Is there a list of the best Lincoln Assassination Consp. books for our library?

[Dave Taylor]

William Garrett gave two known accounts about his family's encounter with Booth. One was in May of 1865 when he and Jack were still imprisoned in Washington. The other was in 1920 when William recounted the events for Confederate Veteran Magazine. In both of these accounts, Will, like every single Garrett family member, has no doubt that Booth was the man shot in their barn.

The fictional account that W.P. Campbell used in his book, The Wanderings of J. Wilkes Booth, from which you have clearly duplicated in your book, is not from William Garrett. It is actually a letter written by man named W. P. Carneal, who was postmaster of Lent, VA in 1922. Though Campbell's book claims that this account in his book is signed by William Garrett, this is not the case. I have seen the original letter in the Swaim collection in Georgetown. It is signed by W. P. Carneal and no one else. The letter Carneal sent in response to Campbell's inquiries was a complete fabrication that couldn't even get the detail of Herold not coming to the house until the next day right.

I'm defensive when it comes to my Garretts, and can't sit idly by while their names are used to expound the crack pot theory that they all knew to be nonsense. Richard Baynham Garrett said it best, "God never made two men as exactly alike as that dead man and the one whose photograph there could be no doubt was Booth's. Point by point the printed description held in the detective's hand was followed out. Height, color of hair and eyes, every scar and mark tallied exactly..."

John Wilkes Booth died on the Garrett porch on the morning of April 26th, 1865.