Get out your Sherlock Holmes hat and magnifying glass 'cause we may have a case to solve. I will hopefully have more details next week, but I rec'd a phone call today from a gentleman whose family "inherited" a cross that supposedly once belonged to John Wilkes Booth and was displayed about 75 years ago in a museum somewhere that was dedicated to the assassin.

They got the cross at the request of a dying man who claimed that he had stolen it from said museum about 75 years before - but he didn't say where that museum was. He just called it the John Wilkes Booth Museum.

In our conversation, there was mention of a tie with Texas. My first instinct is to think of Granbury, Texas, and its tie to the Booth Escaped theory. Anyhow, I'll be back with more when I learn more.

At least this request is better than the 20-30 per year that I get to verify that a photo is of John Wilkes Booth -- when I know full well that it's not...

(01-19-2018 06:59 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Get out your Sherlock Holmes hat and magnifying glass 'cause we may have a case to solve. I will hopefully have more details next week, but I rec'd a phone call today from a gentleman whose family "inherited" a cross that supposedly once belonged to John Wilkes Booth and was displayed about 75 years ago in a museum somewhere that was dedicated to the assassin.

They got the cross at the request of a dying man who claimed that he had stolen it from said museum about 75 years before - but he didn't say where that museum was. He just called it the John Wilkes Booth Museum.

In our conversation, there was mention of a tie with Texas. My first instinct is to think of Granbury, Texas, and its tie to the Booth Escaped theory. Anyhow, I'll be back with more when I learn more.

At least this request is better than the 20-30 per year that I get to verify that a photo is of John Wilkes Booth -- when I know full well that it's not...

Laurie. I don't have the slightest idea about your quest, But
1 Try the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. They brag about their Booth items.
2. Try the "1938 Carnavel Display (That was 80 years ago when they moved the Bates Mummy around the US.) Time magazine did an extensive coverage.
I'll work on some more ideas!

---

(01-20-2018 12:15 AM)SSlater Wrote:  

(01-19-2018 06:59 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Get out your Sherlock Holmes hat and magnifying glass 'cause we may have a case to solve. I will hopefully have more details next week, but I rec'd a phone call today from a gentleman whose family "inherited" a cross that supposedly once belonged to John Wilkes Booth and was displayed about 75 years ago in a museum somewhere that was dedicated to the assassin.

They got the cross at the request of a dying man who claimed that he had stolen it from said museum about 75 years before - but he didn't say where that museum was. He just called it the John Wilkes Booth Museum.

In our conversation, there was mention of a tie with Texas. My first instinct is to think of Granbury, Texas, and its tie to the Booth Escaped theory. Anyhow, I'll be back with more when I learn more.

At least this request is better than the 20-30 per year that I get to verify that a photo is of John Wilkes Booth -- when I know full well that it's not...

Laurie. I don't have the slightest idea about your quest, But
1 Try the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. They brag about their Booth items.
2. Try the "1938 Carnavel Display (That was 80 years ago when they moved the Bates Mummy around the US.) Time magazine did an extensive coverage.
I'll work on some more ideas!

How about a book "The postmortem Career of John Wilkes Booth "?
(The mummy was last seen in New Hope (?) in 1976.)

(01-20-2018 12:15 AM)SSlater Wrote:  

(01-19-2018 06:59 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Get out your Sherlock Holmes hat and magnifying glass 'cause we may have a case to solve. I will hopefully have more details next week, but I rec'd a phone call today from a gentleman whose family "inherited" a cross that supposedly once belonged to John Wilkes Booth and was displayed about 75 years ago in a museum somewhere that was dedicated to the assassin.

They got the cross at the request of a dying man who claimed that he had stolen it from said museum about 75 years before - but he didn't say where that museum was. He just called it the John Wilkes Booth Museum.

In our conversation, there was mention of a tie with Texas. My first instinct is to think of Granbury, Texas, and its tie to the Booth Escaped theory. Anyhow, I'll be back with more when I learn more.

At least this request is better than the 20-30 per year that I get to verify that a photo is of John Wilkes Booth -- when I know full well that it's not...

Laurie. I don't have the slightest idea about your quest, But
1 Try the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. They brag about their Booth items.
2. Try the "1938 Carnavel Display (That was 80 years ago when they moved the Bates Mummy around the US.) Time magazine did an extensive coverage.
I'll work on some more ideas!

---

(01-20-2018 12:15 AM)SSlater Wrote:  

(01-19-2018 06:59 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Get out your Sherlock Holmes hat and magnifying glass 'cause we may have a case to solve. I will hopefully have more details next week, but I rec'd a phone call today from a gentleman whose family "inherited" a cross that supposedly once belonged to John Wilkes Booth and was displayed about 75 years ago in a museum somewhere that was dedicated to the assassin.

They got the cross at the request of a dying man who claimed that he had stolen it from said museum about 75 years before - but he didn't say where that museum was. He just called it the John Wilkes Booth Museum.

In our conversation, there was mention of a tie with Texas. My first instinct is to think of Granbury, Texas, and its tie to the Booth Escaped theory. Anyhow, I'll be back with more when I learn more.

At least this request is better than the 20-30 per year that I get to verify that a photo is of John Wilkes Booth -- when I know full well that it's not...

Laurie. I don't have the slightest idea about your quest, But
1 Try the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. They brag about their Booth items.
2. Try the "1938 Carnavel Display (That was 80 years ago when they moved the Bates Mummy around the US.) Time magazine did an extensive coverage.
I'll work on some more ideas!

How about a book "The postmortem Career of John Wilkes Booth "?
(The mummy was last seen in New Hope (?) in 1976.)

Thanks for the suggestions, John. I think the Mutter Museum is more medical and anatomically interested in Booth items, but I'll check. I've not been in touch with them for at least a decade when they lost their wonderful curator.

P.S. Actually, to my knowledge, the mummy was last seen by a member of the Surratt Society in the 1980s here in the D.C. suburbs - private collection, along with numerous other types of stuff. The owner told us that he knew at the time of purchase that the Bates story was bogus, but that it made the mummy famous. From what I have been told, this collector got sick of being hounded by reporters and put the mummy in hiding "where few would find it." We have been perfectly happy to let it stay hidden.

(01-20-2018 02:07 PM)L Verge Wrote:  The owner told us that he knew at the time of purchase that the Bates story was bogus, but that it made the mummy famous. From what I have been told, this collector got sick of being hounded by reporters and put the mummy in hiding "where few would find it." We have been perfectly happy to let it stay hidden.

I often wonder if the mummy once owed Bates money and the story was his way of collecting it.

(01-19-2018 06:59 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Get out your Sherlock Holmes hat and magnifying glass 'cause we may have a case to solve. I will hopefully have more details next week, but I rec'd a phone call today from a gentleman whose family "inherited" a cross that supposedly once belonged to John Wilkes Booth and was displayed about 75 years ago in a museum somewhere that was dedicated to the assassin.

They got the cross at the request of a dying man who claimed that he had stolen it from said museum about 75 years before - but he didn't say where that museum was. He just called it the John Wilkes Booth Museum.

In our conversation, there was mention of a tie with Texas. My first instinct is to think of Granbury, Texas, and its tie to the Booth Escaped theory. Anyhow, I'll be back with more when I learn more.

At least this request is better than the 20-30 per year that I get to verify that a photo is of John Wilkes Booth -- when I know full well that it's not...

He may not have specified if it is a cross or a crucifix or the size. Pic would help. Could be tied to JWB's mother who I believe was a convert to Catholicism.

(01-20-2018 09:36 PM)Dennis Urban Wrote:  

(01-19-2018 06:59 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Get out your Sherlock Holmes hat and magnifying glass 'cause we may have a case to solve. I will hopefully have more details next week, but I rec'd a phone call today from a gentleman whose family "inherited" a cross that supposedly once belonged to John Wilkes Booth and was displayed about 75 years ago in a museum somewhere that was dedicated to the assassin.

They got the cross at the request of a dying man who claimed that he had stolen it from said museum about 75 years before - but he didn't say where that museum was. He just called it the John Wilkes Booth Museum.

In our conversation, there was mention of a tie with Texas. My first instinct is to think of Granbury, Texas, and its tie to the Booth Escaped theory. Anyhow, I'll be back with more when I learn more.

At least this request is better than the 20-30 per year that I get to verify that a photo is of John Wilkes Booth -- when I know full well that it's not...

He may not have specified if it is a cross or a crucifix or the size. Pic would help. Could be tied to JWB's mother who I believe was a convert to Catholicism.

The caller promised to send a photo of the cross and more information. Nothing yet. I believe that it was Booth's sister, Asia, and not his mother who converted to Catholicism.

I rec'd photos of correspondence related to the crucifix as well as a photo of the object today. It is fairly good-sized and likely meant to hang on a wall. The owner did not give dimensions. However, one of the letters gave a definite, solid clue. The "thief" and his wife traveled East in 1928, and visited a number of historical places. He took "this crucifix from the home of John Wilkes Booth at that time."

Mary Ann Booth left Tudor Hall after the war and rented the property until it was sold to a Samuel Kyle in 1878. Upon his death, his wife remarried, and we know her better as Ella Mahoney. Ella loved the home and maintained a small museum in one of the front rooms. She wrote a well-known book, Sketches of Tudor Hall, in 1925, and I bet that our gentleman in question read the book and visited Tudor Hall.

Ironically, Ella's great-grandson was the restoration architect when Surratt House was restored in the early-1970s. He is still alive, and I hope to be able to reach him for information. Since Asia is the only Booth that I think converted to Catholicism, I suspect that the crucifix may have belonged to her - or to Ella. Another far-out possibility is that Father Junius acquired it. He was known for his interest in world religions.

Stealing a cross, there's a story there.

I did get a quick reply from Ella Mahoney's great-grandson, and Ella converted to Catholicism when she married her second husband, regularly attended Mass with him at St. Ignatius in Bel Air and is buried with him in the churchyard there. Pretty good evidence (at least to me) that the purloined crucifix belonged to Ella.