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Myth and the Lincoln Assassination: Did John Wilkes Booth Escape? Thomas Turner Bridgewater State College, [email protected]

Myth and the Lincoln Assassination: Did John Wilkes Booth Escape? Thomas Turner Bridgewater State College, Thomas.Turner@Bridgew.Edu

Bridgewater Review

Volume 1 | Issue 1 Article 5

May-1982 Myth and the : Did Booth Escape? Thomas Turner Bridgewater State College, [email protected]

Recommended Citation Turner, Thomas (1982). Myth and the Lincoln Assassination: Did Escape?. Bridgewater Review, 1(1), 5-7. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol1/iss1/5

This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. • • • •

The full resources of the government were thrown into the pursuit of the . Booth was tracked down and killed in the barn of farmer Richard Garrett near Port Royal, Virginia, on , 1865, while , who had joined him in flight, surrendered. The authorities began a round-up of Booth's alleged accomplices which led to the additional arrests of Payne, Atzerodt,

John Wilkes Booth Michael O'Laughlin, Edward Spangler, and Samuel Arnold. Also arrested were on April 10, 1865 . one 0/ the last portraits. Mrs. at whose home the The assassination of Abraham Lincoln, conspirators had held meetings and portrayed as an innocent victim of like most American , is circumstances who, in aiding Booth whose son, John, was alleged to be one surrounded by myth and legend. medically, was only doing his duty. of the plotters, and Dr. , a Unfortunately, there have been so many While the assassination produced some conspiracy theories created over a doctor who had set Booth's broken leg. legitimate controversies about the trying hundred-year period that it is now very of civilians by the military and the actions difficult to separate fact from fiction. A military commission was assembled of the government in apprehending the It is not always readily apparent why to try the conspirators. A military court assassins, it is where the legitimate there should exist so many for civilians was controversial in 1865 and controversies end that the myth begins. misconceptions concerning Lincoln's has been a source of controversy since. One of the first myths, although a natural death since the events themselves appear However, most people looked upon the one, was the public's belief that the South to be rather simple. John Wilkes Booth, a court as an investigative body which was behind the murder. Jefferson Davis well-known actor and Southern could unravel all of the assassination was accused of masterminding Lincoln's sympathizer, had assembled a group of events. After a lengthy trial, Herold, death, but the charge was later dropped. conspirators with the intention of Payne, Atzerodt, and Mrs. Surratt were While this idea of Southern involvement kidnapping the President and exchanging found guilty and executed. The court was erroneous, it is easy to understand him for Confederate prisoners held in sentenced Spangler, O'Laughlin, Arnold its contemporary acceptance at the end Northern prison camps. However, and Mudd to prison after deciding that of the Civil War which was one of the Booth's accomplices were a group of while they might have been involved in most traumatic and divisive events in our misfits who were not up to the task. After the kidnapping plot their roles in the history. murder did not seem so apparent. an abortive attempt in March, 1865, Gradually, the emphasis began to shift which failed because Lincoln was not in The cases of Mrs. Surratt and Dr. so that by 1867 hints were raised that his carriage as anticipated, the group Mudd caused great dispute. Mrs. Surratt President Johnson might have been disbanded. On , , was the first woman hanged by the behind Lincoln's murder. Johnson's 1865, with the South having surrendered, Federal Government. Furthermore, it was political enemies who were then trying to Booth, by now determined to kill Lincoln, later revealed that the court had impeach him portrayed Johnson as shot and mortally wounded the President recommended that her sentence be profiting from the President's death by as he attended a play at Ford's Theatre. commuted to life imprisonment, although gaining power himself. Louis Payne, who had been enlisted by President Johnson may not have been Booth in the kidnapping scheme, made aware of the plea when he signed When this view proved to be untenable assaulted and seriously wounded the death sentence. The fact that her son, a new theme appeared which was to grow Secretary of State William Seward, while John, was found guilty when tried before and became embellished over the years. another accomplice, , a civil" court jury during 1867 has also At first it was argued that Secretary of assigned to kill Vice President Andrew caused many historians to argue for her War, Edwin M. Stanton, and the Radical Johnson, lost his nerve. innocence. Similarly, Dr. Mudd has been Republicans hated Lincoln's lenient

5 policies toward the South and took Wounded, Booth is dragged from the burning Garrell barn to die. advantage of his death to institute a reign of terror and substitute their own harsh Reconstruction program. This developed into charges that Stanton and the head of the National Detective Police, Lafayette Baker, along with other Radicals, had plotted Lincoln's death so that they might carry out their plans. The military trial was seen as a means of insuring silence and as a way to execute Booth's accomplices before they could make embarassing statements or tell what they knew. Interestingly, one of the more persistent myths that has grown out of these allegations is the one that John Wilkes Q. Booth did not die in Garrett's barn, but "o Q. that someone else was killed in his place. ~ It has been charged that government z" officials were aware that Booth was alive ~ but covered up the fact to shield their ~" own participation in Lincoln's murder. ~ Rumors of Booth's escape began almost simultaneously with his reported death. Booth's remains were buried unceremoniously on the grounds of the Arsenal. But when the government sought to mislead the public by suggesting the body of Booth was dumped into the Potomac, rumors began been behind his plot to kill Lincoln and Booth's and a fellow member of a that the government had mistakenly killed Southern secret society, had adopted the to develop that the government resorted boy. to secrecy and that the body in question a man named Rudy or Robey and not was not that of Lincoln's assassin. In Booth. A recent work that has tried to tie all 1867, a certain James Campbell wrote a Bates and St. Helen then parted these threads together is the 1977 book letter to stating that company but this would not be the last and movie The Lincoln Conspiracy. The while he was in Calcutta, India, he had time their paths would cross. In 1903, an authors claim to have discovered heard William Tolbert, who had sailed on itinerant sign painter named David E. important new manuscripts, including the Confederate raider, Shenandoah, George commited suicide in Enid, missing pages of Booth's diary, that wager 500 pounds that in six months time Oklahoma. The newspapers reported that conclusively prove that Booth survived he would prove that Booth was still alive George had been making statements Garrett's barn. Booth supposedly was and in good health. He wondered why a before his death that he was John Wilkes intimately involved with several groups, man would wager so much money if the Booth. When Bates hastened to Enid, he including Maryland planters, northern story was not true. In August of the same identified the body as that of John St. businessmen, and radical Republicans to year the Louisville Courier Journal Helen and confirmed that this was indeed either kidnap or kill the President. carried a letter from Professor Frazer to Lincoln's assassin. However, since Booth proved to be inept in carrying out his mission, the task was Professor Maxwell claiming that Booth The undertaker allowed Bates to take was alive in the South Seas. assigned to J. W. Boyd, a former possession of the embalmed remains Confederate soldier who bore a striking Certain individuals who resembled which were kept in his garage for a resemblance to Booth. Booth were also later rumored to be the number of years before becoming an The egotistical Booth, however, was villian. Dr. James G. Armstrong, a attraction in traveling carnival shows! not a man to be deterred so easily, and preacher from Richmond, Virginia, and a From time to time the mummy was before Boyd could act, Booth murdered mysterious Mr. Sinclair of Chattanooga, subjected to probing, such as with x-rays, the President. Frightened government Tennessee, were believed by many people in an attempt to prove conclusively officials who knew that Booth, if to be the assassin. Reverend Armstrong whether the body was Booth's. Pictorial captured, could reveal their own apparently enjoyed the publicity and did and popular magazines obligingly involvement in the murder, decided that little to dissuade people from their belief. publicized this scientific investigation. Booth must be hunted down and killed. J. While such rumors might have Another book along these same lines W. Boyd, who knew the countryside well, eventually died out, several books was This One Mad Act, by Izola along with David Herold, who was appeared which kept the myth alive. Forrester, only one of the many self­ arrested because of his association with Lawyer Finis L. Bates wrote The Escape styled widows, children, or grandchildren Booth in the kidnapping scheme, were and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth in of John Wilkes Booth. After her mother sent with government detectives to aid in which he attempted to prove that a Texas died, Miss Forrester came into possession the pursuit. Their cooperation was acquaintance, John St. Helen, was none of family papers which convinced her that insured by threatening them with death if other than John Wilkes Booth. St. Helen, Booth has been her grandfather. She also they refused. who at one time believed he was dying, began to notice the resemblance of her Fearing that their knowledge placed allegedly confessed his identity to Bates. Uncle Harry Stevenson to Booth and them in a precarious position, Boyd and When he miraculously recovered from his learned that John Stevenson, Harry's Herold escaped from the detectives and illness he added other details, including supposed father, had told him that he was were hiding in Garrett's barn on April 26, the revelation that had Booth's son. Stevenson, being a friend of 1865. In the darkness, the troops, who

6 only knew Booth from his photograph, conspirators who had a basic ideology for killed Boyd. When the government what they did; this type of death gives discovered the error, it was decided it some sort of meaning to the sacrifice. was better to have a dead Booth, even if Secondly, as regards the particular it was the wrong person, and thus, the myth of John Wilkes Booth's escape, it cover-up began. The real Booth escaped, has been suggested that the Lincoln according to this interpretation, going first assassination fits a universal folk-myth to England and perhaps later to India. It is pattern. America already had one genuine also quite conceivable that he returned to folk hero in George Washington, but Enid, Oklahoma, to die as David George Washington was an austere hero, cold in 1903. and aloof. Lincoln fit the need for a warm, Such tales of mistaken identity have personalized folk-god and he was great public fascination and the movie immediately transformed into the role by version of The Lincoln Conspiracy has his death. probably convinced many people who As Lincoln was transformed into this might never have read the book about mythological role, so too was John Wilkes Dr. Thomas R. Turner, the Chairman of the assassination that this version is true. Booth. In traditional mythology the slayer the History Department, received his However, like most other myths about of the folk-god cannot be released by an A.B., A.M., and PhD. from the Lincoln assassination, the legend of ordinary death but must wander the University. He is Secretary/Treasurer of Booth's escape, on closer examination, world alone and branded with infamy. the Lincoln Group of Boston and has proves to be false. The murderer owes everything to the written several articles on the Lincoln The Bates and Forrester claims are deification of his victim. No one has ever assassination. His book Beware the very easy to dispose of as both authors read or questioned where the murderers of People Weeping: Public Opinion and the make numerous factual errors. The Presidents Garfield and McKinley are Assassination of Abraham Lincoln has Robey who Bates claimed died in buried but the murderer of Lincoln could been published by Louisianna State Garrett's barn was still alive as late as not rest so easily. University Press. 1889. There is also not a shred of evidence that Booth married or had The death of another American children. president who has himself become a mythological figure, John F. Kennedy, The Conspiracy thesis which Lincoln seems to add weight to the correctness of seems to be more substantially this interpretation. The grave of Lee documented proves to be no more Harvey Oswald was just recently opened accurate. Thanks to the editor of Civil and his remains positively identified after William C. Davis, War Times Illustrated, rumors persisted that Oswald had a it has been conclusively proven that J. W. double and that an imposter was buried Boyd did not die in Booth's place in in the grave. Garrett's barn. Family papers as well as newspaper obituaries show that Boyd did The historian researching the Lincoln not die until January, 1866. If that central assassination, or any American premise is incorrect then the other assassination, must apply the same evidence so cleverly woven together to caution and standards of evidence as one support this thesis appears to be an would with any other historical subject. If elaborately engineered historical hoax. approached in this manner a great deal of While the authors and producers of The accurate information can be developed Lincoln Conspiracy may themselves have about the events and how and why been unwitting participants in this people react to such traumatic deception they, nonetheless, bear a major experiences. Unfortunately, the great responsibility for perpetuating this fraud. majority of authors on the Lincoln assassination have lacked this judicious While such myths prove to be untrue approach. Although John Wilkes Booth they raise much more fundamental died in Garrett's barn, no amount of questions about the Lincoln assassination research or evidence is ever apt to dispel and other American assassinations. Why this particular myth completely, since it if they are not true, have they been so seems to satisfy a fundamental human persistent? need to make assassinations fit into a In the first place, research seems to pattern. indicate that the very act of killing a president tends to lead quickly to charges of conspiracy. The president is perceived to be an all-good, all-powerful father figure, and his death is seem as a case of parricide. It is not very satisfying to believe that the life of such a man can be taken so easily by a lone, mentally unbalanced assassin. That s!=enario does not satisfy the hope of mankind that life is more than random chance, that there is some meaning or purpose to life. It is much more satisfying to believe that the President died at the hands of

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