Was it Booth in the Barn?

[RJNorton]

Thanks, Laurie. I had seen references to Kenzie's affidavit but didn't think I had a book that included the text of it. I was wrong. It's on p. 250-251 of Ed Steers' Blood on the Moon. It reads:


I went in pursuit with them (the Sixteenth New York Cavalry); and we all brought up at the Garrett barn where Booth was supposed to be; and Corbett's company surrounded the barn. Boston Corbett shot the man through a crack in the barn and killed him instantly. They brought the man out and put him on the porch and covered him with a blanket except his feet. Joe Zisgen had discovered that it wasn't J. Wilkes Booth and they had covered him up so no one could see his face, as I rode up Joe Zisgen called "Here, come here Sergeant, this ain't J. Wilkes Booth at all." At he attempted to uncover the corpse, he was stopped by some of the officers, but the face was exposed enough so I could see the color of his hair and side of his face that this man had sandy hair and Booth had very dark hair, I knew at once it wasn't he. His body was exposed, the lower part of it, and he had no injured leg that I could see and he did not have on riding boots, but I think ordinary shoes and I sized him up as being an ordinary Virginia farmer. What I do know and positively state is that it was not the body of John Wilkes Booth."

Dr. Steers goes on to write that Zisgen issued another statement in which he said:

"This fellow's a red-headed Virginian....he was red-headed and red haired. There was no chance of a mistake...one of the three officers of high rank (Conger, Baker, Doherty) seized the blanket and shouted to me, "Don't repeat that."...My company commander, Lieutenant Norris (Lieutenant Harman P. Norris, commanding Battery F, First United States Artillery), husband of a niece of Secretary Stanton, warned me also to keep quiet."