Identification of Booth's body

[mikegriffith1]

(11-03-2018 12:51 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(11-03-2018 08:39 AM)mikegriffith1 Wrote:  Dr. May's first statement upon seeing the body was that it bore no resemblance to Booth and that he could not believe it was Booth?

Hadn't it been 2 years since Dr. May had previously seen Booth as compared to only 2 weeks for Charles Dawson?

One problem with that argument is that L. Gardner said that everyone was "shocked" by the body's lack of resemblance to Booth and that the lack of resemblance was so severe that Eckert did not want any photos taken of the body. This is especially revealing because Gardner also said that they had photos of Booth and that they compared them to the body.

Another problem is that Dr. May's statement about "lineaments" strongly suggests that he remembered quite clearly how Booth looked. "Lineaments" are the distinctive features of a body, especially of the face. May specified that the body's lineaments did not resemble Booth's.

As I have said before, there is simply no known case in the history of forensic science of a body's appearance changing as drastically as described by Dr. May and L. Gardner, especially the sudden appearance of heavy freckling on the face. I have been searching for such a case for at least three weeks. I have not found a case that even comes close. And, anyone who reads the links I provided will see that there is no medical basis for claiming that the body would have suddenly grown freckles and undergone such a change in appearance that it "bore no resemblance" to the body in life. As I've also noted, there are numerous before-and-after photos of Holocaust survivors, and even in their emaciated state, one can clearly that the photos are of the same person, mainly by the facial bone structure, the eyes, the nose, and the mouth.

Finally, regarding the fact that Booth had at least two fillings, I was not aware that anyone disputed this fact. But, now that I have brought up the fact that the body at the 1869 viewing only had one filling, at least one person has done so. Below are a few sources on the fact that Booth had two fillings. All of these sources support the traditional story and even repeat the myth that Dr. Merrill identified the body on the Montauk by supposedly identifying the two fillings he done for Booth. These sources seem unaware that the body at the 1869 viewing had only one filling. Here you go:

https://lisawallerrogers.com/tag/john-wi...hs-tattoo/
EXCERPT: Booth’s dentist, Dr. William Merrill, who had filled two teeth for Booth shortly before the assassination, pried open the corpse’s mouth and positively identified his fillings.

(Of course, as we all know, there is no official record that this occurred, or that Merrill was even on the Montauk that day.)

https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/quest...rrett-barn
EXCERPT: Booth's dentist, Dr. William Merrill, who had filled two teeth for Booth shortly before the assassination, who then pried open the corpse's mouth and positively identified his fillings.

http://www.mnkjournals.com/ijlrst_files/..._.4052.pdf
EXCERPT: As for Booth’s dentist (Hyson, 2001), Dr. William Merrill (whose office was at 344 Pennsylvania Avenue), he had cured and filled two teeth with gold for Booth shortly before the assassination. After prying open the corpse’s mouth, he positively identified his two fillings.

https://books.google.com/books?id=WUxS1B...ill&f=true
EXCERPT: It was on the Montauk that the remains were identified by his physician, the clerk at the hotel where Booth had been staying, and by Booth’s dentist, Dr. William Merrill, who recognized two gold fillings that he had placed shortly before he died.

Yet, when the mouth of the body at the 1869 identification was examined, only one filling was found. Surely everyone will admit that it would have been extremely hard not to notice the other filling.

Furthermore, there is no trace of any report by Dr. Merrill on his alleged identification on the Montauk, and there is no official record that he was even on the Montauk that day. You can bet that if Dr. Merrill had in fact identified the body on the Montauk as Booth, especially based on dental evidence, the War Department would have made sure the whole world knew it.