Identification of Booth's body

[L Verge]

(12-14-2018 01:05 AM)AussieMick Wrote:  "Barnes turned away Col. Cobb, a longtime friend of Booth’s who came to ID the body, because he did not want Cobb to see the body."

Col. Cobb ? That would be the Colonel Clarence Cobb about whom you couldnt provide any details?

And the dental chart ... could you tell us its date ? Maybe even let us know where it can be seen? I've asked before but you've ignored me. I'm not just being awkward ... that 'chart' could have been last updated 3 or 4 years earlier. There may have been changes to Booth's teeth. He could have been to see another dentist after that chart was prepared.


All I can see from internet searches is that 'A dentist was not present but Sexton Weaver produced a dental chart. Charles Bishop, an actor who asked permission to view the body, looked in the mouth of the corpse, identified only one filled tooth and pointed it out to all in attendance.' (John Wilkes Booth: Beyond The Grave, WC Jameson, Page 156).

So we have Sexton Weaver (who is ? I dont know except that he isnt a dentist) turning up with a dental chart (we dont know where he got it from , nor what happened to it afterwards) who arranges for an actor to look into the body's mouth ( was Weaver too squeamish ?). The actor says , words to the effect, "Yep ... there's your plugged tooth. See?" We dont know of course if another person looking in would have said " Yep ... but woah ... see there's another one over there too."

(Oh, and apparently someone ... the actor, Mr Bishop ? ... counted the number of missing teeth ... and this was confirmed by ... ? )

I have been trying to follow up on the dentist and dental records because I know that master detective John C. Brennan was researching this back in the 1980s. I remember the name Merrill, but nothing else. I have a feeling that the dentist was from either Baltimore or Washington since the records seem easy to obtain, but why no mention is made of him being on site for the prying open makes no sense.

Mr. Brennan was a fantastic soul and part of our gang that Mr. Hall dubbed his "Baker Street Irregulars" ( a la Sherlock Holmes) -- Brennan was Mr. Watson in that analogy.

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(12-14-2018 05:06 PM)JMadonna Wrote:  

(12-14-2018 02:39 PM)Warren Wrote:  Mike Griffith wrote: "Let’s go back to Occam’s Razor..."

and

"Luther Baker did not take off with the man in the barn’s body for several hours for no reason. The Booth-escaped theory does not require us to ignore this bizarre, extremely suspicious event. Rather, we can plausibly theorize that Baker had a very important reason for taking off with the body: to change the clothing, to break the body’s left fibula near the ankle, to slightly burn the back of the body’s neck if necessary (unless the body happened to have a scar on the back of its neck), and possibly to write the initials JWB on one of the hands."

That's an example of Occam's Razor?

The fact that Baker's cavalry had been in their saddles for over 20 hours that day is a better Occam's Razor answer.

On the banks of the Rappahannock River in what used to be Port Conway, Virginia, is a beautiful, restored mansion that had been built before the war on the plantation that was home to what became part of the Madison family -- as in James Madison, who was born in an earlier home on the property. Port Conway was named for the family of James's mother. The house is called Belle Grove, and you can Google it - just make sure that you read about the Belle Grove in King George County because there is another Belle Grove in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia that belonged to Madison's sister.

When the Garrett's Farm Patrol reached the river, they took a break because they were so tired. Their commander, Everton Conger (whom Rob could/should write a book about), was suffering from the effects of numerous war injuries. How he managed to stay in a saddle is amazing. He took his much-needed rest inside the mansion and several other officers stretched out in the hallway. Then it was back in the saddle, a chat with folks at the ferry, and a mad dash to Bowling Green to find Willie Jett.

BTW: Everton Conger's brother was in the U.S. Congress after the war, and Clara Barton went to him for help in getting the American Red Cross going. He sort of dismissed her until she casually mentioned that she had nursed his brother Everton during one of his critical injuries when he likely would have died. She got assistance. Another example of "six degrees of separation" that wanders through the whole Lincoln assassination story. Mike Kauffman was always going to write a book on those degrees.