New Development in Booth Case Coming Soon

[Steve]

(06-25-2019 01:34 PM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:  FM Steve, IF, say again IF, John Wilkes Booth d: 1916 CO really had a mother named Agnes and sister, Mrs Josie Barrett, as stated in the Leadville news articles you found then his birth name wasn't Booth, or he was born in another country. There is no Agnes Booth with either a son John, or daughter Josie/Josephine in the USA for 1850-1860 census records. The Marion Agnes Land Rookes Booth that was Junius Jr Brutus Booth's 3rd wife was born in 1843 and didn't marry Junius until the 1860's.

Yes, Dolly A. (Baker) Booth has to be the informant, but someone lied to her! I would think that the Mrs Josie Barrett as a sister part might have some impress of truth to it if she came to visit them, as stated in the article. But I doubt that her maiden name was Booth. The Josie/Josephine Booths I've seen don't work out. Not many married a Barrett, but one married a Charles Barrett, however, she doesn't seem to be a match.

I think there's a good chance that the Agnes name for his mother is a confusion with the name of the later wife of Junius Jr., so it may not be that useful as a search parameter. The way the article describes it, it seems as though the father of Mrs. Josie Barrett is supposed to be somebody other than Junius Jr. Strangely the article gets the timing of this JWB's arrival in Leadville way wrong with claiming that he first arrived there in 1879 instead of 1888-89. Then seemingly contradicting that by saying he lived in Cheyenne for about 16 years. Also Junius Jr. died in 1883 before this JWB moved to Leadville.

I looked for any mention of this JWB in Helena newspapers and couldn't find any. Though, timeline-wise was that sort of makes sense if he actually came to Cheyenne after leaving Tennessee. I also checked Poughkeepsie directories prior to 1872, and I couldn't find a listing for him or his circus business.

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Another strange bit in the article, it seems to claim that Francis E. Warren, who actually was in Cheyenne during the same time period as this JWB was a undertaker:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_E._Warren