The Legend Of John Wilkes Booth

[maharba]

The legend Booth soon became a part of the legend of the West in many ways. While the Federals had shifted their 'malice toward none' policies over to the Indians, the South and especially parts of Texas began to hear rumors that JWBooth was back in the Confederacy and noted by friends and foes in his adventures. I have come across numerous folks there who claim to be related in some way, usually the vague 'a cousin to John Wilkes Booth'. And it would be handy to either prove or disprove the persistence of JWBooth, if these would easily trace out. Several I have traced out and usually the (Booth) family connection fades out perhaps in 1810 Alabama or Mississippi. And those seem almost certain to not trace to JWBooth family. Several folks too and especially in Texas named a son in commemoration of JWBooth, and these are usually quickly sorted out. Are there yet family documents and which will someday come to light, which will help solve The Legend of John Wilkes Booth?

[RJNorton]

Dr. Blaine Houmes was kind enough to send me a series of documents that he had obtained in the past from the Dr. Richard Mudd files (now at Georgetown University) and Fred Black's files (Oakland University). Thank you, Blaine!

Over time I shall post several of these papers. The first is a newspaper correspondent's account of a visit to the Garrett home in 1867. I thought it was quite interesting. For example, regarding the loss of his barn, Richard Garrett states, "Nobody ever paid us for it." I believe this is in agreement with what researchers such as Dave Taylor have found. Some authors, Eleanor Ruggles being one, claimed Edwin Booth reimbursed the Garrett family for their lost barn.

[maharba]

Some interesting information and claims in that piece. The statement a man may as well die for such and such. Then, that the body resembled 'a negro'. JWBooth had supposedly made considerable in furnishing various medications and painkillers to Southern forces. I think if I were John, I would have furnished myself with some morphine and strong opiate painkillers, just in case I or my allies had been injured and needed. Better that he had gone on 'feeling no pain' and complete an easier escape AND his leg amputated later,
than to be slowed down by the injured leg.

[RJNorton]

Again, many thanks to Blaine. Here is another paper he sent. This is a copy of a Washington attorney named John Paul Jones responding to Richard B. Garrett's inquiry about receiving reimbursement for destruction of property. The letter was written on December 28, 1905; so 40 years after the event it had not been forgotten by the Garretts!

[RJNorton]

I am continuing to post some of the papers Blaine sent me. This is an article regarding a man who claimed Booth was beheaded by the doctors during the autopsy.

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[RobertLC]

Roger,

Really interesting papers. Fascinating reading.

Thanks.

Bob

[maharba]

This John St.John had the same, movie-star looks, the winning courtly Southern manner, and a professional familiarity with all aspects of the theatre and the Bard. Where had he gained all this Shakepearean knowledge base, he surely had worked in various capacities at live theatre in previous venues. To unravel the legend of John Wilkes Booth, these questions will need to be explored in greater detail.

[Gene C]

Why??
I have movie star looks (horror films) a winning Southern manner - bless your heart, and a professional familiarity with some aspects of the theatre (an usher) and even Lincoln had a knowledge base of Shakespeare. I could be JWB's newly discovered and long lost great, great, not so great grandson, and if that's not enough, my grandfather was from Oklahoma.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Does a photo exist of t"this John St.John"? Have I missed it? As for Shakespeare - back then, compared to nowadays, the offer on the bookmarket was more modest and Shakespeare a basic.

[RJNorton]

Eva, please see Dave's page here.

(I think Maharba made a typo when trying to type "John St. Helen.")

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks, Roger. Looks quite different from JWB to me.

[Susan Higginbotham]

There's also a side-by-side here. Didn't someone say that people's ears are nearly as distinctive as their fingerprints? The ears (and the other features) don't look alike to me.

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/unso...0917195133

[RJNorton]

(02-01-2016 07:07 PM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  There's also a side-by-side here. Didn't someone say that people's ears are nearly as distinctive as their fingerprints? The ears (and the other features) don't look alike to me.

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/unso...0917195133

Good memory, Susan! Yes, Dr. Houmes said this here.

[maharba]

Very interesting article, thanks Roger. A supposed fibroid tumor removed from the neck, it talks about. I'd seen that before and some similar reference to Boyd. With Booth, seemed like I'd heard it talked of as if a more fleshy, cancerous. Very interesting, fibrous. And that Dr May at first saw no resemblance to JWBooth. And too the whole notion of decapitation. I find it very odd that they kept bones from the body of the man in the barn, the man on crutches who was backshot by the coward and sworn liar "Boston" Corbett. Everything about the handling of the body of the man in the barn was very peculiar. Why go ahead and decapitate, he had no head wound? Was the head of the corpse later presented as Booth, was that the same head which they decapitated from the body of the man murdered in the tobacco barn? What right would the Federals (or the insane Ed Stanton) have to believe they could keep the partial skeleton of "John Wilkes Booth"? If so, why not the head, as well.

[Houmes]

(02-02-2016 07:44 AM)maharba Wrote:  Very interesting article, thanks Roger. A supposed fibroid tumor removed from the neck, it talks about. I'd seen that before and some similar reference to Boyd. With Booth, seemed like I'd heard it talked of as if a more fleshy, cancerous. Very interesting, fibrous. And that Dr May at first saw no resemblance to JWBooth. And too the whole notion of decapitation. I find it very odd that they kept bones from the body of the man in the barn, the man on crutches who was backshot by the coward and sworn liar "Boston" Corbett. Everything about the handling of the body of the man in the barn was very peculiar. Why go ahead and decapitate, he had no head wound? Was the head of the corpse later presented as Booth, was that the same head which they decapitated from the body of the man murdered in the tobacco barn? What right would the Federals (or the insane Ed Stanton) have to believe they could keep the partial skeleton of "John Wilkes Booth"? If so, why not the head, as well.

This has a simple explanation, for the same reason that the Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, DC has pieces of President Abraham Lincoln's skull, a section of the vertebrae of President James Garfield, and portions of the spleen, brain, and skeleton of Charles Guiteau (Garfield's assassin). During Guiteau's trial the jury members were allowed to pass around Mr. Garfield's vertebrae to see the bullet wound. Lincoln, Garfield, and Guiteau were all autopsied by pathologists from the Army Medical Museum, at that time a department in the Office of the Surgeon General. Specimens were routinely collected for study and comparison of different injuries and illnesses. Today the museum has over 24 million medical items: pathology specimens, historical medical documents, and old medical instruments.

Incidentally: 1) By definition cancer is always a tumor, but not every tumor is cancer, 2) There is no record of Booth's head being decapitated during his autopsy. More likely, his head separated from the body during normal decomposition, 3) Edwin Stanton was never diagnosed as being insane, and 4) One might call Boston Corbett crude, eccentric, or a religious zealot, but I wouldn't call him a coward. Any Civil War soldier eager to face battle, shouting hosannas as he shot the enemy may have been disturbed, but not a coward.