New Booth Photo? Er . . .

[tom82baur]

I stumbled on this tonight. Curious to know what this forum thinks of it.
"A Gettysburg researcher who happens to be a scholar on the life of John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, has stumbled on what she believes might be a previously undocumented portrait of Booth apparently taken during a visit to Tamaqua.

Michele Behan, a Missouri native and graduate of St. Louis University, discovered the portrait in late October 2015 at a Gettysburg antiques shop."

This is the caption to the photo: "Researcher Michele Behan of Gettysburg rummaged through old photos in an Adams County antiques shop recently and discovered what many say is an original portrait of John Wilkes Booth taken at Baily Studios in Tamaqua."

"She says she found an online story from the book “Iron Steps — Illustrated History of Tamaqua, Pa.” by Donald R. Serfass. The book includes a chapter that tells of Booth’s visits to the town, based on published newspaper reports dating back to the 1800s.

It was during one of those visits when Booth reportedly told Tamaqua barber Simon Jefferson about his plans to shoot the president.

Jefferson was the first black resident of the community and claimed to be a descendant of Thomas Jefferson through slave Sally Hemmings. Booth and Jefferson were both natives of Maryland, a common bond that helped to forge a friendship.

Jefferson said he warned town police and officials about Booth’s plans, stories well-documented by Jefferson in early newspaper interviews.

But, it appears, nobody was ready to pay attention to a black man, not even a free black man, in those days.

Jefferson said he even took a train to Washington, D.C., to warn Lincoln of impending doom.

But his attempts fell on deaf ears. The rest is history."

Here is the link:
http://www.tnonline.com/2016/jul/30/hist...in-tamaqua