Most historians tend to agree that President Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, died in Garrett's barn on April 26, 1865. However a number of troubling factors are tied to the autopsy and burial of Booth,  leading a few people to actually claim that Booth didn't really die that night. Their theory is that Booth managed to escape and that the man who was shot in the barn was someone other then the President's assassin. When government officials discovered that they had  killed the wrong man, they decided to cover up the truth and avoid the embarrassment of a controversy.
When the trial of the other conspirators ended, most of the rumors about Booth escaping punishment begain to settle down.

However around the Spring of 1898 several newspapers started to promugate the story that John Wilkes Booth had escaped from Garrett's burning barn in 1865 and quickly fled to South America.

In 1903 a man named David E. George died in Erid, Oklahoma leaving a death bed confession that he  was in fact John Wilkes Booth.

This was soon the topic of discussion around town. The January 22, 1903 Enid Wave bore the following article banked with headlines:

WAS IT BOOTH?


The Impression Growing, From Evidence, Circumstantial and Otherwise, that the Supposed Remains of David E. George are None Other Than the Remains of JOHN WILKES BOOTH!
From the first the Wave has not believed that it is probable that David E. George... was John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, however, it is possible. The evidence of Mrs. Harper as to the fact George confessed to her... that he was none other than Booth, the assassin, in connection with the striking likeness to the assassin and the general demeanor of the man in producing parts of Shakespeare's' plays and songs around the saloons leads to a possibility in this case...

The most remarkable circumstance surrounding the dead man, as links to the fact that his right leg was broken just above the ankle, years ago,... Besides these lines, comes to the fact that J. Wilkes Booth was born in 1839 and was twenty-six years of age when the assassination took place and sixty-three years old in 1902, if living, which is the exact age of George as found in his papers . . .
One thing is certain, the remains now lying embalmed in the Pennimann Undertaking Rooms should not be buried until the identity is made more clear..."

The remains of David E. George's body were mummified and kept on display at the undertakers' for many months. Shortly thereafter, Finis L. Bates, a Memphis Lawyer, bought the mummy and began presenting it on the circus side show circuit. Such were the beginnings of a second career for John Wilkes Booth.
THE CURSE

The postmortem career of John Wilkes Booth, whether it belongs to true
history or folklore, none-the-less provides a fascinating story. The
mummy scattered ill-luck around almost as freely as Tutankhamen is
alleged to have done. Nearly every showman who exhibited the mummy was
subsequently ruined financially. Eight people were killed in the wreck
of a circus train in 1902 on which the mummy was traveling. Bill Evans,
a wealthy carnival king, who bought the exhibit in later years was
financially ruined by continual strokes of bad luck after the purchase.
Finis L. Bates, the original owner, wrote a book in 1908 entitled "The
Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth" which attempted to prove that
the mummy was in fact John Wilkes Booth. he suffered much ridicule
because of that book and died penniless in 1923. Perhaps the only person
to sponsor the mummy and not suffer strokes of financial bad luck was
Reverend True Wilson. It must be pointed out that Wilson was largely
responsible for originally getting the prohibition law passed. However,
shortly after Wilson bought the mummy, the repeal of the prohibition law
was made official. (Let each reader make their own determination as to
whether this was a cause-effect in this case or not.)
á

A MOST UNUSUAL AUTOPSY

In 1931, at the urging of a showman that owned the mummy, the remains
were X-rayed, operated on, and otherwise examined by a group of medical
men and criminalists in Chicago, Illinois. It was claimed that the
fractured leg, the broken thumb, and the scar on the neck were all
verified. The panel was convinced that they had proven that the mummy
was in fact the remains of John Wilkes Booth. Despite the fact that the
panel consisted of recognized experts in their field, the investigation
failed to gain wide publicity. A few pulp magazines and otherwise
"tabloid" newspapers were the only ones to carry the story. This,
combined with the fact that a showman brought about the investigation,
tended to take credibility away from the conclusions of the panel.
áThe mummy had a strange knock-about existence. It had been bought and
sold, held under bond, sized for debt, repeatedly chased out of town by
local authorities for not having a license or for violating other
ordinances, been threatened by indignant Grand Army of the Republic
(Civil War) veterans, and, at least one time, kidnapped. (Ads in certain
1928 issues of "Billboard" offer a $1000 reward for its safe return.)
Until 1937 the mummy had been a constant money loser.
á

PAY DIRT AT LAST!

1937 saw several events that helped to make the financial turn-a-round
for the seemingly ill-fated mummy. This was the year that Otto
Eisenschimil released his book "Why Was Lincoln Murdered?" This author
produced a vast amount of documentation that suggested that Secretary of
War Edwin Stanton was the ringleader of the plot to kill Lincoln and
that Stanton arranged to facilitate the escape of Booth. This book,
while not exactly expounding on the possibility for Booth's escape,
none-the-less made it seem feasible. Another historical volume published
in that year was "This One Mad Act" by Izola Forrester, a great daughter
of John Wilkes Booth. This book presented evidence that members of her
family were in personal contact with the assassin for a generation after
1865. As a result of these two books, 1937 saw much newspaper coverage
of the controversy of the Lincoln assassination in general.

áWide-spread newspaper coverage of the topic certainly helped make more
people aware that there were still some unsolved mysteries surrounding
Lincoln's assassination.

áAs an interesting side point here, I have conducted extensive research
and discovered that in the height of his career John Wilkes Booth earned
about $20,000 a year. (This was both by acting fees and profits from
investments.) In 1937, the mummified remains of the alleged John Wilkes
Booth earned in excess of $100,000.

Mr. and Mrs. John Harkin owned the mummy from 1937 until at least 1942.
(Mr. Harkin had been the former tattooed man for the Wallace-Hagenbeck
Circus.) They toured the country with the Jay Gould Million Dollar Shows
for several seasons. After that point in time, I have lost track of just
whom owned the mummy or where it went.
á

HOW THE STORY OF THE MUMMY BEING
J. WILKES BOOTH GOT STARTED

In 1903 when Finis L. Bates (mentioned earlier) read the news concerning
the death of David E. George in Enid, Oklahoma, he rushed to Enid to
check it out. Bates, in the early 1870's, in Texas, had been a close
friend with a man going by the name John St. Helen. When St. Helen
became very ill he confided to Bates (he thought he was on his
death-bed) that HE was John Wilkes Booth. St. Helen recovered. Later,
when Bates asked St. Helen about the confession, St. Helen denied he
ever said it. When Bates read the news of David E. George, nearly 30
years later, claiming to have been John Wilkes Booth, Bates became
curious. he wondered if John St. Helen and David E. George were one in
the same person.

áUpon arriving in Enid, Bates headed to the Pennimann Undertakers Rooms
to see the body of David E. George. Yes! This was the man he had known
as John St. Helen. Bates secretly bought the mummy and took it back to
Memphis. He spent five years conducting what he called research to
prepare a book about this matter. (He hid the mummy in his garage during
this time!) In 1908, Bates released his book. According to his book, the
main plot goes something like this:

áOne the afternoon of April 25, 1865, Booth remembered that he had left
his diary, wallet and other personal effects in the marsh a few miles
from the Garrett farm. He asked a man by the name of Ruddy, who was
caretaker at the Garrett farm, to retrieve them for him. Ruddy left to
get them. Meanwhile, Booth got wind that government agents were closing
in on him so he took off on his own leaving Herold behind. When Ruddy
returned with Booth's personal items he found that Booth was gone.
Expecting him to return, Ruddy kept the personal items on his own
person. Herold and Ruddy slept in the barn that night. When the
government agents arrived this is why the man in the barn denied he was
Booth. This is also why Booth's personal belongings were found on the
body of the man shot in the barn. Lastly, Bates made the claim that no
reward money was ever actually paid to anyone for the capture of Booth
but yet rewards were paid for the capture of Atzerodt and Payne.
Therefore, this proved that the government knew they had the wrong man
and that Booth was never caught.
á

WAS THE MUMMY REALLY JOHN WILKES BOOTH?

Transcripts of the trial of the conspirators relate the following as to
how the body taken from the Garrett farm was identified. Colonel Everton
J. Conger was present at the Garrett farm for the entire ordeal. he
testified at the trial the he had met John Wilkes Booth in Washington on
several occasions prior to the incident at the Garrett farm. he further
stated that both men were the same. Also on the witness stand were L. B.
Baker, Lt. Doherty, and several others. Each told of how they knew the
body was that of Booth.

áAt the Surratt trial in 1867, a new piece of information became known.
Lt. Luther Byron Baker testified that "there was a pin which Colonel
Conger took off his undershirt after we tore open the collar." Baker
then identified the pin which had been taken from Booth's body. Conger
then took the stand and testified that after Booth was shot and before
he died, he took a stone set in jet from Booths' person on which was
engraved "Dan Bryant to J. W. Booth." (Bryant was an actor and friend of
the Booth family. I have found two independent sources from prior to the
assassination that confirm that Bryant did in fact give Booth such a pin
and that he kept it pinned to his undershirt.)

áWhile Booth, as Mr. Bates' book suggests, might have left his personal
belongings in the marsh and that a man, under instructions from Booth,
go to retrieve them, it strains the probabilities to expect the pin
belonging to Booth to also be fastened to his undershirt where John
Wilkes Booth kept it. The fact that he even had a pin and that he kept
it fastened to his undershirt was not public knowledge at the time.

áIn the matter of the unclaimed reward money, one only need look in the
National Archives in Washington, D. C. to see the original signed
receipts. In addition, the Congressional Globe (Part 5, 1st session,
39th Congress), made their report on July 26, 1866 and appropriation was
made by the acts of July 28, 1866. (14 stat, 341.)

áIn 1869, when the body was finally turned over to the Booth family, to
make absolutely certain that the body was really Booth, they had the
family dentist examine the remains. Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes,
represented that the family dentist identified the body as that of John
Wilkes Booth by a close examination of the skeletons' teeth. The dental
work corresponded. Edwin and the rest of the family were satisfied that
they body was really that of John Wilkes Booth.

áTo lay the matter to rest (pun intended), yes there was a mummy that
its owners represented to have been the remains of John Wilkes Booth.
No, the remains were not those of John Wilkes Booth. Rather, they were
those of David E. George -- a man unknown in life that became famous in
death.

Return to first page story about President Lincoln's Adventure in Weatherford, Texas then click here