The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1916-07-26
ENDLESS MYSTERY
Of WILKES BOOTH
The Noted Assassin OF
President Lincoln.
MANY STORIES ARE RELATED
As To His IdentiiiCatiOn-NO.
body Knows Where His
Bones Lie Buried.
WHEREABOUTS .CHANGEABLE

The body buried in Greenmoun
was not that of Booth" declare
Basil Monkey. pall-bearer at the al
legged funeral of Lincoln's ASSASSIN
in Baltimore.
IL do not believe that Booth was
ever killed in that barn" added
Monkey, who for nearly half cen
fury had been doorkeeper in Balti
more at the Holiday Street Theatei
and at Ford's Opera House. He was
q trusted friend of the Booth family
and a cyclopediG of information con
corning the stage folk of his time.
! Many men have shared Monkey S
doubt as to the most commonly ac-
cepted version of the capture, shoot
ing and burial of Lincoln's assassin.
According to that version the de-
mented actor, after shooting the
President, and after breaking his leg
while making his escape, took ref
uge in CARROTS tobacco barn, near
Bowling Green, Va. The barn was
surrounded by 2S veterans of the
Sixteenth New York Cavalry. who,
fearing to go in and capture one de-
fiant man, set the building on fire
and then shot Booth as he appeared
to take aim at his pursuers.
The commonly accented story OF
what next happened relates that
Booths body was sewed up in a sad
die blanket and carried aboard the
monitor Montauk, where it was laid
in the carpenters bunk Of the tur-
ret. After an autopsy in Washing
ton, it was placed in a pine gun7box
and secretly buried beneath the floor
of a cell in the old Washington Pen
itentiary. After nearly four years
had elapsed the great actor, Edwin
Booth, persuaded President Andrew
Jackson to allow the pine box to be
removed to Baltimore for secret bur-
ial in Greenmount Cemetery.
Since the black tragedy of '65
there have been advanced more than
80 theories to the effect that Wilkes
Booth escaped to enjoy. or, at least,
experience. life for n considerable
time after his corpse was believed to
have nodded in the grave General
Eckert, who was Assistant Secretary
OF War when Lincoln was assassinat-
ed and who later became President
of the Western Union Telegraph
Company. was once quoted as hav-
ing confessed to his nurse, on his
deathbed. that with three other men
he had taken the body OF Booth out
on Delaware Bay and thrown it into
the water. A secret service man as
signed to the assassination was quot
ed as stating that the Identification
OF the corpse supposed to have been
Booths was never satisfactorily
made. Such doubts and contradic-
tons reiterated by men closely con-
CtTHtu IN tue SEARCH lot the dSSdSSln
led to the suspicion that greed for
the $4,000 reward offered for
Booth by the Government resulted
in the shooting of another man.
A few years ago Laura Ida Booth
MRS. l.. A. HowardD. an actress,
who has claimed to be the daughter
OF Wilkes Booth, announced that
her father lived until 1908, when
his long-troubled conscience led him
to commit suicide at Enid. Okla. A
Memphis attorney. Fred l.. Bates,
who knew the Enid suicide and who
believes him to have been Lincoln's
assassin. has published book In
support OF the theory. Some years
ago Mr.. Bates appealed to the Ma
tional House OF Representatives to
definitely determine the Identity of
the smbalmed corpse OF the suicide,