Identification of Booth's body

[L Verge]

I have not met and did not know of Dr. Robert Arnold until he sent unsolicited information to Surratt House on how to order his book to sell in our gift shop. I am sure that he is a very nice, learned man; however, besides his knowledge as a naval surgeon and then a coroner, how many years of research did he spend on studying the Lincoln assassination story once his interest was "piqued" -- please note correct spelling of that word (not peaked)?

While some of our readers disagree with Dr. John K. Lattimer's assessment of how Booth could/could not shoot himself in the neck, I still stand in awe of his years of study of the assassination in general and especially of his reputation in the medical field: medical advisor at the Nuremberg Trials, personal physician to a number of celebrity patients due to his recognized position at the top of the field of urology, chief of department at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the first civilian doctor to be allowed access (at the request of the Kennedy family) to the full autopsy report and photographs related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Dr. Lattimer was also a historian and widely-known collector in the Lincoln field as well as medieval history. How does Dr. Arnold compare?

Some observations:
1. The autopsy does not refer to either a pistol or rifle. It states that it was a "gun-shot" wound.
2. While neither man testified at the trial, both Dr. John Frederick May and Booth's friend Matt Canning described the unique scar on Booth's neck - May because he did the surgery and Canning because he was a forced-into-service assistant and witness to the bloody surgery in April of 1863 (surgery done without any form of anesthesia). Canning ended up passing out as did Booth at the very end. See American Brutus, page 123
3. Booth went on stage the same night after his surgery and within a few days returned to Dr. May in agony. There was not much else that could be done, and the wound healed more as a large burn scar than a nicely stitched closure.
4. Dr. May's description of the freckling of the body is in LAS 4:360 in the NARA, and his personal recollections of the autopsy are in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. Washington's Evening Star newspaper of April 27, 1865, also carried a description of the blood settling "in the lower part of the face and neck."
5. As for the tattoo on Booth's hand, Charles Dawson was not the only one who saw it. Willie Jett, Richard Baynham Garrett, Emory Parady of the Garrett's Farm Patrol, and a Marine sergeant of the guard all left statements or letters about the tattoo as identifiable evidence. See the LAS files and also the Marine Corps Library at the Washington Navy Yard.
6. Because my lunch hour is over, I will end by asking Wild Bill to counter your claims about how fast (or slowly) Booth's remains would have deteriorated. I made the same mistake as you by once suggesting that the body would not have changed that much. Wild Bill elicited the opinions of a number of doctors, coroners, whatever in proving me wrong, based on temperatures, humidity, etc.