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from: http://tedn.hypermart.net/booth.htm
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THE CURSE OF CAIN
THE UNTOLD STORY OF JOHN WILKES BOOTH
by Theodore J. Nottingham
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Table of contents:
PREFACE
PART ONE: THE STORY
PART TWO: THE LEGACY
PICTORIAL (24 rare photographs)
PARTH THREE: THE RESEARCH
CONCLUSION
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PREFACE
On the night of April 14, 1865 a gunshot from a small derringer
interrupted the laughter at Ford's Theater and forever changed
American history. Hardly a week after the Confederacy's surrender
at Appomatox, with Washington lavishly decorated to celebrate the
end of the bloody Civil War, Abraham Lincoln slumped down in his
chair never to regain consciousness. The assassin leaped onto the
stage crying out "Sic Semper Tyrannis" -- "Thus always to tyrants."
He was recognized immediately. Everyone in the theater knew him.
Most had admired his charismatic presence on stage and hailed him
as the finest actor of the era. A dozen members of the audience had
chatted with him that very day. At twenty-six years of age, John
Wilkes Booth, son of the great tragedian Junius Brutus Booth and
brother to Edwin, America's most acclaimed Hamlet, was the toast of
Washington. His theatrical triumphs followed him from Richmond to
Boston and his future was assured as a brilliant and beloved star.
But in one terrible instant, it all vanished. Why did he throw his
destiny away? Who was he behind the handsome face and winsome
persona? What forces were at work at his side, opening the way for
his entrance into the President's private boxseat and cutting the
telegraph wires between the capital and surrounding army posts? Did
his story really end at the burning farmhouse? What happened to the
lives of those who loved him?
Our history books have been silent over mysteries kept hidden for
generations. But strange tales have come down to us through the
friends and family of John Wilkes Booth that have yet to be told.
Tales of secret societies, escape to foreign lands, children
fathered after the father's presumed death... And the shadow of a
curse, one recognized by Booth himself while on the run in the
swamps near the Potomac.
Behold, Thou has driven me out this day from the face of the earth;
and from Thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a
vagabond in the earth. This ancient curse is strangely fitting to
Booth's destiny as a result of his terrible deed. It may even have
become a greater retribution than the accepted historical theory
that his life was ended by a soldier's bullet. But the impact of
his terrible deed also reverberated down through the generations,
overshadowing the lives of his descendants. I am one of them, his
great-grandson thrice removed. My great-grandmother was the
grandaughter of the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. Her mother,
Ogarita, was Booth's daughter. She was six years old when he pulled
the trigger at Ford's Theater and became transformed from a revered
matinee idol to a desparate fugitive and lonely wanderer upon the
earth. Booth's great-grandson, C. Edward Clutts, my grandfather,
has recently turned ninety-one years of age. For most of his life,
he would not speak of our ancestor out of shame and concern for his
own safety.
* * *
From earliest childhood, I had heard of the dark, brooding ancestor
who left a bloody mark on American history. The tragic tale of John
Wilkes Booth has intrigued me ever since. From my father's side of
the family, I developed a great love for Abraham Lincoln with his
homespun wisdom and compassion. Through the writings of Carl
Sandburg and the poems of Walt Whitman, Lincoln became for me a
shining light of the American spirit at its best. On my mother's
side, there was an altogether different influence. Carved in my
grandfather's featured were the dark, almond-shaped eyes and pitch
black hair of the Booth family. His mother (my great-grandmother)
was one of those powerful women of the theater who travelled across
the country in the early part of this century presenting their art
in the strangest places. She was theater incarnate, with the temper
of Medussa and the glare of Zeus. In her later years, still full of
fire, she ran a little theater in Keene, New Hampshire where she
carried on the family tradition to the end of her life. That family
tradition was both grand and tragic. For she was the granddaughter
of John Wilkes Booth. Her mother, Ogarita, was also an actress who
openly wore a picture of her father in a locket around her neck
until she died at the young age of thirty-two. That locket has been
passed down to me and I recently dusted it off to show it to my
daughter while iniating her into the drama of our forefathers.
Throughout my youth, I felt particularly drawn to the twenty-six
year old matinee idol whose destiny was aborted by the most
horrific of acts. I too was drawn early on to the theater and
thereby felt a sort of genetic connection with the Booths who in
their day were the premiere American family of the theater. Also
passed down through the generations was the brooding mood of the
Booths whose Spanish ancestry and dramatic flair fused into intense
character traits. For years, I heard the tale of the murder, of the
lone killer, of the epic manhunt, and of the final capture and
death scene. In my teens, I studied the book written by my
great-grandmother's sister, the journalist Izola Forrester. This
One Mad Act, published in 1937, was based on forty years of
relentless research into the saga of John Wilkes Booth. My great
aunt interviewed the actual participants in those terrible events,
old men haunted by memories that no history book has recorded.
Inspired by her efforts and discoveries, I undertook a similar
research, studying all of the best historians on the subject. The
result won a Lilly Historical Scholarship. More importantly, it
convinced me that the stories our teachers taught us in school were
not complete, and some were even falsified by those who had a stake
in the retelling of American history.
It may be that no one will ever know the full truth on these
matters. But there is a powerful story here which Americans ought
to know as part of their inheritance. Once the political issues and
easy labels have been put aside, we are faced with a tragedy that
would have made Shakespeare himself envious. I have therefore taken
the solid research that can be traced all the way back to the day
of the assassination and, based on feasible conclusions, have added
dramatic narrative in order to convey the emotional tone of the
human experience behind the pictures of the history books. I
believe that the story is best represented in this way for it is
more dramatic than any play in which the Booths displayed their
mighty talents. Most of all, this is a drama of human beings who
found themselves caught up in the hurricane of events that tore
them from their cherished hopes and dreams. They deserve to have
their story remembered.
Part Three
The Research
(sample chapter)
SET-UP FOR MURDER
It was in all the papers: Tonight Ulysses S. Grant and his wife
would be accompanying the President to Ford's Theater to enjoy a
performance starring Laura Keene. (23) The Secretary of War had
also been invited but had refused. (24) According to the manager of
the theater, there was never much of an attendance on Friday
nights. But the unusual appearance of the colorful Supreme
Commander had drawn a full house of curious admirers. That night,
however, as people entered the theater, they must have been sorely
disappointed. Hardly any soldiers were present. When a general, let
alone the Supreme Commander, comes to a public function, he is
always accompanied by hordes of armed men. At the last moment,
Grant had taken an evening train to go visit his children up north.
(25) Even though he already had a strained relationship with
Lincoln, he had suddenly changed his mind after accepting the
presidential invitation. But the fact is that not even Ulysses S.
Grant was that unmannered. That afternoon the Secretary of War had
come to see him and explained that going to the theater with the
President would invite disaster. (26) Apparently Grant found this
concern to be logical despite the fact that he played right into
the hands of the murderers. Without Grant's escort for protection,
and given a soldier on record for his unreliability (27), Abraham
Lincoln was left entirely at the mercy of his enemies.
STRANGE OCCURENCES
Within fifteen minutes, all telegraph wires around the city of
Washington D.C. are severed (from 10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.), except
for a secret government wire which leads to Fort Old Point. Two
wires in the main battery had been crossed and all service shorted.
(28) Almost immediately. John Wilkes Booth's name is heard coming
from the shouts of the hysterical crowd. Yet efforts are made to
withold his name from the press and for some hours after the
assassination it is ruled out of military dispatches. (29) By one
in the morning of April 15th, his name is released. Alarms are sent
to Winchester, Harper's Ferry, Cumberland, Baltimore, Annapolis,
Acquia Creek, Relay House -- but none go to the fat foot of
Maryland which lies between the Potomac and the Patuxent where
Booth is spurring on his horse. (30) The Port Tobacco road leading
southward is left unguarded the entire night. (31)
THE CAPTORS
General James R. O'Beirne has been considered by historians as the
one man to deserve the credit for discovering the route taken by
Booth. Why did he not receive the credit officially? When O'Beirne
thought he had cornered the fugitive, he sent a telegram to
Washington reporting the direction they were headed and asked for
orders. He was told to return to his command in Maryland. (32) The
final honors were given to Lieutenant Luther Baker, cousin of
Lafayette C. Baker, the head of the Secret Service, along with
Colonel Everton J. Conger, Major Edward P. Doherty and the
twenty-two men of the 16th New York Regiment. The capture was taken
from the hands of a first class general and put into those of two
reward-hungry Secret Service detectives leading the most motley
crew ever assembled to assist in a historical event. Thus began one
of the strangest sagas of contradictions, exaggerations, mistakes,
and lies ever produced in our history.
As told in the history books, Private Boston Corbett finally ended
the affair by shooting the man in the barn because he was told that
the murderer was aiming at him (according to his testimony). (38)
Robert Garrett, the twelve year old son of the farmer whose
property was the scene of the killing, agrees that Corbett fired
the fatal shot, but he adds that the soldier was only six feet from
the barn and that the man inside never moved. He was visible
because of a fire set by Conger who lit a small pile of brush that
he had piled against the rear corner of the warehouse. (39)
This brings up the question of whether John Wilkes Booth was wanted
dead or alive. The official orders were very clear: he was wanted
alive. With sixteen hundred men on the chase, the largest manhunt
in history, there was no reason why these orders could not be
carried out. (40) Yet the detectives placed around Dr. Mudd's home,
in case Booth returned, were ordered to shoot anyone who entered
the garden. (41) As for Boston Corbett, no one is positive that he
pulled the trigger. According to eye-witnesses, it was not until
after Baker had demanded to know which member of the troop had
disobeyed orders, and Conger had said he thought it had been
suicide, that Corbett announced his deed. (42) A religious fanatic
who had castrated himself after a night with prostitutes, Corbett
said that God had directed him to do so. (43)
The real confusion does not begin until the dying man is brought
out of the barn. According to the testimony of the Garrett family,
the man dragged onto the porch was wearing a Confederate uniform.
Townsend also agrees and adds that the Garretts never deviated from
their first testimony that the man who had been brought to their
house was a Confederate soldier named John Howard Boyd. (44)
However, Major Ruggles and Bainbridge, whom Booth had met as he
crossed the Potomac River, said that he was wearing black. In an
article in The New York World, Townsend explains that he must have
changed clothes at Dr. Mudd's home. But Thomas A. Jones, who met
Booth the day after he left the doctor' house, describes him as
wearing black as well. (45)
The affidavits made by Colonel Pedgram and others who saw the
actor's remains in Baltimore in 1869, testify that he was dressed
in black and wearing a high riding boot. Two soldiers at the
Garrett farm, Joseph Ziegen and Wilson D. Kenzie state in
affidavits that the man shot in the barn was wearing a Confederate
uniform and soldier's boots. In other words, John Wilkes Booth fled
dressed in a black suit; did not change at Dr. Mudd's; was
supposedly taken from the barn in a Confederate uniform; was placed
on the battleship Montauk for examination dressed in a black suit.
And there is another matter: one of the assets of this man
considered "the most handsome man in America" was his long, curly
black hair. Testimony shows that the doctor who nursed the dying
man on the Garrett porch cut off a lock of hair and gave it to a
Miss Holloway, a visiting friend of the Garretts. Later, on the
Montauk, General Baker talks of chasing some young lady away who
was trying to snip off some of the dead man's hair. At the
undertaker's the witnesses notice the long hair, and Miss Blanche
Chapman, Booth's cousin, cuts some off and gives it to Mary Ann
Booth, the actor's mother. (46)
Yet, it is an accepted fact among all historians who have studied
the episode, that the testimony at the trial is correct: Booth
shaved off his mustach and cut his hair short at Dr. Mudd's house!
There are several conclusions to this fact. As we will discover
later, many believe that there were three men in the barn: Booth,
Herold, and a Confederate soldier who may have been initiated the
same night as the actor into the Knights of the Golden Circle.
There have been many dramatic dialogues written which were said to
occur between the man in the barn and Lieutenant Baker in the
various descriptions of the scene. Conger, who was commended on the
floor of the House of Representatives as the one member of the trio
to have any regard for the truth, stated that the man in the barn
spoke only three times: to ask who the captors were; to ask that
Herold be allowed to come out; to ask that he be given a fighting
chance for his life. (47)
Some historians have tried to depict an insane actor arrogantly
reciting Shakespearean lines as he savagely eyed the Union
soldiers. It is quite possible that the man spoke to save time.
Time for another man to escape. John Garrett, in his testimony,
said that he and his brother had slept in a corn crib near the barn
before the soldiers came, to make sure that Booth and Herold did
not steal the horses. After it was all over, no horse could be
found on the Garrett farm, and it was necessary to get a neighbor
who lived nearby to take the remains to the ferry in his wagon. (48)
An interesting item which has seldom been brought up is that the
barn had double doors on all four sides, and large windows in the
upper story. Lieutenant Baker testified on June 20, 1867: "The barn
was about fifty by sixty feet. Only one door of the barn was
opened. The door opened looking towards the house." (50) The third
man never expected to die. He was just trying to save time for
Booth's escape. Historians who have followed this theory believe
that he was the man who came to warn the actor of the approaching
regiment and remained with them.
THE SILENCE IS BROKEN
As the years went by, and important men passed away, oaths of sworn
loyalty began to fade. The secrecy of the moment began to crack
under the strain of time. On March 31, 1922, because of a surge of
opinion on the fate of the infamous actor, Joseph Ziegen and Wilson
D. Kenzie, two of the soldiers at the Garrett farmhouse, swore in
affidavits that when they saw the body carried from the barn, they
stated that it was not Booth. They had seen him perform in New
Orleans. Their testified that they were ordered to keep their
mouths shut by the officers in command. (86)
In Forestville, California, Izola Forrester met with Elisha
Shelburn Shortridge, the eighty-four year old grandson of Richard
Garrett. Asked who the man was who was shot in the barn, he
replied: "Always heard my folks say it was a Confederate soldier
sent to warn the two men the troops were coming after them. Mosby's
command wasn't far off, and it was some of his officers that
brought Booth and the young feller to my grandfather..." "There
must have been three (in the barn) because one gave himself up and
one got shot and one got away. But it isn't good to talk about it
to outsiders. My mother always said he must have had plenty of
help." (87)
Asked about the testimony given by the Garrett family at the
Conspiracy Trial, the old man chuckled: "Everyone was looking after
his own skin, wasnt' he? I can tell you this much. In those days
and in my time up here, there was something bigger and mightier in
this land than the law or government; something that bound men
together in a tie of secret brotherhood stronger than family or
country, even to the death. It stretched everywhere. You couldn't
get away from it even if you wanted to... You never knew who
belonged to it and who didn't, but it held the Southerners
together." (88) On June 22, 1900, Major Benton, commanding officer
at the Washington Arsenal, lectured to the Army and Navy Club at
New London, Connecticut. "We were requested by Secretary Stanton to
remain silent, and no man during these thirty-five years has yet
told." (89)
General O'Beirne, in his later years a judge presiding in City Hall
Park in New York City, also talked with Mrs. Forrester in October
of 1908: "I can tell you something that has never been published in
this case, and never even mentioned, something you will never find
on any record. There were three men in that barn and one of them
escaped... Think of how that place was padlocked carefully, and the
key mislaid up at the house. It never was brought out in the
testimony that there was another exit from the barn, but there was.
Opening on the lower level at the rear was a small door, which gave
direct egress to the ravine and woods. "This was apparently
overlooked while attention centered on the locked door in front...
I intend to write a book around my early experiences some day.
Maybe it will never be published until after I am dead, but that
won't matter. We were all pledged to secrecy in those days. It was
not safe to tell anything. Everyone was after a share of the
reward. I received two thousand dollars myself." (90) Judge
O'Beirne never lived to write his memoirs.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adams, James Truslow, The March of Democracy, Vol. 3, Civil War and
Reconstruction, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1932.
Bishop, Jim, The Day Lincoln Was Shot, New York: Harper and
Brothers, 1955.
Borreson, Ralph, When Lincoln Died, New York: Appleton-Century,
1965.
Bryan, George, The Great American Myth, New York: Garrick and
Evans, Inc. 1940.
Eisenchiml, Otto, Why Was Lincoln Murdered?, Boston: Little, Brown
and Company, 1937.
Eisenchiml, Otto, In the Shadow of Lincoln's Death, New York:
Wilfred Fink Inc., 1940.
Forrester, Izola, This One Mad Act, Boston: Hale, Cushman and
Flint, 1937.
Kiell, Norman, Psychological Studies of Famous Americans: The Civil
War Era, New York: Twayne Publishing, Inc., 1964.
Roscoe, Theodore, The Web of Conspiracy, Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall,Inc., 1959.
Sandburg, Carl, Abraham Lincoln - The War Years IV, Vol. 6, New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1939,
Stern, Philip Van Doren, The Man Who Killed Lincoln, New York: The
Literary Guild of America, Inc., 1939.
Thornbrough, Emma Lou, Indiana In the Civil War Era 1850-1880,
Indianapolis, Indiana Historical Bureau & Indiana Historical
Society, 1965.
Album of the Lincoln Murder: Illustrating how it was planned,
committed and avenged. (Historical Times, Inc.) Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 1965.
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Theodore J. Nottingham is the author of several novels, including
The Final Prophet and The Druid's Isle. He is also a producer whose
programs have appeared on national network and cable television.
Copyright 1997
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