W. C. Jameson - John Wilkes Booth: Beyond the Grave

John Wilkes Booth

John Wilkes Booth

Beyond the Grave

W.C. Jameson

Taylor Trade Publishing

Lanham New York Boulder Toronto Plymouth, UK

Published by Taylor Trade Publishing

An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

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www.rowman.com

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Distributed by National Book Network

Copyright 2013 by W.C. Jameson

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Jameson, W. C., 1942

John Wilkes Booth : beyond the grave / W.C. Jameson.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-58979-831-1 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-58979-832-8 (electronic) 1. Booth, John Wilkes, 1838-1865. 2. AssassinsUnited StatesBiography. 3. Fugitives from justiceUnited StatesBiography. 4. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865Assassination. I. Title.

E457.5.J349 2013

973.7092dc23

[B]

2013008412

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Preface

Virtually every American knows the name John Wilkes Booth. Surveys have confirmed that for most citizens of the United States, as well as residents of much of the rest of the world, the infamous actor and his associated deed are synonymous with the word assassination. Mention the name Booth, a noted thespian of the mid-nineteenth century, and all but a sheltered few associate it with the murder of President Abraham Lincoln, April 14, 1865.

Even now, according to author David M. Robertson, the enigmatic, attractive, manipulative, and violent Booth continues to command the American imagination in a way not fully explained by the fact of his life or his notoriety.

Indeed, to this day, John Wilkes Booth remains a looming, gnawing enigma, among the most complex and puzzling in American history. Rising well above the confusing and tangled web of mysteries embracing the actor, his escape, and his alleged death are the ones associated with the distinct possibility of his survival.

As a child, I remember the few occasions when family members brought up the subject of John Wilkes Booth in hushed tones accompanied by furtive glances at the doors as if the speakers feared someone might be listening. During those rare times that I chanced to enter a room filled with adults having such conversations, the subject was immediately dropped and another substituted. I was too young to understand or even care about the family secrecy surrounding this. When I was ten years old and in the fifth grade, I was subjected to an elementary school lesson in history that included information on the tenure of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States and his role, as they said in those days, in freeing the slaves. We also learned that Lincoln was assassinated in his prime by Booth, an actor who was eventually killed several days afterward. So said the teachers and the textbooks.

On arriving home that afternoon, I excitedly related portions of the days history class to my mother and a visiting guest. When I got to the part about John Wilkes Booth, I was shushed and sent to another room. Later, after the visitor departed, I was reprimanded for bringing up the subject of Booth and instructed never to do it again. When I asked why, the answers stunned me then as they stun me today. I was told Booth was kin on my fathers side. To many, especially my mother, any family association with the assassin was considered socially unacceptable, and the matter was not to be discussed. In addition, the actor was never spoken of by tacit agreement among relatives because, they believed and I was told, John Wilkes Booth was never captured or killed by government authorities but escaped to live for many years afterward.

The prospect of being related to a famous assassin generated a mixed reaction in a ten-year-old. On the one hand, I was honor bound to maintain the secret. On the other, the revelation that Booth had escaped generated in me a burning curiosity about the man and his life and times, a curiosity that has not abated in the decades since. Beginning at that young age, I read everything I could find about Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, the politics of that era, and John Wilkes Booth. The more I read, studied, researched, analyzed, questioned, and considered the traditional histories on these subjects, the more I came to realize a number of things that caused me to appreciate what I now perceive to be the truth of what I was told as a youngster: John Wilkes Booth was not captured and killed by federal agents as we were taught in our history classes. He escaped.

One

Introduction

What is the truth about John Wilkes Booth? What really happened to the man who many historians contend is the worlds most famous political assassin?

History records that Booth, on the evening of April 14, 1865, assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Of that there can be little doubt since dozens in attendance at Fords Theater in Washington, D.C., witnessed the killing and the escape of the actor. History also records that, following a twelve-day pursuit, Booth was finally trapped in a barn on the northeastern Virginia farm of Richard Garrett. Shot while resisting capture, the mortally wounded fugitive was dragged from the structure, which had been set on fire, and later carried to Garretts porch, where he died a short time later.

Unlike the killing of Lincoln, this particular event was layered with doubt and confusion. Almost from the moment the dying man was pulled from the barn, it was being whispered among the soldiers present that he was not Booth. As events of the next forty-eight hours unfolded, the complications and contradictions concerning the identity of the man did not abate. Instead, they swelled to such proportions that government authorities were put to the task of writing and issuing informational releases on the matter. Rather than quash the rumors of Booths escape, they only added to the mystery.

More doubt and contradiction surfaced during the subsequent inquest, identification, and burial of the body, all borne of obvious governmental fumbling, ineptitude, and deception. Conspiratorial overtones strongly hinted at government duplicity and cover-up regarding the identity of the body being passed off as that of the assassin. I am troubled by those who find conspiracies everywhere and am loath to invoke one here. The sad truth, however, is that elected politicians and appointed officials have long demonstrated that such are not uncommon in Washington, D.C. Many of the facts related to the conspiracy to assassinate the president and the fate of Booth will likely never be known.