Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth

[L Verge]

If the story is true, I would quibble with the use of the word "exhumed." To me, that means opening an earthen grave in order to retrieve the coffin. Wasn't Willie interred in the Carroll vault at Oak Hill? That means the coffin was placed on a ledge (or even sawhorses) for the duration.

[Gene C]

This weeks discussion is Letter III, I hope you have all finished your reading assignment, entitled The Murderer.

https://archive.org/stream/lifecrimecapt...8/mode/2up
you may need to enlarge this using the controls on the bottom of the page

Gath starts of fairly soon with a statement time has shown to be an interesting error.
"But Booth is the hero of a single deed, and the delineation of him may begin and be exhausted in a single article."

Our author goes into some detail about Booth's family, especially his father. "Fitful, powerful, passionate, his life was a succession of vices and triumphs....He threw off the wife of his bosom to fly from England with a flower-girl, and settling in Baltimore, dwelt with his younger companion, and brought up many children, while his first-possessed went down to a drunken and broken-hearted death.
Only his brother Edwin gets favorable comments.

About JWB, he is not described as a demon with no redeeming qualities
I found these comments about Booth interesting:
His acting career is examined, both good and bad
Booth was a school acquaintance of Fitzhugh Lee
Booth was frequently shooting cats
His investments (oil) all turned out profitably (p27 and not quite true)

There's much more, but I want to hear what did you read that you found interesting?

[RJNorton]

(12-13-2015 03:47 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Booth was frequently shooting cats

I am curious how Gath found out about this so early. I checked Terry Alford's book to see if he included the information about cats. He does. There are two footnotes. One cites Gath. The other cites "Stuart Robson, 'Memories of Fifty Years:' Chapter 1, Everybody's Magazine, vol. 3 (July 1900), p. 87."

[Eva Elisabeth]

Gene, I have to say in advance I couldn't read on as the entire site doesn't load anymore (I always get a "not found" message). Neither did the pdf work well, pages took ages to load and vanished as soon as I accidentally scrolled, and I had to wait a long time again. So I gave up on the pdf and deleted it from my phone for space reasons.

I will have to print this out somewhere (too much for my printer) as I also just can't read an entire book on a screen and without being able to underline etc., drives me crazy.

So I might ask a question now the answer to which is in the book and apologize if this is the case.

I wonder why GATH let Booth's investments succeed. Didn't he know better or did this Booth sell better?

(And I think Booth shooting kitties was accurate, wasn't it? Disgusting. I wonder what his animal-loving father would have said. I know, men shoot all kinds of animals for no essential need, and each such case is disgusting.)

[RJNorton]

Eva, please give this idea a try and see if it might work. It is a link to the text of Gath's book. Possibly you can read this?

https://archive.org/stream/lifecrimecapt...n_djvu.txt

Another idea is to try another site totally - maybe this will work:

http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_t...00481852/5

(some pages may be missing from the "forgotten books" link)

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks, Roger, the "forgotten books" work perfectly!!!

[Gene C]

Eva, my guess regarding Booth's investments is that Gath didn't know any better, and that Booth gave everyone the impression the investments were doing well.

[Gene C]

Apparently, many of you have failed to complete your reading assignment. Shame, shame!
(Eva has a valid, but temporary excuse )

I found this quote interesting, as apparently Gath had met Booth, (from page 26.)
" Wilkes spoke to me in Washington for the first time, three weeks before the murder....but when I left him it was with the feeling that a most agreeable fellow had passed by...
The right hand I had shaken murdered the father of the country"

I bet that felt weird.

[Eva Elisabeth]

(12-14-2015 07:42 AM)Gene C Wrote:  Eva, my guess regarding Booth's investments is that Gath didn't know any better, and that Booth gave everyone the impression the investments were doing well.

Gene - thanks, that sure makes sense!

[RJNorton]

Gath writes, "The day before the murder he paid an old friend a hundred dollars which he had borrowed two days previously." Does anyone know who the old friend was?

[Gene C]

Do to the overwhelming response this week , I saved this little detail for last

Gath is a bit light on the details, but guess who JWB had breakfast with the day of the assassination? (page 27)
No, it wasn't Lucy. I've never heard of this young lady, and according to one of our resident experts, Gath may have made an error here.

If you know anything about this, more about who she is, photos, what ever happened to her, please give us the juicy details.
Inquiring minds want to know.

And don't forget Roger's question. Would you lend Booth a $100?

[RJNorton]

(12-16-2015 04:41 PM)Gene C Wrote:  And don't forget Roger's question. Would you lend Booth a $100?

I probably should explain what goes on inside my mind, and why I asked the question. There is no consensus among assassination authors, but at least some of them feel Booth "made the decision" on the night of April 11 after hearing Lincoln give support in his speech that voting rights be granted to certain blacks. The very next day, April 12, Gath reports Booth borrowed $100 from someone. Then the day before the assassination he paid it back. These transactions perhaps are not assassination-related, but due to the timing, I was just curious if anyone knew what they were about and who the old friend was.

[Eva Elisabeth]

He had borrowed money from O'Laughlin's brother sometime earlier - maybe GATH got this wrong? I can hardly imagine Booth thinking of returning any borrowed money right before the assassination, except he rendered that friend useful on the flight.

[Jenny]

(12-16-2015 04:41 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Do to the overwhelming response this week , I saved this little detail for last

Gath is a bit light on the details, but guess who JWB had breakfast with the day of the assassination? (page 27)
No, it wasn't Lucy. I've never heard of this young lady, and according to one of our resident experts, Gath may have made an error here.

If you know anything about this, more about who she is, photos, what ever happened to her, please give us the juicy details.
Inquiring minds want to know.

And don't forget Roger's question. Would you lend Booth a $100?

I am hardly an expert, Gene! You are too kind. I do have some information on her though.

"On the morning of the murder, Booth breakfasted with Miss Carrie Bean, the daughter of a merchant, and a very respectable young lady, at the National Hall. He arose from the table at, say eleven o'clock. During the breakfast, those who watched him say that he was lively, piquant and self-possessed as ever in his life."

This is something that apparently got "lost in translation" as so many things do.

First, though, here's a few details on Carrie: Carrie Bean was born as Carrie Copeland in 1831. She married a William Bean but was widowed with three kids by 1856. After the war, she married a Navy veteran with the last name of Russell. Carrie passed away in 1909.

It's rather misleading to call Carrie "a young lady" as she is in The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth as she was in her mid 30's with three children in 1865.

In the National Daily Intelligencer, April 29, 1865, John T. Ford mentioned her in an interview:
"On the morning of April 14, 1865, it was fully 11 A.M. when John Wilkes Booth came from his chamber and entered the breakfast-room at the National Hotel, Washington. He was the last man at breakfast that day; one lady only (Miss Carrie Bean) was in the room, finishing her morning meal. She knew him and responded to his bow of recognition."

Basically it looks like Booth showed up late to breakfast while Carrie was finishing her meal, and he saw her and politely bowed to her. She probably nodded at him or said hello and then finished her breakfast. They weren't actually having breakfast together. This would also explain why Carrie was not called upon in the investigation by Stanton.

I did find some illustrations and pictures on Find A Grave for Carrie Bean as well.

She was depicted on the cover of the March 23, 1861 "Leslie's Illustrated" attending Lincoln's Inaugural Ball. (Apologies for the GIGANTIC pictures - I need to use a host where I can post thumbnails.)

Close-up:


Full image:


A tin-type of Carrie Bean Russell in her later years:

[L Verge]

Great information, Jenny, and I love the illustrations. Wonder if the widow Bean had married into the family by that name in Southern Maryland. Beantown no longer exists, but it was the closest village to Dr. Mudd in 1865.