Was it Booth in the Barn?

[historybuff22]

Here we go again... An urban legend that will not die!! This Monday evening (October 27) Turner Classic Movies is airing a 1937 short entitled "Was it John Wilkes Booth in the Burning Barn?" Shades of Finis Bates 15 years after he (Bates) died?

Rick Brown
HistoryBuff.com
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[BettyO]

Sounds great! Thanks a bunch Rick - I'll look into this.....

[Gene C]

Thanks Rick, I don't get Turner Classic Movies, but I did get lucky and find it on youtube. It's only about 11 minutes long. At least we now know how Booth got on his horse when he had the broken leg. (3:20 in to the film)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g34_X1XwyjM

Check out Rick's web site too! It's an interesting site.
http://www.historybuff.com/

[L Verge]

(10-27-2014 07:22 AM)Gene C Wrote:  Thanks Rick, I don't get Turner Classic Movies, but I did get lucky and find it on youtube. It's only about 11 minutes long. At least we now know how Booth got on his horse when he had the broken leg. (3:20 in to the film)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g34_X1XwyjM

Check out Rick's web site too! It's an interesting site.
http://www.historybuff.com/

I hate to say this, but that short film is remarkably well done! As for Booth's leap onto the horse, I made a very similar comment about him not needing a stirrup years ago and got royally shot-down for even thinking such a thing.

[Jenny]

Quote:I hate to say this, but that short film is remarkably well done! As for Booth's leap onto the horse, I made a very similar comment about him not needing a stirrup years ago and got royally shot-down for even thinking such a thing.

I have always wondered about him getting up there without a stirrup too, Laurie! Booth was muscular, his [/quote]mare wasn't a tall horse, and I can see it as a definite possibly.

[SSlater]

Before we leave "was it Booth in the Barn?", there is one more item that we should add to the stew - we should read Garrett's statement given to the arresting Officers. I found his statement in a CIS file in the Pentagon (when I was working there). That's a Congressional Information Service, in which they record everything that they do. (I also found Garrett's claim for payment for everything that the Government burned in the barn). Garrett said that he knew several of the Rebs, that showed up that day Jett, including Jett and Ruggles etc., because they were local boys but he didn't know the "red haired" man who died in the barn.
I don't know anyone who accepts this statement, but it does exist.
I gave a copy of the statement to the Research Center - a billion years ago, maybe they still have it. (Laurie???) I hope she can print it here for your entertainment.
I'll look in my files, but I can't think how I would file it. I'll look for the Claim , too. Does anyone have access to the CIS?

[L Verge]

(10-29-2014 06:33 PM)SSlater Wrote:  Before we leave "was it Booth in the Barn?", there is one more item that we should add to the stew - we should read Garrett's statement given to the arresting Officers. I found his statement in a CIS file in the Pentagon (when I was working there). That's a Congressional Information Service, in which they record everything that they do. (I also found Garrett's claim for payment for everything that the Government burned in the barn). Garrett said that he knew several of the Rebs, that showed up that day Jett, including Jett and Ruggles etc., because they were local boys but he didn't know the "red haired" man who died in the barn.
I don't know anyone who accepts this statement, but it does exist.
I gave a copy of the statement to the Research Center - a billion years ago, maybe they still have it. (Laurie???) I hope she can print it here for your entertainment.
I'll look in my files, but I can't think how I would file it. I'll look for the Claim , too. Does anyone have access to the CIS?

I'll see where we have it filed, John, but you know that I place no faith in such a statement. First, I have argued since I was a teenager that someone with as dark hair as Booth's would have red highlights show up after exposure to the sun after so many days. Second, unless Garrett's statement is written in his hand and signed by him, there is no reason not to believe that it was written by someone else. Third, that simple sentence can translate simply to Garrett saying that he did not know the man who came with the local boys - and at the moment of their arrival, the Garretts did not know who he was.

[Jim Garrett]

The Lucinda Holloway lock of hair was cut from the body in the barn. There is no way that hair is red. It is definitely black.

[BettyO]

The hair I've seen at the MOC (Museum of the Confederacy) is definitely black or a dark, dark brown....

   

[Jenny]

When I selected individual colors from that lock of hair in Photoshop out of curiosity, all of the colors are shades of dark brown. Definitely none that were dark enough to even begin to enter the "black" category. That said, it seems like most of the colorized pictures of Booth color his hair far too lightly!

(Also, a of people recall Booth as having black hair and black eyes, but *no human* can actually have true black eyes. They had to be dark brown in truth.)

[SSlater]

I agree with Laurie's deduction that Booth's hair was "Dark". Based on samples that once were displayed in the Court House in Caroline County, my independent conclusion is "It was Dark". But the statement provided by Garrett said "he had red hair." I am adding this information only because IT EXISTS.
Several years ago there was a descendant of the Cawoods living in Southern Maryland and she had the idea that it was Cawood in the barn.- with redish hair. I think her middle name was Cawood, and her last name was Lindner. (email address "ladyjane). Laurie -HELP!
There also exists a small scrap of paper that describes Cawood, in the 1865 era, with Greying hair and a matching beard.

[Jenny]

(10-30-2014 10:37 PM)SSlater Wrote:  I agree with Laurie's deduction that Booth's hair was "Dark". Based on samples that once were displayed in the Court House in Caroline County, my independent conclusion is "It was Dark". But the statement provided by Garrett said "he had red hair." I am adding this information only because IT EXISTS.
Several years ago there was a descendant of the Cawoods living in Southern Maryland and she had the idea that it was Cawood in the barn.- with redish hair.

Apologies if you thought I was implying you thought the hair was actually red - I know you didn't. I was just adding a random detail about the hair being black vs. brown.
On track: I do find it interesting that Garrett - or whoever wrote the statement for him - added the "red hair" bit, and I had never heard of a "Cawood" thought to be JWB in the barn (I just know the usual suspects - I know some of you other folks have heard of plenty more! Ha! ). Fascinating stuff.

[RJNorton]

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?

[BettyO]

Booth's hair was dark brown more or less as was Powell's.... the heavy pomade which gentlemen wore in the Victorian era made a man's hair appear darker - hence the probable "black" appearance of a brunette's hair.

My father was a red head and the Brillecream and other stuff he put on his hair in the late 1950s and early 1960s made his hair appear to be a dark brown rather than red....

[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.