The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-01-22
SATISFIED
DEAD MAN
WAS BOOTH
Many People in Enid are OF
That Opinion.
EVIDENCE ACCUfnULAlES
Hand Writing Is Same as
Assassin Of Lincoln.
EVIDENCE ACCUhiULATES

/ Enid, o. T.. Jan. 2l.-The Wave edit
olial snd repo:torial force have been
searching cIoaeiy for data. and evidence
I 10 sustain. or oblitsrate. the report that
the remains lying in the Enid morgue
under the name of David Z. George,
could possibly he those Of J. Wilkes
Booth. who assassinated Abraham Lin
coin nearly th'rty.eight years ago. All
the history or account of that sad and
terrible affair to be found in the city
has been searched.
While the history at hand leaves but
little doubt as To the demise of Booth
in attempting 10 escape from the burn
ing barn in Virginia. that he was shot
by Boston Corbitt upon his first appear
ance from the barn contrary to orders,
and that he died ON the porch of that
Virginia farmhouse. was taken TO Wash
ington. identified and buried secretly;
that a diary was found on his person
detailing the plot TO assa ssinate Lin
coin and its purpose, etc, etc, but the
fact stil remains that a doubt did eX-
list with the government at that time
as to the positive identity of the man
killed hence the reward for his capture
was never paid. for the identity was
not clear.
The Wave is still of the opinion that
the possibility of the dead man being
all that is mortal of ]. Wilkes Booth is
based on theory of 10 to l that it is not
Booth, but it must admit that the evil
dence goes TO show that if George was
not Booth, he was his double, which in
connection with voluntary confession to
Mrs. Harper and Mrs. Simmons, makes
the case interesting and worthy of the
attention of the attorney generals de-
partment of the government Drs. Ba-
ker and Way unearthed the December,
1901. number of the Medicinal Monthly
Journal in their office. which number
was almost wholly devoted TO the con-
sideration of murderers of presidents of
the United States and European poten-
tates. In this pamphlet we found por-
trait OF ]. Wilkes Booth with quite
write-up as to his character. physical
and anatomical description among other
descriptions. 1t says:
The head and forehead of J. Wilkes
oessively ard abnormally developed In
clined to the so-called satanic type. The
eyes were small. sunken and unequally
placed The nose was normal. The ia
cial bones and jaw were arrested in de-
velopment and there was a partial V
shaped dental arch. The lower jaw was
wen developed. He developed an insan-
ity in manner. crea ting certain amount
of fear among children"
Yesterday the editor of this paper in
company with DR.. McElrath visiter the
corpse and compared it with the above
description of Booth and we must ac-
knowledge that the dead man shows all
the marks credited TO Booth above, in
every particular The satanic ear
is not much larger than the ordinary
ear but the lower lobe thereof clings
close unto the side of the head instead
of projecting outward like the common.
ordinary ear The corpse has that kind
OF an ear
The eyes of the dead man are not
mates in appearance. The frontal bone
of the left eye comes down further and
IS more prominent than the right. which
fits the description given of Booth. The
Booth chin. mouth, upper lip and gen.
eral description is almost perfect in the
corpse.
The Wave has been searching for
fac smile of Booths handwriting. IT
was found today in a copy OF Harper
Bros. Pictorial History of the Civil War.
We were really startled when VIC com
pared il with the large, round lettered
school boy writing of -. Il. George. We
placed the very last words George wrote
by the side of the fac simile writing of
Booth and it really seemed 20 us that
one and the same man had written both.
Booths fac simiie signature shown in
Harpers Pictorial indicates the same
large. irregular handwriting of George.
History readers viii remember that an