Killing Lincoln - Nat Geo (Reactions)

[emma1231]

(03-04-2013 12:16 AM)John E. Wrote:  

Quote:I just saw Killing Lincoln. Not bad! One question I have seen posted or mentioned I think at some point on here is about the Booth autopsy picture. Wonder where it could be? After all Dr. Leale's report turned up as well as a copy of Lincoln's death photo in Illinois. Any thoughts? Thanks-Danny Wes[/font][/size]t-

There is no other relic I'd rather see than the autopsy photo - if it exists. However, I don't believe the story about James A. Wardell. Unfortunately, sections pertaining to the conspirators in Mark Katz's book "Witness to an Era" are filled with unverifiable information. In other instances, claims are either completely fabricated or primary sources are dubious themselves.

For years, I treated the book like a mini-bible regarding Alexander Gardner but not so much anymore.

Stanton had a preoccupation (not the correct word) with death. He kept his son's corpse in a small casket on his mantle for quite a while. I think he kept the print of Lincoln in his coffin because he liked to look at it once in a while. I think it is also evidence of how much he loved and respected him.
A contributor to "The Lincoln Conspiracy," Joe Lynch, was a charlatan. He claimed he had found -- in possession of unnamed heirs of Stanton -- the missing pages of Booth's diary, two sections of the scaffold beam from which Mrs. Surratt and Ledwis Powell were hanged, their nooses, and either the glass negative or print from it (I forget which) of the Booth autopsy. The pages and the scaffold beams were proven to be hoaxes. It follows that his autopsy photo story was, too. Lynch always called me from a phone booth near his Massachusetts home. Lynch told me he didn't know Neff, and professed (too much) to despise him. All I ever got from Lynch was a rare copy of John Creehan's bio of Laura Keene and a copy of the full transcript of those missing pages James O. Hall got them, too, when we met Lynch in a White Plains, NY hotel room. I still think Lynch and Neff were in cahoots.