The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1903-06-04
John Wilkes Booth
Story is Revived

ic6afHihh thtt utdlH uf Daflu ~.
George. a former Guthrie resident. In
that city several months ago;
"lt now appears a settled fact that
David E. George and John Wilkes
Be. n are one and the same George
die in this city on Jan. 18th last and
no small amount of excitement was
occasioned by a report that he had
lcoi4essed his identity to Mrs Harper
of this places. on a certain occasion
three years before at FL Reno. and
thousands Of people viewed the re-
mains at Penniman's morgue; many
of them at that time expressing the
belief that the body was none other
than that OF Booth.
"Corroboration now comes from r..
L. Bates. Of Memphis, Tenn, who is
now here, and granted an interview
with a reporter this morning.
Mr.. Bates arrived in Enid Friday
evening. The story he tells is a rev.
elation OF historic facts which set
aside many well accept and time
honored theories and sta ments.
"Mr. Bates wac for matt wears the
confidentiel lawyer Of Boo H. From
him he has the complete story Of the
duplicity Of men hish in on'ci'l life.
the names OF the chief co7s9lrators
and the escape Of the assassin. These
confidential facts were. Of course.
given Mr. Bates under stress.
According to his repot, Booth
located at Glen Rose Mills Tex, about
five years after the assassin alton. and
purchased a stock Of tobrcco and
whisky from a man naInel Snyder.
Shortly afterward the vicinity was
visited by an internal revenue col
lector He discovered the violation
of the revenue laws which was going
on in Glen Rose Mills, and caused the
arrest of Snyder, whom he believed
to be the owner of the establishment
where the violation was taking place.
Snyder being innocent, however, Booth
having purchased his interest, pres
sure was brought to bear on the lat
ter to get him to go to Tyler in order
to testify in favor of Snyder This
he refused to do and persisted in his
refusal until the second day of Sny-
der's trial when he acknowledged to
Mr.. Bates that he could not appear
in settled community for the reason
that he was then in exile in conse.
quence of his crime. This was the be
ginning of their acquaintance and
from time to time afterward Booth
disclosed more aud more Of the history
of his crime and escape.
"At different times during his life
he presented Mr.. Bates with photo
graphs of himself for his future iden-
tihcation. These have been painted
by competent artists and have been
brought to Enid by their owner
While in Texas Booth was known
among the cowboys as John St. Helen.
And here exists a very pretty piece
of sentiment which would be charac-
teristic of a man of Booths tempera-
ment. Napoleon was in exile on the
island of st. Helena Booth adopted the
name. changing it slightly for the
sake of euphony as Representative of
the similarity of the cases.
Contemporaneous history and cur
Irent tradition assert and presume that
booth was shot by Boston Corbitt on
Garrett's farm in Virginia According
to Mr.. Bates, who details the story as
told by Booth. the man who was killed
was a man by the name of Ruddy
Booth had been at Garrett's for about
twenty-four hours, but on the after
noon before the alleged capture he had
been warned to leave by some Con
federate soldiers who promised to ar
range for his escape later Therefor'
at about O'Clock in the afternoon o
the day before the killing OF Rudd!
he had retired to a spot some dis
tance from Garrett's house and wa
still there in hiding when the FEEDER
al cavalry arrived Ruddy and Heroic
had been to Bowling Green, Va, 4
secure a boot for Booth. Owing 4
the presence Of the Federal soldier
they were compelled TO travel slowl,
and secretly and their return wa
long delayed. They reached Garrett
house about 10 O'Clock at night and a
O'Clock in the morning they wer
surrounded and attempted TO escap
and seek refuge in some corn crib
which are variously described as barn
and tobacco warehouses by the difiel
ent writer's. In this effort Herold wa
captured and executed and Rudy wa
killed.
From his hiding place Booth wa
afterward taken by Confederat
friends and his disguise was that Q