"How Booth's Body Was Hidden"

[Gene C]

Below is a 26 page article written by Dr. George Porter in 1911 for the Columbian magazine.

https://archive.org/stream/howboothsbody...2/mode/2up

I've only read part of it. It's interesting.

Who was Dr. Porter? In his own words, from the second page of his article,

"Whether my participation in the secreting
of the assassin’s body or the
fact that I was the medical officer of
the arsenal caused the following order
to be issued, I have no means of knowing,
but from the moment it was placed
hi my hands until the monitor Florida
turned north from Fort Jefferson, Dry
Tortugas, after delivering four of the
conspirators to the commanding officer
to begin their sentences, I was in daily
attendance upon them and I was one
of three surgeons to pronounce dead the
other quartette as its members’ bodies
dangled from the gibbet-fastened nooses
in the yard of the penitentiary at two
o’clock on the afternoon of July 7, 1865"

[BettyO]

Facinating article! Never saw this article before. Just goes to prove that there is still a lot of "obscure" articles; files, etc. out there!


Thanks, Gene!

[RJNorton]

Barry Cauchon talks about Porter and includes a photo of him here:

https://awesometalks.wordpress.com/tag/d...-l-porter/

[Tom Bogar]

His daughter Mary also penned an interesting account of Porter's involvement in post-assassination events in her book, The Surgeon in Charge, that I was able to use in Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination. He was the one chiefly responsible for the removal of the hoods and the order for the prisoners to get exercise and reading materials.

[Dennis Urban]

The Porter article was really interesting to read in its entirety. Some new trivia came to light for me. There were also a few inaccuracies in his 1911 memory but nothing really significant. You can have fun finding them for yourself. I especially liked the pictures (long distance shot of the arsenal and the walkway picture) and drawings. I wish there were more old photos of the arsenal. Such an interesting place.