** NEW DISCOVERY REGARDING BOOTH AUTOPSY PHOTO

[Linda Anderson]

I found the History of the Police Department in New Haven from "The Period of the Old Watch in Colonial Days to the Present Time" (1892) but I couldn't find Mr. Wardell listed there.

http://archive.org/details/historyofpoliced00cost

[John E.]

I found the History of the Police Department in New Haven from "The Period of the Old Watch in Colonial Days to the Present Time" (1892) but I couldn't find Mr. Wardell listed there.

http://archive.org/details/historyofpoliced00cost

I'm confused. --> As usual. Why did you search New Haven, CT police department ?

[Linda Anderson]

More on James Wardell.

Therefore, I hunted around for candidates named Wardell. I found one good lead - James Wardell, working in the Detective Bureau of the Police Dept. in New Haven, CT. At the moment I can't figure out how to track him, and I am working on a Update of the Sarah Slater's story. If anyone can take a whack at this job, your efforts would be appreciated.

I was following John's lead. The only Detective James Wardell I found is currently the Chief of Police in New Britain, CT.

[wsanto]

More on James Wardell.

Therefore, I hunted around for candidates named Wardell. I found one good lead - James Wardell, working in the Detective Bureau of the Police Dept. in New Haven, CT. At the moment I can't figure out how to track him, and I am working on a Update of the Sarah Slater's story. If anyone can take a whack at this job, your efforts would be appreciated.

I was following John's lead. The only Detective James Wardell I found is currently the Chief of Police in New Britain, CT.

Probably not him.

[Laurie Verge]

I have asked our librarian at the Hall Center at Surratt House to see if there is any mention of a James Wardell in the Hall or Tidwell files. However, I believe that it is safe to say that, if neither John Elliott nor Mike Kauffman have been able to confirm this man's existence, there is an excellent chance that this particular James Wardell did not exist.

If he truly was an intelligence agent, however, Hall's and Tidwell's research is the best in that area and should have picked up on him at some point. Just my opinion...

[Rsmyth]

After Henry Wirz was hung on the gallows his body was not immediately buried next to the Lincoln conspirators as has been thought by many. The remains were brought into one of the prison buildings where an autopsy was performed. Doctors and military personnel were present and Alexander Gardner took a photograph of the event. Gardner was there to document the execution taking four photographs of the scene
The autopsy photograph is shown in Witness to an Era: The Life and Photographs of Alexander Gardner by Mark Katz.
Does anyone have this book? is there a credit line for the image?

[Linda Anderson]

Rich, the Wirz autopsy photo is on page 200 of Witness to an Era

[Rsmyth]

Thank you Linda. The only writing accompanying the Wirz autopsy photo is a hand written note on the picture which says "copyrighted by C.S. 'illegible' Nov. 11, 1897." Katz says that Gardner took a series of five photographs of the execution which were documented in Harpers Weekly Nov. 25th 1865 but the autopsy photo of which he has a woodcut in his book was "hitherto unnoted." Below each execution image is cited "photographed by Gardner."

[John E.]

After Henry Wirz was hung on the gallows his body was not immediately buried next to the Lincoln conspirators as has been thought by many. The remains were brought into one of the prison buildings where an autopsy was performed. Doctors and military personnel were present and Alexander Gardner took a photograph of the event. Gardner was there to document the execution taking four photographs of the scene
The autopsy photograph is shown in Witness to an Era: The Life and Photographs of Alexander Gardner by Mark Katz.
Does anyone have this book? is there a credit line for the image?

Yes, I own the book and have seen the image. Not sure about the credit line as I don't have the book with me at the moment. I'll check it later.

[Linda Anderson]

The caption says:

"The previously unpublished photograph of the Wirz autopsy, taken by Gardner for the government. From a contemporary copy of the lost direct-contact albumen print."

Interestingly, Alexander Gardner is credited in the appendix, Copyrighted Material, p. 292, for the three Wirz execution photographs but there is no credit listed for the autopsy photograph. The note reads:

"There was only one camera used at the Wirz hanging. All of Gardner's photographs were taken from the same point, and all, including the postmortem view, were made with a 8 X 10 camera."

[BettyO]

I, too have this book - I'll take a look as well.....

[Laurie Verge]

I went to that section and found the info that Katz gave on James Wardell and the missing Booth photo. In a nutshell: James A. Wardell lived in Alexandria, Virginia, and was a government detective with the War Department from 1862-1869. He later became a policeman in Virginia. His letter's high points say that he had been on patrol in Southern Maryland until 7 pm on April 26 and reported to the National Detective Bureau at 6 am the next morning. He was told to wait for a Patrolman Camp, who came shortly with Gardner and a darky to photograph Booth's body. An assistant (whom Katz thought was Timothy O'Sullivan) was waiting in the buggy. The party went to the Navy Yard.

They were refused entrance there because no one had issued a pass. About 10:30 am, Lafayette Baker showed up in a coach and they followed him to the pier and out to the ironclad. Barnes was already aboard the ship and instructed Gardner to produce only one photograph and to give it only to Baker or Stanton. Wardell claims that the assistant did the work and also claims to have gone to the dark room with the assistant. No mention is made of where the dark room was on the ship.

Wardell further claims that the photo was not delivered to him until 4:00 pm. Doesn't that seem like a long time to wait? Wardell took it to the War Department and gave it to Baker, who looked at it, and Wardell left. He says he appeared before the Commission, but they seemed to doubt him. Stanton denied that a photo had ever been taken. Wardell says he glanced at the photo and thought it looked like Booth.

Now comes something that waves a red flag at me: The chapter note for this letter says that Mark Katz got the TRANSCRIPT of Wardell's letter from Lloyd Ostendorf.

[BettyO]

Here is the image of the "Wirtz autopsy" which Katz says was taken by Gardner....

For a gentleman who was hanged, Wirtz's face is uncharacteristically serene. The corpse appears to me to be of a man "sleeping"....no signs of trauma; no swollen tongue, no bulging eyes.... unless his neck broke....I can't remember.

We need Blaine to chime in here....would a hanged man look so composed? The "dark dot" on his nose appears to be dirt on the photograph - at least to me.....






[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/707/fq3m.jpg/]

[John E.]

I went to that section and found the info that Katz gave on James Wardell and the missing Booth photo. In a nutshell: James A. Wardell lived in Alexandria, Virginia, and was a government detective with the War Department from 1862-1869. He later became a policeman in Virginia. His letter's high points say that he had been on patrol in Southern Maryland until 7 pm on April 26 and reported to the National Detective Bureau at 6 am the next morning. He was told to wait for a Patrolman Camp, who came shortly with Gardner and a darky to photograph Booth's body. An assistant (whom Katz thought was Timothy O'Sullivan) was waiting in the buggy. The party went to the Navy Yard.

They were refused entrance there because no one had issued a pass. About 10:30 am, Lafayette Baker showed up in a coach and they followed him to the pier and out to the ironclad. Barnes was already aboard the ship and instructed Gardner to produce only one photograph and to give it only to Baker or Stanton. Wardell claims that the assistant did the work and also claims to have gone to the dark room with the assistant. No mention is made of where the dark room was on the ship.

Wardell further claims that the photo was not delivered to him until 4:00 pm. Doesn't that seem like a long time to wait? Wardell took it to the War Department and gave it to Baker, who looked at it, and Wardell left. He says he appeared before the Commission, but they seemed to doubt him. Stanton denied that a photo had ever been taken. Wardell says he glanced at the photo and thought it looked like Booth.

Now comes something that waves a red flag at me: The chapter note for this letter says that Mark Katz got the TRANSCRIPT of Wardell's letter from Lloyd Ostendorf.

Mike Kauffman mentioned that he was offered the typed letter from a relative of Ray Neff - word for word. Mike was done with it at that point.

[L Verge]

Mr. Ostendorf was a wonderful artist, but I believe he was caught in some other spurious transactions. I'm sure others on this forum know more about him than I, but his mention bears proceeding with caution.