615: Lincoln Conspiracy: a Diary, a Mummy and The Escape of John Wilkes Booth

Speaker 1 Get ready for Malice, a twisted new drama starring Jack Whitehall, David DeCovney, and Carice Van Houten.

Speaker 6 Jack Whitehall plays Adam, a charming manny infiltrates the wealthy Tanner family with a hidden motive to destroy them.

Speaker 9 This edge-of-your-seat revenge thriller unravels a deliciously dark mystery in a world full of wealth, secrets, and betrayal.

Speaker 12 Malice will constantly keep you on your toes.

Speaker 13 Why is Adam after the Tanner family?

Speaker 8 What lengths will he go to?

Speaker 13 One thing's for sure, the past never stays buried, so keep your enemies close.

Speaker 14 Watch Malice, all episodes now streaming exclusively on Prime Video.

Speaker 17 Everyone thinks they know how Lincoln died. John Wilkes Booth shot the president, escaped, and was killed 12 days later on a Virginia farm.

Speaker 17 But the FBI's own forensic tests discovered Booth's diary is missing 86 pages, pages filled with names, payments, and secrets.

Speaker 17 Lincoln's assassination wasn't the work of a single extremist, it was a plot to take control of America. And it worked.

Speaker 17 The evidence exposes secret allies, strange cover-ups, and why the truth was buried for more than a century. This isn't the story of how John Wilkes Booth died.

Speaker 17 This is the story of how he escaped and who helped him do it.

Speaker 17 In early 1865, the Civil War was in its fourth brutal year. The Confederates were losing, but they continued to fight, and Union casualties continued to mount.

Speaker 17 During this time, John Wilkes Booth was one of the most famous actors in America. He was known for his emotional performances and striking good looks.
Dark hair, unusually dark eyes.

Speaker 17 He was lean and athletic. He was the first documented celebrity to have his clothes torn by infatuated fans.
I am ever so grateful, sir.

Speaker 17 It is my pleasure entirely. Booth was obsessed with Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, a play he performed with his brothers.
He saw Lincoln as a tyrant like Caesar. Booth was from Maryland, a slave state.

Speaker 17 He identified as a southerner, so when war broke out, he became a Confederate spy. As an A-list celebrity, he could move freely in polite society.

Speaker 17 He socialized with wealthy businessmen, politicians, and all kinds of important people. He then sent their secrets to the Confederates.

Speaker 17 Through a clerk with access to Lincoln's private correspondence, Booth saw the president's plan for after the war, and it horrified him. Confederate leaders would be tried for treason.

Speaker 17 Their land would be given to former slaves who would also get the right to vote. Everything the South stood for would be erased from history.
He had to act.

Speaker 17 Booth came up with a bold plan, kidnap Lincoln. If the North wanted their president back alive, they would have to release all Confederate prisoners of war and give the South better terms.

Speaker 17 Booth assembled a team, and after months of planning, they were ready. Then, just before the plan went into motion, General Robert E.
Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Booth was devastated.

Speaker 17 The war was over, and now the kidnapping plot was useless.

Speaker 17 Then, Booth had a stroke of luck. He overheard that the president would be attending a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.
Booth knew the theater well. He performed there many times.

Speaker 17 He even knew where the president would be sitting because Lincoln attended one of Booth's performances there. So Booth came up with a new plan, kill the president during the play.

Speaker 17 He knew he could move around the theater freely without raising suspicion, so getting in wasn't a problem. Getting out was.

Speaker 17 But John Wilkes Booth had friends in high places who wanted Lincoln dead as much as he did. They would help him escape.
His contacts weren't Confederate spies deep in the South.

Speaker 17 They were right here in Washington, inside Lincoln's own cabinet.

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Speaker 1 Get ready for Malice, a twisted new drama starring Jack Whitehall, David DeCovney, and Carice Van Houten.

Speaker 6 Jack Whitehall plays Adam, a charming manny infiltrates the wealthy Tanner family with a hidden motive to destroy them.

Speaker 9 This edge-of-your-seat revenge thriller unravels a deliciously dark mystery in a world full of wealth, secrets, and betrayal.

Speaker 12 Malice will constantly keep you on your toes.

Speaker 13 Why is Adam after the Tanner family?

Speaker 8 What lengths will he go to?

Speaker 13 One thing's for sure: the past never stays buried, so keep your enemies close.

Speaker 14 Watch Malice, all episodes now streaming exclusively on Prime Video.

Speaker 17 Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address was about unity. He called slavery a sin, but he avoided placing blame on the South.

Speaker 17 He famously said, with malice toward none and charity for all, Lincoln wanted to pardon most Southerners and allow the states to regain their rights, but no slavery.

Speaker 17 The plan was not universally well received. Like Julius Caesar, Abraham Lincoln was surrounded by enemies.

Speaker 17 On one side were the Democrats. They wanted a quick return to the status quo.
They wanted most Southerners pardoned, and most Democrats voted against freeing the slaves.

Speaker 17 On the other side were the Radical Republicans. They wanted all slaves freed and given the land seized in the war.
They wanted federal military control of the Southern states and harsh punishment.

Speaker 17 Radical Republicans weren't just in Congress, they were in Lincoln's own cabinet. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was the most powerful man in America after Lincoln.

Speaker 17 He controlled the military and all federal law enforcement agencies, but he could not control President Lincoln.

Speaker 17 Stanton believed showing mercy to the South was a betrayal of everything the Union soldiers died for. Lincoln wouldn't budge.
But Vice President Andrew Johnson would. His loyalty was flexible.

Speaker 17 Stanton could control him and become the real power in Washington. Through his intelligence network, Stanton contacted John Wilkes Booth and gave him everything he needed to kidnap Lincoln.

Speaker 17 With Lincoln gone, Congress would impeach him, Johnson would step in, and Stanton would control the government.

Speaker 17 But if the public learned of a coup, it would divide the country. But if Lincoln were kidnapped by a Confederate terrorist, the country would unite, behind Johnson, essentially behind Stanton.

Speaker 17 Booth was the perfect choice. He was wealthy, famous, and an outspoken critic of Lincoln's.
The whole country would believe it. Booth agreed.

Speaker 17 Stanton gave him Lincoln's schedule, security details, funding, maps of escape routes, everything he needed.

Speaker 17 But the war ended. The kidnapping plot wouldn't work.
Stanton was trying to think of another solution when he learned that Booth was going to kill Lincoln instead.

Speaker 17 It would happen in public during a play in a Washington theater. Now, Stanton had a decision to make.
Warn Lincoln and save his life, or let Booth go through with it. Stanton made his choice.

Speaker 17 He made sure that the assassination would succeed. He removed military escorts and left escape routes open.
General Ulysses S. Grant Grant was supposed to join Lincoln at the theater.

Speaker 17 Stanton gave him different orders. Lincoln requested that Major Thomas T.
Eckert be his bodyguard, but Stanton said he was needed elsewhere. He left Lincoln exposed.

Speaker 17 The more Stanton thought about the plan, the more he liked it. It was clean and dramatic.
It was perfect. But as the plot to kill Lincoln unfolded, things would go very, very wrong.

Speaker 17 He gives our slaves freedom that they take up arms against us? I swear the man's gone mad. You know what he'll do next? Bring his carpetbaggers down here.

Speaker 17 Northern men with clean coats and dirty hands, buying up what's left for pennies. I did not fight to live under a Yankee boot.
Lincoln cannot be allowed to continue. This is tyranny.

Speaker 17 If Lincoln will not listen to reason, we must take our grievances to the Congress. This is not merely about politics anymore, sir.
It is about the future of the Republic.

Speaker 17 We have to move against him now, while we still can. And what would you have us do? The war's lost.
The Confederacy's ashes. What's left but survival? Sometimes survival is cowardice.

Speaker 17 Sometimes history demands blood to balance the scales. You speak

Speaker 17 of treason.

Speaker 17 I speak of patriotism. Careful, John.
Union spies are everywhere.

Speaker 17 These walls have ears. Oh, let them hear.
History listens too. I'll not stand by while Lincoln crowns himself emperor of a mutilated nation.
You're an actor, not a soldier.

Speaker 17 Don't play hero in the wrong tragedy. Every play needs its villain.
History will will decide which one I am.

Speaker 17 On April 14th, 1865, Washington, D.C. was celebrating.
Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox five days earlier.
The Civil War was over. But something had Lincoln rattled.

Speaker 17 During a cabinet meeting, he mentioned a recurring dream he had about a president being assassinated, killed by a shot to the back of the head.

Speaker 17 Secretary of War Edwin Stanton listened, but said nothing. President Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd decided to celebrate by watching a performance of Our American Cousin that night at Ford's Theater.

Speaker 17 Booth's plan went into motion. That morning, he drilled a peephole in the door of the presidential box at the theater.
He'd know exactly when to make his move.

Speaker 17 Evening came and the president and first ladies settled into their seats.

Speaker 17 Outside the door, Lincoln's bodyguard was replaced by John Parker, who had a history of being drunk and sleeping on duty, assigned by Edwin Stanton.

Speaker 17 Once the play started, Parker left his post and headed for the saloon. The only person left outside the door was Charles Forbes, Lincoln's valet.
Forbes wasn't a bodyguard.

Speaker 17 His job was to run errands and plan travel. So when Booth approached the presidential box, Forbes let him pass, just another celebrity stopping by to see the president.

Speaker 17 Once inside, Booth quietly wedged a piece of wood behind the door and broke the lock. Now, all he had to do was wait for the right moment.

Speaker 17 And that moment would come during the third act, the biggest laugh of the night. The line, you soctologizing old man trap.
He knew exactly when this line was said.

Speaker 17 At 10:15 p.m., the audience exploded in laughter.

Speaker 17 Booth stepped forward and raised his pistol. Ever thus to tyrants.

Speaker 17 One shot. Lost in the roar of 1,500 people laughing.
President Lincoln slumped in his chair.

Speaker 17 Booth jumped from the box and onto the stage. At first, the crowd did nothing.
They thought this was part of the show.

Speaker 17 Then Booth raised his knife and yelled, Six semper tyrannis, thus always to tyrants. The line Brutus said when he stabbed Julius Caesar.
It's also the state motto of Virginia.

Speaker 17 Booth turned to run and felt pain shoot up his left leg. He broke his ankle, but adrenaline kept him moving toward the unguarded back door.
Outside, a horse was waiting.

Speaker 17 Within the hour, Edwin Stanton took control. He shut down every bridge leaving Washington except one, the one Booth used for his escape.

Speaker 17 Everything had gone according to plan. Lincoln was dead, and Stanton would control the investigation himself.
There was just one final loose end Stanton had to deal with: John Wilkes Booth.

Speaker 17 Within hours of Lincoln's assassination, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton mobilized the largest manhunt in American history.

Speaker 17 Every bridge out of Washington was sealed, every road was blocked, every farm was searched.

Speaker 17 The reward for John Wilkes Booth and his conspirators was a staggering $100,000, almost $2 million in today's money. The authorities preferred him alive, but Edwin Stanton preferred him dead.

Speaker 17 Booth hooked up with another conspirator, David Harold. Together, they slipped through the Union dragnet and headed toward Virginia.
Their first stop was Dr. Samuel Mudd's farm in southern Maryland.

Speaker 17 Mudd set Booth's broken leg and gave them a place to rest. By dawn, word of the assassination had spread.
Mudd, suddenly realizing the danger, forced them to leave.

Speaker 17 David Harold guided them deeper into Confederate country. They moved at night.
They hid in swamps during the day. Other Confederate agents gave them food and newspapers.

Speaker 17 Six days later, they crossed the Potomac River into Virginia. They thought they'd be safe in Virginia.
The Confederacy was dead, but Confederate sympathy was still very much alive.

Speaker 17 They found shelter, food, and horses from local farmers who still hated the Union. But the manhunt was closing in.
On April 24th, Booth and Harold reached the Garrett Farm near Port Royal, Virginia.

Speaker 17 Richard Garrett, a tobacco farmer, offered them a place to stay. He thought they were Confederate soldiers heading home from the war.
For two days, Booth rested and played with the Garrett children.

Speaker 17 His broken leg was feeling better. He talked about going to Mexico or maybe heading west.
The future looked possible again. But on the night of April 25th, everything changed.

Speaker 17 26 soldiers from the 16th New York Cavalry surrounded the barn. They called for the men to surrender or they would set fire to the building.
David Harold immediately gave up.

Speaker 17 He stumbled out of the barn with his hands raised, yelling, don't shoot, I'm David Harold.

Speaker 17 But Booth refused to surrender. As the flames started to grow, a soldier saw a figure moving around inside.
The man was holding a rifle.

Speaker 17 The soldier raised his pistol and shot the man through the neck, severing his spinal cord. He couldn't move, but he could still breathe, but just barely.
The soldiers dragged Booth out of the barn.

Speaker 17 He whispered, tell mother I die for my country. By sunrise, John Wilkes Booth was dead.
Justice had been served, the case was closed, and America could finally move on.

Speaker 17 But John Wilkes Booth had a secret.

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Speaker 1 Get ready for Malice, a twisted new drama starring Jack Whitehall, David DeCovney, and Carice Van Houten.

Speaker 6 Jack Whitehall plays Adam, a charming manny infiltrates the wealthy Tanner family with a hidden motive to destroy them.

Speaker 15 This edge-of-your-seat revenge thriller unravels a deliciously dark mystery in a world full of wealth, secrets, and betrayal.

Speaker 12 Malice will constantly keep you on your toes.

Speaker 13 Why is Adam after the Tanner family?

Speaker 8 What lengths will he go to?

Speaker 13 One thing's for sure, the past never stays buried, so keep your enemies close.

Speaker 14 Watch Malice, all episodes now streaming exclusively on Prime Video.

Speaker 17 At the height of his career, John Wilkes Booth was one of the highest paid entertainers in the the world, earning close to half a million dollars a year in today's money.

Speaker 17 His career depended on his bachelor image, but in 1859, Booth secretly married actress Isola Martha Mills. Within a years, Isola gave birth to their daughter, Ogarita.
Booth quietly supported them.

Speaker 17 The arrangement worked until the assassination. And after reports of Booth's death, John Stevenson proposed to Isola.
He'd loved her for years, but she refused.

Speaker 17 She quietly told him she was still married. Booth was alive and hiding in San Francisco under a false identity.
She was meeting him there in a few weeks.

Speaker 17 On the other side of the country, a British passport was issued to John Byron Wilkes. Wilkes and his wife boarded the Indian Queen, a former Civil War blockade runner.
John and Isla sailed to India.

Speaker 17 But Isla couldn't stay. The heat, the unfamiliar culture, the isolation.
She was pregnant again and couldn't imagine raising a child in India, so she returned to the States.

Speaker 17 Months passed without a word from Booth, so John Stevenson proposed again. This time, she accepted.
She needed stability for her unborn child. Stevenson said he would claim the child as his own.

Speaker 17 Not long after, Isla gave birth to her son, Harry Jerome Stevenson. Back in Bombay, John Wilkes Booth wrote out a last will and testament.

Speaker 17 He signed it, John Byron Wilkes, then mailed it to the States.

Speaker 17 The will was detailed. Money and property to his wife Isla, his daughter and son, Ogarita and Harry Jerome Stevenson.

Speaker 17 He named Sarah Scott and Mary Louise Turner as his other other daughters by other women. He left money for his personal valet, Henry Johnson, and his wife Sarah who looked after the children.

Speaker 17 Word of the will spread. Ulysses S.
Grant himself ordered an investigation to locate all the heirs.

Speaker 17 Eventually, John Wilkes Booth's estate was distributed exactly as the will instructed, but Grant never let it go.

Speaker 17 How could a man named John Byron Wilkes know every detail about Booth's secret life, his lovers, his children, his financial affairs? Information that only Booth would know.

Speaker 17 But aside from the will, Grant had no real evidence. He was forced to let it go.
So the official story was: John Wilkes Booth was killed on Garrett's farm in 1865.

Speaker 17 But in the summer of 1872, someone saw a ghost in a dusty saloon in Texas, and that ghost was pouring whiskey and reciting Shakespeare.

Speaker 17 The man behind the bar was John St. Helen.

Speaker 17 Average height, lean build, dark hair going a little gray at the temples. He quoted Shakespeare from memory, and when he thought nobody was looking, he practiced drawing a pistol from his coat.
St.

Speaker 17 Helen drifted into town in the spring of 72. He said he was from back east, but didn't talk much about his past.
That suited everyone fine. Texas in 1872 was full of men running from something.

Speaker 17 After a few whiskeys, John St. Helen would recite full Shakespearean soliloquies.

Speaker 17 It was during one of these performances that Finest Bates first walked into the bar.

Speaker 17 Bates was a young lawyer from Memphis, smart, ambitious, easy to talk to, the kind of man who bought drinks for interesting strangers and listened to their stories.

Speaker 17 St. Helen and Bates hit it off immediately.
The bartender was well-read, articulate, and had opinions about everything from politics to poetry.

Speaker 17 They spent hours talking after the saloon closed, sharing whiskey and stories. Well, Bates shared stories.
St. Helen mostly listened.
They spoke about the war and the future of the country. St.

Speaker 17 Helen never mentioned his past.

Speaker 17 That winter, St. Helen caught pneumonia.
For days, he ran a high fever and drifted in and out of consciousness. Bates sat by his bedside, convinced his friend was dying.
On the third night, St.

Speaker 17 Helen grabbed Bates by the wrist and pulled him close. He was still running a high fever, but his eyes were bright and focused.
Finas, I need to tell you something before it's too late.

Speaker 17 I'm not who you think I am. My real name is John Wilkes Booth.

Speaker 17 Bates thought John was delirious, but he wouldn't stop. He told Bates everything, the conspiracy, the escape, the years in hiding.
He described details that only Booth would know.

Speaker 17 The layout of Ford's theater, the feeling of the wooden stage beneath his feet, the sound Lincoln made when the bullet hit. Bates was stunned.

Speaker 17 Either his friend was having the most elaborate fever dream in history, or he was the most wanted man in America.

Speaker 17 By morning, the fever had broken, and John St. Helen was going to live.
And that's when the panic set in. He said too much.
What have I done?

Speaker 17 Three days later, he was gone. All that was left of John St.
Helen was an empty room and a bartender's apron hanging on a hook. John Wilkes Booth had once again disappeared.

Speaker 17 Bates didn't tell anyone about John's confession, but he never stopped wondering, was John St. Helen really John Wilkes Booth, or was that a sick man's delusion?

Speaker 17 Well, in 1903, a painter in Oklahoma committed suicide. When they searched the man's belongings, they found a handwritten note.
It said, if anything happens to him, contact a lawyer named Finas Bates.

Speaker 17 The telegram reached Bates three days later. After 26 years of questions, he was about to get an answer.
When Bates arrived at the funeral parlor, his hands were shaking.

Speaker 17 The undertaker led him to a back room where a body lay on the table. He was told the man was David E.
George. Bates pulled back the sheet and stared for a long moment.

Speaker 17 The man on the table was older and thinner, but it was unmistakable. It was John, going by the name David E.

Speaker 17 David E. George had been living there for several years working as a painter.
He was quiet, he kept to to himself. He was forgettable, but he had secrets.
David E. George drank too much.

Speaker 17 He talked to himself. Late at night, neighbors in the boarding house heard him reciting Shakespeare.
The landlady, Mrs. Harper, said David George had been acting strange for weeks.

Speaker 17 He was nervous and paranoid. He kept saying they were coming for him.
She thought he meant bill collectors. On January 13th, 1903, David bought a bottle of strychnine from the pharmacy.

Speaker 17 He told the clerk that he had a rat problem. That night, he drank the poison.

Speaker 17 He lived long enough to call for a minister. The minister found David writhing on his bed, foam coming from his mouth.
The minister held his hand when David made his confession.

Speaker 17 He whispered that he was John Wilkes Booth, the man who killed Abraham Lincoln. He begged God's forgiveness, and then he was gone.

Speaker 17 Among David's possessions were newspaper clippings about Lincoln's assassination and the manhunt for Booth. Some pages were yellow with age, there for decades.
Bates was convinced.

Speaker 17 This was John Wilkes Booth. He asked the local authorities to preserve his body.
If this really was Booth, then this was the most important corpse in American history.

Speaker 17 The body was embalmed and put on display. For months, crowds lined up to stare at the preserved remains of David E.
George, a.k.a. John St.
Helen, aka John Wilkes Booth.

Speaker 17 The mummy toured across the country. It appeared at carnivals, state fairs, and local museums.
Doctors examined the body and found intriguing details.

Speaker 17 The corpse had a broken left leg, just like Booth, a deformed right thumb, also like Booth, and there was a scar on the back of the neck that matched the location of a scar Booth had from a tumor removal.

Speaker 17 The mummy eventually disappeared into storage and then into legend. But the story continued.
John Wilkes Booth had lived for 38 years after supposedly dying at Garrett's farm.

Speaker 17 So, how did Booth get out of that burning barn? Well, he didn't. The man who was shot on Garrett's farm was someone else.

Speaker 17 When Union soldiers surrounded Garrett's farm that night, they had orders, captured Booth alive.

Speaker 17 But Secretary of War Edwin Stanton let it be known that if Booth were found dead, the reward would still be paid. After Booth was killed, the military demanded an autopsy.

Speaker 17 The body was quickly wrapped in a horse blanket and transported from a wagon to a steamship, then to a government tugboat, and then finally to the USS Montauk at the Washington Navy Yard.

Speaker 17 The identification was hasty, highly controlled, and deeply suspicious.

Speaker 17 Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes conducted the autopsy.
A photograph was taken of the body, but it's never been released to the public. This was probably the most important autopsy in U.S.

Speaker 17 history to that point, but the photograph has either been lost or suppressed.

Speaker 17 Dr. Barnes allowed three civilians aboard.
None of the three knew Booth personally. Booth had friends all over Washington, actors, politicians, socialites.
Barnes didn't call any of them.

Speaker 17 Instead, he called Dr. John Frederick May.
May had removed the growth from Booth's neck a few years earlier. He was brought to verify the scar.

Speaker 17 May examined the body and hesitated. In his memoirs, he wrote that he didn't recognize it as Booth's.
He wasn't sure about the scar.

Speaker 17 He noticed that the body had an injured right leg, but Booth fractured his left leg. Now, maybe the witnesses got that wrong, but the injury on the corpse was old.
Booth's wasn't.

Speaker 17 He broke it less than two weeks before. And despite his protests, Dr.
May was pressured into signing off that this was John Wilkes Booth. Other witnesses raised doubts.

Speaker 17 The man had the wrong proportions, the wrong bone structure. The body was buried quickly, in secret, beneath the floor of a military prison.
Booth's family begged to see the remains. They were denied.

Speaker 17 If this wasn't John Wilkes Booth, then who did the soldiers drag out of that barn? Well, they asked David Harold, and he told them.

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Speaker 1 Get ready for malice, a twisted new drama starring Jack Whitehall, David DeCovney, and Carice Van Houten.

Speaker 6 Jack Whitehall plays Adam, a charming manny infiltrates the wealthy Tanner family with a hidden motive to destroy them.

Speaker 15 This edge-of-your-seat revenge thriller unravels a deliciously dark mystery in a world full of wealth, secrets, and betrayal.

Speaker 12 Malice will constantly keep you on your toes.

Speaker 13 Why is Adam after the Tanner family?

Speaker 8 What lengths will he go to?

Speaker 13 One thing's for sure: the past never stays buried, so keep your enemies close.

Speaker 14 Watch Malice, all episodes now streaming exclusively on Prime Video.

Speaker 17 David Harold came out of the tobacco barn with his hands up. The first thing he said was, don't shoot.
Then he said, that's not Booth in there. Then Harold named the man, James William Boyd.

Speaker 17 The soldiers ignored him.

Speaker 17 Boyd was an ex-Confederate soldier, the same build as Booth, same complexion, and coincidentally, the same initials. Harold said Booth was a day ahead of them in Harper's Ferry.

Speaker 17 The plan was to catch up and Boyd would help them sail across the Potomac. But Boyd was a double agent.
He was just released from prison by Stanton personally, and there was a reason for that.

Speaker 17 Stanton and Booth had a deal. Booth would be allowed to escape to India with his wife.
Boyd would stand in and take the fall. So Boyd and Booth swapped coats.

Speaker 17 But Booth forgot to take his diary, which revealed everything. Names, meetings, payments, all pointing back to Edwin Stanton.
When Stanton received the diary, he destroyed it.

Speaker 17 He destroyed all the evidence and created the official story that Americans believed for 150 years.

Speaker 17 John Wilkes Booth walked away from Garrett's farm. He sailed to India as John Byron Wilkes.
He returned to America as John St. Helen and died in Oklahoma as David E.
George.

Speaker 17 Three vertebrae were removed from the body during the autopsy. A DNA test could prove or disprove that the bones came from Booth.
No testing has been allowed.

Speaker 17 His body is allegedly buried in the Booth family plot in Baltimore, and now people leave pennies on the gravestone they believe to be John Wilkes Booth's, as if giving Lincoln the last word.

Speaker 17 And the family has requested that the body be exhumed for testing. That request was denied.
Nobody even knows where in the cemetery he's buried.

Speaker 17 His brother Edwin didn't mark the grave out of fear it would be vandalized. And John Wilkes Booth has a lot of descendants alive today, all through his marriage to Isola.

Speaker 17 History says Booth didn't have children, but his descendants believe that he did. And as far as they're concerned, they're living proof.

Speaker 17 I'm a big fan of American history. If you made it this far, you are too.
And this story was fun. But if Booth escaped, we have to rewrite history.
So, did he? Well, let's pull it apart. Dr.

Speaker 17 John Frederick May identified Booth's body. It's true that he said he didn't recognize it at first, but that was because it was badly decomposed.

Speaker 17 When he saw the surgical scar, he was convinced it was Booth. He would know he performed the surgery.

Speaker 17 And multiple witnesses confirmed the body's identity the broken leg was also confirmed now john wilkes booth did keep a diary and it was tampered with that's documented but he didn't use his diary as a journal it was more like a day planner the missing pages may contain incriminating evidence but probably not still nobody knows for sure

Speaker 17 james william boyd was a real person He was a Confederate captain and prisoner of war. And Secretary of War Edwin Stanton authorized his release.
That's true. But this wasn't unusual.

Speaker 17 Boyd had seven children. His wife had died and they would starve without him.
He requested compassionate release, and Stanton granted it. The story of Boyd being a double agent comes from Finas Bates.

Speaker 17 The man who discovered John St. Helen wasn't just a lawyer.
He was also an entrepreneur.

Speaker 17 In 1907, 30 years after his supposed encounter in Texas, Bates published a book, The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth.

Speaker 18 There's always a book.

Speaker 17 Oh, now you're here? Why so quiet?

Speaker 18 Well, dead presidents, you're only funny when you're in my wallet.

Speaker 17 Fair enough. The book was a hit and made Bates famous.
More importantly, it made Bates money.

Speaker 17 Bates went on speaking tours. He brought the mummy with him.
He charged admission. The man who claimed his friend had confessed to being Lincoln's assassin built an entire career on that story.

Speaker 17 But here's what Bates never mentioned. When experts studied the handwriting samples he claimed came from John St.
Helen, they didn't match John Wilkes Booth's confirmed writing. Not even close.

Speaker 17 They were from different people. The Isla story, that came from a 1937 book called This One Mad Act, written by Isla Forrester.

Speaker 17 Forrester claimed to be Ogarita's daughter, the granddaughter of Booth and Isla Mills.

Speaker 17 And just a few years ago, the descendants of both Ogarita and Harry Jerome Stevenson had their DNA compared against confirmed Booth family DNA. No match.

Speaker 17 Neither family was related to John Wilkes Booth.

Speaker 18 I love it when paternity tests come back negative.

Speaker 17 So, Booth never married and didn't have children, at least none that we found so far. And remember, when he killed Lincoln, he was only 26.

Speaker 18 If I was a 26-year-old movie star with ladies grabbing at my gills, I'd stay single too.

Speaker 17 The entire romantic subplot was fiction, just like Booth's Will. Most of the story elements come from a 1977 book and movie called The Lincoln Conspiracy.

Speaker 17 And this wasn't a historical research project. It was entertainment.
The authors even admitted they created composite characters and invented dialogue to make the story more dramatic. It was fiction.

Speaker 17 Quiet.

Speaker 17 The Lincoln conspiracy was fiction, but people treated it like fact. The book recycled Bates' debunk claims and added new ones.

Speaker 17 The body double theory, the government cover-up, the missing diary pages that implicate Stanton. And speaking of Stanton, let's clear his name.

Speaker 17 Edwin Stanton was a villain in this story, but he was just as interested in helping freed slaves as Lincoln.

Speaker 17 He definitely thought Lincoln was too lenient on the South, but he was much closer to Lincoln's idea of Reconstruction than Andrew Johnson, a self-described racist.

Speaker 17 Johnson's leniency toward the South led directly to the Jim Crow era, and those are wounds that still haven't healed.

Speaker 17 But the most damning evidence against the escape theory isn't what's missing, it's what's there. The detailed day-by-day record of Booth's movements during his 12 days as a fugitive.

Speaker 17 There were multiple witnesses at every stop. Confederate sympathizers who helped him.
Union soldiers who pursued him. You can't fake that kind of evidence.

Speaker 17 You can't.

Speaker 18 If you you can fake a moonlight then, you can fake this.

Speaker 17 Now, I think John Wilkes Booth died on Garrett's farm. But many people, including some of Booth's alleged descendants, believe he got away.

Speaker 17 There's a reason stories like this capture our attention. They let us reimagine history.
Everybody likes to play what if. What if John Wilkes Booth got away? That's a fascinating and fun question.

Speaker 17 A more interesting question is, what if Lincoln wasn't killed? What if he were able to serve out the almost four years left in his second term? What if Lincoln oversaw Reconstruction?

Speaker 17 What if Andrew Johnson, who owned slaves before the war, never became president? Would Lincoln have allowed the KKK to form in 1866? Probably not, but Johnson did.

Speaker 17 Johnson vetoed almost every civil rights bill that came across his desk. He has the dishonor of being the first president ever to be impeached.

Speaker 18 Oh, back when impeachment president meant something. Yep.

Speaker 17 If Lincoln lived, I suspect we'd be living in a very different country, a better country, a more just and united country. And John Wilkes Booth took that from us, from all of us, black and white.

Speaker 17 150 years later, his actions are still felt today. Now, I enjoyed this mystery, but I will not celebrate the man.

Speaker 17 Whether shot to death in a barn or mummified, humiliated, and turned into a sideshow exhibit, Either is a fitting end for one of the most despicable villains in American history.

Speaker 17 There's only one thing I can tell you for sure about this story. If there's a hell, John Wilkes Booth is in it.

Speaker 17 Thank you so much for hanging out today. I'm AJ.
That's Cyclefish.

Speaker 18 Six, Super Feely Concrete.

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Speaker 17 And like most topics we cover on the channel, today's is recommended by you, by quite a few of you, and I'm glad you recommended this one.

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Speaker 18 Yeah, you want to stop flapping your yapping with that one?

Speaker 17 Those are the plugs, and that's going to do it. How long have I been talking for?

Speaker 17 Two hours? This has been

Speaker 17 a doozy of an episode. I hope you enjoyed watching it as much as I enjoyed researching it.
Until next time, be safe, be kind, and know that you are appreciated.

Speaker 17 Oh, oh, oh,

Speaker 17 yeah.

Speaker 17 I played Polypius and Arian 51. A secret code inside the Bible said I would.

Speaker 17 I love my UFOs and paranormal fun, as well as music, song singing like I should.

Speaker 17 But then another conspiracy theory becomes the truth, my friends.

Speaker 17 And it never ends.

Speaker 17 No, it never ends.

Speaker 17 I feel the crap guy down, got stuck inside Mel's hole with them chairs. I've been only two aware.

Speaker 17 Dude, Stanley Kufrid fake the moon landing alone

Speaker 17 on a film set or with a shadow people

Speaker 17 there

Speaker 17 The Roswell aliens just fought the smiling man

Speaker 17 I'm told

Speaker 17 And his name was Cole

Speaker 17 I can't believe I'm dancing with the bitches

Speaker 17 Had no fish on Thursday nights when they changed you and went by

Speaker 17 all through the night

Speaker 17 All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth. So the world was lovely all through the light.

Speaker 17 The Mopman sightings and the solar stones still come. She will got the secret city underground

Speaker 17 Mysterious number stations, planet surfo to Project Stargate and what the Dark Watchers found

Speaker 17 in a simulation, don't you worry though

Speaker 17 The Black Knight satellite told me so I can't believe

Speaker 17 I'm dancing with the field shit and go fish on Thursday, nights, Wednesday, J2 And the we're

Speaker 17 back all through the night.

Speaker 17 All I ever wanted was could you keep the truth. To the water, I'm repeat all through the night.

Speaker 17 Can't go fish on Thursday, night, swing day, J2. And we're

Speaker 17 meet all through the night.

Speaker 17 All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth. So the water floor feet all to the

Speaker 17 line,

Speaker 17 Gurdy loves to dance.

Speaker 17 Girlie loves to dance.

Speaker 17 Gurdy loves to dance.

Speaker 17 Yeah, Gurdy loves to dance on the dance floor

Speaker 17 because she is a camel.

Speaker 17 And camels love to dance when the feeling is right on waste in

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