John Wilkes Booth in the Pennsylvaina Oil Region

[Gene C]

Written by Ernest C Miller, copyright 1987, 75 pages of text.

This was not one of my more thrifty purchases.
This book appears to be a rewrite and expanded version of a short monograph written in 1945 by the same author.

There is not much here. Gives some details of two properties (mineral rights)Booth purchased with others that were unsuccessful in oil drilling speculation in northwestern Pennsylvania. His oil investments never paid off. There is also a 14 page section of short interviews made in 1894 by Louis Mackey, who was a telegrapher and part time news correspondent. Booth stayed at his Grandmother's home during most of his stay in Franklin, PN. Franklin was a boom town during 1860-1870 due to oil speculation. The population when Booth was there in 1864 was around 2,000. The short interviews were with people who knew Booth and had some contact with him during the few months from 1864-1865. Many of the stories told in these interviews are more fiction than fact.

Copies are a bit hard to find, ABE Books had a few
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchR...c%20miller

Mine is the copy printed in 1987.
I didn't pay $72 for it, or even $45 for it, but I did spend $35 ten years ago, and that was to much. Can't say I would recommend this book. There is almost nothing related to Lincoln's assassination. It lightly covers a few months in Booth's life, where he has put is acting career on hold, and does not seem to be actively plotting or engaged in conspiracy operations. I didn't find much here that was of interest to me.