"Booth descendants agree to brother's body ID tests." Did John Wilkes Booth escape?

"Is Lincoln's assassin in an unmarked grave at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, as history records? Or did he elude justice, as descendants have been told for generations, to live 38 more years?"

So I’ve been at ATS member for a while, but I’ve only started one thread since I have joined, so please give me a break. What better way to spend Christmas Eve at work than by hopping on ATS to kill the time.

So anyways, I saw this article the other day while at work, read it and thought it was very interesting. The theory among Booth descendants is that John Wilkes Booth was not the man shot in the barn on Garrett's farm that April night in 1865. In the article, according to Nate Orlowek, a Maryland educator and historian, a man named James or John William Boyd, was the man shot and killed on Garrett's farm.

Orlowek concludes, "Booth escaped 145 years ago to live in Granbury, Texas, as John St. Helen, then changed his name to David E. George and moved to what is now Enid, Okla. He worked there as an itinerant painter before poisoning himself.

So I got home work last night and watched the episode of "Decoded," on the history channel about the possible escape of John Wilkes Booth, which presents a few possible theories for John Wilkes Booth successfully escaping. The episode was OK, nothing special, but they didn’t really support some of the claims they made. Anyone else watch it? What did you think?

Back to the article... the Booth descendants want Edwin Booth’s body exhumed for DNA testing against alleged remaining samples of the cervical bones of the man shot in Garrett’s barn to prove that man was or was not John Wilkes Booth. Efforts in 1995 to open the coffin and exhume John Wilkes Booth’s body were stopped when a judge in Baltimore ruled that the exact location of the grave could not be conclusively determined.

It remains to be seen whether or not the descendants are allowed to perform the DNA tests, but I see no reason not to allow it. If it’s tested and the samples match, then the story is over, and it was John Wilkes Booth that was shot at Garrett’s farm, end-of-story. And if the samples don’t match, well, that’s when this will get verrryyy interesting.

Could John Wilkes Booth have escaped and lived for another 38 years? Sure, but IMO, he definitely would not have been able to do it without some serious help from people in high places. Starts to make me wonder about the missing pages from Booth’s diary and what information could have been on them. On a side note, could this have attributed to Boston Corbett’s mental instability later in his life?

Thoughts?

Hope Everyone has a safe and Happy Holiday!
Source

It seems like this theory comes up in a lot of high profile assassinations. I remember when it came up that people believed that it was another man buried in the grave of Lee Harvey Oswald. Then the was the controversy surrounding Jesse James. Each time that they exhumed the bodies and did the the testing, it turned out to be the person who was supposed to be in the grave. I also remember that there was once a push to exhume Elvis Presley, because people were claiming that he didn't really die. I will bet that in about 20 years from now someone will be wanting to dig up Michael Jackson.
I say let the dead lie.

reply to post by VeniVidi


This is actually an upcoming episode on the History Channels decoded. Afer the death sentence was carried out on these people, booths family was not allowed to view his body. According to decoded, they found evidence that a guy who dies 40 years later is a dead ringer for booth.

I dont think the episode has aired yet, but the preview comercial looked pretty interesting.

Lots of odd things that may indicate that Booth wasn't the man in the barn.

Lots of good evidence that Booth lived.

Conclusive - no.

Interesting - yes.

Convincing - pretty good, but nothing conclusive.

Decoded is interesting.Secretary of War Stanton was somewhat suspect he had spies,counter-spies and god knows what else at that point.Those missing diary pages of Booth's have always bothered me.I hope they do get permission to have a DNA sample from that piece of spine from JWB.

Originally posted by mike dangerously
Decoded is interesting.Secretary of War Stanton was somewhat suspect he had spies,counter-spies and god knows what else at that point.Those missing diary pages of Booth's have always bothered me.I hope they do get permission to have a DNA sample from that piece of spine from JWB.

A judge denied the first request to exhume the body because apparently 3 children are buried in a manner that could disturb their graves if they dig up booth. They are still trying to get it going, and the family is ok with giving the DNA samples for comparison.

The barn incident is the key. The new evidence is saying it was not booth who was in the barn. The other intresting info that is suaully left out are booths 2 accomplices who were supposed to kill Stinson as well as the Vice President.

one guy failed in his task, the other got cold feet and went to the bar and drank. Also the manner in which all this occured on the legal side was goofy to. Trial one day with sentence handed down, execution was the following day.

Almost seems like a rush to move attention of the people onto something else so they would think its all done. Makes it easier if Booth did survive to adopt a new identity and be left alone.