Identification of Booth's body

[Steve]

(10-24-2018 04:08 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(10-23-2018 07:49 PM)mikegriffith1 Wrote:  * Historians who have quoted Munroe to support the traditional version have been extremely selective in quoting him. They usually do not allow the reader to know that Munroe was a tall teller of tales and that much of his testimony contradicts the traditional version on key points.

* Munroe was the Forrest Gump of the Lincoln assassination. This guy was just about everywhere.

I agree with Mike on this point. Remarkably, Seaton Munroe also claimed he was at Ford's Theatre just as Laura Keene was leaving the State Box. Munroe stated:

"Making a motion to arrest her progress, I begged her to tell me if Mr. Lincoln was still alive. "God only knows!" she gasped, stopping for a moment's rest. The memory of that apparition will never leave me. Attired, as I had so often seen her, in the costume of her part in "Our American Cousin," her hair and dress were in disorder, and not only was her gown soaked in Lincoln's blood, but her hands, and even her cheeks where her fingers had strayed, were bedaubed with the sorry stains!"

Based on what was said by others regarding the small amount of bleeding/oozing from the President's wound in the box, the blood on Keene's dress was most likely Rathbone's, not Lincoln's. I actually wonder if Seaton Munroe may have embellished or even created his story about meeting up with Keene. As far as I know Munroe's reminiscences were not published until 1896.

I agree with Mike and Roger's sentiments that we should treat Seaton Munroe's account skeptically, especially with its description of Keene after she left the box and the differing account of Booth's body's condition from Dr. May. Seaton was the brother of marine Capt. Frank Munroe who was in charge of the detail guarding the prisoners and could have gained access to the body/proceedings through his brother; or Seaton could have crafted a later account inserting himself there based on what Frank had told him. Though, I don't see how not trusting the veracity of Seaton's account really changes anything in regards to the identification of the body. Here's a link to Munroe's article for anybody that's interested:

https://archive.org/details/recollection...r/page/430