Identification of Booth's body

[L Verge]

(09-27-2018 10:59 PM)SSlater Wrote:  I was not very clear when I first wrote on this topic. So, back to the beginning. I do not question who was shot in the Garrett Barn and hauled to Washington. I question the handling of the remains, in the years following. He was first buried in the floor of the jail. Then moved to Green Mount. Then several Bodies - each said to be Booth, went on display across the country. Then the descendants of Booth got worried and asked that the body of Booth be identified.
The Green Wood people opposed, and it was said that they did not know where the body was buried, yet they said there were 3 infants buried above him.
I can see how the descendants got concerned. Green Mount claimed that they were responsible to leave the body in the grave that Booth's Mother buried him in.
This is difficult to write about, since it is not consistent with the their claims. Nor with the claims by two different men, that they were really Booth.
I can't accept the claim by Green Mount that "nothing will be gained by identifying the body in the grave, said to be Booth." All I get from that is they are afraid to run the tests, because THEY DON"T KNOW.
I also draw from this is - the location of Booth's grave, is a secret, - so that nobody else will try to steal the body

I was not aware of more than one mummy traveling the carnival circuit with claims to being JWB. Is there another fake out there?

I believe there are records pertaining to the removal of the young Booths' bodies from the Bel Air farm to Green Mount at the request of Mrs. Booth. I also believe that her husband was reinterred there when she purchased the plot. If I'm not mistaken, Booth's body was "stored" for awhile awaiting all of this to go on.

I also believe hearing that there are legal ramifications regarding the disturbance of other graves in the process of disinterment. The protection of those young siblings' remains was an issue.

The claims of other gentlemen that they were JWB can only be attributed to their desire for publicity. I can assure you that their claims have been researched and discredited. Just as a sidebar: About 35 years ago, I was going through the rusty old ledgers from my family's general store and spotted an entry in the early-1860s for "John Boothe." I was ecstatic - until my mother told me that this particular "Boothe" family were African American and lived near T.B. when she was a child.

Back in the 1980s or early 90s, Joan Chaconas and Betty Ownsbey accepted an invitation to meet and "interview" John Wilkes Booth IV, who was a resident in a VA home near Virginia Beach. Betty can fill in blanks here, but all that they learned was that he appreciated females and that he wrote suggestive poetry - which he continued to send to the museum for awhile.

As far as the DNA testing, you do realize that several years ago parties were pushing to have Edwin Booth disturbed in his Massachusetts grave in order to get a sample from him for comparison? Talk about disturbing the dead!

One of the distant relatives who was pushed into taking it to court in the 1990s is now dead as is Dr. Chitty, one of those doing the pushing. A very well-known author in our field talked with other descendants after the case was denied in the Court of Appeals. They said that they had not cooperated with the push and that they were tired of the subject.

Very frankly, what good would come of any investigation at this point? It's 150+ years after the fact; if a government cover-up happened to be revealed, would Lincoln rise from the dead? Personally, I think it's time to let the documented evidence and the investigations done at the time close the "JWB escaped" legend.