Which I may have mentioned before, but if I have, then this is again (for how often does it come up?).
As mentioned in Cecil’s column about Booth’s Pickled Remains, Booth was killed by Boston Corbett, a psychotic religious fanatic. As he also mentions there were several “come see the remains of J.W. Booth” exhibits at county fairs, sometimes with obvious wax statues and sometimes with real cadavers (like that of poor unfortunate moron and outlaw Elmer McCurdy) but with some spin. (Why bark “5 cents to see the genuine body of Joe McNobody who was hanged for stealing pigs in Abilene” when you can claim “50 cents to see the body of Jesse James!” and make 5 times as much with half the crowd?).
So anyway, like Lee Harvey Oswald a century later all kinds of odd, strange, and curious stories and conspiracy theories sprouted up like kudzu around Booth in the years following his death. Conspiracy theories ran the gamut: JWB was working on the orders of Jefferson Davis, JWB was an English spy, JWB (who was Catholic) and the Surratts and Atzerodt were all Roman Catholic so clearly it was a papist conspiracy (that was a big one, especially when John Surratt became a papal Zouave and Pius IX publicly asked for the release of Jefferson Davis*
it was a Catholic plot backed by the Pope [that was a big one], it was over a woman they both loved, Edwin Stanton was the mastermind, etc…) Most of the curious stories though all revolved around a common theme: Booth did not die in the shootout at Garrett’s farm but lived under an assumed identity. This was the subject of a bestseller by an already bestselling novelist claiming to be his granddaughter, there were several accounts in newspapers that this indigent old man who just died was really JWB (as proof of which he even had a mustache) and then there was the case ofDavid E. George, who not only claimed/was claimed to be Booth but became the biggest attraction of the Booth mummies. You can read that article or googlefor the full story of George, but the jist is this: he was a man roughly the same age as Booth who died indigent in an Enid, Oklahoma boarding house in 1903, became posthumously famous when some locals revealed his “secret” (which was that he was JWB), appeared as a post-mortem centerfold (dead guy pic) in some eastern newspapers, and then went on the road (mummy pic) at county fairs and sideshows for the next few decades.
Now, while I don’t think David George was J.W. Booth (who I think really did die on Garrett’s porch that night in '65), I have what I think’s a compelling and interesting opinion as to who he was. It’s one I haven’t read, and can’t prove, but I think has some cool circumstantial evidence- not that it’s a contribution to history, but interesting anyway.
*Note: While I think it’s fairly well established Booth was a Confederate spy, I’ll say just in case I need to that I don’t believe there was a conspiracy any larger than Booth and his cronies. The death of Lincoln would have been welcomed by the South in 1862 perhaps, but by April 1865 it was the last thing they wanted; Joe Johnston and John Breckenridge cursed blue streaks when they learned about it at their surrender because it jeopardized their chances for lenient surrender terms. Booth was an unhinged narcissistic madman and had the charisma and charm and wealth to get others to follow him.
