Identification of Booth's body

[L Verge]

(10-13-2018 11:05 AM)tom82baur Wrote:  Did the examination/identification aboard the monitor include any kind of specific measurements of the body, for example his height? John Wilkes Booth is listed as 5'8". J.W. Boyd is listed (in the information shown earlier regarding his oath of allegiance) as 6'2". That is a significant difference.

Good point, and one used by Mr. Hall and his detectives to refute the Boyd story. I do not believe that height was cited in the report, and that is probably because it was not a real autopsy that we would expect today.

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(10-13-2018 10:11 AM)Gene C Wrote:  How far apart would the scar from Dr. May's surgery be from the gun shot wound in the neck Booth received?
Could the discolorization of the skin from the gun shot wound make the surgery scar difficult to see?

When Dr. May asked that Booth be lifted to a sitting position, for identification purposes, would rigor mortis have set in making that difficult?

Did Herold ever acknowledge that it was Booth who was shot at Garrett's?

Dr. May did not have any problem identifying the scar that he was quite familiar with. If it had been damaged by Booth's death wound, surely he would have remarked upon that.

I am not familiar with rigor mortis, but I believe they told me at the time of my mother's death that that is basically a temporary condition where the muscles contract and then relax again.

The voluntary statement made to Special Judge Advocate John A, Bingham by Herold on board the Montauk on April 27 does not mention Herold specifically saying, "Yes, that is John Wilkes Booth." Of course, those familiar with the history know that David did a fair amount of "fudging" during that statement. However, he did give testimony to a variety of things that occurred over the escape and they are totally consistent with the documented evidence - right down to him mentioning the diamond stickpin that Booth offered to give him. That is pretty strong evidence to me.