The Legend Of John Wilkes Booth

[Gene C]

To be blunt, the analysis of Basil Moxley eyewitness testimony is not availing or persuasive to me. At this moment, in this thread, it is not my intent to get bogged down with all the contradictions and blunders having to do with the disposition of the supposed 'body of John Wilkes Booth'. My intent, rather, is to continue investigating on the very much LIVING 'Booth' who arrived in Texas. For folks who may wish to believe that 'JWB suffered in his last illness', it is obvious that the cowardly assassin Boston Corbett when he shot the man leaning on crutches into his back, cut the spinal transmission of pain from his fractured limb and allowing his final hour even more welcome relief.

Sounds like this to me -
Let me begin with a (false) premise, accept anything that agrees with it and disregard anything that disagrees with that premise - regardless of the source.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Re.: "To be blunt, the analysis of Basil Moxley eyewitness testimony is not availing or persuasive to me. At this moment, in this thread, it is not my intent to get bogged down with all the contradictions and blunders having to do with the disposition of the supposed 'body of John Wilkes Booth'."

To be blunt, in this post you IMO go too far, maharba. If you think all experts' work, study, all medical expertise, and all corroborating evidence to be mere blunder while you constantly fail to provide your "evidence" and sources, I personally think this forum is not the appropriate place for you, and the respecless (disrespectful) way you worded this and other posts isn't appropriate v.v.. Your statement also clearly shows you are not interested in serious discussion.

I think we all are wasting our time and energy as I think the universal reply (the "having-to-do-with" part being adjustable to any topic) to all our attempts to reasonably discuss is "it is not my intent to get bogged down with all the contradictions and blunders having to do with the disposition of the supposed 'body of John Wilkes Booth".

[RJNorton]

Maharba, please give serious thought to what Gene and Eva have said.

I sure agree with their posts above.

People have spent many hours researching replies to you on many diverse topics, yet you continue to disregard and ignore their efforts. The people on the forum have disproved your tales and speculations with facts.

You are an intelligent person who has the ability to add to the forum in a positive manner, but you are not doing that. You are using your intelligence in an unfortunate manner.

If you would like to stay on the forum, please think carefully as you decide how you word future posts. Thank you.

[davg2000]

I think, I could safely say "we've ALL seen the old standards" on this and several Lincoln topics. Yes, I am familiar with the Montauk mentioned narratives. And at this time, I wasn't interested in re-expanding the discussion to the pros and cons of that situation, as I examine the Legend of JWBooth. If you or any here have, at times, some new book (which I know I will never buy or see), it is helpful to me to see instead a paragraph a salient line or two. You ask, Susan, why didn't the man in the barn simply come out and give himself up. What happened to the OTHER man who did so? And this fellow knew he would be billed as an accomplice and killed too.
Thanks Eva for the 'image', it doesn't look like it will load for me, but I will retry a few times.

Maharba, Maharba, Maharba--

You need to quit wasting your time trying to explain yourself to members of this forum who just don't get you. Get out there in the field and "research" the Legend of JW Booth. Don't use books--you really can't trust the "experts" who write them, bunch of fossils who can't see what is obvious. And who has the time, anyway, to sift through all of that? You know, to re-expand the discussion to the pros and cons? Hey, use the Web. It's quick, it's balanced, it's accurate. Lots of salient lines. And the best thing is that when you are done, you will not have produced anything that will ever be called a "standard," old or otherwise. I say, go for it. Go now.

[L Verge]

davg2000, I love you!

I don't know about others, but I am very tired of being jerked around by Maharba on this wonderful and well-respected forum.

[Gene C]

I found this old note in my files, don't know if it was online or from a clipping.

The Paducah Sun June 04, 1903
Morley...the sole survivor of the pallbearers who carried what is supposed to be Booths remains to the tomb in Green Mount cemetery today made the surprising statement that it was only a mock funeral...He now says: "I have never cared much about talking in regard to the truthfulness of the statement that John Wilkes Booth was buried in Green Mount cemetery for there has always been a certain amount of doubt existing as to whether or not the assassin of President Lincoln
was ever captured killed or even shot. But in order that I might clear up at least one supposition I'll tell you positively that his body is not and never was buried in this city to my knowledge. Certainly the body buried in Green Mount was not that of Booth..."

This corrects a deleted post
Today I went to my local library that has copies of old KY newspapers, including the Paducah Sun. I found the paper (or thought I had), didn't see the article - posted that, but a good friend told me he found it in the Library of Congress web site, so I'm here to eat a little crow. It's a bit hard to swallow.
Here it is, p6 at the top of the page.
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/s...d-1/seq-6/

A special thanks to Rob Wick

[RJNorton]

Again, many thanks to Blaine for this letter. The letter was written by Rev. Richard B. Garrett. It is about his opinion of Finis L. Bates and his book.

[Gene C]

What a great letter.
Blaine where did you find this?

[Houmes]

What a great letter.
Blaine where did you find this?

Unfortunately several years back when I was out "hoovering" up copies of documents, I forgot to document where they were acquired, but I firmly believe this is from the Richard D. Mudd Papers now at the Georgetown University in D.C. I visited Dr Mudd in Saginaw, MI, and tried to copy anything I could get my hands on. He had around 15 large file cabinets of Lincoln, Mudd, and Garrett material. Unbelievable.

[Rob Wick]

There's also a copy of this in Ida Tarbell's papers. I think I posted about this on here some time ago.

Best
Rob

https://dspace.allegheny.edu/bitstream/h...sAllowed=y

[Dave Taylor]

It was also privately published and transcribed by the Oakwood Lincoln Club in 1934: https://archive.org/stream/assassinatxxx...5/mode/2up

[Gene C]

thanks guys....this forum is great!

[maharba]

What if...what IF....JWBooth had killed "the tyrant Lincoln" in secret, or I mean by that in disguise, and not obviously as the famous actor John Wilkes Booth? He arrives in the private opera box not as Booth but as some nondescript older man.
Does the same execution, leaps and escapes, just the same. Booth was an actor and used to costume and makeup. Yes, I know...I KNOW "he wanted his name to be forever remembered in history" (which he surely is). But, I wonder if it would have been possible to act "in disguise". He would have had to come into the theatre with a regular ticket and gone unnoticed, maybe an old man's white hair, a beard, glasses,
cane, a hat. Then, as the night wore on, slipped down into the passages and burst in to shoot Lincoln. One wrinkle might be: he would have to get someone who did NOT know JWB to stand in the alley and hold his horse. He would have had to likely buy a good horse from someone, giving a fake name, and dressed then as NOT looking like JWBooth. All this would have allowed him to gallop off, aways from the Opera House, and then to some site where he had a change of clothes. Then to make his way out of the country, as probably the Federals still could have been on the track of JWBooth, anyway.

[L Verge]

What if...what IF....JWBooth had killed "the tyrant Lincoln" in secret, or I mean by that in disguise, and not obviously as the famous actor John Wilkes Booth? He arrives in the private opera box not as Booth but as some nondescript older man.
Does the same execution, leaps and escapes, just the same. Booth was an actor and used to costume and makeup. Yes, I know...I KNOW "he wanted his name to be forever remembered in history" (which he surely is). But, I wonder if it would have been possible to act "in disguise". He would have had to come into the theatre with a regular ticket and gone unnoticed, maybe an old man's white hair, a beard, glasses,
cane, a hat. Then, as the night wore on, slipped down into the passages and burst in to shoot Lincoln. One wrinkle might be: he would have to get someone who did NOT know JWB to stand in the alley and hold his horse. He would have had to likely buy a good horse from someone, giving a fake name, and dressed then as NOT looking like JWBooth. All this would have allowed him to gallop off, aways from the Opera House, and then to some site where he had a change of clothes. Then to make his way out of the country, as probably the Federals still could have been on the track of JWBooth, anyway.

Please read carefully the top half of page 2 of the Garrett letter posted above by Blaine Houmes. Then, stop theorizing this subject to death.