Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-05-24
A Government Detectives Tale
About Booths Burial.

L. G. BAKER, the Government detective
who was made Brevet Brigadier General
for his espionage on all the enemies of those
who employed him, has written book, in
which, if he tells the truth, the question as
to the death and burial of john WILKES
BOOTH is settled. Although we meyer credit
ed the tale of BOOTH still being alive and at
large, yet this General BAKERS statement,
from the bad character of the witness, gives
us no additional reasons for that belief. This
tale may be true, or it may not. We give
it as it is found in his book:
In order to establish the identity of the
body of the assassin beyond all question,
the Secretary of War directed me to sum-
mon q number of witnesses living in the
City of Washington, who had previously
known the murderer. Some two years
previous to the assassination of the Presi-
dent, Booth had had turHor or car6uncle
cut from his neck by a surgeon. On in
quiry, ascertained that DR.. May. we'll
known and skillful surgeon, of % years
practice in Washington, had performed the
operation, -I
Accordingly, called on DIR. May, who,
before seeing the body, minutely described
the exact locality of the tumor, the nature
and date of the operation, &c. After heing
sworn he pointed to the scar in the neck,
which was then plainly visible. Five other
witnesses were examined, all of which had
known the assassin intimately for years.
The various newspaper accounts, referring
to the mutilation of Booths body, are
equally absurd. Gen. Barnes, Surgeon
General U. s. A., was on board the gunboat
where the post mortem examination was
held, with his assistants. General Barnes
cut from Booths neck about two inches of
the spinal column through which the ball
had passed; this piece of bone, which is
now on exhibition in the Government Med
ical Museum in Washington, is the only
relic of the assassin's body above ground,
and this is the only mutilation of the re-
mains that ever occurred. Immediately
after the conclusion of the examination, the
Secretary of War gave orders as to the dis
position of the body, which had become
very offensive, owing to the condition in
which it had remained after death; the leg,
broken in jumping from the box to the
stage, was much discOlored and swollen, the
blood from the wound having saturated his
under-clothing. With the assistance of 1t.
l.. B. Baker, l took the body from the gum
boat direct to the old dPenitentiary, adjoining
the old Arsenal grounds. The building had
not been used as prison for some years
previously. The Ordnance Department
had filled the ground-fioor cells with fixed
ammunition-one of the largest of these
cells was selected as the burial place of
Booth-the ammunition was removed, a
large flat stone lifted from its place, and a
rude grave dug; the body was dropped in,
the grave filled up. the stone replaced, and
there rests to this hour all that remains of
John Wilkes Booth.
The assertion that BooTH was buried in
the Old Penitentiary at Washington, we
have reason to believe is untrue. Our in
formation that the body was given to an Un-
dertaker from New York, on the order ofthe
Booth family, and conveyed to the North,
and there inferred under an assumed name,
amounts as near as circumstantial evidence
can well make it, to certainty.