
It is apparent that Secretary Stanton and other members of the government were not at all sure they had Booth and had no wish to open the subject up to the public at large. Booth broke his left leg when he jumped from the stage at Ford’s Theater although there is evidence that a skittish horse was the culprit with said horse arriving at Dr. Mudd's house lame. Witnesses indicated the corpse’s right leg was broken and then reported it was his left. After the autopsy the body was placed in a wooden rifle case and hastily buried under the floor of the Washington Arsenal Prison.. Four years later, the body was given to the Booth family for reburial in their family plot at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore. One witness at this viewing said that the body had red hair, but the following day, claimed he had been misquoted.
It is also apparent the thought had crossed the mind of those in charge that by the time this body came to Washington, if it wasn’t Booth, he was far, far away. There must have also been some fear on the part of the government that an escaped Booth would boast of his survival from some far-away place like the Bahamas, (the destination Booth sent his belongings and theatrical truck on board a ship the day before the assassination) however this would have resulted in another full scale manhunt. Had he made his identify known at the time, or if his family had done anything other than identify his body, an escaped Booth would eventually surely have reached the hangman’s noose.
The Garrett sons, Willie and Jack were arrested, taken to Washington and put in jail, but were then put up for a number of days in a hotel in the city and then released. Their stay was used mainly by leaders of the posse to corroborate their claims on who had laid hands on Booth first and who should get the reward. They were never asked if they believed the body on their porch to be Booth and they stuck to their story they had no idea they were harboring the presidential assassin. Neither they nor anyone connected with the Caroline events that could have shed light on the identity of the dead man were ever allowed to testify in the trial of the conspirators. After watching their elderly father nearly hanged in the front yard, it benefited neither young man to open an already growing can of worms. The Garretts were also promised restitution for damages to their farm where the assassin was killed. A large part of the justification for the claim was that the Garrett's had no idea who they were harboring and were innocent victims, also leaving less reason for them to open up to authorities about the body taken from their barn.
In 1921, Willie Garrett wrote an account of the events at Garrett Farm which were published in Confederate Veteran Magazine. In a supreme irony, his mission appeared to be to make sure that the public did not blame his brother for betraying Booth and points the finger to Rollins who talked to the posse on the shore of the Rappahannock. Even this many years later, it is quite important to Willie that his family not be blamed for the betrayal of the assassin.. It is clear where his loyalty lay even then. But how could they be blamed when they claim to not know who he was? There would have been no reason to betray anyone. This is at least evidence that they had a pretty good idea of who their guest really was from day one and rather than betray him, it is more than likely they helped him. It should also be noted that William Rollins asked to be arrested in order to be able to face his neighbors later.
(9) The Old Star Hotel in Bowling Green which figures prominently in the pursuit of Booth was known as a “Haven for Spies”
Discussion-This huge rambling building with equally huge, wrap-around, columned porch known as the Star Hotel was built about 1825. During the Civil War, a mysterious family named Gouldman from King George operated the hotel. We know very little about them except for one thing, they moved out just after the war was over and they were involved in the Confederate Secret Service. Spy, Belle Boyd stayed in the hotel a number of times and more than one young man was brought here to recuperate after receiving wounds during the war. The Gouldmans had four daughters, the youngest of whom sixteen year old, Izora, was being courted by Willie Jett, a private in the 9th Virginia Cavalry who had been nursed at the hotel doing his own recovery from a wound.
Just a few weeks before the assassination, the Gouldman’s son, Jesse who had been severely wounded was brought home to the Star Hotel to be attended by his mothers and sisters. Shortly after midnight on April 26th, the 30 members of the Union posse, hunting John Wilkes Booth under detectives, Baker, Conger and Lt. Edward Doherty arrived at the Star Hotel having been sent there by the wife of the ferryman in Port Royal, William Rollins. They first attempted to pull Jesse Gouldman from his bed (very much a Booth look-alike) and then came upon Jett. After being threatened, Jett admitted he had left a man fitting Booth’s description at Garrett’s Farm, but added he doubted if the man was still there. The posse returned to Garrett’s with Jett in tow and after the killing the man in the barn, Baker allowed Willie Jett to “escape.”
Willie and Izora’s romance ended that night and Jett became known as the one who betrayed Booth. Curious since it was the ferryman Rollins who assured Doherty he would find Booth at the Star Hotel. Jett became a hermit and an outcast and died very young. A friend reports that in his last days he paced the floor all night, wringing his hands, in an attempt to divest himself of “innocent blood.” If Jett was talking about Booth, what could be innocent about the man who shot President Lincoln. Or was he talking about someone else?
Judge E. C. Moncure, a highly respected citizen of Caroline County in his memories of the war stops at the Star Hotel on the very day Herold and another man are deposited there by the Confederate horsemen. The two men are wearing Confederate uniforms and are identified to Moncure as a Captain Lewis and Captain Dangerfield from a command in North Carolina. Moncure later surmises from newspaper accounts that one of the men was Herold and mistakenly surmises the other man to be a co-conspirator named George Atzerodt who was also hung. Atzerodt was never in Caroline County but had been arrested much earlier in Washington D.C. So who was with Herold on his trip to Bowling Green? Booth? Did he continue on west and out of reach of his pursuers leaving Herold to walk back to Garrett’s alone? Or did he go with Herold back to Garrett’s and become the “body in the barn” while Booth having been warned many hours earlier at Garrett’s was miles away?
Head shots of John Wilkes Booth and the mummy of David E. George who died in 1903.
(10) David E. George, a house painter living in the American west many years after 1865 was proven not to be John Wilkes Booth.
Discussion-The most famous Booth escape story was written by Memphis, Tennessee attorney, Finis L. Bates in 1907 entitled ‘The First True Account of Lincoln’s Assassination, The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth.” Bates claimed that just a few years after the death of Lincoln he met a man in Texas using an alias of John St. Helen, who told him he was in reality, John Wilkes Booth. He gave Bates a detailed account of how he escaped from Caroline, starting a new life in Texas with many details of the local community in Caroline and King George, the terrain and names of local people. He was unsure of who was killed at Garrett’s. This seemed to be a detail that Mosby’s men handled. When he was told to go on a fresh horse on the afternoon of the 25th of April, 1865, he went and fast. However he thought the first name of the man he believed to have been killed in his place, was “Roddy”. To Bates credit he immediately contacted officials in D.C. and told them of the encounter but apparently his statement was not taken seriously. Later St. Helen, who painted houses for a living and was an alcoholic and who could recite passages from the plays of William Shakespeare (characters played by Booth during his theatrical career) took the alias David E. George. He seemed haunted by his past and often bemoaned the fact that his family back east was forced to support him monetarily because of a horrible deed he had perpetrated. He committed suicide in Enid Oklahoma, in 1903 by taking arsenic. By this time most of the respected citizens and elected officials of Enid took it for granted that he was indeed none other than John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln. They contacted Bates still living in Texas who came to Enid and took charge of the corpse. A combination of arsenic and formaldehyde caused a natural mummification process. After Bates's death, the mummy was sold and exhibited in carnivals all across the country. In 1931, an autopsy was conducted on the mummy and the doctors concluded that the body was indeed that of John Wilkes Booth. Some of their conclusions included evidence of an old broken leg, a deformed thumb and an arched skull bone near the temple which caused the right eyebrow to be raised above the left, one of the distinguishing characteristics of JWB. The mummy continued to be exhibited until the 1970s when it disappeared after a fire in a carnival. It is rumored to be in the private collection of an individual who collects Lincoln assassination memorabilia.
So now...... did he escape from Caroline or die here on Garrett's Farm?
More food for thought
The official autopsy reports from the doctors (Barnes and Woodward)in charge of the examination of the man killed at Garrett's Farm
Sir,
I have the honor to report that in compliance with your orders, assisted by Dr. Woodward, USA, I made at 2 PM this day, a postmortem examination of the body of J. Wilkes Booth, lying on board the Monitor Montauk off the Navy Yard.
The left leg and foot were encased in an appliance of splints and bandages, upon the removal of which, a fracture of the fibula (small bone of the leg) 3 inches above the ankle joint, accompanied by considerable ecchymosis, was discovered.
The cause of death was a gun shot wound in the neck - the ball entering just behind the sterno-cleido muscle - 2 1/2 inches above the clavicle - passing through the bony bridge of fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae - severing the spinal chord (sic) and passing out through the body of the sterno-cleido of right side, 3 inches above the clavicle. Paralysis of the entire body was immediate, and all the horrors of consciousness of suffering and death must have been present to the assassin during the two hours he lingered.
Case JWB: Was killed April 26, 1865, by a conoidal pistol ball, fired at the distance of a few yards, from a cavalry revolver. The missile perforated the base of the right lamina of the 4th cervical vertebra, fracturing it longitudinally and separating it by a fissure from the spinous process, at the same time fracturing the 5th vertebra through its pedicle, and involving that transverse process. The projectile then transversed the spinal canal almost horizontally but with a slight inclination downward and backward, perforating the cord which was found much torn and discolored with blood (see Specimen 4087 Sect. I AMM). The ball then shattered the bases of the left 4th and 5th laminae, driving bony fragments among the muscles, and made its exit at the left side of the neck, nearly opposite the point of entrance. It avoided the 2nd and 3rd cervical nerves. These facts were determined at autopsy which was made on April 28. Immediately after the reception of the injury, there was very general paralysis. The phrenic nerves performed their function, but the respiration was diaphragmatic, of course, labored and slow. Deglutition was impracticable, and one or two attempts at articulation were unintelligible. Death, from asphyxia, took place about two hours after the reception of the injury.
The most contradicted story of all, The Lock(s) of Booths Hair
(10) David E. George, a house painter living in the American west many years after 1865 was proven not to be John Wilkes Booth.
Discussion-The most famous Booth escape story was written by Memphis, Tennessee attorney, Finis L. Bates in 1907 entitled ‘The First True Account of Lincoln’s Assassination, The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth.” Bates claimed that just a few years after the death of Lincoln he met a man in Texas using an alias of John St. Helen, who told him he was in reality, John Wilkes Booth. He gave Bates a detailed account of how he escaped from Caroline, starting a new life in Texas with many details of the local community in Caroline and King George, the terrain and names of local people. He was unsure of who was killed at Garrett’s. This seemed to be a detail that Mosby’s men handled. When he was told to go on a fresh horse on the afternoon of the 25th of April, 1865, he went and fast. However he thought the first name of the man he believed to have been killed in his place, was “Roddy”. To Bates credit he immediately contacted officials in D.C. and told them of the encounter but apparently his statement was not taken seriously. Later St. Helen, who painted houses for a living and was an alcoholic and who could recite passages from the plays of William Shakespeare (characters played by Booth during his theatrical career) took the alias David E. George. He seemed haunted by his past and often bemoaned the fact that his family back east was forced to support him monetarily because of a horrible deed he had perpetrated. He committed suicide in Enid Oklahoma, in 1903 by taking arsenic. By this time most of the respected citizens and elected officials of Enid took it for granted that he was indeed none other than John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln. They contacted Bates still living in Texas who came to Enid and took charge of the corpse. A combination of arsenic and formaldehyde caused a natural mummification process. After Bates's death, the mummy was sold and exhibited in carnivals all across the country. In 1931, an autopsy was conducted on the mummy and the doctors concluded that the body was indeed that of John Wilkes Booth. Some of their conclusions included evidence of an old broken leg, a deformed thumb and an arched skull bone near the temple which caused the right eyebrow to be raised above the left, one of the distinguishing characteristics of JWB. The mummy continued to be exhibited until the 1970s when it disappeared after a fire in a carnival. It is rumored to be in the private collection of an individual who collects Lincoln assassination memorabilia.
So now...... did he escape from Caroline or die here on Garrett's Farm?
More food for thought
The official autopsy reports from the doctors (Barnes and Woodward)in charge of the examination of the man killed at Garrett's Farm
Sir,
I have the honor to report that in compliance with your orders, assisted by Dr. Woodward, USA, I made at 2 PM this day, a postmortem examination of the body of J. Wilkes Booth, lying on board the Monitor Montauk off the Navy Yard.
The left leg and foot were encased in an appliance of splints and bandages, upon the removal of which, a fracture of the fibula (small bone of the leg) 3 inches above the ankle joint, accompanied by considerable ecchymosis, was discovered.
The cause of death was a gun shot wound in the neck - the ball entering just behind the sterno-cleido muscle - 2 1/2 inches above the clavicle - passing through the bony bridge of fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae - severing the spinal chord (sic) and passing out through the body of the sterno-cleido of right side, 3 inches above the clavicle. Paralysis of the entire body was immediate, and all the horrors of consciousness of suffering and death must have been present to the assassin during the two hours he lingered.
Case JWB: Was killed April 26, 1865, by a conoidal pistol ball, fired at the distance of a few yards, from a cavalry revolver. The missile perforated the base of the right lamina of the 4th cervical vertebra, fracturing it longitudinally and separating it by a fissure from the spinous process, at the same time fracturing the 5th vertebra through its pedicle, and involving that transverse process. The projectile then transversed the spinal canal almost horizontally but with a slight inclination downward and backward, perforating the cord which was found much torn and discolored with blood (see Specimen 4087 Sect. I AMM). The ball then shattered the bases of the left 4th and 5th laminae, driving bony fragments among the muscles, and made its exit at the left side of the neck, nearly opposite the point of entrance. It avoided the 2nd and 3rd cervical nerves. These facts were determined at autopsy which was made on April 28. Immediately after the reception of the injury, there was very general paralysis. The phrenic nerves performed their function, but the respiration was diaphragmatic, of course, labored and slow. Deglutition was impracticable, and one or two attempts at articulation were unintelligible. Death, from asphyxia, took place about two hours after the reception of the injury.
The most contradicted story of all, The Lock(s) of Booths Hair
This glasses case belonged to Dr. Charles Urquart who was called by the Union posse to tend to the dying man on Garrett's porch. It was in here that the doctor kept the lock of hair he cut from the man who died there. A chain of title exists on at least some of the hair cut from the man killed at Garrett's by Dr. Charles Urquhart. Some of the hair in small strands were given away by his relatives in the early 20th century to friends. An affidavit signed in 1990 by his descendants states that a few of the strands were still in the case as late as 1940 and were kept at Hill and Dale, a family home in Essex County. This affidavit says that at least some strands were given away in 1932 to the president of Randolph Macon College, Dr. Robert Blackwell.
Two locks whose origin can be traced to Dr. Urquhart are reported to be in the Museum of the Confederacy. One of those was given by Caroline native, William Howard in 1927, who received it from the Urquhart descendants above. Mr. Howard also says his lock was not so black but had a reddish color. The other lock was donated to the Museum of the Confederacy by Kate Mason Rowland, president of the Virginia Division of the UDC who had received it from the Urguhart line as well. Margaret Ann Wilson Dean a great granddaughter of Richard Baynham Garrett who was a young boy of 11 when the man was killed at his family farm had a lock which was part of the hair kept by his aunt Lucinda Holloway. Lucinda was said to have tended to the dying man as he lay on a mattress on Garrett's porch. This lock was purchased in 1994 by JFK relic collector, Robert L. white 1994 who subsequently died in 2003. If you are wondering if Booth had any hair left by the time he reached Washington, you are not alone. Apparently those on board the ship that transported the body cut a few souvenirs as well. The following appeared for sale on the internet. Note its REDDISH BROWN COLOR
Two locks whose origin can be traced to Dr. Urquhart are reported to be in the Museum of the Confederacy. One of those was given by Caroline native, William Howard in 1927, who received it from the Urquhart descendants above. Mr. Howard also says his lock was not so black but had a reddish color. The other lock was donated to the Museum of the Confederacy by Kate Mason Rowland, president of the Virginia Division of the UDC who had received it from the Urguhart line as well. Margaret Ann Wilson Dean a great granddaughter of Richard Baynham Garrett who was a young boy of 11 when the man was killed at his family farm had a lock which was part of the hair kept by his aunt Lucinda Holloway. Lucinda was said to have tended to the dying man as he lay on a mattress on Garrett's porch. This lock was purchased in 1994 by JFK relic collector, Robert L. white 1994 who subsequently died in 2003. If you are wondering if Booth had any hair left by the time he reached Washington, you are not alone. Apparently those on board the ship that transported the body cut a few souvenirs as well. The following appeared for sale on the internet. Note its REDDISH BROWN COLOR
AN AUTHENTICATED LOCK OF BOOTH'S HAIR, TAKEN FROM JOHN WILKES BOOTH ON BOARD THE U.S.S. MONTAUK, AND OTHER ARTIFACTS FROM THE BOOTH FAMILY BOOTH. A lock of hair, contained in a small folded paper packet marked in a contemporary hand, "J. Wilkes Booth," (possibly that of William Crowninshield, Captain of the Montauk), and enclosed in an envelope marked in Mrs. Grossman's hand, "KEEP-Lock of Hair 'J.W.B.'/sent by Mrs. Crowninshield. The lock of hair (reddish-brown in color) measures roughly 90mm long. The bindle holding the hair is 75 x 75 mm. The envelope is 72 x 110 mm. [With:] CROWNINSHIELD, Mary. Autograph note signed, n.p., n.d., 1 page, 12o. Describing the enclosed lock: "J. Wilkes Booth's hair cut by my brother William, on board the U.S.S. Montauk at Washington, D.C. - My brother being in command of that vessel - when his body was brought on board that vessel - Mary R. Crowninshield." After his death at Garrett's farm, Booth's body had been transferred on board the U.S.S. monitor Montauk.
Marriage License of JWB and Louisa Payne in 1872.
Efforts in the last few years efforts to settle the Booth question once and for all are still met with what is truly inexplicable resistance. The following quotes are not my work but are taken from the blog of another historian who, like me, sees no downside in adhering to the wishes of the present Booth family.
Here is a sampling of his research (the photo of the marriage license also comes from his site)and his entire presentation is well worth reading at http://www.wadeburleson.org/2011/05/dna-of-john-wilkes-nothing-to-lose-and.html
The Washington, D.C., and the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, possess three vertebrae specimens that, according to the government, come from the body of the man who killed President Abraham Lincoln. The vertebrae were taken from John Wilkes Booth during the official autopsy performed on April 27, 1865. Booth had been killed a day earlier, April 26, 1865, after being shot by Union sergeant Boston Corbett at Garrett’s farm in Virginia. However, there is an ongoing effort today by Booth's descendents, using the services of DNA specialists, to prove John Wilkes Booth did not die at Garrett's farm on April 26, 1865, but actually lived for an additional forty years, dying in his early sixties. Booth's descendents havelong believed John Wilkes Booth escaped the Union's attempts to capture him. Nearly four years later in February of 1869, President Andrew Johnson ordered the body exhumed and given to the family. Ironically, in Baptist Alley behind Ford's Theater, the very alley in which Booth had made his escape after assassinating the President four years earlier, the casket was opened and the decomposed body, now a skeleton, was for the first time shown to a representative of the Booth family.
The skeleton was then taken to Baltimore and re-buried in February 1869 in the Booth family plot at Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland. Booth's granddaughter Izola Forrester wrote in her 1937 book This One Mad Act that it was common knowledge in the Booth family that John Wilkes Booth did not die in the barn at Garrett's farm. Blanche DeBar Booth, John's niece, swore in an affidavit late in her life that her uncle John tried to contact her after the turn of the century, and that both Edwin Booth (John's brother) and Mary Ann Holme's Booth (John's mother) had personally met with John Wilkes Booth after his alleged death in April 1865.
n October of 1994 a petition was filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore, Maryland to "exhume the alleged remains of John Wilkes Booth from Green Mount Cemetery (in Baltimore)." Two descendents of Booth, a great niece named Lois White Rathbun and a second cousin named Virginia Eleanor Kline, filed the petition. The Booth family was assisted by historian Nathaniel Orlowek, historiographer and professor Arthur Ben Chitty from University of the South, and Washington D.C. super lawyer Mark S. Zaid. The cause for the petition was the belief that John Wilkes Booth was not shot and killed on April 26, 1865 at Garrett's farm, but escaped Virginia and eventually lived in Tennessee and Texas under the alias "John St. Helen" and then eventually moved to Oklahoma under the alias "David E. George" where Booth eventually died in Enid, Oklahoma on January 13, 1903 (see Statement of Case: Appellate Brief). Judge Joseph H.H. Kaplan ruled against the Booth family and declared the body buried at Green Mount could not be exhumed. After losing on appeal, the Booths turned their attention in 2010 on an effort to exhume the body of John's brother, Edwin Booth, buried in Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge MA. Once Edwin's body is exhumed, DNA will be compared to the vertebrae taken from the body in the barn.
If the DNA of Edwin Booth matches the vertebrae the government claims to be from John Wilkes Booth, then the "Booth Legend" will be laid to rest. If not, the interest in the man named John St. Helen/David E. George will explode. Either way, there remains an incredible and mostly unexplored story of love, tragedy and mystery--the story of David E. George.
http://www.wadeburleson.org/2011/05/dna-of-john-wilkes-nothing-to-lose-and.html
Mrs. Charles Levine was born Laura Ida Elizabeth Booth in Payne's Cove, Tennessee, a few miles west of Chattannooga, Tennessee in 1873. She was the daughter of Louisa Holmes Payne and John Wilkes Booth (see marriage certificate to the left). Louisa J. Payne was a Confederate Civil War widow. Her first husband, Confederate soldier C.Z. Payne, died in 1865 toward the end of the war. Louisa was left to care for her young son McCager (or "Cage"). Louisa worked as a seamstress for the recently opened University of the South in Sewannee, Tennessee. In 1871 Louisa met a man named Jack Booth who claimed he was a "distant cousin" to John Wilkes Booth. Louisa fell in love, and she married Jack in February 1872. However, after the wedding, Jack told Louisa that he had a past, and his name was not really Jack. When she pressed him for the truth, Jack told her he was actually John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of the Republican President. Louisa, a devout Christian and southern Democrat, could forgive her husband for his war actions and personal deceptions to her, but she insisted that he sign their marriage certificate with his God-given name. And so, on February 24, 1872, a new certificate was signed in the presence of Rev. C.C. Rose, listing the marriage of John Wilkes Booth and Louisa Payne. The late historiagrapher for University of the South, Dr. Arthur Ben Chitty, did extensive research into Louisa Payne and her marriage to the man claiming to be John Wilkes Booth. Dr. Chitty eventually discovered the marriage certificate itself, located in the Franklin County Courthouse in Winchester, Tennessee. Dr. Chitty archived at The University of the South several audio tape interviews of men who personally knew McCager Payne, who in 1872 became John Wilkes Booth's step-son. Dr. Chitty discovered that McCager had intimate knowledge while a youth that his stepfather was actually John Wilkes Booth.
As a newly married couple Louisa and John Wilkes Booth moved to Memphis, Tennessee because, as Louisa would later say, "my husband had been told he would be paid a large sum of money owed him for his offical work on behalf of the Confederacy." While in Memphis, Louisa overheard some men on the street discussing her husband and pointing out where the "skunk" was now living. Louisa informed John that men knew who he was and his life was in danger. John told Louisa that it would be better if they separated for a season. He would go to Texas and she should go back to Tennessee until things cooled off. John promised Louisa that he would return to Tennessee after things settled down.
Louisa went back east to Payne's Cove Tennessee and the man claiming to be John Wilkes Booth headed south. Unbeknown to the couple at the time, Louisa was pregnant with John's child. Louisa Payne would give birth to Laura Ida Elizabeth Booth, named after one of John Wilkes Booth's sisters, while living alone in Tennessee in early 1873. Her second husband, the man she first knew as "Jack Booth," but later laimed to be "John Wilkes Booth" went to Granbury, Texas -- and would change his name to John St. Helen. Historian Steven Miller suggests that John St. Helen, the man who confessed to being "John Wilkes Booth" to attorney Finis Bates, is a different man from the person who married Louisa Payne. My research on a book about the Lincoln assassination and the bizarre connections to Enid, Oklahoma suggests they are the same man. This man--Jack Booth/John St. Helen, David E. George, is either a deluded and deceptive man who pretended to be John Wilkes Booth for over four decades, or as many in the family of John Wilkes Booth now believe, this man was actually John Wilkes Booth himself.
DNA testing in 2011 could help solve the mystery.
Back in Tennesee during 1873 Louisa Booth received financial help from the family of her deceased first husband (C.Z. "Zeb" Payne). She went to work caring for her son McCager and her newborn infant girl. Louisa kept hope that her husband would return to her from Texas, but she never heard from him. In 1879, seven years after marrying the man who claimed to be John Wilkes Booth, beautiful 36 year old Louisa Payne was raking and burning leaves in her front yard when her dress accidentally caught fire. Louisa ran to the creek in an attempt to extinquish the flames, but the burns on her body would prove to be fatal for her. Before she died, Louisa called her six-year-old daughter Laura Ida Booth and her fourteen-year-old son McCager Payne to her bedside. The mother informed her children that Ida's father was John Wilkes Booth. McCager would later tell friends at the mill where he worked late in his life that he already knew John Wilkes Booth was his stepdad because of conversations he had overheard between his mom and stepdad when he was a boy. Caught listening in one time by his step-dad, McCager was threatened that if the boy told anyone that his step-dad was John Wilkes Booth, "I will kill you."
After the death of her mother young Laura Ida Booth would go to live with friends and family. Laura Ida Booth eventually became an actress herself and married a fellow actor named Charles Levine in New York City. When Mrs. Charles Levine heard of David E. George's death in Enid, Oklahoma in early 1903, and that David E. George had claimed to be "John Wilkes Booth" before he died, Mrs. Levine sent her letter to the the mayor of El Reno claiming George's estate "if indeed he is John Wilkes Booth."
Mrs. Charles Levine was serious in her query about Booth's estate, believing herself to be his daughter. Her letter should also be taken seriously by historians. Again, one of two options is possible regarding the man who appears as Jack Booth/John St. Helen/David E. George/ and who fathered Laura Ida Booth: (1). Either this man is a devious and/or deluded individual who kept up a false front for four decades about being John Wilkes Booth, or (2). This man is actually John Wilkes Booth.
To take the latter position opens oneself up to ridicule from mainstream historians. I remain personally unpersuaded. What is certain, however, is this: The DNA testing of the vertebrae from 'the body in barn' will either be a match to John Wilkes Booth and lay to rest the "Booth Legend" or the DNA testing will NOT provide a match and the escape theories for Lincoln's assassin will explode. Either way, historians ought to give Laura Ida Elizabeth Booth (Mrs. Charles Levine) and the letter she wrote to the mayor of El Reno in February 1903 far more serious attention than they are currently being given.
wrote to the mayor of El Reno in February 1903 far more serious attention than they are currently being given.
Efforts in the last few years efforts to settle the Booth question once and for all are still met with what is truly inexplicable resistance. The following quotes are not my work but are taken from the blog of another historian who, like me, sees no downside in adhering to the wishes of the present Booth family.
Here is a sampling of his research (the photo of the marriage license also comes from his site)and his entire presentation is well worth reading at http://www.wadeburleson.org/2011/05/dna-of-john-wilkes-nothing-to-lose-and.html
The Washington, D.C., and the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, possess three vertebrae specimens that, according to the government, come from the body of the man who killed President Abraham Lincoln. The vertebrae were taken from John Wilkes Booth during the official autopsy performed on April 27, 1865. Booth had been killed a day earlier, April 26, 1865, after being shot by Union sergeant Boston Corbett at Garrett’s farm in Virginia. However, there is an ongoing effort today by Booth's descendents, using the services of DNA specialists, to prove John Wilkes Booth did not die at Garrett's farm on April 26, 1865, but actually lived for an additional forty years, dying in his early sixties. Booth's descendents havelong believed John Wilkes Booth escaped the Union's attempts to capture him. Nearly four years later in February of 1869, President Andrew Johnson ordered the body exhumed and given to the family. Ironically, in Baptist Alley behind Ford's Theater, the very alley in which Booth had made his escape after assassinating the President four years earlier, the casket was opened and the decomposed body, now a skeleton, was for the first time shown to a representative of the Booth family.
The skeleton was then taken to Baltimore and re-buried in February 1869 in the Booth family plot at Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland. Booth's granddaughter Izola Forrester wrote in her 1937 book This One Mad Act that it was common knowledge in the Booth family that John Wilkes Booth did not die in the barn at Garrett's farm. Blanche DeBar Booth, John's niece, swore in an affidavit late in her life that her uncle John tried to contact her after the turn of the century, and that both Edwin Booth (John's brother) and Mary Ann Holme's Booth (John's mother) had personally met with John Wilkes Booth after his alleged death in April 1865.
n October of 1994 a petition was filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore, Maryland to "exhume the alleged remains of John Wilkes Booth from Green Mount Cemetery (in Baltimore)." Two descendents of Booth, a great niece named Lois White Rathbun and a second cousin named Virginia Eleanor Kline, filed the petition. The Booth family was assisted by historian Nathaniel Orlowek, historiographer and professor Arthur Ben Chitty from University of the South, and Washington D.C. super lawyer Mark S. Zaid. The cause for the petition was the belief that John Wilkes Booth was not shot and killed on April 26, 1865 at Garrett's farm, but escaped Virginia and eventually lived in Tennessee and Texas under the alias "John St. Helen" and then eventually moved to Oklahoma under the alias "David E. George" where Booth eventually died in Enid, Oklahoma on January 13, 1903 (see Statement of Case: Appellate Brief). Judge Joseph H.H. Kaplan ruled against the Booth family and declared the body buried at Green Mount could not be exhumed. After losing on appeal, the Booths turned their attention in 2010 on an effort to exhume the body of John's brother, Edwin Booth, buried in Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge MA. Once Edwin's body is exhumed, DNA will be compared to the vertebrae taken from the body in the barn.
If the DNA of Edwin Booth matches the vertebrae the government claims to be from John Wilkes Booth, then the "Booth Legend" will be laid to rest. If not, the interest in the man named John St. Helen/David E. George will explode. Either way, there remains an incredible and mostly unexplored story of love, tragedy and mystery--the story of David E. George.
http://www.wadeburleson.org/2011/05/dna-of-john-wilkes-nothing-to-lose-and.html
Mrs. Charles Levine was born Laura Ida Elizabeth Booth in Payne's Cove, Tennessee, a few miles west of Chattannooga, Tennessee in 1873. She was the daughter of Louisa Holmes Payne and John Wilkes Booth (see marriage certificate to the left). Louisa J. Payne was a Confederate Civil War widow. Her first husband, Confederate soldier C.Z. Payne, died in 1865 toward the end of the war. Louisa was left to care for her young son McCager (or "Cage"). Louisa worked as a seamstress for the recently opened University of the South in Sewannee, Tennessee. In 1871 Louisa met a man named Jack Booth who claimed he was a "distant cousin" to John Wilkes Booth. Louisa fell in love, and she married Jack in February 1872. However, after the wedding, Jack told Louisa that he had a past, and his name was not really Jack. When she pressed him for the truth, Jack told her he was actually John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of the Republican President. Louisa, a devout Christian and southern Democrat, could forgive her husband for his war actions and personal deceptions to her, but she insisted that he sign their marriage certificate with his God-given name. And so, on February 24, 1872, a new certificate was signed in the presence of Rev. C.C. Rose, listing the marriage of John Wilkes Booth and Louisa Payne. The late historiagrapher for University of the South, Dr. Arthur Ben Chitty, did extensive research into Louisa Payne and her marriage to the man claiming to be John Wilkes Booth. Dr. Chitty eventually discovered the marriage certificate itself, located in the Franklin County Courthouse in Winchester, Tennessee. Dr. Chitty archived at The University of the South several audio tape interviews of men who personally knew McCager Payne, who in 1872 became John Wilkes Booth's step-son. Dr. Chitty discovered that McCager had intimate knowledge while a youth that his stepfather was actually John Wilkes Booth.
As a newly married couple Louisa and John Wilkes Booth moved to Memphis, Tennessee because, as Louisa would later say, "my husband had been told he would be paid a large sum of money owed him for his offical work on behalf of the Confederacy." While in Memphis, Louisa overheard some men on the street discussing her husband and pointing out where the "skunk" was now living. Louisa informed John that men knew who he was and his life was in danger. John told Louisa that it would be better if they separated for a season. He would go to Texas and she should go back to Tennessee until things cooled off. John promised Louisa that he would return to Tennessee after things settled down.
Louisa went back east to Payne's Cove Tennessee and the man claiming to be John Wilkes Booth headed south. Unbeknown to the couple at the time, Louisa was pregnant with John's child. Louisa Payne would give birth to Laura Ida Elizabeth Booth, named after one of John Wilkes Booth's sisters, while living alone in Tennessee in early 1873. Her second husband, the man she first knew as "Jack Booth," but later laimed to be "John Wilkes Booth" went to Granbury, Texas -- and would change his name to John St. Helen. Historian Steven Miller suggests that John St. Helen, the man who confessed to being "John Wilkes Booth" to attorney Finis Bates, is a different man from the person who married Louisa Payne. My research on a book about the Lincoln assassination and the bizarre connections to Enid, Oklahoma suggests they are the same man. This man--Jack Booth/John St. Helen, David E. George, is either a deluded and deceptive man who pretended to be John Wilkes Booth for over four decades, or as many in the family of John Wilkes Booth now believe, this man was actually John Wilkes Booth himself.
DNA testing in 2011 could help solve the mystery.
Back in Tennesee during 1873 Louisa Booth received financial help from the family of her deceased first husband (C.Z. "Zeb" Payne). She went to work caring for her son McCager and her newborn infant girl. Louisa kept hope that her husband would return to her from Texas, but she never heard from him. In 1879, seven years after marrying the man who claimed to be John Wilkes Booth, beautiful 36 year old Louisa Payne was raking and burning leaves in her front yard when her dress accidentally caught fire. Louisa ran to the creek in an attempt to extinquish the flames, but the burns on her body would prove to be fatal for her. Before she died, Louisa called her six-year-old daughter Laura Ida Booth and her fourteen-year-old son McCager Payne to her bedside. The mother informed her children that Ida's father was John Wilkes Booth. McCager would later tell friends at the mill where he worked late in his life that he already knew John Wilkes Booth was his stepdad because of conversations he had overheard between his mom and stepdad when he was a boy. Caught listening in one time by his step-dad, McCager was threatened that if the boy told anyone that his step-dad was John Wilkes Booth, "I will kill you."
After the death of her mother young Laura Ida Booth would go to live with friends and family. Laura Ida Booth eventually became an actress herself and married a fellow actor named Charles Levine in New York City. When Mrs. Charles Levine heard of David E. George's death in Enid, Oklahoma in early 1903, and that David E. George had claimed to be "John Wilkes Booth" before he died, Mrs. Levine sent her letter to the the mayor of El Reno claiming George's estate "if indeed he is John Wilkes Booth."
Mrs. Charles Levine was serious in her query about Booth's estate, believing herself to be his daughter. Her letter should also be taken seriously by historians. Again, one of two options is possible regarding the man who appears as Jack Booth/John St. Helen/David E. George/ and who fathered Laura Ida Booth: (1). Either this man is a devious and/or deluded individual who kept up a false front for four decades about being John Wilkes Booth, or (2). This man is actually John Wilkes Booth.
To take the latter position opens oneself up to ridicule from mainstream historians. I remain personally unpersuaded. What is certain, however, is this: The DNA testing of the vertebrae from 'the body in barn' will either be a match to John Wilkes Booth and lay to rest the "Booth Legend" or the DNA testing will NOT provide a match and the escape theories for Lincoln's assassin will explode. Either way, historians ought to give Laura Ida Elizabeth Booth (Mrs. Charles Levine) and the letter she wrote to the mayor of El Reno in February 1903 far more serious attention than they are currently being given.
wrote to the mayor of El Reno in February 1903 far more serious attention than they are currently being given.
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