All language subtitles for Mummies Unwrapped - 01x02 - Hunting the Mummy of Lincolns Assassin.CAFFEiNE.English.HI.C.orig.Addic7ed.com

Romany: What if history's
most famous assassin...

John Wilkes Booth.

...murdered one of this
country's greatest presidents...

[ Gunshot, people scream ]

...and got away with it?

Booth escaped.

A mysterious missing mummy
might hold the answer.

No way!

But only if...I can find it.

Ohh.

I'm archaeologist and mummy
expert Ramy Romany.

Across the globe,
earth is giving up her dead.

Oh, my god, Pedro!
Look at this!

Thanks to cutting-edge
technology,

new mummies are unearthed
every day.

It is like an underwater
crime scene.

These mummies
hold extraordinary secrets...

Oh, my god! What is this?!

Priceless.

...if you know
how to unwrap them.

That changes...
Everything.

This is...

"Mummies Unwrapped."

In the 1920s,

a mummy began appearing
as a popular attraction

in traveling sideshows
across the United States.

There was nothing especially
freakish about this mummy

except its alleged identity...
John Wilkes Booth.

The exhibitor claimed that
after killing Abraham Lincoln...

[ Gunshot, people scream ]

...Booth was not killed
by U.S. troops.

They maintained that Booth
escaped and lived out his days

under various
assumed identities.

Nobody has been able to confirm

whether the mummy
was really Booth

because in the late 1970s,
it disappeared.

If I can uncover the true
identity of the mummy,

I can prove whether the world's
most famous assassin

got away with murder.

There's a man
in Washington, D.C.

He says Booth did escape,

that the history books
are wrong.

I'm meeting with Nate Orlowek,

who's been researching
the Booth escape theory

for over four decades.

Since the 1990s, Nate has been
working with Booth descendants

to get permission to conduct
DNA tests on the body of the man

that the government maintains
is John Wilkes Booth.

So far, the courts have blocked
all such attempts.

We're starting where
it all began; Ford's theatre.

It gives me the chills
looking at this

and thinking,
150 years ago,

the great president
of this country,

Abraham Lincoln, was sitting
right there peacefully.

We all know
the official story.

Lincoln was sitting
in the president's box.

The guard was missing.

John Wilkes Booth,
who knew the theater well,

came to the box
and waited for his moment.

A funny line in the play.

[ Laughter ]

He counted on the laughter
to muffle the sound of the shot.

Booth stood behind Lincoln,

pointed his gun
at the back of Lincoln's head,

then pulled the trigger.

[ Gunshot ]

Booth then climbed right here,
onto the front of the box,

and he jumped down,

and he landed on his left leg
and broke his leg.

Even though he had a broken leg,
he was able to drag himself

across the stage
and out to the back.

And there was a horse
waiting for him,

and he jumped on the horse,
and he galloped away.

According to
the official account,

John Wilkes Booth fled south
from Ford's theatre

and crossed the bridge
into Maryland.

He was joined there
by coconspirator David Herold,

and the two collected weapons
they'd hidden at a tavern.

After finding a doctor
to treat Booth's broken leg,

they continued south.

The federal government
offered a reward

of $50,000
for Booth's capture,

and an epic manhunt
was launched.

The government was determined
to get Booth and quickly.

Booth and Herold hid in
the woods of Southern Maryland

for five days,
avoiding the federal troops

and detectives hunting
for the two fugitives.

Booth eventually ended up
in this tobacco barn,

one that looks
much like this.

Romany: How long were they
hiding in there for?

According to
the conventional history,

they were there
for 2 1/2 days,

and on the morning
of April 26, 1865,

the federal troops
caught up with them.

They surrounded the barn,

and they demanded that Booth
and Herold surrender.

According to all accounts,
Herold did surrender

but the other man
still refused to come out

and so colonel Conger,
the head of the platoon,

ordered that the barn
be set on fire.

Nevertheless, the man
refused to surrender,

and so colonel Conger
set the barn on fire.

[ Fire crackling ]

One of the soldiers,
named Boston Corbett, felt

that he should do something
to avenge Lincoln's murder.

He walked up to the entrance
of the barn

and put his gun
through the slat and shot.

The bullet hit the man
in the barn

in the back of the neck,
wounding him mortally.

And of course, the government
claims that that man

was John Wilkes Booth.

And that is where Nate believes
the government began

one of the biggest
cover-ups in history.

There's overwhelming
evidence that that man

was not John Wilkes Booth.

Nate believes that Booth
had already fled south

the day that troops arrived

and that the man killed in
the barn only looked like Booth.

Nate also believes
that the $50,000 reward

for Booth's capture
was motivation for the soldiers

to insist that the dead man
was in fact Booth.

A single photo of the corpse
was reportedly taken,

but it quickly disappeared
from the secretary of war

Edwin Stanton's files,

along with 27 sheets
from Booth's diary.

Rumors began to circulate,
saying that Booth escaped

and that there was a cover-up
to hide this fact.

Years later, the photographer's
adult son

claimed that the photo
of the man killed at the barn

was never taken

and the man's face was damaged
and not recognizable as Booth.

And what sort of evidence
do you have that

the government
attempted a cover-up?

Let me show you.

The government claims Booth
was secretly buried

in Washington's
old penitentiary.

They say his body was exhumed
and moved twice more.

Yet no photos exist of it.

And all efforts to conduct DNA
analysis have been blocked.

Even after the assassin's
reported death,

reports of Booth sightings
continued for years.

In 1907, Finis l. Bates,

the former Attorney General
for the state of Tennessee,

published
his firsthand knowledge

of Booth's alleged escape.

Finis l. Bates
was a very young attorney

in the 1870s in Texas.

And he became friendly
with this man

who called himself
John St. Helen.

John St. Helen?

John St. Helen
was John Wilkes Booth.

This is one of
the very few copies

that is still in existence
of a book that Bates wrote

to inform us
of what this man told him.

One night in 1877,
St. Helen fell very ill

and thought
he was about to die,

and he said to Bates,
"I'm really John Wilkes Booth."

He told him that
the original plot

was to kidnap
President Lincoln.

This was not known
until the government

released the records
in 1935.

In the book, Finis Bates
explains that after St. Helen

confessed to killing Lincoln,
he disappeared.

25 years later, the same man,

going by the name
David E. George,

confessed to being Booth
and then committed suicide.

Well, David E. George
died on the morning

of January 13, 1903,
of poison,

and he had
left instructions

that the people there
should contact Bates,

who was living
in Memphis, Tennessee.

Mm-hmm.

Bates came and
mummified this body

because Bates believed
that he was John Wilkes Booth.

So, wait.

Bates ordered the mortician
to mummify David E. George?

Ordinarily, if someone dies
and doesn't have any family

or someone to claim the body,
they would just Bury the body.

But Bates, when he
came there, said,

"well, this is not
an ordinary person."

This is not really
David E. George.

"And therefore, I would
like you to mummify it."

Bates arranged for the body
to be mummified,

and he profited when it
toured sideshows and carnivals,

which makes me wonder about
Bates' motives in all this.

So here we have an affidavit
from six neutral physicians

who examined the body

stating that this man
had a scarred right eyebrow,

a scarred right thumb,
and a broken left leg...

marks that John Wilkes Booth,
we know today, had.

This is
extremely intriguing.

Here's my problem,
Nate. Right?

This happened when the mummy
was already touring America,

and this could have been nothing
more than a publicity stunt.

Well, the physicians
who did this examination

had no ax to grind,

and they don't even say
that this was John Wilkes Booth.

They just simply
did an examination.

There was enough evidence
suggesting

that Booth possibly escaped

that the FBI created
a file on the assassin.

The investigation was active
in 1922, 1948, and 1977

with no definitive conclusion
ever being reached.

John St. Helen gave Bates
a tintype photo.

It was a type of photo
taken in the mid-1800s.

Mm.
So he kept this tintype.

It's the only photograph
that we know of

after he was
supposedly killed in the barn.

I can barely make out
who this man is.

It's damaged
and very low resolution.

If we had the original,
we might be able

to recover
more definitive information.

I spent many years trying
to find the original,

and finally, I was able
to trace it

to an obscure collection

in a very small town
in the middle of Texas.

And it ended up
and is now in

what's called
the swaim collection

at Georgetown university
library in Washington, D.C.

John St. Helen
and David E. George

could be the same person.

Their ages and their
stories align

with the Booth escape theory.

But if I'm going to find
this missing mummy,

I need to know
if John Wilkes Booth

really could have
lived out his days

as John St. Helen
and then David E. George.

Thank you very much.

I need to find the clearest
high-resolution photo

to help prove
whether these three names

were all the same man.

The original photo.

Wow!

So this photo
was taken 12 years

after the assassination
of president Abraham Lincoln?

It was 1877 when he gave
the tintype to Bates.

It was 11 or 12
years later.

Of course, if this man
is John Wilkes Booth,

then that would settle
the entire case,

because if he was
still alive in 1877,

he certainly wasn't
killed in 1865.

Nate has given me
all the evidence he has

that supports the theory
that Booth escaped.

But there's one piece of hard
evidence in there,

the tintype photo.

My plan is to use
21st-century technology

to try and solve
a 150-year-old case.

I've arranged a meeting
with former NYPD detective

and facial recognition
expert Roger Rodriguez

to see how we might be able
to use this latest technology

in facial recognition

to more precisely compare
the two men in the images...

the photo of John St. Helen

and a known image
of John Wilkes Booth.

I can't tell you how
obsessed and interested I am

with your line of work.

How did you get into this?

Well, I started my career

with the New York City
police department,

started doing patrol.

Did over 20 years
of service there.

But shortly after
the events of 9/11,

I wanted to pursue a career
in police technology,

in utilizing technology
to catch the bad guys.

And I was tasked to build
the facial recognition unit.

The technology has been
instrumental in assisting

to identify
thousands of people.

- Thousands?
- Yes.

Do you think we can crack
a 150-year-old case, though?

We can give it a shot.
Come into my office.

I brought a flash drive today
that has high-resolution photos

of John Wilkes Booth,
as well as photos of the man

that claimed to be Booth
years later.

That man went by the alias
of John St. Helen

and then later called himself
David E. George.

How does the software
actually work?

What it does is it
basically changes

the actual face
into a numeric code.

It locks into the eyes,

and then the face is represented
as a series of numbers.

And then the algorithms
work their way around,

performing their magic.

I clearly see lots and lots
of damage to this photo.

These tools are very,
very important

in the investigative
process

to make these images
more conducive

for facial recognition.

Roger starts with
a photo of John St. Helen,

the man who claimed
to be Booth.

He duplicates, flips, and merges
the undamaged side of the face.

This creates
a John St. Helen face

that can be compared
with the Booth face.

If we were to capture a mug shot
of John Wilkes Booth,

that is what
the mug shot would look like.

I would definitely
look at this photo

a little more in detail.

After enhancing both photos,

Roger uses specialized tools
to compare the two faces,

looking for shared landmarks

and distinct facial features,
like moles and freckles.

John Wilkes Booth
and St. Helen's features

are similar.

But in order to get a more
objective comparison,

the software will examine
the photos

in a kind of virtual lineup.

Roger adds John Wilkes Booth's
photo into a public mug shot

database of 5,000 white
males from the Virginia area.

Why do we need
5,000 pictures?

Can't we just put it
against the tintype photo

and call it a day?

It's more face templates
that it has to compare against.

What you want to do
is drive these results

to levels of specificity.

Next, we'll run
St. Helen's photo

through what's called a query,
which compares his face

to the thousands of faces
in the database,

including
John Wilkes Booth's face.

According to Roger,
if the John Wilkes Booth photo

appears within
the top 250 results,

then it's a promising match.

Just run a query in the system
and see where Booth landed.

Wait.

Am I reading this correct?

Romany: There's a mummy who some
believe was John Wilkes Booth...

...that the notorious assassin
wasn't killed by U.S. troops

after shooting Abraham Lincoln.

I'm meeting with ex-police
detective Roger Rodriguez

to use the latest
facial-recognition software

to compare photos of Booth
with the photos

of a man who later claimed
to be Booth.

If they are the same person,
then it means that

John Wilkes Booth
got away with murder.

Just run a query in the system
and see where Booth landed.

According to Roger,
if the John Wilkes Booth photo

appears within
the top 250 results,

then it's a promising match.

Wait.

That's within the top
three percentile...

- out of 5,000?
- Correct.

This image would definitely
pique my interest

in an investigation coming in
or landing within the top 250.

How does the facial
recognition system

work on pictures
of the dead?

Let's take a look at the photo.
Let's see what we can do.

We can see here the shape
of the eyebrow

and the shape of the eye

is very, very distinct
on both images.

Putting in mind that one of them
is an embalmed dead body...

Correct.

...there is
striking resemblance.

The earlobe's right there...
same earlobe.

And the shape of the inside
of the ear is exactly the same.

They are
strikingly similar.

We have now documented,

using our landmark
measurement tool,

the space between the eyes.

They are separated
by only one pixel.

That's a unique
characteristic.

So the software has
identified similarities

within the two individuals.

Let's pull the shot
of David E. George.

Let's scroll. Let's see
where our subject landed.

There's no way
he shows up at all.

Very, very
surprising to me.

Pretty interesting.

It's less than 1%.
That's within the 0.5%.

If that's true, then

the mummy that toured America
as John Wilkes Booth

could be actually
John Wilkes Booth.

Would it hold up
in a court of law?

No.

What would?

DNA.

I find it really compelling
that John Wilkes Booth,

John St. Helen, and the mummy
all have these similarities.

But ultimately,
I have to agree with Roger.

In my book, DNA is the only
definitive proof

and the only way
I'll be convinced,

which means I have to
track down this mummy.

The mummy disappeared
in the 1970s.

So I'll have to retrace
the mummy's path

all the way back to where Booth,
under the alias

of David E. George,
supposedly lived.

I'm in Enid, Oklahoma.

This is where he rented a room
in the early 1900s

above what is now
a furniture store.

Here is where
David E. George died,

and days later,
his body was mummified.

The location is owned
by amateur historian

and researcher Russ frazee.

Your store is associated

with a very important
story in history.

Well, it's one of the oldest
remaining buildings in downtown.

It was built in 1898,
built as the grand Avenue hotel

at the time of Booth
or David E. George's death.

So David E. George
lived up here?

Yes. We can go
upstairs here now.

Local lore has it that
David E. George arrived in Enid

and would sometimes confess
to being John Wilkes Booth.

But I'm curious
about the evidence

that supports that claim.

This was kind of the motel 6
of the day; very basic.

There wasn't even
any running water up here.

This is the room
where George lived.

So this is it.

Oh, look at this.

This is where
David E. George lived.

This is the place.

Original wallpaper.

Oh, a bottle of whiskey.

They were big drinkers
in those days.

So, based on your story,

after Booth assassinated
president Abraham Lincoln,

he fled to Texas.

Then after that,
he came up to Enid.

It is somewhat difficult
to figure him out

between the assassination
and until he got to Texas.

He had many aliases.

There was no formal

identification papers
in those days.

You could be
anyone you wanted.

And David E. George
spent his evenings in saloons.

When drunk, he would confess
to being John Wilkes Booth.

He even revealed details
of the assassination plot

that wouldn't be made
public until 1935.

I mean, you grew up
around this legacy

and this story
all your life.

What do you believe?

Do you believe that
John Wilkes Booth

actually survived?

Well, I do.

It was in the Oklahoma
history textbooks

back in the early '60s,
when I was in junior high.

Wait.

John Wilkes Booth's
survival

was a part of the textbooks
here in Oklahoma?

Sure was.

So it's not just
the oral history.

It's a part of the written
history of Enid, Oklahoma.

Yes.

I want to see the documents
about David E. George

that Russ has collected
over the years.

This is from the Oklahoma
historical society, 1922.

"The last will and testament
of Dave E. George.

January 15, 1903."

This is a written record
days after he died.

"At most times,
he was jolly"

and when drinking,
would entertain a crowd

"by acting portions
of Shakespeare."

Shakespeare?
And drink. Yeah.

Wasn't John Wilkes Booth
also a Shakespearean actor?

A great
Shakespearean actor.

"January 21, 1903,
the Enid daily way."

Doctors are confident
from his symptoms

"that he died from arsenic
poison self-administered."

Russ, do you believe
that John Wilkes Booth escaped

after killing Lincoln?

Do you believe that
it's a cover-up?

Yes.

Romany: I'm in Enid, Oklahoma,
where David E. George

spent his last days in 1903.

George claimed to be
John Wilkes Booth

and to have gotten away
with killing Abraham Lincoln.

Shortly after his death,
his body was mummified.

Russ, do you believe
that John Wilkes Booth

escaped after
killing Lincoln?

Do you believe that
it's a cover-up?

Yes.

We believe that some
unfortunate soul was murdered

by the federal government
in the barn

and then claimed
to be Booth.

And what happened
after David E. George died?

Well, the body was loaded
on a wagon

and taken across the square
to the funeral parlor,

and they embalmed it.

And the embalming process

involved injecting
the body with arsenic.

And that's how he became
a mummy?

Yes.

What happened to his mummy?

People tried
to claim the body,

but the mortician kept it
at the funeral home.

People were pouring
into Enid,

asking, "is this the body
of Booth?"

So people had already heard
this could be Booth?

Yeah.

And then what happened
to the mummy?

He sold it to a circus.

They were
a little more lenient

with the law
back in those days.

Before movie houses and radio
became the American public's

primary source of entertainment,
freak shows, dime museums,

and sideshows
toured the country.

Customers would pay a small fee

to see everything from bearded
ladies and two-headed cows

to fire-eaters
and, yes, human mummies.

We have some excellent
pictures here.

That's him sitting clothed as
a mummy in the funeral parlor.

That's how he looked
in the funeral home?

That's it. Yeah.

This man is the same man
right here,

a picture taken
35 years later

while his mummy
was touring America?

That's correct.

Based on what I've seen so far,
the mummy of David E. George

really could be
the mummy of John Wilkes Booth.

If I can find the body,
I want to do some DNA

testing to see if both people
are one and the same.

But first, I need to know

if the mummy would still be
intact after all this time.

I know that arsenic
was commonly used towards

the end of the 19th century
as an embalming agent,

but what I don't know is whether
somebody embalmed with arsenic

could maintain
his facial features.

I'm meeting Dr. John Fritch

here at the university
of central Oklahoma.

He's an expert in
period embalming procedures.

I got some photos
right here.

All right.
So, quick background.

This right here is a photo
of a man named Dave E. George.

We also know that he died
of arsenic poisoning

self-administered.

And 35 years later, this right
here is allegedly his mummy,

which toured the country in
sideshows as John Wilkes Booth.

Is it possible that after
35 years, from this picture

to that picture,
arsenic preservation

could have kept the body,

maintaining the features
like this?

I have some textbooks
from that period,

and they're kind of...
these are historical.

Embalming techniques.

The art and science
of embalming,

I just found fascinating.

One is right here.

"Arsenate of soda is one of
the strongest preservations"

for animal tissue.

"Causes a rapid desiccation
of the cellular tissue."

So we're talking,
it would dry out

those tissues very quickly,

and that is key
to long-term preservation.

Absolutely.

Even in the current environment,
when we use formaldehyde,

that's the secret,
is removing water.

So this person took
their own life?

Yes.
Okay.

And was found...
Nearly instantly.

His body, biologically,
was healthy.

So the prediction
would be that

it would take
our procedure quite well.

Now, these are
historical items.

Wow! Look at this.

Can I take it out?
Of course. Yes.

That's an injection.

It was very common
in this period

to do the embalming at home.

And so you didn't
want to make a mess,

and so you would use
your drain tubes.

You'd insert them
in the veins.

And then as you push
your arsenic-based fluid in,

the blood would then
be withdrawn,

and they would put it
in a vessel

so that they could take it
away from the house.

Do you think there's
any chance that today

this mummy still exists
with the features?

I would say it's possible.

If this embalmer had knowledge
that there was going to be

a need for this mummy
to be around

for an extended
period of time,

they would have used
a strong...

higher concentration of arsenic.
Absolutely.

Well, we know that
this embalmer did plan

on having this mummy
become a sideshow mummy.

I think it's a great
possibility it still exists

and in a recognizable form.

I'm now confident
that the so-called Booth mummy

could be intact today.

But I still have to find it.

I'm here in Austin, Texas,
to meet with Steve Busti,

an exhibitor
of sideshow artifacts

and one of the country's
foremost collectors

of human remains.

I need to find out if he has
any theories

about where the missing

John Wilkes Booth mummy
is today.

Okay, Ramy, this is
a cabinet of curiosities.

No way!

Oh, my god!
Look at this!

This is the mummy
from Guanajuato.

The properties
of the soil

combined with maybe
the arid region

created these
natural mummies.

What does it take to acquire
a mummy like that?

Basically, you just need to
have the right connections.

They're still around, but it's
become increasingly harder

to find the real deal.

How would a man like myself
track a mummy, let's say like

John Wilkes Booth's
alleged mummy?

Out of all
the mummy exhibits,

that was probably
the most famous.

I don't know where it is.

The last known location
was probably mid-1970s,

somewhere in Pennsylvania.

It's out there somewhere,
you know.

You don't just lose a mummy
or misplace a mummy.

You've acquired mummies.
I've only studied them.

Big difference.

Now, how do you trace a mummy
that you're looking for?

You basically have to start
making connections.

You have to know who are

some of these other
collectors out there

that have maybe
some of these mummies

in their
private collection.

And...

You have connections?

[ Laughs ]

Um...

These collectors
are very private.

They don't want to share
what they've got with the world.

But I will make some
phone calls for you.

That's great.

[ Cellphone rings ]

Steve, what do you got?

Yes. Please.

I got it right here.

What's his name?

Robert.

His phone number?

No, I completely understand.
I will tread lightly.

Yes, I'll be very careful.

I may have just found
the Booth mummy.

Romany: There's a theory
that after assassinating

president Abraham Lincoln
in 1865,

John Wilkes Booth escaped.

Years later, his mummified
remains toured the country,

but then the mummy vanished.

[ Cellphone rings ]

Steve, what do you got?

What's his name?

Robert.

His phone number?

No, I completely understand.
I will tread lightly.

Yes, I'll be very careful.

I may have just found
the Booth mummy.

40 years; 40 years
since it's last been seen.

If that's true, one DNA test
and we'll know

if the killer of the greatest
president in American history

actually got away with it.

This is it.

This is the house.

Let's see where this takes us.

I've reached out to this
collector multiple times,

and he has not responded.

Knocking on his door
may be the only way in.

Okay. He said yes.
Come on.

Just be very respectful.
I told him one camera.

I think two is fine,
but be very respectful.

Robert, the cameras are here.

Oh, wow!
Look at this!

You know...

When I got
your phone number,

they told me that
you're very protective

and that you're never
gonna let anyone in.

It seems like you have
a reputation

that you don't want
to let anyone in.

You're a professional
Egyptologist.

You're an educated man.

You're someone I would be
interested in knowing.

It's that simple.

Well, thank you
very much, Robert.

I am interested
in knowing you.

Robert, if you don't
mind me asking,

what got you interested
in all this?

I would have to blame that
on my grandmother.

My grandmother used to
take us to

the Museum of Natural History
in New York City,

and it was love
at first sight.

Finally,
she started to take us

to the Metropolitan
Museum of Art,

and I'm sure you know
they have

a magnificent Egyptian
collection there.

Yeah.
It's like coming home.

It's wonderful stuff.

I hope that my appreciation

for Robert's
impressive collection

is buying me some goodwill

so I can finally ask about
the John Wilkes Booth mummy.

As we all know,
it's a sensitive subject.

The collection also has
a number of skulls

from new Guinea,
the Asmat people.

This is a real
Papua New Guinea skull?

Yes.

That's a skull cup.

This is Tibet, so they
don't have a lot of wood,

and doing this
is honoring their ancestors.

Absolutely.
It honors their dead.

How many humans do you
think live with you...

or dead with you
in your own house?

About 200.

It's about 208,
in fact, I think.

You have 208
other humans?

Right.

How often do you get to
go around your house

and show people that have never
seen your collection before?

You're the first.

I am here for a very
specific reason.

I was looking for a real human
mummy, maybe even famous.

Do you want to see it?

Let's go down here.

Finally, after all the phone
calls and detective work,

Robert knows I'm looking to see
his famous sideshow mummy.

There's a lot of rooms
in this house.

You just never know
what's gonna be

behind a closed door,
so...

You've seen a lot of mummies
in your travels,

but I doubt you've
ever seen one like this.

Ohh.

Robert, are you married?

I am.

What does your wife...

Everyone wants to know
what the wife...

well, look, you have
all these dead people

inside your house,
Robert.

The wife understands
the historical significance

and importance
of these things,

so it doesn't bother her,
doesn't bother her.

I mean, you know
as well as I do,

the dead
are not gonna hurt you.

It's the living
you have to worry about.

Ha! That's very true.

You've seen a lot of mummies
in your travels,

but I doubt you've
ever seen one like this.

Romany: My cross-country search
for the mummy

that many believe to be
the notorious assassin

John Wilkes Booth
has brought me here

to the basement
of one of the world's

foremost collectors
of human remains.

I'm convinced
that the only way

to determine whether Booth
escaped after killing Lincoln

is through DNA testing
of his supposed mummy.

Ohh.

This is...

What you're looking at

has been referred to
over the years

as the pig-tailed man
or the pig-tailed woman.

It's unusual, it's rare,
but on occasion,

people are born with
a caudal appendage; a tail.

He was mummified exquisitely.
Yes.

This has gone from
one commercial

anatomical museum
to another.

I was able to trace it
up to about the year 1919

in a store show,
or a freak show, if you will.

This is indeed a rare
sideshow mummy,

but it's not the
John Wilkes Booth mummy.

It's not the mummy
I came here for.

I've been
following a story...

...um...

...a story of significant
historical...

...value.

It's a story that relates to
one of the greatest presidents

our country ever had.

I can tell that,
from the way you're reacting,

you already know
what I'm talking about.

I do. I do.

You're not the only person
that's losing a lot of sleep

over the Booth mummy,
trust me.

The story ends for me
in Pennsylvania, 1970s,

when this mummy
was last seen.

Mm-hmm.

Does it have the same
ending with you?

A lot of people would like
to know where that mummy is...

a lot of people.

No one seems to know
where it is.

Like you said,
it was last seen

in the mid-'70s
in Pennsylvania.

That much, everyone knows.

But they don't know
where it is today.

Least, most people don't.

Have you seen it
after the '70s?

I have.

I'll say that.
I have seen it.

And what did you see?

Saw what is reportedly
the John Wilkes Booth mummy.

The condition of the skin
and all was excellent.

Make no mistake about it.
It's an amazing thing.

Do you have it?

Not gonna answer
that question.

Nope.
Won't answer that.

Do you know who has it?

Is there anything
I can do to...

Convince you to take me
to the Booth mummy?

No. No, I can't do that.

And you can't
because you can't,

or you can't
because you won't?

Both.

People have been hunting
this thing for years,

and...

The time's just not right.

The day you saw
the Booth mummy,

can you tell me more
about that day?

No, no.
I can't do that either.

No. No. Like, when
you saw it. Like, not...

no. No, I can't do that.

No?
I can't. We're done here.

All right, guys.
All right.

We're done here, guys.
Let's go.

Let's go.

Fascinating man.

I've pushed Robert
as hard as I could,

and he knows something
that he's not sharing.

He had 208 different
human remains in his house.

Robert could very well
own the Booth mummy,

and he's not willing
to share it with the world.

I saw it in his eyes.
He knows something.

He knows something
that he's not sharing.

Does he know the truth?

I believe that I just found
where the trail of the missing

John Wilkes Booth mummy ends.

Robert didn't want to appear
on television,

but I changed his mind.

He told me that it wasn't
the right time to go public

with the Booth mummy,

but I hope my conversation today
will change his mind

and he will agree to let me
conduct DNA testing

that proves once and for all

whether America's
greatest assassin

paid for his crimes with his
life or walked away scot-free.