John Wilkes Booth

Wow. Thanks for the link. I had no idea that Booth could possibly be in one of the more common photos of the war.I included a link to another site that goes into more detail about this possibility.
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I don't know why, but ever since I was little that picture has always haunted me. I don't feel comfortable looking at it for some reason even to this day. It seems the guys in it stare straight through you. I have actually never noticed the knife before either.
My question, sorry to be off topic, is what is the guy leaning to the right doing? I've always wondered.
 
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I don't know why, but ever since I was little that picture has always haunted me. I don't feel comfortable looking at it for some reason even to this day. It seems the guys in it stare straight through you. I have actually never noticed the knife before either.
My question, sorry to be off topic, is what is the guy leaning to the right doing? I've always wondered.
I've always enjoyed that photo. Until today, I had no idea who these guys were, much less that JWB might have been in the picture. Actually, I've always thought it was an early war photo of some kids that had just volunteered for the
"big adventure" and had no idea what was about to happen.

The photo reminds me of a group of frat boys horsing around for the camera.
I agree that guy I enlarged was not Booth, ( I also agree with everyone's opinion of Booth) but the link I posted goes into a very serious discussion about the possibility of him being photographed during those shots of the Richmond Grays.

On that link, there are other photos of this same group of guys from different angles, different poses, ect.
 
Here is something rather intriguing. This is a newspaper report dated December, 2010, and it details an order for an exhumation of Edwin Booth, John Wilkes' brother. What they intended to do was to take DNA samples from Edwin's body and match it to the three cervical vertebrae removed from the neck of John Wilkes while his body was onboard USS Montawk in April, 1865.

The reason for it was to put to rest the litany of theories that Lincoln's killer escaped to live out his days as an old man somewhere in Oklahoma, where he died, was mummified, and paraded about in sideshow fashion for a nickle a peek.
 
John Wilkes Booth was a delusional dreamer that surrounded himself with a bunch of weak minded people. Had he put on a Confederate uniform and been severely wounded to the point of not being able to continue serving that would have been something. But to be a bungling idiot throughout the whole war and finally build up the nerve to shoot the President in the back of the head when it was over...sorry that's a coward in my book.

Every time I think or read about Booth he reminds me of Elkanah Bent from the North South series for some reason. Maybe because to me they were one and the same over the top fools.




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As an aside, there was once an attraction known as the "Minnesota Iceman", an alleged Bigfoot body in a freezer. For a while it was paraded about in private venues, including one in January, 1981 at the Fashion Square Mall in Saginaw, Michigan for a couple weeks; I saw the thing after forking over fifty cents, and as I looked I made a comment that latex rubber doesn't freeze, and sure-enough, an article appeared in Omni Magazine a year later in which a couple of Disney special effects technicians had actually made the thing. The Iceman then disappeared from view.

Now, what does a fake frozen Bigfoot have to do with J.W. Booth? According to the escape theory, he lived out his days as a house painter, dying in Enid, Oklahoma, where the mortician and a couple other people may have thought up of the idea of making a few bucks by parading his mummy at various venues...and somewhere along the line someone got a little too close to the corpse and proclaimed that he wasn't J.W. Booth. At which time the Enid mummy disappeared.

So, now we have three intriguing stories here to follow up on: Ed Booth's DNA test, the whereabouts of an Okie mummy, and a very ugly popsicle...
 
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Cumpston1862,
I'm literally laughing out loud ! I think I just woke up the neighborhood. Next time, please post "graphic" or something if you post that character's picture ! He also ruined the early 90's TBS movie "Ironclad".

But on a serious note, I agree 100% with your assessment of Booth.
 
As an aside, there was once an attraction known as the "Minnesota Iceman", an alleged Bigfoot body in a freezer. For a while it was paraded about in private venues, including one in January, 1981 at the Fashion Square Mall in Saginaw, Michigan for a couple weeks; I saw the thing after forking over fifty cents, and as I looked I made a comment that latex rubber doesn't freeze, and sure-enough, an article appeared in Omni Magazine a year later in which a couple of Disney special effects technicians had actually made the thing. The Iceman then disappeared from view.

Now, what does a fake frozen Bigfoot have to do with J.W. Booth? According to the escape theory, he lived out his days as a house painter, dying in Enid, Oklahoma, where the mortician and a couple other people may have thought up of the idea of making a few bucks by parading his mummy at various venues...and somewhere along the line someone got a little too close to the corpse and proclaimed that he wasn't J.W. Booth. At which time the Enid mummy disappeared.

So, now we have three intriguing stories here to follow up on: Ed Booth's DNA test, the whereabouts of an Okie mummy, and a very ugly popsicle...
I love those old "roadside attraction" type gimmicks, plus I had forgotten about Omni Magazine.
About twenty-five years ago an "investigative" journalist tried to make the case Booth survived and spent his final years in north Mississippi. It seems that after the war, a long lost cousin moved in with a family and pretty much kept to himself,
not wanting to talk about his wounds or anything else for that matter. Mysterious cousin was only known to the family as "J B" .

Following ole J.B's death, the family found a ring among his possessions with initials " J W B ". From that discovery was born the legend, and a sensational article would propel the reporter to great fame.

Further investigation revealed the poor man was named Jeremiah Watkins Bell or something similar,
and suffered from post traumatic stress.
 
There was also Captain James William Boyd, CSA, 6th Tennessee Infantry, who died January 1, 1866. He was a prisoner of war until February, 1865, when he was released under a humanitarian order by Edwin Stanton so he could return home to care for his children, as their mother had died.

That should have been the end of it except for chemist Otto Eisenschml, who in the 1930's came up with a theory that the War Department under Stanton was responsible for a conspiracy to kill Lincoln; according to the scenario a major screwup happened during the chase to capture Booth. Instead of killing Booth in Garrett's tobacco barn, they got James William Boyd instead. Instead of admitting they goofed, they passed off Boyd's body as that of Booth, buried him in secret, and so on. The Eisenschml script was closely followed by 1977's book and film, The Lincoln Conspiracy, which you can see below.

Now, if the movie offends your sensibilities and common sense, please refrain from using your hammer on your computer. :banghead:
 
Yeah, shooting a man in the back isn't exactly an act of bravery.

I'm not debating the right or wrong of Booth killing Lincoln, that's subjective.. But in killing Lincoln, I would say Booth fit the textbook definition of 'brave' (the ability to face danger/exhibit courage). This is my amoral assessment, it required courage to take on the task of killing Lincoln. Booth knew he would be the most wanted man in America, and still followed thru with the deed..

What difference does it make what angle Lincoln was shot from (?) It was an assassination that required the element of surprise.. If Lincoln was shot from the front, would that have made Booth braver in your world view (?)
 
As an aside, there was once an attraction known as the "Minnesota Iceman", an alleged Bigfoot body in a freezer. For a while it was paraded about in private venues, including one in January, 1981 at the Fashion Square Mall in Saginaw, Michigan for a couple weeks; I saw the thing after forking over fifty cents, and as I looked I made a comment that latex rubber doesn't freeze, and sure-enough, an article appeared in Omni Magazine a year later in which a couple of Disney special effects technicians had actually made the thing. The Iceman then disappeared from view.

Now, what does a fake frozen Bigfoot have to do with J.W. Booth? According to the escape theory, he lived out his days as a house painter, dying in Enid, Oklahoma, where the mortician and a couple other people may have thought up of the idea of making a few bucks by parading his mummy at various venues...and somewhere along the line someone got a little too close to the corpse and proclaimed that he wasn't J.W. Booth. At which time the Enid mummy disappeared.

So, now we have three intriguing stories here to follow up on: Ed Booth's DNA test, the whereabouts of an Okie mummy, and a very ugly popsicle...

There was a connection to Izola Forrester who was a connections to the presumed John Wilkes Booth could be my ancestor on my mothers side.
 
There was also Captain James William Boyd, CSA, 6th Tennessee Infantry, who died January 1, 1866. He was a prisoner of war until February, 1865, when he was released under a humanitarian order by Edwin Stanton so he could return home to care for his children, as their mother had died.

That should have been the end of it except for chemist Otto Eisenschml, who in the 1930's came up with a theory that the War Department under Stanton was responsible for a conspiracy to kill Lincoln; according to the scenario a major screwup happened during the chase to capture Booth. Instead of killing Booth in Garrett's tobacco barn, they got James William Boyd instead. Instead of admitting they goofed, they passed off Boyd's body as that of Booth, buried him in secret, and so on. The Eisenschml script was closely followed by 1977's book and film, The Lincoln Conspiracy, which you can see below.

Now, if the movie offends your sensibilities and common sense, please refrain from using your hammer on your computer. :banghead:
Where did you find the death date for Boyd? I checked out the 1870 census to see if he survived the war, but all I found was some of his kids living with what must have been foster parents. I decided Boyd's handlers might've whacked him when the hunt for Booth was over. The DOD of Jan 1, 1866, sounds a little suspicious.
 
I read in a book that Booth's parents migrated from England, but he was born in the States. So he was in fact...... a British???

How about shooting the President?

Junius Brutus Booth was born in England, and left for America in 1821 with a flower girl named Mary Anne Holmes, abandoning a wife and child. They settled in Maryland and had ten children before he decided to divorce his wife in 1851, and finally marry the girlfriend in 1852; by then, they had ten children (John Wilkes was born in 1838).

As to a "mark of bravery" for shooting a president, what matters is the fact that it was cold-blooded murder; doing so from behind was the act of a coward.

So, here's Johnny Booth on April 14, 1865, having grandiose thoughts, yet having to spend several hours at the saloon next door washing down some "liquid courage" before pretending to be a Confederate hero and sneaking up behind an old man in a rocking chair to put a bullet in the back of his head.
 
Where did you find the death date for Boyd? I checked out the 1870 census to see if he survived the war, but all I found was some of his kids living with what must have been foster parents. I decided Boyd's handlers might've whacked him when the hunt for Booth was over. The DOD of Jan 1, 1866, sounds a little suspicious.

The information about Boyd came from online, but even then it was scant. What little that was there stated his death was confirmed in a Tennessee newspaper. Which one it was is unknown.
 
As to a "mark of bravery" for shooting a president, what matters is the fact that it was cold-blooded murder; doing so from behind was the act of a coward.

So, here's Johnny Booth on April 14, 1865, having grandiose thoughts, yet having to spend several hours at the saloon next door washing down some "liquid courage" before pretending to be a Confederate hero and sneaking up behind an old man in a rocking chair to put a bullet in the back of his head.

Not to mention that he had spent the last 4 years sitting idly by watching his Confederate brethren fight valiantly for the cause he believed in so much that he was willing to perform such a heinous act for it. And he did nothing to help, despite being of the perfect age and in excellent physical condition. Coward.
 
The information about Boyd came from online, but even then it was scant. What little that was there stated his death was confirmed in a Tennessee newspaper. Which one it was is unknown.
Good enough. I might be able to find the article.
 
Cumpston1862,
I'm literally laughing out loud ! I think I just woke up the neighborhood. Next time, please post "graphic" or something if you post that character's picture ! He also ruined the early 90's TBS movie "Ironclad".

But on a serious note, I agree 100% with your assessment of Booth.

I wasn't sure too many people were going to get it! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Even though I am trying to be funny that is how I think of Booth. An arrogant no good wanta-be coward. Much like Bent!

Him running into that burning warehouse at the end of North & South..."I must save my empire..." Dork...:thumbsdown:
 
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