Did John Wilkes Booth survive?

Chattanooga Free Press ^ | 2/19/07 | Dick Cook

[mass55th]

"I want a grant!"

There's one (actually two) buried in Grant's Tomb in NY City.

[Verginius Rufus]

I saw the broadcast when Roger Mudd announced that Dr Mudd had been exonerated. He made a comment to the effect that Dr. Mudd's great-grandson [or whatever it was] Roger Mudd was pleased with the news, while his own photograph appeared above him on the screen as it would for anyone else being mentioned in a news item.

If I remember correctly, Mudd was pardoned because of his medical attention to patients during an epidemic.

[Mila]

As a bit of trivia on the subject of Booth, Wikipedia says that Cherie Blair is a four times removed cousin of JWB. I wonder if that's true or just the overactive imagination of someone who knows that her maiden name was Booth.

[fat city]

This is an insult to alcoholic housepainters everywhere.

[hellbender]

"Dr. Mudd was imprisoned at Ft. Jefferson on Dry Tortugas."

While in that subtropical prison, Mudd used his medical skills to help treat prisoners during an outbreak of some tropical disease (malaria, yellow fever, or some such). His conduct was so heroic that he was pardoned.

[Apple Blossom]

This story has reared its' head before, but it doesn't seem to want to go away...

[hellbender]

"In 1903, a dying, alcoholic house painter named David E. George told a minister in Enid, Okla., that he was John Wilkes Booth, Mr. Hawkes said."

Being alcoholic is bad enough for the brain, but exposure to turpentine fumes and lead in paint pigment didn't help him either. Solvents and heavy metals are thought to explain the nuttiness of some artists.

As for the mummy, maybe it will appear on eBay soon.

[popdonnelly]

Bush's great great grandfather planned Wilkes Booth's escape. ;)

[SpringheelJack]

The atmosphere surrounding the assasination was such that a rush to judgement occurred. 17 or 18 indiviuals were hung as consiprators but Mudd received a life sentence. In 1869 Andrew Johnson pardoned Mudd. What do you know that Johnson didn't?

Four people were executed, not "17 or 18," and Johnson pardoned Mudd in a group with every other still-living conspirator, mostly because Andrew Johnson was a pretty lousy president, the Jimmy Carter of his time, not because Mudd was any less guilty than Marc Rich. The evidence in front of the tribunal was damning, and a brief run-down is here: Samuel Mudd

[mass55th]

"Dr Mudd was convicted and sentenced to live as a conspirator to the crime but his only "sin" was providing a doctor's care to a person who he didn't even know let alone conspire with."

Doctor Mudd wasn't as innocent as you'd like go think. You might want to read Michael Kauffman's "American Brutus," and get the total details of Mudd's contacts with Booth. It's an in-depth study of the evidence collected at the time of the assassination. Mudd had met Booth on several occasions, and Booth had even spent the night at Mudd's home in the months prior to the assassination. It was Mudd who introduced Booth to John Surratt, and Mudd also managed to introduce Booth to various people connected to the Confederate cause. These same people, Booth would later tap for help in his attempt to escape south. If Mudd knew Surratt, then he was knee-deep in pro-Confederate activities, and may have even known about the plot to kidnap Lincoln.

[Wuli]

People with too much time on their hands.

[reagan_fanatic]

No one famous ever dies, they just quietly retire into obscurity, usually as a convenient store employee or UPS driver.

[JLS]

Let's see:

1. I agree mass55th, Booth would have likely gone to London and performed on the stage for the rest of his life. Whether or not under his own name or thinly veiled would have depended on the attitude of the authorities at the time. Also thanks for the information on his burial place and why so far he has not been exhumed for DNA testing.

2. Safetgiver, your point about the makeup of an actor is well taken too.:

3. Still like the James case, this is interesting. And it is interesting to see history born out by DNA testing.

[Young Werther]

or a Mummy in carnival sideshows!

Mummy's Myth

[newcthem]

........and gave rise to the ever popular phase "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?"

[BulletBobCo]

Interesting read on JOHN WILKES BOOTH'S AUTOPSY.

http://home.att.net/~rjnorton/Lincoln83.html

[TexasRepublic]

As for the mummy, maybe it will appear on eBay soon.

It did, much to my wife's eternal sorrow. ;-)

[fish hawk]

Yes, he is living under the alias of John Murtha.

[Smittie]

It was Life Magazine sometime in 1964 I believe. I found the issue once but for some reason didn't buy it.

[redheadtoo]

Did John Wilkes Booth Survive?

Nah, I'm pretty sure he's dead by now.