Identification of Booth's body

[John Fazio]

(09-21-2018 09:28 PM)SSlater Wrote:  I have a problem with the refusal to allow an identification of John Wilkes Booth's body.
There is no problem with who shot Lincoln, but there is some question with the identification of the corpse of the person who was said to have shot Lincoln.
The trouble began when the corpse first reached Washington in the custody of the Military. Apparently, there was no embalming of the corpse, so there were problems making an unquestionable identification. A Doctor was called in and because he had treated Booth, he said "Yep! that's him", but others who "knew" Booth - were not questioned.
The body was then interred. (still no record of embalming). As time went on, the body was disinterred, and moved to a new burial site. At some point the body was exhumed and sent on a Circus Circuit. ( Of course this has never been confirmed, but we are led to believe - he was.), resulting in another burial.
I can easily understand why the family of John Wilkes Booth would question the true identity of the body being exploited, so they asked for an up-to-date, DNA confirmation, that this WAS Booth. The government said NO!. Are they afraid of the possible results? Are they sure of known, unacceptable, results?

John:

Identification of Booth was made repeatedly by David Herold in his April 27 statement to John A. Bingham. It was also made by various persons at the scene of death, at the autopsy aboard the Montauk, and upon re-burial of the body at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, beyond any doubt whatsoever. See p. 385 of Decapitating the Union, Ch. 27, refs 30-33 for 11 references attesting to the same. As for the attempt that was made some years ago to exhume the body for further identification, the Court rejected the petition for the very good reason that no further identification was deemed to be necessary. The horse is dead.

John