New Development in Booth Case Coming Soon

[Steve Whitlock]

(07-09-2019 07:00 PM)Steve Wrote:  

(07-09-2019 05:27 PM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:  

(07-09-2019 02:14 PM)Steve Wrote:  Here are some new documents and newspaper articles:




Comparison of the supposed signature of the Tennessee John Wilkes Booth (from the image in the 1911 article) with a known signature of the assassin John Wilkes Booth from an endorsement from a Feb. 1863 check sent to him from his brother Edwin. The point I'm trying to make is the supposed cut out "J. Wilkes Booth" signature of the Tennessee JWB shown to the newspaper in 1911 is probably a forgery based on the signature of the assassin JWB.

McCager
So, what document is it that J. Wielkes [sic] Booth signed as Mrs Howard's father? I guess he couldn't spell his own name. Surely they didn't just say here is his signature without it being on a document?

I found the death record of Laura Ida Booth. The 29 April 1925 date matches the death date from her probate records. Norman was her later performance last name, but I have no idea why her first name is given as Ruth on the death certificate.

New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949

Name: Ruth Norman
Event Type: Death
Event Date: 29 Apr 1925
Event Place: Manhattan, New York, New York, United States
Address: 227 West 46th St.
Residence Place: N.Y. City
Gender: Female
Age: 52
Marital Status: Married
Race: White
Occupation: Theatrical
Birth Year: 1873 (estimated)
Birthplace: U.S.
Burial Date: 01 May 1925
Cemetery: Kensico
Father's Name: John Wilkes Booth
Father's Birthplace: U.S.
Mother's Name: Ida Payne
Mother's Birthplace: U.S

The 1911 article says the scrap of paper was attached to a certified copy of her parents marriage record "bearing the signature 'J. Wilkes Booth', which she declares was torn from the records of the Tennessee Court with the permission of the clerk"

I missed the possible "e" after the "i", but I still think it was copied off of the signature of the assassin and isn't from court records. There was nothing torn off the marriage records, which were signed "Jno. W. Boothe" according to record copy of the marriage bond. (But that looks like it might have been written by the clerk or officiant, and not Booth like it was supposed to.) The are no signatures of the married couple on the license, just the signature of the officiant on the back.

FM Steve, I also have the Ruth Norman death record. I thought I had posted it, but I forgot to. There's also a death record at ancestry.com for Ruth Norman that has less information.

Having spent the day looking at a multitude of articles intent on spreading the misinformation that David E. George/John St. Helen is the real John Wilkes Booth I must say that it's only going to get worse, until it appears as accepted historical fact by far too many. Anger won't dispel the fiction, but proof can slow it down considerably.

What we need to find is copies of handwriting by David E. George that some maintain is so like that of J. Wilkes Booth. If so, where is it? A newspaper article I read said that David E. George's signature on a check, I think, looked nothing like the handwriting of JWB.

We need to find that check, or whatever provided the sample of George's handwriting. We also need to find handwriting of the John Wilkes Booth d: 1916 Leadville, Co. I'm coming around to your way of thinking. Did he sign anything on the court case for the slot machines that you found?

McCager Payne in some of the things I've read seems to imply that since David E. George said he was John Wilkes Booth when he was committing suicide several times, that he must be the one; however, I haven't seen any evidence that he or Laura Ida Booth was aware of the man in Leadville, CO who actually said he was John Wilkes Booth in records, including his marriage to Dollie Adeline Baker in 1874. David E. George and all his aliases ran from being known as John Wilkes Booth except when he thought he was dying.

A supposed letter by someone who saw John/Jno W. Booth referred to him as a "handsome lad". That implies someone young, perhaps a 23-24 yr old John Wilkes Booth b: 1848. That "handsome lad" can be found if you google "Louisa and the assassin", which is a .pdf file that also has a letter Laura wrote to an aunt back in TN, along with her marriage record and Marriage license to Lewis Howard, and a news clipping about that marriage and the reaction when she said her father was John Wilkes Booth.

If we do nothing else we will make a significant contribution to history by proving beyond a doubt that David E. George was NOT the John/Jno W. Booth that married Louisa J. Payne. The certainty of Laura and McCager that John Wilkes Booth was her father plays strongly to the "he got away" theorists, and it doesn't help that they thought David E. George was that John Wilkes Booth, when it might well have been a man who acknowledged publicly he was a John Wilkes Booth, even if claiming Junius Brutus Booth Jr as a father.

I agree that there may have been a forged J. Wielkes Booth signature!