this notion that john wilkes booth survived is one that fused a lot of myths about the time period
in a way it perpetuates a version of the lost cause because if he did live on and if he did
survive and he was not killed that's part of the confederate lost cause this notion that the south
will rise again that the confederacy had a win so all of this is sort of out there and stirring
the pot of whether or not john will spook got away with it or getting to texas or oklahoma or any of
the other places that people believe that he was the notion that someone would show up in a small
southern town or enclave where there was great great confederate sympathy and claimed to be john
wilkes booth makes sense because that person would have the support would seem like a movie star
of sort some of the girls would light up maybe sneak out their houses to see him getting away
with wooing girls and leaving town with babies behind but before john wilkes booth could live
to woo young ladies and father children he would first have to elude the union manhunt
people have been discussing and arguing whether it's really booth killed in the
garrett barn or not for 100 years and that will not change until we have a definitive answer
and the only thing that can be definitive is dna testing you could possibly test the vertebrae
from the autopsy of john wilkes booth you possibly could if i could just get
a little small sample of that and compare it to a direct descendant from the booth family
i think they could discover whether that's really booth or not dna testing the remains from booth's
autopsy aboard the montauk would settle the issue but the three vertebrae and section of spinal
column kept at the national museum of health and medicine have never been tested because
they are deemed too valuable they're historical artifact so they're valuable to american history
so your decision is do we preserve the bones at the expense of the genome or would we want to
take the genome out at the expense of the bones dr robert arnold who has experience identifying
dead bodies suggests that another key to solving the mystery might lie in a baltimore cemetery
i would like for him to exhume john wilkes booth
examined the body and used what's known as telo-radiology where they'd x-ray the skull
in the same plane as a picture and match it that's a very good way of identification
but there's another problem the exact location of john wilkes booth's grave is also a mystery
where john wilkes booth was buried in greenmount cemetery was an issue from the very beginning john
wilkes booth's body or the body of the man's said to be booth was released by the government to the
family in 1869 according to the documentary record the body was brought to greenmount on february 18
1869 and interred in february or march of that year for several months it was stored in the
undertaker's own family crypt it wasn't until june 13 1869 that marian booth actually purchased the
lot in greenmount cemetery just 13 days later on june 26 1869 there was indeed the burial
of john wilkes booth body in the booth plot somewhere somewhere but where exactly in 1995
frank gorman represented greenmount cemetery in a case brought by booth family members
to exhume booth's body and determine if it's really their infamous relative
buried there after four days of trial the judge decided that their the evidence was not
convincing that john wilkes booth had escaped or that he wasn't buried here and because it wasn't
convincing it wasn't compelling he turned down the petition he said you can't can't dig them up
i read something somewhere about the amount of people that are buried in that particular plot
was that an issue during it was the cemetery and others really don't know exactly where in the
cemetery is right approximately 10 or more both family members are buried in that plot edwin booth
did not want the grave to be marked that was his deliberate intention suppose john wilkes booth
actually isn't buried in here i'll answer that but only with the clear premise that i believe he is
i don't accept your premise but if john wilkes booth's not in here uh i think
that would be a terrible thing to happen um it would into this country at this time especially
it would glorify booth and kind of diminish the horrible thing that he did
and give some kind of aid and comfort to elements of the country who see booth as a hero right and
you think of president lincoln probably the most admired certainly the one or two most imp uh
admired presidents would have the end of his story kind of upset right so i'll leave it this way i'm
glad that he is in here and i think he you're sure that he is a new then yes all right i am