On October 24, 1994, a group of Booth relatives and supporters petitioned for the Baltimore Circuit Judge to allow for an exhumation of Booth's remains for identification purposes. It was also examined in the TV-series "Brad Meltzer's Decoded" and History's Greatest Mysteries.This case first aired on the Septemepisode.To this day, doubts remain over the fate of Abraham Lincoln's assassin. A comparison of his and Booth's photographs do show a resemblance. In 1931, doctors examined the remains and found similarities between the body's injuries and Booth's known injuries. He committed suicide in January 1903 in Enid, Oklahoma. Helen, the man who went to get his documents was the man that was killed in the barn. While at the barn, two men told him that Union soldiers were coming for him, so he fled. When he went to Garrett Farm, he sent a man to retrieve his documents. Later, he hid under a wagon and then ran into the woods, leaving documents behind. He claimed that he later joined up with co-conspirator David Herold and they visited a doctor that set his wounded leg. A document seemed to confirm this password. He explained that he escaped on the night of assassination by using a secret password. Helen claimed that he was telling the truth. Thinking he was about to die, he confessed to Finis that he was actually Booth. In the book, he claimed he learned the truth about Booth's fate from a client named John St. In 1907, Texas lawyer Finis Bates published the book "The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth". Meanwhile, some believed that Booth had escaped justice and lived in hiding. The trial of Booth's co-conspirators resulted in four hangings and three life sentences. In 1866, senator Charles Sumner argued that there was not enough evidence to confirm the identity of the body he believed that the reward should not be paid. For unknown reasons, Secretary of War William Stanton had all photos of Booth's body destroyed. Also, he confirmed that the body did have a scar on the back of the neck, as a result of his surgery.Įventually, Booth's body was buried in the basement of the Old Naval Prison in Washington. However, years later, he refuted these findings, claiming that the discrepancies may have been due to Booth's time on the run. He stated that the body had sandy hair and freckles Booth had neither of these characteristics. When he viewed the body, he felt that it had no resemblance to Booth. A few months before the assassination, he had removed a tumor from the back of Booth's neck. May, a Washington surgeon, performed an autopsy on the body at Garrett Farm. Officers at the scene told them to keep the mis-identification a secret.ĭr. Friends of Booth went to the farm they did not believe the body was Booth's. Allen, who was at the farm, later told his wife that the body had red hair (Booth's hair was black). ![]() Several witnesses claimed that the body from the Garrett Farm was not Booth. However, in a statement made after his arrest, Herold did not claim that the man in the barn was Boyd. In fact, there was a fugitive at that time named James Boyd. When he came out to the soldiers, he claimed that the man in the barn was actually named Boyd. Herold denied it was he who died in the barn. He was further identified by a pin through his vest to his undershirt.Īccording to some conspiracy theorists, several people including David E. He wanted a message delivered to his mother, asked for his hands to be held out and cried out "Useless, Useless." before breathing his last. ![]() ![]() On the Garrett porch, he never once denied being Booth to Colonel Lafayette Baker, the Union officer who had lead the pursuit for him. Boston Corbett shot and mortally wounded him. Herold, surrendered to the officers.īooth, however, would not come out, so the officers set the barn on fire in order to smoke him out. He escaped Washington, DC and fled to the Garrett Farm near Port Royal, Virginia where, on April 26, he was tracked down by Union Officers under Colonel Everett Conger. Details: On April 14, 1865, twenty-six-year-old actor John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, the Sixteenth President of the United States, at Ford's Theater.
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