New Development in Booth Case Coming Soon

[Steve Whitlock]

(05-08-2019 04:06 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Thanks to Steve for sending this article. Steve writes that the article is "from page 2 of the 23 Jan. 1903 edition of the Wichita Daily Eagle which quotes an article from The Oklahoman. This Oklahoman article quotes a man named C. M. Clark who claims to have known David E. George since he young in Mississippi. However, I'm skeptical of a good bit of what Clark describes of George's earlier life, so I'm not sure if we should believe anything Clark says."

Roger,

Your skepticism for the C. M. Clark article is well founded. There is no David George in MS for 1850 and 1860 census. Nathan Bedford Forrest is said to have married David E. George's sister; however, Forrest m: Mary Ann Montgomery who is neither a sister or step-sister of David E. George.

Mr. George is said to have killed Ben Thompson in San Antonio, Bexar, TX. That event happened in 1884 when Ben Thompson and King Fisher, who was with Thompson, were both killed by Joe Foster, Jacobo Coy and William H. Simms, none of them an alias, and accounted for as not being David E. George.

Mr. Clark says David E. George was a fine architect, which is not true. He attempted to be a painter, and has a City Directory entry in 1903 El Reno, OK where he is identified as a painter. According to some other articles it seems he only ever had one job as a painter, given by a man who wanted to prove he wasn't a painter.

The key to the Clark account is at the end when he says David E. George had said he would leave Clark a portion of his property, but he had none. Others tried to claim inheritances as well, including an actress born 10 years after George died. She confirmed he was John Wilkes Booth and he was very rich, she being his sole heir. He had no money.

Junius Booth III, who was just a few months old when JWB was killed, but he is said to have come to Enid and identified David E. George as his uncle. But nobody from the Booth family claimed the body. They knew where the real JWB was buried in the family plot.

In an attempt to identify George as Booth they checked his fingers and found a faint scar which they thought Booth also had. If they were checking his hands so closely one would suppose they might notice the initials of John Wilkes Booth tattooed between his thumb and forefinger, if they existed, or some indication they had been removed.

There are many other indications which show David E. George was a man with serious mental issues, and not John Wilkes Booth.

Meanwhile, as with Abraham Lincoln's heritage, there was money to be had with books, speculation and a mummified corpse for those who want to believe alternative facts.