The National tribune., 1903-06-18
THE ENID IMPoSToR.


THE ENID 1MPosToR.
This is the SILLY Summer season." and
almost any Old story will go. which must
account for the extraordinary attention
given to the alleged death-bed confession
of the Enid (Okla.) suicide that he was
really John Wilkes Booth, the murderer
of Abraham Lincoln. Why any man
should be so morbid as to crave such no
toriety passes the comprehension, except
that all things are possible to diseased
minds. AS matter of fact, no chain in
any criminal case is much better connected
than that leading from Wilkes Booths
crime to his final interment in Greenmount
Cemetery. Baltimore. Immediately after
shooting the President and breaking one
of the bones of his leg by his leap to the
stage, Booth galloped for 30 miles into
Maryland, stopping on the way at Sur
rattsville, for the carbines and whisky left
there for him. He then went on toward
Bryantown, Md, where he secured the
services of DR.. Samuel A. Mudd, who
dressed his hurt rather clumsily, and set
the bone with an insufficient splint. For
seven days he was kept concealed in the
neighborhood. until the pursuit after him
grew too hot, when he and Hero!d made
their way across the Potomac and to Fort
Conway, on the Rappahannock, where
they were ferried across to Port Royal.
Three miles further they stopped at the
farm of Richard Henry Garrett, who put
them in his tobacco house, a hundred
yards or so from his residence. On the
way they had fallen in with three officers
Of Mosby's command, who We're going
home, but who parted with them at Gar
rett's farm. Booth and HerO,d had been
revealing who they We're to the people
Of the country through which they passed.
One Of the Mosby men, Capt. Jet, went
on to Bowling Green to see the daughter
Of Mr.. Garland, whom he was courting.
Twenty-six men of the 10Th N. Y. Cav,
under the command of Il. +. DOuherty,
and led by Col. Conger, of Ohio. and Lieut..
Baker, went on the trail of the fugitives,
passed by them at the Garrett farm, went
on to Bowling Green, reused Capt. Jett
out of bed and terribly frightened him.
when he agreed to plot them back to
where Booth and Herold were. After a
13-mile ride they reached Garret farm at
2 o'clock in the morning of April 26,
walked up Mr.. Garrett, who at first de-
criminals but, urged by his son, revealed
that they were sleeping in the tobacco
house, which was Immediately surrounded
on three sides by the soldiers, and Booth
hailed. An excited dialogue took place
between him and Col. Conger and Lieut..
Baker, the officers demanding his surren-
der, and Booth wanting them to draw of
their men and give him fair fight. They
told him they had not come to fight him,
but to take him, which they proposed to
do. Herold surrendered and CAME out,
leaving the arms with Booth, who refused
to surrender. Then Col. COnger made a
rope of hay, lighted it and threw it into
the tobacco house, which contained some
fodder and hay, lying on top of some fur
niture. The flames shot up and revealed
1buolh ieslIuuS ou tiutcu Will
bine raised, whereupon Boston Corbett shot
him with his revolver, the bullet taking
effect in the spinal cord, somewhat lower
down than where he shot the President.
After lingering two hours and q half,
Booth died. The body was brought to
Washington, placed on the monitor Mon
tauk,. and there visited by a number of
Booths acquaintance, who identified the
body. 1t was also identified by Dr. J. f.
May, physician of Washington, who two
years before had removed a tumor from
Booths neck. He at once looked for the
scar on the corpse, and found it without
difficulty. Booths name was also found
pricked in India ink on his arm. The
clothing contained Booths diary, in which
he explained why he had killed the Presi-
dent, and number of personal trinkets
which his friends recognized. All this
made a chain Of evidence which would b.
deemed sufficient in any court in Christen.
dom. The body was inferred secretly
to foil relic hunters and morbid minded
men, in the old penitentiary in the Arsenal
grounds, but in 1869, by order of Presi,
dent Andrew Johnson, was delivered to
Edwin Booth, who had it inferred in the
family lot in Greenmount Cemetery, in
Baltimore. Therefore, if there is any ba.
sis for the Enid suicides confession. hu.
mar testimony must be very weak and
unreliable.