The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-07
A GREENSBORO SUBJECT.


The persistence with which popular be-
liefs and foolish traditions sometimes per-
petuate and repeat themselves is illustrated
by a recent dispatch from Enid, Q. T.,
relative to the alleged identification there
of the body of a suicide as that of John
Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham
Lincoln. For some reason or other a popu-
lar belief has found some currency ever
since Booths death that he was still alive.
Well-informed persons have known better,
but not all persons are well informed, and
the very improbability Of this story gave
it credence with a class of persons who
are attracted by mysteries. The dispatch
from Enid said:
Junius Brutus Booth. the third, the actor
and nephew of John Wilkes Booth, the as
sassin of President Lincoln, has fully identi-
fed the body of the man known as David
e. George as that of his uncle, the assas-
sin. George, or Booth, committed suicide
here JAM; IA last and in his effects was
Memphi Tenn. Mr.. Bates came here at
once and fully identified the body as that
of Mr.. John Wilkes Booth. He then went
of the remains from the dead mans nephew
and from Joseph Jefferson, Miss Clara
Morris and a score of others who knew
According to Mr.. Bates's story, he had
acted as Booths confidential agent and
attorney for nearly forty years. He says
escaped to the Garrett plantation in Vir-
ginia, and that the man who was killed
was named Ruddy. Being warned, Booth
left CARROTS and was taken care of by
settled at Glenrose Mills. Tex. where he
conducted a store for several years under
the name of John st. Helen.
The ci-rcumstantiality of the details In
this story shows that it's author had a
talent for romance. A still more curious
feature of the case is a quasi confirmation
from one Basil Monkey, of Baltimore, that
the body of Booth does not rest in Green
mount Cemetery in that city, where1 is
commonly supposed to have been buried,
but that the body inferred as his was that
of another person. Monkey was doorkeeper
Lincoln was assassinated, and must now
be quite an old man. He acted as one of
the pallbearers at what he now says was
a mock funeral. In a statement made a
few days ago to a reporter of the Balti-
| more American, he said that he had known
Booth all his life and was close to the
family; that the funeral ceremony at Balti-
more was planned TO mitigate the distress
of Booths mother; that friends of the
family applied to the government author
tiles for Booths body and that a body was
sent and was inferred in Greenmount
Cemetery, but that it was not the body of
Booth, and that he and the other pallbear-
| ers knew it was not. He says:
1 saw the body several times and ex-
amined 1t. and / don't hesitate to say that
the hair on the dead body was of a reddish
brown color, while Booths was as black
as a ravens wing. However, that mere
detail made no difference, for we all knew
John Wilkes Booth, and my examination
was only prompted by curiosity alone; not
that L believe for one minute that the body
was that of the assassin. What We
got ard what was shipped here for the
body of John Wilkes Booth is what 1 have
already described to you-a red-haired
man who looked no more like the tragedian
| that you do yourself. . . Surely, IL
was better to have buried the body and
say nothing more about ii than to have
raised another hue and cry which might
have killed the mother, so we made the
best of the circumstances, kept our dis
covery secret among ourselves, consoled
the mother and buried the body as that OF
John Wilkes Booth, the son, actor and as
sasSin.
Monkeys statement contained other de-
tails, and the Baltimore American printed
it without questioning his veracity. L,
presents a curious phase of the case and
will be difficult to disprove because not an.
other person ccgnizant of the facts is liv.
;na The nfhar three naIlhaarerS tho nm
dertaker, who Monkey says knew the body
was not that of Booth, the mother of the
assassin, who must have seen the body
and Edwin Booth, who was a party TO the
Baltimore burial, are all dead. Yet Mox
ley's story is incredible because ii makes
the government a party, knowingly, to a
base fraud In palming off as Booths bod,
one which the authorities must have known
was not his. Everybody that ever saw
John wilke Booth knows that his hail
was Jet black. The removal of the remain.
from Washington to Baltimore took plac,
abou. a year after Booths death. when hi.
hair must have been still well preserved
1t is incredible that the government au
thorities should have sent the body of q
man with red hair.
That Booth was shot and killed i'm a barr
near Bowling Green. Va, where he hat
taken refuge, and while fighting his pur
suers On April -. 1865. was universally &C
cepted as true at the time and is as wei
authenticated as any fact of history. Hi
body was originally buried in the ground
OF the arsenal at Washington. The grav,
was unmarked and very few persons knew
where the body lay. In 1866 Edwin Bootl
J applied to President johnson for possession