Did John Wilkes Booth Escape and Assume a False Identity?

**Discussion begins at 5:50**

On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.  Over the next 12 days he traveled 73 miles through the forests and swamps heading toward Virginia.  On April 26, the government said Booth was dead after being shot in a burning barn by a Union soldier and buried without much fanfare. Case closed… right?  Not so fast.  This week, we’re diving into the conspiracy theories that claim America’s most infamous assassin didn’t die in 1865 at all.  From questionable body identifications and missing diary pages to secret government cover-ups and alleged sightings years later, Booth’s death has been debated for over a century.  Did Booth really perish at Garrett’s Farm, or did he pull off the original true-crime vanishing act?  We’re breaking down the facts, the rumors, and the wild theories.  Get ready foil-heads, because history may be lying to us again.

Transcript

Hey, guys. Welcome. Hey.
So yeah, we're coming to you from our Girls Weekend of the Mountain. Yup. Megan made the sourdough last night, it was so good.
So much sourdough this morning, it's delicious.
I had a little Kerrygold butter on it.
Megan made normal butter. Made homemade butter, but I, but not from the Irish-fed cows, Megan. So.
She was like, I see your home churned butter, but. I rate you. Where's the Kerrygold?
I had her bourbon cream cheese.
Yeah, the bourbon butter was really good, too.
I had that on a bagel. Anyway, wafer up. These girls were real troopers about my, I rolled up with a lot of sourdough products, and they know how to take a bite and say, this is delicious, Megan.
We've finished them. Which is what I want to hear. Yeah, well, you know what?
And we submerged with Mermaid Girl. That was fun.
Yeah, that was a must.
Until we were one big wrinkle, legitimately the most wrinkly I've ever been. Yeah, Colleen said, guys, we are dumplings in a bowl of soup.
Yeah, I felt very dumpling.
I said, we are one big donut, because that's how I always think of the human body. Yeah, Mikaela wouldn't get in the hot tub because she said it's human soup. And we watched the Titanic in its entirety.
Yeah, we had negative favorite weekend.
It made me much more angry than my childhood.
Yeah, like yeah, Rose's way weren't more annoying. Also, guys, the whole time I just kept whispering to Kait, I'm pretty sure I could have survived the Titanic. I'm just watching this and I'm like, I have a whole plan in my head.
I'm like, there are so many flotation devices. I would not have gotten off the boat. Well, that's what he said.
He said at the end, we want to be on this boat until the very last possible moment. Yeah.
He had the most survival instinct.
Well, also, he probably could have survived if Rose didn't keep sabotaging. Yeah. If she stayed on the fricking boat, he could have survived himself and reunited with her, but instead he had to save her because she was stupid.
Yeah. I wish they both would have died, I'm going to be honest. Then, you know what the most unbelievable thing that happened the whole time?
That the Hope Diamond stayed in her pocket the whole time.
There's no way that didn't float away.
I've hardly ever seen another one, but the Hope Diamond is the real one that's in the Smith's Boat.
I've seen it, yeah.
But yes, I'm with you too. Every time she moved away, knowing the spoiler at the end and then being like, I'm sorry. She just waded through neck-deep water.
Yeah. Rushing water over her head. The whole boat went down and they got sucked down and had to swim back up.
Yeah. The Hope Diamond is just hanging out. We got on the boat.
Mermaid Girl said, well, maybe there's a button. Maybe there's Velcro. We were much more annoyed with Rose than we've ever been.
Actually, I got the Ick from Jack a little bit. She said, why does he keep saying her name? Rose, come on, Rose.
But you know what?
They just kept addressing her.
We know who she is. Anyway, we are charcutering.
We're girlhooded.
We are drinking some wine. So is it time for our drink check? Drink check.
What do you guys think about this drink check? Oh my gosh, it slaps.
It was actually really good.
Thank you. I made Instagram famous espresso martini jello shots.
Yeah, you did.
Pretty good. I would say they only are, they have a lifespan of about 24 hours.
Yeah. They're delicious though.
So they were better yesterday than this morning. I personally, Megan made me one that was, did not have, I guess the ones that were Instagram famous had Baileys on top, and she left that out for me.
But I, and everyone, the cream kind of separated from the espresso in theirs, but in mine, it was great.
It was delicious.
I like that, but that was just this morning because yesterday's was really good.
Yeah.
Yes. Yeah.
Yeah.
So I would say make it day of. Yeah. No more than 24 hours before consumption.
Right.
It was so good.
But yeah, it was our eye-opener this morning.
We were, we were vibing yesterday. Having girlhood.
And here. You know, you know what else? Kait over here is drinking Abe Lincoln's favorite drink.
I Googled like what was Abe Lincoln's favorite drink. No, we know that Washington like cherry valves.
Yes. I'm like naming every drink.
And Chachi BT told me Lincoln's favorite drink was, are you ready for it?
Yeah. Are you ready for it?
Plain water.
Whoa.
Though he'd occasionally have wine or champagne at social events to fit in, disliking alcohol's effects saying it left him feeling flabby and undone.
Wow. Flabby. You know what Abe Lincoln liked?
Plain water. What the fuck is wrong with you?
Yeah. I was like, Chachi BT, do I believe you? I don't know, but still water.
Still wine. But Kait's over here drinking Abe Lincoln's favorite.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, that's probably for the best. Cause if he had Marfan's, he shouldn't have been drinking a lot or his, he's going to die soon. He's going to die.
That's the theory that he had Marfan's. Cause he was so tall. Yeah, and he had big hands.
You know what they say about big hands.
I don't think I knew that.
It's like the fourth search that comes out. Did Abe Lincoln have children? Did Abe Lincoln have slaves?
Did Abe Lincoln have Marfan's? Well, let's just get into it because it's kind of a long episode today.
5:55
Lincoln Assassination Setup
Okay. What are we talking about? We are talking about-
Oh, his assassination? One of the, yeah, this one really started out this. Let's take us back to Michael in the Uber.
Uber driver.
Uber driver Michael.
We haven't discussed him in a while. Podcast hadn't even launched.
I'm going to prove it to you.
Podcast hadn't even launched and he said, see that right there, that's sport. We're driving through DC. That's sports theater.
Yeah.
Then he showed us the route that John Wilkes Booth allegedly took to escape.
He told us his whole conspiracy theory. So today- Suitland Parkway or something, he said, and that was like a these.
Suitland Parkway? Well, there's a lot of things that came out of the story. I was like, wait a minute.
He was-
I know these places.
Did you know the conspirators were all hung at Forkman Air? I'm like, that's right by where Mermaid Girl lives. Yeah.
They escaped via the Navy Yard Bridge, which we've all been there.
Yeah.
So it's crazy to me that we live so close to such a historical place. I mean, there are a lot of times I hate living in DC or the DC area. Now I'm right in the burbs.
But sometimes I used to drive to work, and I'd pass the Washington Monument, and the sun is coming up, and I would just think, like, I live here. Yes. I used to drive through DC.
When I lived in Maryland, I used to drive through DC to get to work, and I would drive past the Jefferson and the Tidal Basin, and I would think the same thing.
Oh my God.
There are people whose whole goal is to come see this.
Yeah.
I'm just going to work.
Yeah.
We just take advantage. A little summary for you. On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.
7:30
The Assassination Event
Allegedly.
There's actually no allegedly about it.
I'm going to tell you how. There is no question. John Wilkes Booth did this.
Oh, okay. So this is not the conspiracy? No.
April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Over the next 12 days, he traveled 73 miles through the forests and swamps heading toward Virginia.
On April 26, the government said Booth was dead, shot in a burning barn by a Union soldier and buried without much fanfare.
This is the conspiracy.
Case closed. Am I right?
No.
Where's the body? Show us the body. Not so fast.
This week, we're diving into the conspiracy theories that claim America's most infamous assassin didn't die in 1865 at all, from questionable body identifications and missing diary pages to secret government cover-ups and alleged sightings years
later. Booth's death has been debated for over a century. Did Booth really perish at Garrett's Farm? Or did he pull off the original true crime banishing act?
Or breaking down the facts, the rumors, and the wild theories? And then arguing about what we actually believe, so you don't have to, because we're really good at arguing. Yeah.
Get ready foil heads, because history may be lying to us again.
Oh, bom bom bom.
So apparently this was part of the reason about, we talk a lot about why these theories became so big. Lincoln's assassination was one of the first historical events that everyone learned about at once.
Because most people, it would be like, a decade before that, if a president died, you'd have to wait days, weeks, months for the nail mail or whatever. Oh yeah. But this we had like, the telegram, yeah.
And so it was like within an hour, someone in California wrote in her diary that Lincoln had been assassinated. Oh my god. So this was like the start of breaking news.
Oh, this is the start of too much news. Yeah. So John Wilkes Booth, he was a national celebrity and he was really like the original Nepo baby.
He was a famous actor. He was born into a family of actors and he lived in Baltimore, Maryland and he was a very outspoken Confederate sympathizer. He made like today's equivalent of $700,000.
Wow. And he was the first known star who walked out of a theater and people were ripping off his clothes and they were like, is it the first celebrity, if you will? Wow.
But I didn't know that he was this famous. But I heard he wasn't as good. His dad and his brother were actors and they were really a bigger deal.
He was famous for his stunts, which is ironic given that he's going to injure and sabotage himself during this whole thing. Before the infamous assassination of Lincoln at Ford's Theater, he was involved in a plot to kidnap the president.
During the Civil War, there was an agreed upon system for exchanging POWs. POWs were exchanged man for man, rank for rank, and this reduced overcrowding in camps and kept people alive and happy.
But as the war progressed, the Confederacy stopped playing by the rules and would not treat Black Union soldiers as POWs. Oh, no. That's crazy.
That's not okay.
That's really sad.
So Lincoln said, okay, no more prisoner exchanges at all until the South plays by the rules.
Okay.
Lincoln's an icon. As a result, in 1864, John Wilkes Booth assembled this like rag-tag bunch of conspirators. Their plan was to kidnap Lincoln and trade him for Confederate POWs.
But the war ended on April 9th before they could enact this plan. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse and now Booth is like, well, so much for that plan to kidnap and get our POWs back.
Yeah.
Lincoln's last speech was on April 11th was about voting rights for emancipated slaves and this was attended by Booth.
At the speech, Booth allegedly told his co-conspirator, Louis Payne, to shoot him on the spot, like shoot Lincoln on the spot. But Payne refused because he's like, are you kidding me? There are so many people here.
Why would I assassinate the president here? On April 14th, the assassination plot was put into action and the goal still kind of remains unclear. Was this to avenge the South?
Was Booth in denial about the war ending? Like, did he think there was, like, hope that, like... If he took out the head?
Yeah, that, like, he could still see the Confederacy.
Right.
Because they definitely were talking about this. He definitely thought he was, like, an icon for this and was going to be Hale the Hero, and that is not how it went.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, so that is my question. Like, so we don't really know what his motive was? I mean, he definitely hated Lincoln.
He definitely hated the Union. But what his, like, goal was is kind of unclear. So apparently, on the morning of the assassination, Booth had gone to Ford's Theatre.
He's, like, living in DC. He's acting in DC. And he went to Ford's Theatre to pick up his mail.
And this, like, again, the day of the assassination, he learns that Lincoln and Grant were going to be attending a play that night, My American Cousin.
He went back, and he notified his co-conspirators, like, this co-conspirators, that this was the night. It was presumed that Booth would be the only person who would have free reign of the theatre and could likely approach the president.
So, he was assigned to assassinate the president, because, like, you're going to be able to, like, walk freely through Ford's Theatre and no one is going to blink an eye.
While John Wilkes Booth was taking out the president, Louis Payne, and this was a plan of this would happen, he snuck into the bedchambers of Secretary of State William Seward and stabbed him with a knife.
Oh my God.
However, Seward was wearing, like, a neck brace, a splint from a broken jaw, so he managed to survive. And then a third accomplice, George Atzerot, was supposed to kill the Vice President Andrew Johnson, but he chickened out.
So he had actually checked into the same hotel the Vice President was staying in. He spent the whole night getting drunk in the hotel bar and, like, asking questions about Andrew Johnson. And then he's like, I can't do this.
And he just, like, went and wandered the street. Yeah. Someone watched him throw a knife away, so he ended up getting in trouble for this after the fact.
But crazy. This was their whole plan. It was like, these three people were going to take out all at once.
And really the only one that was successful was Lincoln.
Wait, wait, wait.
Did the guy who was supposed to assassinate Andrew Johnson, like, he got arrested, but did he get charged with something? He did, and we'll wrap that up at the end.
Oh, okay. The people organizing this is the cell.
Yeah. Well, there's another... Because you know there...
Yeah, it's this kind of group of conspirators, led by John Wilkes Booth, who was a Marylander, but that is technically the Confederacy. Was Maryland. So, but again, back to Lincoln, because that's our story here.
It being Good Friday, a week after the end of the war, Lincoln was telling people he was in good spirits, Mary Todd and her husband went to Ford Cedar to see the play, and this kind of sad, because there were so many opportunities for them to like,
be like, let's just not go. Like, Lincoln had a dream three nights prior that had a premonition of death, of a president dying, but he was convinced that it was not his death, it was like someone else was going to be assassinated.
Oh, this is bad.
Lincoln and Grant's wife did not get along, so the Grants had actually declined the invitation, or if we get into the conspiracy theories, Grant was given an assignment to get him out of the way. Oh. But again, more on that later.
They went through a number of other potential guests who all declined before Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancee accepted the invitation. Lincoln's bodyguard asked him not to go, and Lincoln was like, I would, but I promised Mary.
Then Mary got a headache, but her husband said, well, we have to go now because the papers have already published that I'm going. He told the Speaker of the House, it's time for me to go, but I would rather stay.
They arrived late, so it's just so many chances they could have been like, you know what, let's not tonight. Right.
But they didn't.
They arrived late and as they entered the presidential box, the play paused, because again, they came late, and Hail to the Chief played.
Lincoln and his wife were very flirting and good spirits that night, and he sat in a rocking chair and he watched the show. Meanwhile, John Wilkes Booth was down the street at a tavern having some drinks.
You know who else was having drinks at the tavern?
Who?
Lincoln's bodyguard and valet.
What? Why weren't they guarding him?
Yeah, we're going to talk about that. That's a great question. So get him out.
Booth entered the front of the theater at 10, 10 p.m. He went to the second floor where the presidential box was located. He found the door unguarded and he looked through a people that he had created earlier the day.
He knew he waited because he was like, there's this big laugh line that's coming. That's going to be my opportunity.
So at 10, 15, when a funny line was delivered and the president and other audience members were distracted, he stepped into the box and shot the president from behind, with the.44 Derringer pistol.
The bullet entering behind his left ear passed through the brain, fractured both orbital plates and lodged in the front of the skull. And Lincoln slumped over in his chair as Booth yelled, freedom.
Oh my God. Is the people still there? I wonder.
I don't know.
But have you guys been to the Medical Military Museum?
No, I keep wanting to go. Cause I know is his hat there or something? The bullet's there.
Something's there from this, right?
His clothes. You can see the blood.
Yeah.
Oh my crazy. The major tried to tussle with Booth, but Booth dropped his pistol and he stabbed Rathbone in the left arm. He then leapt from the box onto the stage, nearly 12 feet, but his foot got caught on the bunting.
And so when he fell to the stage, he broke his leg, which again is ironic given that he was like, no, he's going to die.
He was scared.
He stood on the stage in front of over 1,500 people and yelled, sick semper tyrannus, thus ever to tyrants, which is also the state motto of Virginia. Well, why is he a tyrant? I don't understand.
He thinks Abe is a tyrant. Well, why would he think that?
Because he's against slavery.
Ruining the southern way of life.
Well, Kait being like, why would he not like Abe Lincoln? Like, why was Abe Lincoln hated in the south? I wonder.
Hmm, what? That was so funny. Wouldn't like good old honest Abe, you know?
So apparently they were like, I think there was like an orchestra director, there was an a theater goer who tried to kind of like stop him, but he fled.
He made his way out.
So far, everything is matching up with their Uber driver. Yeah.
Upon leaping to the stage, he fled. He exited the rear of the theater into Baptist Alley, where a stable boy was waiting with his horse. Whoa, he had a stable boy ready to go?
Not his. He had a getaway car? He had a getaway car ready to go.
Wow.
He then crossed the Navy Yard Bridge into Maryland, and met up with David Harrold, a co-conspirator whose job was to help Booth get South.
Well, we've literally been to all these places.
That's what I'm saying.
I was like, wait a minute. Back at the theater, physicians on the scene declared this was a mortal wound. Lincoln was transported across the street to the home of a tailor, and he remained in a comatose state until 722 AM on April 15th.
You mean he didn't die right away?
No.
They said they kept pulling blood clot out of his head, and every time they did, he would breathe for a while, and then he would start to not breathe, and then he would pull some more clot. So he had ICP, you're saying.
Yeah. Back at the...
Okay.
So it's Mermaid Girl.
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton then launched the largest manhunt in American history with a $10,000 reward offered, which would be $2 million today, because I know you like to know about... I do... .
equivalence and what that means.
Yeah.
Okay, so let me tell you about Booth's nearly two weeks on the run.
18:47
Boothʼs Escape and Capture
I love this. Tell us more. He and Harold proceeded to Surratt's Tavern.
Surratt's Tavern? Hey, that's in Clifton, Maryland. It is in Maryland.
They went from DC, crossed the Navy Yard Bridge into Maryland, and then their goal was to circle back to Virginia. And he was trying to get to Richmond because he thought he'd be hailed a hero in Richmond. He was going to publish his diary.
That was his plan. And again, this guy, Harold, had done nothing except his goal was to help him get out of the area, right? So they told the tavern keeper he had just killed the president.
Dr. Samuel Mudd, a local doctor that had previously been an ally of Booth's, involved in other conspiracies, set his leg. He was like in the original kidnapping.
Conspiracy answers a lot of questions here about whether or not he knew that he was helping the assassin if he didn't know yet the assassination happened. Right. He claimed he didn't know, but it was very suspicious.
Okay, so apparently, he helped set his leg. At this point, again, he claims he didn't know the president was dead, but he's at a nearby town. He overheard people discussing the assassination.
He came back and he's like, you guys got to go. Okay. Yeah.
So he goes, but I know someone who's going to help you. So they go off to the home of a Confederate sympathizer. It's like they kind of have their own underground railroad.
Oh. Like their own. The ones that are actually underground?
Yeah. Not actually underground.
Yeah.
Kait thought the underground railroad was underground.
Yeah, for a long time.
This is like a reverse underground, though. They're going back to the south. So they set off to the home of a Confederate sympathizer.
They got lost. They ended up meeting a freed slave, whom they paid $12 to guide them to the home of Samuel Cox.
Weren't they against slaves?
This guy used the help of a slave.
Even though he was actively trying to end slaves or bring back slaves?
Well, they're just trying to get free. Also, I would recommend, our recommended content is Manhunt, an Apple mini-series that is all about the hunt for John Wilkes Booth in the 12 days after.
I just was like, the guy who plays this role is pretty much like, I know who you are, but also, give me my money.
Oh, okay.
They were directed by Samuel Cox to sleep in the woods a few miles away, where they slept for four nights, and they were supplied by Confederate agent Thomas Jones.
Then on Thursday, April 20th, Jones took them to a 12-foot fishing boat on the banks of the Potomac River. He provided them with two oars, a compass, and a candle. Booth paid for the oar, and they were pushed off across the Potomac River.
Their entire goal was to make it south where they hoped to be lauded as heroes, as I said, but unfortunately for them, they got lost crossing the river, and by daybreak, remained in Maryland, having merely traveled nine miles up river.
Harold had a friend in the area, John Hughes, who ended up providing food and shelter, and after sunset, Booth and Harold made their second attempt to cross the Potomac, this time with success.
On April 23rd, they were taken to the home of multiple Confederate sympathizers, but none were willing to help them beyond providing snacks. I like snacks. You do like snacks.
But they're like, you can't stay with us, but like.
I'll feed you.
Here's some sourdough. Yeah.
You know what?
Sourdough, after a long run.
Picture this. You just murdered the president, and you get welcome home with a nice, warm piece of sourdough. Oh my gosh.
It would be so good.
They ended up at the cabin of William Lucas, a free black man, and Booth forced Lucas and his family out of the cabin at Knife Point so they could leave there that night.
The following morning, the duo hired a man to give them a wagon ride to the Rappahannock River.
Where are they getting all this money?
The Rappahannock River.
Oh, I forgot.
$700,000 a year. We're not far from the Rappahannock River. No.
You know where they ended up? They went to this ferry to Port Royal, and I was like, Port Royal, is that front? Is that front Royal?
Because that's pretty much where we are right now. But it's not. Instead, Port Royal is near Culpepper, Virginia.
Whoa.
We have deaf been there.
We have.
On the ferry, they met three Confederate soldiers, and Harold revealed Booth's identity.
One of the men, Willie Jett, Willie Jett. Took the Garret Fonda name, where they claim to be former Confederate soldiers making their way home.
The next day, so this is April 25th, the other two Confederate soldiers from the ferry the day before arrived at Garrett Farm and say that the Union soldiers are on their tail.
So Booth ran and hid in the woods, and Harold was guarding things, and the Garrett family was like, again, who actually knew that they were helping the assassin?
Like, that's still very unclear, and they all claim they didn't know, but I'm sure some of them knew. We would never do that. Well, a lot of people feel like the Garrets had to have known at this point.
But they claim that the way the one was hiding in the woods and the other was guarding made them think like something is definitely not right here. They said, we don't know what you're up to, but you cannot sleep in the house.
You have to sleep in the tobacco barn.
Oh.
So this is a big, like a huge barn that tobacco gets dried in, and it gets locked from the outside. It's just like a massive building that dries tobacco. So, they go to sleep that night.
Meanwhile, Union soldiers have tracked down Willie Jett and interrogated him until he agreed to lead them to Booth. At 2 a.m., the Union soldiers and detectives arrived to the barn and started beating up on Richard Garrett, holding a gun to his head.
Oh, my gosh. Prompting, based on the source, either he or his son to declare the fugitives were in the barn. Booth and Harold refused to surrender, so the soldiers started a fire to smoke them out, and so Harold came out.
Now, again, Harold, obviously very guilty. He ends up dying for this, but... Right.
His whole job was just to guide Booth, so he's like, I didn't even do anything wrong except guide this man. I'm coming out, don't shoot me. But Booth, who's like, I'm going to be a hero.
Yeah. He's like, I'm going down with this barn. He actually said like, hey, can I have a duel with your best shotsman?
Your best? Yeah. They were like, no, just come out.
Apparently, Booth is like, while this is all happening, because the soldiers had been directed, we want him alive, bring him to us alive.
Sergeant Boston Corbett peers through like a crack in the barn, sees what he claims to be Booth preparing his gun. So Sergeant Boston Corbett fired a single shot, passed through Booth's neck, suffering his spinal cord and causing immediate paralysis.
Holy gosh.
He was pulled from the barn and dragged up to the farmhouse porch where he was unsuccessfully interrogated as he died. Apparently, his final words were, tell my mother I die for my country.
And then he asked somebody to lift his hand so he could see them. And as they lifted his hands in front of them, he said, useless, useless.
Such an actor.
Yeah. He died at 7:15 a.m. after about three hours of suffering on April 26th, and his body was transported back to DC.
What we're going to talk about here is, like, whether or not that man that Corbett shot at Garrett's Farm was actually Booth, or if this was all just a tidy tale for the US citizens.
25:29
Questioning Boothʼs Death
Oh, my gosh.
And in order to talk about, like, the potential motive, like, why would government officials have covered this up?
Then we need to first kind of touch on this other conspiracy that John Wilkes Booth had insider help. Oh, well, I kind of think so. I've been wondering if Lincoln was actually, it was like he was taken out.
People are not like him.
Yeah.
Well, that is the theory. So, who, if we're talking about, who could have potentially on the inside in his inner circle helped?
Yeah.
The two people we talk about are Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of War Stanton. So, if you believe that Stanton was involved, Stanton again, as I said, was the Secretary of War. He had controlled the military and law enforcement.
So, he was again in charge of this whole hunt to get John Wilkes Booth. He was pretty much the most powerful man in the world after Lincoln. But the theorists say that he didn't agree with a lot of Lincoln's moves.
This is, I think, not necessarily accurate based on my research, but this is how this conspiracy theory goes, is that he was like not really supporting what Lincoln was doing. He thought he was being too lenient with the South.
And if you believe the theory that he was involved, then his goal was to get Andrew Johnson, a far less principled man, into office and hopefully he could control Andrew Johnson.
Yeah.
He may have been involved in the initial kidnapping plan that didn't come to fruition. And when he learned that the plan had changed to murder, it's not that he was actually involved in that whole conspiracy.
He just knew about it and did not tip off Lincoln. Oh. Instead, he removed Lincoln's security, subbing in like...
I told you that his security was as a bar. He was drinking. That was like the third string security.
So he like pulled everyone to other jobs and then he's like, I'm going to leave this guy who has a history of getting drunk on the job and he's going to be the only guy protecting Lincoln. Grant was also supposed to go to this play.
I remember I told you that Grant's wife and Lincoln's wife didn't get along. Well, the other theory is that he pulled Grant. He was like, I'm giving you an assignment to go do something else and that's why he couldn't escort the press.
Oh, my gosh. Once Lincoln was assassinated, Edwin Stanton shut down all access in and out of DC. But somehow, he was able to escape via the Navy Yard bridge.
So the question again-
Who let him across?
Yeah. And so, I mean, that's sort of been like, like portrayed as he was like this famous actor, kind of schmoozed his way out.
Right.
Or maybe Stanton said-
It was an inside job.
Let this guy through. Right. Right.
This is matching literally everything that our Uber driver was saying.
That Michael was saying?
Yeah.
I mean, so again, conspiracy theorists believe that he helped Booth escape and fake the death because he was following through on his promise to Booth regarding, like he had said, like, I promise you, I will get you out of this area if you do this.
So that's one theory that he was involved and that, again, that might be motive for why you would want to kill. Because everyone's like, we said keep bringing him alive, but he got shot. Right.
So were they like, well, that's not him and we just want to like, like, I promise this guy, I promised John Wilkes Booth if he did this, I would get him safely out, but I also can't let there be a story because I don't want to get busted for being
involved. So we're going to kill someone else for 10 minutes. John Wilkes Booth. That is that oral.
On the other hand, the other theory that I kind of tend to believe more is that Andrew Johnson was involved. Because he was a president. He was vice president who became president.
Like, who has the most to benefit?
The vice president.
The vice president. Also, this is kind of gives me like JFK vibes. Yeah, this whole thing.
Right.
The issue is, though, if we go to the theory that Johnson was involved, because he had the most to gain, and there are some weird connections I'll tell you about, but remember I told you there was this whole, like, three people were going to get
Yeah.
One of them was Johnson.
So that could be a, hmm, could he have been involved? But also, he's the one where the guy chickened out and just wandered the streets. So, oh, so, so did he actually chicken out or was it all a part of the plan?
And that was just an alibi.
Exactly.
Exactly. To be like, couldn't have been me. They wanted to kill me also, you know?
They didn't.
No. Yeah.
Mary Todd did not like Johnson because he was drunk at the second inauguration. She always thought Johnson was in on it, but again, she didn't like him, maybe biased.
The rumor also circulated because the day of the assassination, John Wilkes Booth went to the Kirkwood Hotel where Andrew Johnson was staying, and he left him a Colleen card with a message that said, don't want to disturb you, are you at home?
That's weird. That is weird. It's a little weird.
There were claims that Johnson and Booth did know each other.
Were they fruity?
It came with the other day that Colleen just loves-
Star-crossed presidential lovers.
Who's the Roosevelt?
Oh, that's proven though.
Yeah. Was that the one who had-
His wife.
The best friend. That's proven.
Have you read the letters?
The love letters between Eleanor and-
Yeah.
Eleanor and Amelia Earhart. I actually-
It was her and her best friend. I didn't think it was also Amelia Earhart. Amelia Earhart did have a lover, in my opinion.
I think they were friends.
I think they were friends, but is it the same person that she's famously known for writing the letters?
AI tells us that Eleanor Roosevelt's most significant intimate relationship was with journalist Lorana-
Yeah, it was somebody else.
Hick-Hock.
God, what a lovely romance.
Amelia Earhart. Maybe that was a Colleen conspiracy and not actually-
Oh, you know what? It might have been that.
I think it was a Colleen conspiracy.
I'm saying they were close friends, it says, who shared a passion for women's rights and independence.
Yeah, come on, guys.
They famously took a spontaneous night-time flight together in 1930.
They were hooking up on the plane. Yeah.
But back to this conspiracy theory.
Boring. Okay.
A special congressional assassination committee was established in 1867 to investigate any evidence linking Johnson to the plot, but no evidence was found to incriminate him.
Again, I for one, did not really find any evidence that Edwin Stanton and Lincoln didn't get along. I think they actually were really good friends. I think actually Edwin Stanton and Andrew Johnson didn't really get along very well.
I don't know why they would team up to take out the president, but they would be forced to work together. I don't know if I believe- Maybe it was off for show.
Actually, their relationship really soured after Johnson became president. They had really very opposing views on reconstruction. Then Johnson tried to fire Stanton, and then that ended up getting Johnson impeached.
Again, I don't see these two conspiring, and I don't really see proof that Stanton wanted Lincoln to be taken out. I think he was his buddy. But maybe Johnson, maybe.
But anyway, the whole reason that that matters, again, is because you'd have to understand why would higher ups want to cover up that the man that they killed was not Booth, and it would be to potentially protect their reputations, right?
Right.
Let's talk about these theories about whether or not Booth died at Garrett Farm. There are very mixed reports from the people, the witnesses who were there.
Some claim that Harold, his, like, you know, guide, came out and said, the man in there is not Booth. Some people were like, what are you talking about? The whole time you talked about Booth, Booth being in there.
Right, right. He actually made a 40-page statement 36 hours after his arrest in which he referred to Booth by name at least 10 times when going over the events in and around the barn.
So again, if you're one of the conspiracy theorists, you would say, well, like, that's convenient. You know, I mean, how many times do we see false confessions now? Yeah.
Like, he's in police custody, and then he writes this confession. Like, can we believe that? Suspicious.
Question again is, was the guy who died in the barn a patsy dressed as Booth, or did Booth really die that night? Sounds like we don't have any proof proof. Let's talk about the autopsy.
Oh, they did.
They got an autopsy back then?
Yeah, girl, they did an autopsy. There were three people who claimed the dead person at the farm had lighter hair than Booth, like kind of a reddish color, and Booth was known to have this very dark brown hair, and no evidence of a fractured leg.
Prior to the autopsy, Dr. John Frederick May was brought to the farm to identify the body.
He had removed a tumor from Booth's neck in 1963, and so he positively identified the scar of the incision that he had made, first describing it from memory, which was then compared to the corpse. Dr.
May signed the official document stating that the man killed by Union soldiers that day was indeed John Wilkes Booth, but he added before citing his name, I recall Booth is having black hair, and this man has sandy hair.
I recall that Booth had a rather clear complexion, and this man is freckled, but this is certainly Booth.
Wait, what?
I'm sorry. This man does not match what your memory served you? But this man is certainly Booth.
How do you know, then?
He operated on his neck.
He's like, other than the hair color and the freckles, he looks the same, and this is the scar that matches the surgery I did. We work for a bunch of surgeons, and I-
What surgery did he do on him?
There was a surgeon who also did not- Know someone's race? Yeah.
Well, I guess gender is pretty easy. He operated on a, let's say he operated on a black man, and then walked into a white woman's room and said, is this my patient? Yeah.
So, maybe.
Yeah.
I would say that these men are focused on cutting. Yeah. The body was then wrapped in a horse blanket and transported via wagon, steamship, and government tugboat to the Navy Yard.
Would love to see a government tugboat.
Love the Navy Yard.
What? The Navy Yard's so cute. The ship-
Well, Navy Yard used to be-
A Navy Yard.
An actual Navy Yard. Even like 1960s, Navy Yard was dangerous. Yeah, but now it's cute.
Now it's cute. So they, so they did this autopsy on a Navy ship. Guess what the name of the ship was?
Aulisus S.
Grant.
The USS Montauk.
Oh my God. Wait, that's actually crazy.
That actually means nothing. I just thought it was like-
That's actually crazy. Of all ships.
He goes to this Navy ship for a complete autopsy. Surgeon General Barnes performed the autopsy. There was only one-
Hold on.
Pause, Megan. You don't think that that's a factor? They're doing the autopsy on the Montauk ship?
They're not doing an actual Montauk.
I mean-
They're doing some governmental experiments.
We are like- No, we are a complete century before the Montauk.
Daytime travel, Megan.
Oh my gosh. Hey.
Megan.
Spearing ship.
Megan.
Hey, didn't mermaid girl's jaws just drop?
Yeah. Guys, get with it.
Philadelphia. That was Philadelphia experience. Yeah, but it had ties to Montauk.
Daytime traveled.
There was only one photo taken of this autopsy.
So they reveal the body, they take a picture. This photo was sent directly to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Nobody else has ever seen this photo.
Fake.
And as far as we know-
Fake.
It's likely been destroyed.
Release the files. Or here's my question. Do you think it's in the Presidential Book of Secrets?
Yes.
That every president gets to see?
Yes, I'm 100% locked in.
Oh my gosh.
Imagine being privy to those secrets. During the autopsy- I don't want to be a president, but I just can't, I just don't want to be that disliked, you know?
No matter what 50% of the population is going to hate you. During the autopsy, they had people who may have known Booth come to identify him. Dr.
William C. Merrill provided further medical confirmation by matching two of the fillings he had done for Booth.
Charles Dawson, the clerk at the National Hotel where Booth was staying, examined the remains saying, quote, I distinctly recognized as the body of Jay Wilkes Booth, first from the general appearance, next from the India ink letters JWB on his wrist,
which I had very frequently noticed. So he had tattooed like his initials on his hand, on his wrist.
What a loser.
He's such a tool. And then by a scar on the neck. I also recognize the vest is that of Jay Wilkes Booth.
Sounds like a lot of people are identifying him. Yep. On this body, again, had this, between the thumb and the forefinger, had this tattoo that he was known to have.
He also had a small pin with a personalized inscription and a handkerchief filled with wood shavings believed to be from the, I told you that they think he went back the morning of and made this like little eye hole to peer through. Yeah.
They found wood shavings in a handkerchief, so I think that that's what it was from.
Dying to know if that's still there.
The corpse had John Wilkes Booth personal journal, a small book which was actually an 1864 appointment book kept as a diary. It was found on the body. The date book was printed and sold by St.
Louis Stationer named James N. Crawford. It was like six by three and a half inches.
This is where he was allegedly writing everything down that he was hoping to publish and be this like hero. It also had pictures of five women who were associated with John Wilkes Booth in it.
But the diary was removed from the body and delivered to Secretary Stanton. The book was not presented at the trial, I'm going to tell you about, of the conspirators. And it suddenly appeared years later, and they noted 86 missing pages.
Oh my God.
Oh my God.
So we can account for- Does CIA exist back then? No, but there was the CSS, the Confederate Secret Service.
Oh. But the Confederate Secret Service wouldn't be a part of this. No.
So they're like, well, there's probably a couple of people's piece of paper he ripped out during his evasion to write notes to people, but 86 pages, we can't account for that. Yeah.
No, that's suspicious.
That's very suspicious.
In a letter to Stanton, the Surgeon General reported, the left leg and foot were encased in an appliance of splints and bandages upon removal of which a fracture of the fibula, three inches above the ankle joint, accompanied by considerable
eczemosis, was discovered. The cause of death was a gunshot wound in the neck, the ball entering just behind the sternocleidomastoid, two and a half inches above the clavicle, passing through the bony bridge of the fourth and fifth cervical
vertebrae, severing the spinal cord and passing out through the body of the sternocleidomastoid, awful, clad over the right side, three inches above the clavicle. Prowse of the entire body was immediate, and all the horrors of consciousness of
suffering and death must have been present to the assassin during the two hours. I mean, I'm thinking C4, C5. Yeah, C5 keeps the diaphragm alive. So he couldn't have really been breathing very well.
No. His autopsy read, Case JWB was killed April 26th, 1865 by a canoidal pistol ball fired at the distance of a few yards from a cavalry revolver.
The missile perforated the base of the right lamina of the fourth cervical vertebrae, fracturing it longitudinally and separating it by a fissure from the spinous process, at the same time fracturing the fifth vertebrae through its pedicle and
involving that transverse process. The projectile then transverse the spinal canal almost horizontally, but with a slight inclination downward and backwards, perforating the cord, which was found much torn and discolored with blood.
The ball then shattered the base of the left fourth and fifth lamina, driving bony fragments into the muscles and made its exit the left side of the neck, nearly opposite the point of entrance. It avoided the second and third cervical nerves.
These facts were determined at autopsy, which was made on April 28. Immediately after the reception of the injury, there was a very general paralysis.
The phrenic nerves performed their function, but the respiration was diaphragmatic, of course labored and slow. One or two attempts at articulation were unintelligible. Death from asphyxia took place about two hours after the reception of the injury.
So could he really have said, tell my mom I die for my country? Yeah, I don't know. And useless, useless?
Yeah. The body was initially stored at the base, but in 1867, at the family's request, President Andrew Johnson permitted the family custody of the body. So he was buried at the Booth family plot in Baltimore in an unmarked grave.
At the time of that exhumation and transfer, his family, including his mother, sister, and brother, all confirmed the identity of John Wilkes Booth. This sounded pretty clear. You think it was Booth?
It's definitely him.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah. I don't understand where the conspiracy comes from. And why would his parents be like, yeah, this is him?
Was it too... Well, but I'm going to tell you, like, his sister for sure does... Even though they identified this body, his sister is a believer in one of these conspiracies.
Wait, I don't understand, but was she there? Did she look at the body? Well, when they exhumed it and transferred it to Baltimore for burial, so this was three years later.
I mean, did it look like a body at that point?
I know.
I was thinking about that. Okay, but if it wasn't Booth who was shot and killed in the barn, then what happened to him? That's the question, right?
So we have two big theories. The biggest, well, we really have three theories. We have three theories, but the biggest one is that he was David E.
George, aka John St. Helen. Okay.
So Finis Bates was a lawyer who published a book in 1907 alleging that John Wilkes Booth escaped the barn and went on to live another 40 years. The story is that Bates met a man named John St.
Helen in Texas in 1872 when he was called to testify as a witness. John St. Helen told Bates he couldn't testify because he did not want to be compelled to reveal his true identity.
There's also a story that like John St. Helen hired him as a lawyer to help him get a liquor license for a business, but either way, they came to know each other because Finis Bates worked as a lawyer for this man called John St. Helen.
Okay. Nine months after they met, John St. Helen was on his death bed allegedly, dying from a respiratory illness.
So he called for his lawyer and told him, my name is John Wilkes Booth and I am the assassin of President Lincoln. Get the picture of myself from under the pillow. I leave it with you for my future identification.
Notify my brother Edwin Booth of New York City. But then John St. Helen rallied and did not die.
He ended up telling Bates about the original kidnapping plan I told you about, and he said that the war ended before they could kidnap Lincoln, but that Andrew Johnson, the vice president, had convinced him to assassinate Lincoln and had promised to
help him escape. Whoa. John St. Helen ended up moving to Colorado, and Bates contacted the US Army and urged them to reopen the case, but the plea fell on deaf ears.
Now fast forward to 1903. Bates sees an obituary for a man named David E. George who died in Enid, Oklahoma.
He drank arsenic on January 13th, 1903. He died by suicide, but before he died, he confessed to multiple people including the minister's wife that he had assassinated Lincoln.
My God.
I think Colleen's going to like where the story is going actually.
Oh, boy.
His body was taken to WB. Penniman's Mortuary and Furniture Store where the body was embalmed, but no one ever claimed it. And they're like, you know what?
We can just use this body as a prop, this modified corpse.
I'm sorry.
And they set him up in a chair.
No.
With the newspaper.
No.
And had him just hanging in like that.
That sounds cruel.
The lobby of their business. The furniture store slash mortuary. That is so weird.
So sad. So he's at, wait, he was embalmed?
Yes.
And he's just hanging out?
Yes. That is so creepy.
So Bates sees this newspaper article. He's like, wait a minute, I recognize this man. David E.
George was my client from decades ago, John St. Helen. So he comes to Oklahoma.
And actually, because he was like, he's like, showed a picture. He's like, look, this was my client. They're the same man.
And they're like, well, you know what? No one's claimed the body. And if you're his lawyer, you can take the body.
Oh, wow.
My god.
So Bates takes ownership. Now, Bates does say he always described this client as like, he had a bum leg. He quoted Shakespeare.
He was an alcoholic. He loved going to the theater whenever the theater would, like, rotate through. So it could be Booth.
Yeah, a bum leg.
Why wouldn't Booth have a bum leg?
Because he broke his leg. A 2019 episode of Mummies Unwrapped on the History Channel used facial recognition software, and it compared the pictures of John Wilkes Booth, John St. Helen, and David E.
George and said with 99% certainty these three photos were all the same man. Well, after Bates' death, his widow sold the body for $1,000. And physicians studied the corpse.
They noted an old thumb injury matching an injury Booth had from a stage accident in his early career, the foot match the boot size of John Wilkes Booth, and it had a previous broken leg, but it's unclear if it was the same broken leg or if it was
the opposite side. This all sounds sort of convincing, right? Yeah, it really does. Except, History's Greatest Mysteries had a handwriting expert look at the notarized document, which stated that David E.
George claimed to be John Wilkes Booth, and he had this document notarized, and the expert concluded the document had been altered, and that the handwriting did not match David E. George's handwriting not match John Wilkes Booth's handwriting.
So they were like, this is probably not accurate. And you have to remember that the lawyer did profit, like the lawyer wrote this book, and he rented this body out to circuses, so like he was getting financial benefit from this whole story.
God, renting the body out is so messed up.
Or even maybe Bates really was innocent in all of this, but like this random guy told him this story and he went with it, that maybe he was lied to. So that is the biggest theory.
If you believe John Wilkes Booth is not John Wilkes Booth, most people think that's the case. Second theory is that John Wilkes Booth fathered children with Azola Martha Mills, in which case, as I tell you, he could not have died.
In 1937, author Azola Forrester published a book titled This One Mad Act, the Unknown Story of John Wilkes Booth and His Family by his granddaughter. As far as we know, John Wilkes Booth had no, if he really died, no children, no descendants.
So she claimed that Azola Martha Mills, an actress, and John Wilkes Booth met at a ball in Richmond, Virginia in the late 1850s, and they secretly married in 1859.
They lived in a home in the Shenandoah Valley, and in October of 1859, Ogarita Wilkes was born.
The family lore is that Booth had gotten away with the help of the Knights of the Golden Circle, which was like this secret pro-slavery society that really inspired the KKK. Right.
After the assassination, John Stevenson proposed to Azola and she said, I can't marry you. My husband is still alive in San Francisco.
Meanwhile, a British passport was issued to a man named John Byron Wilkes, and he and Azola boarded a ship to India. Now, there was a John Byron Wilkes who left San Francisco for India in the late 1860s. This is fact.
We can prove this. But there was also a John Wilkes Booth with the same birthplace and birthdate and parentage living in Indiana and working as a machinist. So the theory is whoever this person was stole his identity, was at Booth.
If so, the theory goes that he and his secret wife flee to India. It is too hot. She gets pregnant and she's like, I can't stay here.
I'm going back. But they're like in communication. And then he just ghosts her.
So then John Stevenson said, are you sure you don't want me to marry you? And she said, actually, I need someone to marry me because now I got two kids. So they got married and he raised these kids of his own.
She gave birth to Harry Jerome Stevenson, whom John agreed to raise his own. Meanwhile, he wrote out a will and signed it John Byron Wilkes. And upon his death in 1883, his assets were distributed.
The people named in this will, who received money from John Byron Wilkes, include Ogarita Bellows, who was Booth's daughter. She actually never got paid because she died. Harry Jerome Stevenson, which was his alleged son.
Sarah Scott and Mary Louise Turner, who were two other daughters, who are rumored to have fathered. And then his valet, his children's caretaker, and then most interesting is Elizabeth Marshall Wilkes and her two daughters.
And so that's the widow of the man that Booth stole the identity from. So then people are like, hold on. People are like, so was he in on it?
Right. Did he save his identity to John Wilkes Booth? And they have this mutual understanding.
And they did have some, I think this guy and John Wilkes Booth both had met this one person, Lola Alexander of Indiana. So they had this connection.
Then the people who believe this rumor also believe that those five women whose photos he was found with, whom they've identified as these various actresses and women he was involved with. He maybe had a different secret fiance.
And people are like, well, maybe they misidentified those. And one of these was Zola. And so this theory actually, I think the reason people talk about this is that Rosalie Booth, John Wilkes Booth's sister, did believe this story.
And she financially supported Zola for her whole life. Oh, my God. But was she just being taken advantage of?
You know, lost her brother. And this sounds good to say that he has children and whatnot. Like, you know, easier to cope with.
History's Greatest Mysteries did a DNA test on these people. So they looked at the descendants of Jane Booth Mitchell, who was John Wilkes Booth's aunt, and they compared it to the descendants of Martha Zola Mills and found there was no relation.
So DNA test, you are not the father. Exactly. Disproved that theory.
Drama.
And then, or you could believe that, like, both a combination of theories, like you could believe that he married his own Martha Mills and then faked his death in India and then moved to Texas.
And that's where he found Bates. Then there's this final, there's this guy, this one has way less legs, but this guy came out, his name is John Wilkes Booth, like the third. And he was like, oh, I am, my great grandfather was John Wilkes Booth.
And that's his claim. And so he's like, obviously, with all these children, he must have survived. But again, history's greatest mysteries, did a DNA test, not the father, nada, no relation.
So those are the big theories. Are you still thinking John Wilkes Booth died? I still think he dies.
Yeah, I do.
Nothing is really convincing me otherwise either.
But Michael was pretty adamant. He was. So if you believe that John Wilkes Booth did not die in that barn, then someone else had to have died in his place, right?
People claim that that man must have been James A. Boyd. He was a Confederate soldier and a Union spy.
This theory comes from the fact that when Booth arrived at the farm, he identified himself as Boyd, which is just like a random name he chose. James A.
Boyd had been a prisoner of the Union Army and the weeks prior to the assassination, was transferred to Washington DC by Secretary of War Stanton. There's no real record on him.
So we're like, well, that's suspicious, but also he was a spy, so why would they have records on him? He allegedly looked like Booth.
So this theory involves that Booth escaped and the Secretary of War set it up so that the Union soldiers would kill Boyd. Everyone could be like, oh, sweet, we got the assassin. Let's all put this to rest.
And that's the end of it. We could feel good about this. And maybe Boyd agreed to this in exchange for like, you take care of my children, I'll take one for the team, I'll be a martyr.
Again, this goes back to people, some people claiming that Harold came out saying, that's not Booth in there, it's Boyd. But there are other witnesses who were like, no, he came out and was like, that's Booth.
So again, very 50-50 on what the witnesses heard him say. The other thing that's weird is that Dr. Mudd, when he treated the leg, he removed a boot and applied a splint, but the dead body was found wearing two boots.
Obituaries in family records indicate the real James Williams Boyd did not die at Garrett's Farm in 1865, but lived until January 1866. So if he really lived almost a year later, could he have been the man who died?
Booth's descendants did request an ex-exclamation, but the cemetery in Baltimore, the president of the cemetery said, no, we're not going to let you do that. Which is too bad, the fact that his descendants were like, let's just verify who is buried.
And some rando who owns a cemetery can be like, I don't think so. Booth's third, fourth and fifth served.
Well, it begs the question, at what point does it become your family member versus a historical site? Well, I think we would like to know how many generations before they asked.
If you get buried, if your parents, your descendants buy a plot of land to bury your body, and a hundred years go by, and their grandkids are like, we're down for you to DNA test.
But then at some point, it becomes a historical site, right? Like you think of like-
It's even labeled because they don't want people, they don't want to get harder.
Because I just think of like Trinity Church in Boston, like it doesn't matter who's fucking related to whatever's in the dirt there, you can't touch that.
Well, that's where Hamilton was born.
You know what I mean? Yeah, but at what point does it become a historical location?
I'm like, it's not even historical because nobody even knows where Booth is buried.
Or if that's why he said we're not digging up because I don't know which one it is. It's maybe, but again, it feels more realistic.
It just feels like it's like this. I don't know why the caretaker of a cemetery gets to decide the DNA test is always.
Get rid of this guy.
Booth's third, fourth, and fifth cervical vertebrae were removed during his autopsy. And the National Museum of Health and Medicine, which is that museum I told you about.
Right.
They have them. They're not a display, but they have them. But again, I'm like, can we just get a DNA test for the love?
Like, what do you mean to exhume a body? Take those cervical bones, DNA test.
Yeah.
And let's just get this over with. Put this to sleep.
Please and thank you.
Please and thank you. That is my whole story. I do have one more fun side story for you that's very quick.
But any other thoughts you have on this conspiracy? No, we're all, the three of us are unanimous in believing that John Wilkes Booth died at Garrett's Farm and I believe the rest of the Schenegades.
Yeah.
People are just making money. Yes.
I'm more interested in the conspiracers.
I understand how your family could be like, this is him. That's really what's... I understand why Rosalie was like, this is him and then later on was like, wait, you're his kid?
Just kidding. Yeah. He never died.
Yeah.
But also that poor lady, they think they just financially took advantage of you.
You ever think about Rosalie?
From Twilight? Yeah. Yeah.
Sad.
As far as what happened to everyone else in the story, let's have a little closure, tidy things up for you.
55:35
Conspirators and Corbett
There was a military court that tried a collection of co-conspirators. So Harold, Hayne, Atzeroti, and Mrs. Surratt were all found guilty.
That house is in Maryland.
Yeah.
They were all found guilty and executed.
Whoa.
Mrs. Surratt was actually the first woman hanged by the federal government. Oh my goodness.
What a claim to fame.
When did we stop hanging people?
I guess when we started giving them. Lethal injection or firing squad. Oh, what about, do we ever decapitate anyone?
Like the French?
They probably were like, we fled persecution from the monarchy.
Oh yeah.
And we're too good for that.
But we'll just let a dozen people stand around you with guns and shoot and one of them will kill you. Yeah. Spandler Arnold O'Loughlin and Dr.
Mudd were all sentenced to prison for their initial plan to kidnap Lincoln but did not appear to have been involved with the murder and poor Dr. Mudd, well not poor Dr.
Mudd because I feel like he may have known things, but his reputation was ruined and that was the end of his medical career.
But I just wanted to share you guys a fun story about Boston Corbett, who's the man who shot, who was allegedly John Wilkes Booth.
Because I road tripped last year and I stopped in Concordia, Kansas and I went to the Concordia, Kansas Museum and I learned all about Boston Corbett. So I just wanted to share with you about him.
I can't wait.
So Thomas Corbett worked as a milliner making hats, and the furs were treated with mercury and nitrates. So experts think he likely developed psychosis prior to the Civil War. Because of the mercury?
Mad as a hatter. Yeah. The mercury.
Yep.
In the 1850s, he was a drunk and he met this street preacher and some evangelical temperance Christians and had this religious awakening.
He ended up being a real religious fanatic. He castrated himself with a pair of scissors in order to stay chased.
So he's mentally ill.
Then went to prayer meeting before seeking medical treatment. So he's just like going to pray. Oh my God.
Sir, do you need help? He actually was baptized in Boston and he got his name changed because he wanted to, as an ode to his baptism and his religious fanaticism.
He was anti-slavery and he was in the Union Army and his regiment was in Vienna, Virginia.
Whoa, that's crazy.
So yeah, home of birthplace of Birdman. So birthplace. They were sent to the Garrett Farm to find Booth during this hunt when they got word.
They're kind of on their way home, they're like, wait, we heard he could be at this farm.
He claimed, Corbett, that he saw Booth through the barn cracks aiming his revolver and he meant to shoot him in the shoulder but accidentally mortally shot him in the neck.
He said, God Almighty directed me to, because everyone was like, why'd you kill him? We wanted him alive. Over the next few years, Corbett was lauded as a hero by some, but he also faced constant death threats from Confederates.
He couldn't keep down a job because he would just break into prayer at all times and he was a bit eccentric. He also became paranoid the government was coming for him.
He ended up moving to Concordia, Kansas, where he acquired land under the Homestead Act and he built this dugout shelter where he lived in escalating paranoia, believing even his friends and family were out to get him.
He said half the country hated them because they sympathized with Booth, the other half was mad he killed him and they didn't get justice. He started to believe that Booth hadn't died and he and his sympathizers were going to kill him.
So he was struggling mentally, he was unable to work. A veterans group got him a job as a doorkeeper at the Kansas State Legislature, but he ended up drawing his gun in an altercation. He was admitted to an asylum.
He escaped and was never seen again. Oh my gosh, you probably died.
Definitely dead in the woods.
If you're that mentally ill, you're probably dead. You're not calm and cooling collected enough to come up with a whole escape plan and survive an alias. I think I'm going to survive up into a point.
You also were asked about Lincoln's child in the home.
Yeah.
On this very same road trip, I stopped. It's a national park. You have to walk.
I went through the whole thing. I went into the home that he grew up in. Then at the very end, there's a plaque.
There were former presidents who came to the dedication of this whole museum in this park. The very end, there's a sign that says, it's come to our attention. This is not the real home of Abraham Lincoln.
I felt so lied to. I was like, yeah. They built this whole stone building surrounding this log cabin.
I'm just like, the money. Presidents came out here to dedicate it. Then you were like, oops.
Wait, so is it a...
Four or five miles away.
They just were like, oh, we think the original one actually burnt down or something. Yeah, no longer exists. So that whole thing, that whole tour you just did?
Not real.
Not real.
Fake news.
So I would have won my money back.
That's really freaking annoying. So yeah. Thank you, National Park Service.
Okay, listen, I still like the National Park Service though. Continue doing what you're doing, National Park Service. Any final thoughts?
Farkson Rec Department. My final thought is, if his family identified him, it was probably him.
I would have just ended it then, you know?
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What I want you to do right now is scroll on down, leave us a five-star review. And then after you leave us a five-star review, I want you to take out your phone right now.
I want you to text everyone who thinks Lincoln is an absolute hero, which should be everyone you're hanging out with. Yeah. And text them this podcast.
Let them know that John Wilkes Booth could actually be alive. Maybe. Yeah, still alive 150 years later.
Yeah.
In our memories.
160 years later. Yeah, he's alive. And then I want you to interact with us on our social media platforms.
Share us with your friends and family. Like us. Leave us a comment.
And yeah.
Okay.
Sounds good. Shall we see everyone next Tuesday?
See you next Tuesday. Next Tuesday.