Was it Booth in the Barn?

[L Verge]

(10-31-2014 05:01 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  I often come across two names - Joseph Zisgen and Wilson Kenzie - in connection with the red hair story. But I have not been able to read the actual statements by these two folks. Are there real statements by these men that are recorded and can be read? Or is this just mostly folklore?

In 1993, after continually fighting the few proponents of the "Booth Escaped" Theory, several fine researchers from the Surratt Society put together an excellent booklet that we still sell in our gift shop. Entitled The Body in the Barn: The Controversy Over the Death of John Wilkes Booth, this work puts together articles from the two major pushers of the escape theory at that time - Nate Orlowek and Dr. Arthur Ben Chitty - and rebuttals by James O. Hall, Steven Miller, and James MacNair.

There is a great deal of information on Kenzie given by Miller, who shoots the man's various statements to holes. As far as Zisgen, there is no known statement of any kind from him. Izola Forrester, in The One Mad Act, states that Zisgen and Kenzie both swore out an affidavit in 1922, but Zisgen died in 1914.

The booklet is still available through the Surratt gift shop at $13 ppd.