Original subtitles

- Tonight on history's greatest mysteries:

He was the actor whose most famous role

was assassinating a president.

But was john wilkes booth also an escape artist?

I'm laurence fishburne.

On tonight's mystery,

did john wilkes booth evade justice and live for decades

after assassinating abraham lincoln?

There was a son born five years after the assassination.

John wilkes booth could not have died in the barn

and fathered a son five years later.

-[fishburne] did another man die in booth's place?

Booth was able to escape

and the man in the barn was james boyd.

For the first time, booth descendants share family lore

of what they believe is evidence passed down through generations.

It even lists john wilkes booth here

as harry jerome stevenson's other father.

- Their theories and others' will be put to the test,

including, for the first time,

booth family dna analysis from the autopsy table

and the graveyard.

Where john wilkes booth was buried was an issue

from the very beginning.

Suppose john wilkes booth actually isn't buried in there.

-[fishburne] the escape of john wilkes booth,

tonight on "history's greatest mysteries."

( music playing )

stevenson: John wilkes booth before

he became john wilkes booth the assassinator

had a lot going for him.

He was one of the most popular,

if not the most popular actors in north america.

He was thought of as being the handsomest man in north america.

I mean, he had huge numbers of female fans

who swooned over him.

Michael kauffman: He had these eyes that were described as black.

A very unusual trait.

And it's something that seems to sort of draw you in.

He also had a kind of charisma and power over people,

which he was able to use in drawing together people for his conspiracy.

One of the most difficult things as a historian

is to get through to people

how different the world was in 1865.

You've got one half of the country fighting against the other half.

Washington, dc, the nation's capital,

is right on the line between the two,

and it is thoroughly saturated with enemy sympathizers.

John wilkes booth identified himself as a southerner.

He was pro-slavery, anti-black.

He had racist views which were quite common at the time.

And by the time of the civil war,

he identified himself firmly as a southerner

who supported secession and opposed the election of abraham lincoln.

Booth was crushed that the man he thought was a tyrant had been reelected.

He hated lincoln for conquering southern territory

and for emancipating the slaves.

-[fishburne] booth's remedy for the presidential tyrant

echoes themes in shakespeare's "julius caesar,"

a play he'd performed with his brothers.

Kauffman: Caesar has become a tyrant

when brutus comes along

for the good of rome and kills him.

-[fishburne] there's no doubt that john wilkes booth

was the man who shot lincoln at ford's theatre.

He made certain the audience knew he had played the leading role.

Booth wanted to be a hero. He wanted to be the american brutus.

He believed he was saving his country.

James swanson: Booth pauses at center stage and shouts,

"sic semper tyrannis." "thus always to tyrants."

he's saying it in latin, the language of julius caesar and marcus brutus,

making it known that this is what tyrants get.

This is justice.

John wilkes booth has just performed

the assassination of abraham lincoln

in front of an audience of 1,500 people.

Then he exits, heading for the bridge

that will take him from washington to maryland.

-[fishburne] booth crossed the navy yard bridge into maryland

20 minutes after shooting lincoln.

Just over the border, he was joined by 23-year-old david herold,

the only one of booth's co-conspirators to escape with him.

While booth was assassinating abraham lincoln,

david herold and lewis powell were supposed to murder the secretary of state.

Powell nearly stabbed him to death in his bed.

Herold, who was waiting outside for powell,

got afraid because seward's daughter opened a window and yelled,

"help! Murder! Help!"

he abandoned lewis powell at seward's house.

David herold finally catches up to booth,

and then it's the two of them

escaping together from that point on.

-[fishburne] booth and herold traveled south for 12 days into virginia

until they reached a farm owned by the garrett family.

Most historians believe booth was killed by union soldiers

in the garrett's tobacco barn.

Kauffman: We're in caroline county, virginia,

about two miles south of the town of port royal.

It doesn't look like a historic site,

but as you can see, they've put up a sign

about john wilkes booth's death.

This is ground zero for one of the greatest crimes scenes in history.

And we have a body, but as usual,

the biggest thing we have to do is id that body.

- Who was pulled out of the barn? - Right, exactly.

Lori rothschild ansaldi is a journalist and producer.

She's teamed with former us marshal art roderick,

who's spent decades tracking down criminal fugitives.

Art roderick: Lori's handling the family side,

and I'm more on the technical side

looking at forensic document examination,

medical examiner's autopsies, photographs,

forensic photography--

looking at some of the conspiracy theories

that really fall more into my lane from having

almost 40 years in law enforcement.

Lori rothschild ansaldi: I was actually approached by the family

with their story of how they never believed

that john wilkes booth died at garrett's farm.

They had all this information,

things that were passed down from generation to generation,

things that could never be recorded in history books.

They were secrets.

-[fishburne] joanne hulme is a descendant of the booth family.

She believes john wilkes booth escaped the union manhunt

and lived to father children after 1865.

My great-great-grandmother is john wilkes booth's aunt.

Aunt, huh? And how many siblings did john wilkes have?

There were 10 children born in the united states,

and four of them died during the yellow fever.

So there's junius brutus booth ii.

Rosalie booth, edwin thomas booth,

asia booth clarke, john wilkes booth,

and then joseph adrian booth.

I was between 11 and 12 years old, and my mother says,

"so you're going into sixth grade

and you're going to study about the civil war,

and they're going to tell you that john wilkes booth

was shot and died in the barn."

and she said, "that is not true.

He escaped the barn. He lived for many years. He had a family."

that is when my life changed, and maybe I think a part of my innocence was lost forever.

-[fishburne] but if joanne's family lore is right,

then accepted history must be rewritten,

especially the accounts of what happened

that fateful night at garrett's farm.

On April 24th about 2 pm,

booth and herold made contact with a trio of confederate cavalrymen,

who accompanied the fugitives and they were ferried across the rappahannock river.

Swanson: Then he's taken to the farm of richard garrett.

Now, the garretts don't know who booth is.

They're told, "these are confederates going home. They need your help."

the first night they're there, the garretts take them in.

They let them sleep in the house.

The next day, a cavalry patrol comes near the garrett farm.

The garrett family sees booth and herold run for cover.

So now they're thinking, "what have these men done?"

they tell them, "you can't sleep in the house tonight.

You've done something. You can sleep in our tobacco barn."

but they don't realize as soon as they go inside and go to bed,

the garretts lock them into the tobacco barn.

-[fishburne] most historians say

booth and herold were locked in the tobacco barn

and couldn't escape when union troops arrived.

When soldiers set fire to the barn to smoke them out,

herold gave himself up.

Moments later, booth was shot,

dragged from the flaming barn,

and later died.

But joanne hulme doubts that account.

There's hundreds and hundreds of books talking about a tobacco barn.

I don't understand why historians didn't question this more.

A tobacco barn is made for drying tobacco.

It's not made for keeping people in.

Any one of us could escape of a tobacco barn without detection.

Greg huber: This is a frame, circa 1900 or so, tobacco shed.

So what's the difference between a tobacco shed and a tobacco barn?

Geographically, basically. They call tobacco buildings different in different areas.

But this is basically a shed here, and it has these vertical ventilators here

that help dry out the product inside.

But in around April, the end of April in virginia,

the barn would have been cleaned out at that point.

- By a few months. - Can a human be locked into a tobacco barn?

Are those slots very heavy to move?

Couldn't they just kick it out or push it out from the inside?

They're relatively easy to pivot on their hinges.

We see a couple different attachments here to kind of secure this.

- Yeah. - You've got the wooden slat that spins on one nail.

If you're trying to get out, that looks like a pretty easy way to--

yeah, but the thing of it is, when you have 25 vertical ventilators

or something like that, some may be half open.

- Ansaldi: It's like a shutter on a house. - Huber: Right.

Structurally, it's not made to keep anybody in, right?

- Well, no. It's not a jail. - In other words, it's not-- yeah, exactly.

We got two desperate fugitives.

They're on the run, obviously,

from one of the most heinous crimes ever done

in the united states up until that point in time.

They're in the barn.

They're aware that there's union troops

that are coming down the road.

They've probably got about 10, 15 minutes

to figure out what the heck to do.

If they're locked in here, do you think they could have got out of this?

- Out of this particular-- - yes. My own opinion? Yes.

-[fishburne] so why wouldn't the most wanted men in the country

simply push their way out of that tobacco barn?

It's the first of many questions about what truly happened

to john wilkes booth.

( indistinct chatter )

-[fishburne] 12 days after assassinating president lincoln,

john wilkes booth was locked in a tobacco barn at the garrett farm

with co-conspirator david herold.

When union cavalry set a fire to smoke them out,

herold surrendered, but booth was shot,

dragged from the burning barn, and later died.

Case closed, justice served.

Or was it?

My cousins grew up with the same story

that john wilkes booth was not the body in the barn.

-[fishburne] some booth family members believe john wilkes

was not the man killed that night at garrett's farm,

and they cite various reasons.

There's the enduring claim that as david herold surrendered,

he said that the man in the barn was not booth.

And the fact that at the official autopsy,

dr. John frederick may,

the man brought in to identify the body,

did not recognize it as booth's.

That's significant to dr. Robert arnold,

who has written about the assassination.

Arnold: When may first saw the corpse, he said, "that's not booth,

and I have no reason to believe this could ever be the man."

-[fishburne] but if john wilkes booth escaped, where did he go?

According to booth family lore,

he reunited with a woman named martha izola,

someone they believe was his wife.

Author troy cowan, who wrote a book about izola, agrees.

Historians have ignored the marriage to john wilkes booth because they kept it a secret.

Nobody knew about it.

-[fishburne] some members of the booth family believe

booth and martha izola

had a daughter named ogarita.

Ogarita is born nine months

after they were married in 1859.

-[fishburne] as the story goes, after the assassination,

booth and martha izola set sail for india,

leaving their daughter behind.

After a very short stay, they decided to return to the united states.

-[fishburne] that is what some booth family members and others believe.

There's evidence that martha izola did get married, but not to booth.

According to court records, she married a man named john stevenson in 1870.

The couple had a son named harry jerome stevenson.

But according to booth family lore,

that marriage was a cover story to conceal the fact

that harry jerome stevenson's real father

was john wilkes booth.

Is that accepted that it was john wilkes booth's child?

In our family and among historians

that are not just going by the general accepted history.

-[fishburne] this story was published in a 1937 book

by ogarita's daughter

izola forrester,

harry jerome stevenson's niece.

30 years earlier, a tennessee lawyer named finis bates

had written a different account

of booth's life as a fugitive.

According to bates, booth made his way west,

where he died in enid, oklahoma in 1903

under the alias david e. George.

To investigate these different accounts,

a team will examine critical evidence

and conduct dna testing

on some possible booth family members.

It's a process familiar to former u.S. Marshal art roderick.

Roderick: There's been so many books written about john wilkes booth,

you could spend your lifetime actually wading through

all the different conspiracy theories.

And what we always try to do

from the law enforcement perspective

is boil it down to the facts.

-[fishburne] the hunt for facts continues at the place where lincoln was assassinated.

Kauffman: We're in ford's theatre on tenth street in washington,

and this is the place where president lincoln came

on the night of good Friday, April 14th, 1865.

The previous Sunday, robert e. Lee had surrendered to general grant,

and the city had been celebrating all week long.

-[fishburne] mary lincoln deto celebrate that evening

by attending the popular comic play "our american cousin."

the president, in a joyous mood, agreed to join her.

Kauffman: It wasn't so much the play,

it was joining in the celebration of the end of the war.

-[fishburne] but in the closing months of the civil war,

john wilkes booth had orchestrated an evolving plot against the president.

Swanson: John wilkes booth's first plot against abraham lincoln

was not to murder him, it was to kidnap him.

He could use lincoln as a captive

to force the north to surrender

all the confederate prisoners of war.

-[fishburne] in the fall of 1864,

booth drew a group of associates into his kidnapping plot.

But on the 18th of January 1865,

the union government agreed to resume prisoner exchanges with the south.

There was no longer any reason to capture abraham lincoln

and force them to do what in fact they were already doing.

Booth was very disappointed. He thought he could perform this masterstroke

where he would become part of history and change history.

Then on April 3rd, richmond fell.

Then news got even worse for booth.

On April 9th, robert e. Lee surrendered at appomattox.

He thought the cause was lost.

When john wilkes booth woke up on the morning of April 14th, 1865,

he did not know that he was going to assassinate abraham lincoln that night.

He went to ford's theatre to pick up his mail.

Kauffman: One of the theater employees told booth

that abraham lincoln is planning to be here tonight.

Swanson: That started the ticking clock.

And booth said, "maybe there's still time for me to act."

so booth ticked off in his head,

"who's still in town?

Lewis powell is still here.

George atzerodt is here.

David herold is here. We can do it."

he starts making plans not only for an attack on the president,

but also possibly the vice president,

and certainly the secretary of state william seward.

-[fishburne] that afternoon, booth arrived at ford's theatre during a rehearsal.

He went into the vestibule behind the presidential box,

taking with him a piece of wood from a music stand

that he'd later use to barricade the door.

Once he put that bar in place, no one could follow him

into abraham lincoln's box at ford's theatre.

The play began around 8:00 that night,

and john wilkes booth dropped in from time to time,

looking at the clock in the lobby and so on.

He went next door and had a drink,

and he had a kind of a last-minute get-together

with lewis powell and possibly george atzerodt.

He needed to make sure his pistol was ready.

He decided to use a single-shot derringer pistol.

Maybe booth thought it was, in his twisted mind,

more honorable to take lincoln

with a single coup de grâce like a hunter.

Lincoln's entrance to ford's theatre was majestic in its simplicity.

He arrived with no entourage, no armed guards.

We think of security of the president today,

it's completely different than the way it was back then.

There was no security detail around the president all the time

like we see now with what the secret service does.

Lincoln did have a detail with him that evening

from the metropolitan police department.

More than likely, the two main responsibilities he had

at most was to meet the president at the door

when he arrived at ford's, get him to his box.

Once the play was over, then get him from the box back to the street.

Kauffman: Even in a city where you have a vast majority of people are pro-southern,

they still didn't think it was necessary that you protect the president.

Swanson: William seward once said, "oh, assassination?

That's not an american habit or custom.

That's not gonna happen here."

kauffman: So john wilkes booth came back in here about 10:00.

He comes to the back of the theater

and calls out to ned spangler.

He wants spangler to hold his horse for him.

Spangler says, "I'm busy. I'm here working,"

and so he refuses.

So then booth gets this young boy

by the name of joseph burrows

to hold the horses' reins for him

and then he goes inside.

Booth is about ready

to go into that final stretch.

Jeffery jones: Booth's path pretty much followed the perimeter of the building,

very similar to the path that lincoln had taken.

Oftentimes people will maybe ask questions of,

"why on earth would you have have let

john wilkes booth access the president?"

why would you not have?

Today you see celebrities hanging out with politicians.

Very similar in 1865 as well.

One thing I find interesting about booth

is if he just wanted to kill the president,

he could have been sitting back there with a civil war era rifle.

Making a shot from that distance across the theater

would have been a pretty easy shot with a rifle.

Yeah, but then there would be a chance that somebody else would get credit.

Jones: So this is the door leading to the vestibule

that would have then led to the actual presidential box.

Booth more than likely gets here during the third act,

scene two of "our american cousin."

and he knows when he wants to fire the shot

because he's familiar with the play,

and it's going to be a big burst of laughter and all of that.

So booth makes his way into the vestibule here,

then closes the door behind him, picking up the broken music stand

that he had placed earlier, and then wedges this door shut.

He is waiting outside the box. He can see through the hole.

Through that hole, you could see the top of the president's rocker

- and the president's head. - Jones: Really in perfect position for just simply

walking in and firing the shot.

Major henry rathbone hears the shot, smells the sulfury gunpowder,

realizes something has just happened.

Booth drops the derringer,

pulls out his nine-inch dagger, lunges at rathbone,

rathbone instinctly throwing up his left arm, catching the blade.

The audience was stunned and didn't understand what was going on.

Booth got to the front rail and vaulted over,

landing down on the stage.

That's 12 and a half feet down.

Booth lands unevenly on the stage

and breaks a bone in his left leg.

Kauffman: And after a few seconds, mrs. Lincoln screamed,

and john wilkes booth ran off the stage and went out the back door,

where joseph burrows was waiting with his horse.

-[fishburne] according to some, what happened in the ensuing hours and days

didn't play out the way history books say it did.

-[fishburne] as president lincoln lay dying in a boarding house

across the street from ford's theatre,

his assassin fled through northern maryland,

headed for a tavern owned by mary surratt.

Booth would have felt comfortable in maryland and virginia

because they were slave states.

And so I think it would

have been seen as a haven

for any southern sympathizer.

-[fishburne] surratt's tavern was indeed a haven for those with southern sympathies.

Former us marshal art roderick met with author james l. Swanson

to retrace fugitive booth's known steps.

Roderick: So, james, here we are at surratt's tavern.

Why don't you tell me what happened here in April of 1865?

A little after midnight, john wilkes booth and david herold

rode up to this tavern,

and booth didn't want to dismount

because of his broken leg.

David herold got off his horse, knocked on this door,

and told the tavern keeper to come down and let them in.

Booth knew he was coming here.

It was always part of his plan.

Earlier that day, he stopped at mary surratt's

boarding house in washington, dc.

She was the mother of john surratt, jr.,

one of booth's conspirators in the kidnapping plot.

Booth handed her his binoculars and he said,

"mary, can you take these to your country tavern

and tell the innkeeper john lloyd that people are coming tonight

and I want to pick up my guns."

earlier, as part of the kidnapping plot,

booth had left two spencer repeating carbines here.

They were hidden behind a wall.

Cleverly, they were suspended on ropes,

so you'd have to look down and see that the carbines were down there.

Now, we don't know if booth told mary that,

"I'm stopping there after I've killed the president. I want my guns."

- right, right. - He probably only told her,

"I'm passing through town. I'm gonna pick up the binoculars.

And tell lloyd the innkeeper to get those guns ready."

- mm-hmm. - Lloyd told david herold,

"wait here. I'll get the guns."

then booth said to lloyd,

"there's some news if you'd like to hear it."

and lloyd said, "I'm not particular about it. Tell me if you want."

and booth, unbelievably, confessed.

The actor in him couldn't resist boasting about what he had done.

He said, "I'm pretty certain that we've assassinated the president."

because he wasn't sure. He did not know yet if he had succeeded.

He didn't know if it was a fatal wound.

It sounds like the assassination plot

was done kind of on the spur of the moment,

and the planning was done for the kidnapping

as opposed to the assassination.

Swanson: Booth still knew where the safehouses were.

He knew the names of confederate operatives and agents.

But he had one big advantage when he got here.

He was riding ahead of the news.

Nobody in maryland knew that abraham lincoln had been shot.

They don't want to stay here long

because the cavalry's going to come out of washington

searching the countryside.

And then booth and herold rode off into the night.

-[fishburne] the traditional says that booth and herold

rode from surratt's tavern

to the home of dr. Samuel mudd.

Booth was badly in need of medical attention.

From washington to mudd's house is 25 to 30 miles,

and booth had broken his ankle when he fell onto the stage.

In riding a horse, you use your legs

sort of as a shock absorber.

He couldn't do that, and he had to bounce along.

And by the time he got to mudd's,

his back was killing him.

-[fishburne] but dr. Mudd's statements about booth's visit suggest

it might not have been david herold traveling with booth,

but a younger man named edwin hynson,

shown in this photo.

In testimony dr. Mudd gave to union authorities,

he said booth's accomplice gave his name as hynson.

Mudd stated he had seen the photograph of herold,

but did not recognize it as that of the young man.

In another statement, mudd described hynson as a well-grown boy

who looked to be about 17 or 18,

a boy who had never yet shaved.

That's a far better description of edwin hynson

than the 23-year-old herold,

whose ample five o'clock shadow can be seen in photos

taken after his capture.

If booth was traveling with hynson,

then is it possible booth wasn't at garrett's farm with herold

and that he wasn't the man that died there?

That's what some booth family members believe,

and they point to the possibility that booth fathered children

after the history books say he died.

To help find the truth, dr. Colleen fitzpatrick,

a noted forensic genealogist,

agreed to undertake dna testing

of some booth family members.

So I've been contacted by one of the booth family members.

Her name is joanne hulme, and she has documentation showing her lineage.

Can we possibly use joanne's dna to prove or disprove

whether or not these people are descendants?

Well, that's where genetic genealogy comes in.

Forensic genealogy is the application

of scientific methods to genealogy.

In an informal sense, it's known as "csi" meets "roots."

fortunately, we have the ability to take dna tests as genealogists

to prove family lines or disprove family lines,

and so we no longer have to rely on family stories

and documentation that may not have provenance.

Now, when you test joanne, the whole point really

is to compare her to some people that might be booths, but are not sure.

We want to compare, I'll call them the maybe booths,

against authentically documented booths.

Joanne is a candidate because she descends

from john wilkes booth's paternal aunt.

This whole project actually comes down to dna.

We're sitting in a time where history and science

are going to merge together.

-[fishburne] among the possible descendants of john wilkes booth

is andy gorto, whose great-great-grandfather is harry jerome stevenson,

a man allegedly fathered by booth after booth was supposed to be dead.

"at left, mrs. Joseph balla, former izola frances stevenson,

who asserts john wilkes booth was her grandfather."

at right, this is izola martha stevenson,

"who mrs. Balla says married assassin of president lincoln in connecticut in 1864."

so this would be izola martha mills.

That's my mother's mother actually right there.

This is your mother's mother?

- Yes. - Got it.

And then her father would have been harry jerome stevenson?

- Yes. - You've given your sample for the dna test...

- Yes. - ...Which is exciting.

- It is. - The only thing I get really concerned about

is at the end of the day, it's gonna come down to science.

We're gonna come up with an answer,

and are you guys ready to face that answer?

Oh, definitely. It would just be nice to know.

Be nice to vindicate my mother and grandmother, you know?

And shed some light on really what happened.

-[fishburne] five and a half hours

after john wilkes booth shot president lincoln,

he arrived at the home of dr. Samuel mudd with a broken leg.

Relying on statements dr. Mudd gave to union officers after his arrest,

some theorized that booth was accompanied by a young man named edwin hynson.

But most historians, like james swanson,

maintain that booth was traveling with conspirator david herold.

Booth sat on his horse right about here, about 20 paces from the house.

David herold dismounted and pounded on the front door till he woke dr. Mudd.

Mudd shouted through the door, "who is it? What do you want?"

herold said, "we're from around here.

I'm with a friend. His horse fell, and he's got a broken bone.

He needs help." mudd came out to help the injured man off the horse.

- Roderick: Right. Yep. - Swanson: And that's when dr. Mudd knew it.

This is john wilkes booth.

This wasn't booth's first visit to this house.

- He'd spent the night here. - Right.

He had come down to this county and met with dr. Mudd

and other confederate operatives.

Mudd was part of booth's plot to kidnap abraham lincoln.

- Right. - Dr. Mudd did not know that john wilkes booth

was going to assassinate abraham lincoln that night.

Well, after dr. Mudd helped john wilkes booth come through the front door,

he took him into this room, the front parlor.

And mudd sat him on the sofa.

He didn't even take him up to his office.

So booth reclined on that sofa and dr. Mudd began to help him.

- On that actual sofa? - On that sofa.

- Roderick: That sofa right there? - Swanson: Yes.

Mudd knew he had to get booth's left boot off, but it wouldn't come off.

He tried to yank it off, and it caused booth agonizing pain.

So he cut the boot open and pulled it off of his leg.

He detected that he had a simple fracture.

Easy enough to treat. Dr. Mudd left booth on the sofa,

and he went upstairs, fashioned a splint.

And then dr. Mudd knew that booth was gonna need crutches,

and so he made a pair of crutches here.

He invited him to spend the night

and took him upstairs to the front bedroom

where booth rested for several hours.

David herold came down for breakfast,

but booth didn't want food.

He just stayed upstairs till at least around noon.

Yeah. They spent quite a few hours here then.

They did. They got here at 4 am,

and they were here till the following evening.

And during his stay here, he asked for a razor and shaving cream,

and he shaved his mustache off.

So this is where he cleaned up quite a bit?

This is where he cleaned up and changed his appearance.

And changed his appearance, exactly.

-[fishburne] knowing it would be painful for booth to ride a horse,

dr. Mudd and david herold searched for a carriage,

but none were available.

Herold returned to the farm,

and dr. Mudd rode on to bryantown,

where he saw union cavalry

and learned that president lincoln had died that morning,

killed by john wilkes booth.

He didn't tell the soldiers. He rushed back here to tell john wilkes booth,

"what have you done? You've implicated me.

You've endangered me and my family. You've gotta go.

I'll protect you. I won't tell them you were here.

But you have to leave right now.

You can't be found here."

john wilkes booth knew the cavalry was just a few miles away in bryantown,

but he felt safe and familiar on this spot.

But once mudd sent him down that road to the great zekiah swamp,

he was heading into territory unknown to him.

From the time john wilkes booth left dr. Mudd's farm,

he had to make it up as he went along.

Roderick: This is an individual that almost commits a perfect crime,

but because he broke that bone in his leg,

he started to have to improvise,

- and that's where these criminals always go wrong. - That's right.

-[fishburne] hobbling on crutches, booth pressed on,

determined to elude the spreading union threat.

Swanson: When he left mudd, he then connects with thomas jones,

an agent who specializes in ferrying spies and agents across the river here.

And jones gave him the most important advice

that booth got during the entire escape.

Jones said, "the cavalry's going to be close.

I suggest we hide in place and wait for the union forces

to sweep through the area and move on past us."

-[fishburne] for five days, booth and herold hid in the pine thicket

waiting for a chance to cross the potomac river into virginia.

They finally crossed into virginia on April 24th.

There they met three confederate soldiers

and were ferried across the rappahannock by william rollins.

The soldiers then guided them to garrett's farm.

Now rollins is still in the same place the following day

when pursuers from the 16th new york cavalry come along.

And he says, "yeah, they were here about 24 hours ago.

Willie jett is one of the soldiers who is with them.

You can go ask willie. Everybody knows where he is

because he's got a girlfriend down in bowling green, virginia."

and they pull willie out of bed,

and colonel everton conger puts a gun to his head

and says, "we know that you were with booth."

so willie jett tells them, "I left him at the garrett farm."

-[fishburne] the union soldiers returned with jett to garrett's farm

and surrounded the barn where booth and herold were hiding.

When the fugitives wouldn't surrender,

soldiers set fire to the barn.

After herold gave himself up, a sergeant named boston corbett

saw booth move toward the door holding a rifle

and shot him through the neck.

( gunshot )

dr. Robert arnold disputes that account.

A navy surgeon for 30 years

and an assistant county coroner,

he was inspired to write his own book about the lincoln assassination.

There was a little journal published by the navy,

and there was an article about the autopsy

of the man that was killed in garrett's barn,

and it questioned the identification of the corpse.

-[fishburne] that article by leonard guttridge is among the neff-guttridge papers

housed at indiana state university.

David vancil: And a collection like this is often labelled

a conspiracy collection.

In fact, it is not a conspiracy collection.

It's a collection of research materials

and it can be interpreted different ways

by different researchers.

-[fishburne] dr. Arnold joined art roderick at indiana state

to share his theory about the corpse at garrett's farm.

Central to his argument are three vertebrae

that were removed from booth's body

during his autopsy aboard a navy gunboat, the u.S.S. Montauk.

The vertebrae are now kept at the national museum of health and medicine

in silver spring, maryland.

I finally went to the medical museum to look at the actual specimen

to see the vertebrae from the corpse that was on the montauk.

This looks like a picture from the medical museum I know you had talked about.

- You actually saw this. - This is the three vertebrae

that the pathologist removed,

and it shows the downward inclination of the bullet.

That's the trajectory, which I measured out at 20 degrees.

This is almost one vertebra lower here.

- You're saying a shot from a higher up angle? - Yes.

-[fishburne] since boston corwas a short man standing on the ground,

dr. Arnold believes he could not have fired the deadly shot from overhead.

Boston corbett could not have killed the man in the barn.

Corbett would have had to have been 18 feet in the air to have fired that.

Trajectories don't lie. People do.

-[fishburne] dr. Arnold also points out issues surrounding

dr. Frederick may's role in the autopsy.

A highly regarded surgeon, dr. May had removed an infected growth

from the back of booth's neck two years earlier.

He was brought aboard the montauk to identify booth's body.

Roderick: You were a pathologist. Dr. May was a surgeon.

I don't know how many times he would come across a body that was into decomposition.

Arnold: He would ordinarily never do that. His specialty was surgery.

He said, "this man does not resemble john wilkes booth."

but the most interesting thing to me is when he said his right leg

- was black from a fracture. - Yes, yes.

Arnold: Now, may is smart enough to know

that a fracture does not cause your leg to turn black. That's soft tissue.

The injury that booth received on the stage,

and it was corroborated by dr. Mudd,

was a simple fracture two inches above the instep.

But mudd did not describe any soft tissue damage whatsoever.

He even noted the lack of tumefaction-- which is swelling.

Yet the corpse on the montauk

had enough soft tissue damage that it had turned black.

-[fishburne] dr. Arnold notes that dr. May indicated

the body had an injured right leg.

Booth fractured his left leg.

And his son said, "if he said it was a right leg, it was the right leg."

- yeah. - He didn't make those kind of mistakes.

-[fishburne] for these reasons, dr. Arnold makes a bold assertion.

Arnold: The man that may saw on the montauk

could not possibly have been the same one

that broke his ankle on the stage and that mudd saw.

E believe the description of

john wilkes booth's dead body by dr. Frederick may

raises questions about who actually died in garrett's barn.

They point to an article dr. May wrote years later

about the autopsy aboard the u.S.S. Montauk

in which he states that at first

he didn't recognize the body as booth's.

To further investigate that autopsy,

art roderick met with graham hetrick.

A coroner for three decades,

hetrick has conducted more than 3,000 autopsies.

They examined the report by the army surgeon

who actually conducted the autopsy.

This here is a statement by the surgeon general barnes.

"I made at 2 pm this date, April 27th,

a postmortem examination of the body of j. Wilkes booth.

The left leg and foot were encased in an appliance of splints and bandages,

upon the removal of which, a fracture of the fibula was discovered.

The cause of death was a gunshot wound in the neck,

the ball passing through the boney bridge

of the fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae

severing the spinal cord.

Paralysis of the entire body was immediate.

And all the horrors of consciousness of suffering in death

must have been present to the assassin

during the two hours which he lingered."

his description of the person being totally aware is true,

because he has the capacity of thought.

He is paralyzed and he was dying, really, of asphyxiation,

because the diaphragm and not being able to move

to help with the breathing.

The overall autopsy was not what we expect today.

There would probably be a hundred autopsy photos.

- Yeah. - They had a photographer there,

but there was only one plate.

-[fishburne] that one photo has never been seen,

fueling conspiracy theories ever since.

Especially since one of the primary purposes of the examination

was to make a positive identification of booth's body.

None of booth's family members or co-conspirators

were present to id the body, but dr. John frederick may was,

and may's initial reaction was that the body did not resemble booth.

I'm not surprised that he said this doesn't even look like a likeness of mr. Booth.

- Right. - Because you have somebody who's been running

through the swamps and the woods.

He hasn't been eating regularly. He hasn't been sleeping.

He probably didn't look like that handsome actor

that may was used to seeing at ford's theatre.

He died approximately at 5:30 am on April 26th.

Lieutenant doherty sewed him into the blanket at around 8:30, so--

- no body bags in those days. - Yeah, really.

-[fishburne] the wrapped body was placed face down in a horse cart

and taken to the potomac river, where it traveled by boat

to the washington navy yard and was brought aboard the montauk.

Graham hetrick: The autopsy did not start till 2 pm.

- Wow. - There's a lot of postmortem changes going on there.

The first one, you get in to rigor mortis. You stiffen.

Another one simultaneously to that is called lividity.

If you're laying somebody face down,

that blood is gonna go towards the face during decomposition.

By the time they got him, his face probably didn't look too good.

It could be deceiving. But dr. May, looking at the back of the neck,

did say that although it isn't what I would consider

a likeness of him, that is the scar.

It's consistent with what I did.

-[fishburne] the schlesinger library at harvard university

holds the personal papers of izola paige forrester, a celebrated author.

Her 1937 book "this one mad act" tells a story

in which booth was not the dead man on the montauk.

Forrester believed she was the granddaughter of john wilkes booth

and martha izola mills.

Based on all of the writings that we're finding in here

of all these letters, it's pretty clear that izola mills,

or martha izola mills, was married...

- Yes. Yes. - ...To john wilkes booth.

Is that something that's always been known?

Always. Always in our family,

and in all the generations and all the different branches.

Always known. Always accepted. Always acknowledged.

Talk of the date when they were married...

-[fishburne] and while hisee no convincing evidence of that marriage,

joanne hulme believes the proof exists in a document written by the minister

who is alleged to have officiated their wedding.

What it looks like is a marriage certificate

that was dated January 9th, 1859 by reverend weaver.

"this is to certify that on January 9th, 1859,

I performed a ceremony joining in a holy matrimony

john byron wilkes booth and martha mills at my home in dingletown, connecticut."

-[fishburne] and there's a further shocking revelation in "this one mad act."

there's an historic record of martha I. M. Booth

marrying john stevenson in baltimore in 1871.

But forrester's book claims martha izola's marriage to stevenson

was an arrangement to cover for booth's escape

and to conceal the identity of booth's newborn son harry

by giving him stevenson's name.

Ansaldi: "one mad act" refers to this conversation that harry has with his father

at the end of his father's life.

His father is dying.

-[fishburne] according to forrester,

the man harry believed was his father

confessed that harry was really the son

of his friend john wilkes booth.

You can't father a child five years after you have been dead.

There are plenty of stories about john wilkes booth

having children, being married.

I can believe that he probably got a woman pregnant.

I would find it hard to believe that he never did.

But as for the marriage, I'm very skeptical about it.

Now in this age of genealogy done through dna,

I'm expecting we'll see an answer before too long.

-[fishburne] a critical step in investigating

whether john wilkes booth escaped after killing president lincoln

and fathered a son named harry jerome stevenson

is the dna testing of harry jerome stevenson's descendants.

Dennis farley and his sister linda casey

are the great grandchildren of harry jerome stevenson.

The official historical record says that harry was the son

of martha izola and john stevenson.

But dennis and linda recall learning that

their ancestor's father was really john wilkes booth.

We were all at my grandmother's house.

I think it was joanne gorto, started telling people,

"you know, we're related to john wilkes booth."

of course, most of us didn't believe it,

but my grandmother's mouth just dropped

because she didn't ever want this story to get out.

She thought people would take retribution on the family, you know?

- Right. - She asked people just keep it within the family.

Ansaldi: And this would have been harry jerome stevenson's daughter.

Did you guys ever know of john henry stevenson?

Dennis farley: Uncle tom was the one that told us

that this man stevenson

took the kids under his name.

So that they could mask the identity, again, of the child.

Yeah. We did hear that stevenson was a convenience thing to help her child.

And that, uh, it--

ansaldi: And you never heard of the story of martha izola

meeting john wilkes booth in california and taking a boat to india?

I did hear about the boat trip.

In that story, they go to india

with john using an alias, john byron wilkes.

There is a will that is created in india.

-[fishburne] those who believe booth escaped to india

cite as proof the will of john byron wilkes.

A certified copy of the will was found in clay county, indiana.

The unsigned will, apparently executed in bombay in 1883,

gives sums of money to wives,

lovers, and "heirs of my body"

known to be associated with booth.

Ansaldi: And in that, harry jerome stevenson is listed.

Ogarita is also listed.

Izola is listed.

- Well, whether it's all true or not... - Yeah.

- ...Dna will tell. - Dna will tell.

-[fishburne] author troy cowan believes booth escaped

and fathered harry jerome stevenson.

Cowan's interest in the booth story was sparked by his own family lore.

I became interested in the john wilkes booth story because of my aunt jane davis.

Her grandfather was john riley davis,

and he was a cousin of jefferson davis.

After jefferson davis got out of prison,

john wilkes booth wrote him a letter

saying that he was alive, well, and living in mexico.

-[fishburne] but cowan doesn't believe booth died in india.

In his version, booth returned from india

very much alive and went to mexico,

where many confederate veterans fled after the civil war.

Booth left mexico and went to glen rose, southwest of dallas,

and he opened a business selling liquor and tobacco.

About this time, a us marshal from paris, texas,

was coming to glen rose for his marriage.

Booth did not want to be seen.

He went east and he wound up in sewanee, tennessee,

and he got a job as a carpenter.

There he met louisa j. Payne.

-[fishburne] fugitive booth's alleged travels out west

were a particular interest to the late arthur ben chitty,

who did extensive research into local booth lore

in franklin county, tennessee.

The team met with his daughter to explore his theories.

He started collecting oral histories.

He never called himself a historian

because he didn't do all the comparative analysis.

He called himself a historiographer.

And the distinction was that he collected this stuff,

and then let's see what happens with it later.

So a gentleman came from fayetteville to give

one of these oral histories to your dad?

His name was reese. He had known macager payne.

Now macager payne was the purported stepson of john wilkes booth,

who was nine years old at the time booth entered their lives.

- Here's something from macager-- - oh, yeah.

"this john wilkes booth made the acquaintance

with my mother at sewanee, tennessee.

And the 25th of February, 1872, he married my mother.

He told mother and me that he was the man that killed lincoln.

And that he was a rich man, if he could get to little rock.

And we got as far as memphis, tennessee.

There he disappeared, and we never heard of him any more."

cowan: While in memphis, he was recognized.

He got frightened and went back to glen rose, texas.

Em turner chitty: Louisa was four or five months pregnant when he left.

-[fishburne] louisa gave birth to a daughter

she named laura ida elizabeth booth.

He was married here, and then your dad

went looking for proof of that, and he actually found it.

So this is a certified copy of the actual marriage certificate.

It says that "john w. Booth married to a louisa payne February of 1872."

there's also a marriage license.

That's cc rose. He's the justice of the peace.

And you have j. And o. W. Boothe.

And the other thing I see is an "e" at the end of it.

-[fishburne] is it possible that "e" was an effort

on booth's part to disguise his true identity?

Okay, but look at this. "rose."

a cc rose was on the marriage certificate. I believe it was the judge.

- "we, john wilkes booth--" - and, I think--

"cc rose, are held and firmly bound

to the state of tennessee in the sum of $1,250."

john wilkes booth owed cc rose

$1,250 according to this document.

Which is a lot of money. It's like $25,000. It's huge.

"whereas the above-bound booth

has this day obtained a license to marry louisa payne,

this obligation to be void."

he had to-- he had to void his debt with cc rose,

and the way he did it was marrying louisa payne.

Ansaldi: Was this a shotgun wedding?

Chitty: Maybe cc rose was, like, an uncle.

He was rescuing her reputation.

-[fishburne] to test this theorart roderick brought the payne marriage papers

to forensic document examiner robert floberg for analysis.

Well, rob, I know you've spent quite a few years in law enforcement.

How long have you been doing document examinations?

I've been doing it now for 30 years.

This is a series of documents from the state of tennessee,

franklin county, from 1872, which purport to be marriage licenses

and accompanying documents between louisa payne and john wilkes booth.

They do appear to be from that time frame, 1872.

The middle name is not really evident, so it's john w. Boothe.

We don't know that it's wilkes. Boothe is spelled b-o-o-t-h-e.

Why would they add an "e" to booth?

The story is that after they got married,

he confessed to her that, "hey, I'm john wilkes booth."

and being the religious woman that she was,

she wanted to be married under his real name.

And the question is, did he alter his handwriting?

- Right. - You can disguise your handwriting,

but it's difficult.

There's so many aspects you have to disguise.

And I doubt that he could have done that under the pressure

of signing a court document.

What do you think about this particular document?

Robert floberg: It's an agreement between a justice of the peace

and a john w. Boothe.

We can compare the actual groom's signature

with the known john wilkes booth signature.

There are inconsistencies to where I doubt that this would be john wilkes booth.

There's an inconsistency with the "t" crossing

and how the lowercase letters are created.

- So it's two different people? - Not john wilkes booth.

Not john wilkes booth.

-[fishburne] floberg also the john byron wilkes will.

- That's unfortunate there's no handwriting on the will. - Right.

It's just a typewritten document.

Filed in clay circuit court in state of indiana. Right.

And did the typewriter exist in 1883?

Well, yes, it did. At that time, typewriters had been around at least ten years,

and this specific typeface was in existence in the 1880s.

The early typewriters were all capital letters,

so it is conceivable that this is a legitimate document.

Unfortunately there's no cursive signature from the testator,

and that would have been john byron wilkes.

John wilkes booth had a very unique cursive signature,

and if he would have signed this alias name

with a lot of the similar letters and the letter connections,

we could conceivably make a match.

Mystery of john wilkes booth,

the team went to massachusetts and the grave

of the assassin's oldest brother,

junius brutus booth, jr.

Their guide is his great-grandson tony booth.

So right over here is your great-grandfather.

How were you told that you were part of the booth family?

Actually, it was probably when I was 13 or 14.

There was a trunk that was hidden away in the attic.

And one day I got in there and opened it up and I found all these costumes.

Then I asked my mom and she said, "well, you're a booth."

and I said, "what does that mean particularly?"

and she said, "well, you're related to john wilkes booth."

and it was sort of a stigma, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle.

I'm not a fan of john wilkes booth.

He's the same to me as everybody else.

He's a devil and a killer,

and I had no desire to be related to the guy.

Ansaldi: Did your mom ever tell you about your great-grandfather?

Were any of your uncles theatrical?

Yeah, she mentioned that they were actors.

- Yeah. - And that this stuff that I'd found

was a costumes, you know,

that they wore, like, for "julius caesar"

and for some of these other plays that they did on stage.

-[fishburne] to help solve the mystery,

tony booth agree to provide his dna.

It will be compared to those who believe

they may be descended from children fathered by booth

after history says he died.

If you can prove that somebody was born after the date of john wilkes death,

supposed death, that would be proof

that john wilkes never did die in the barn,

that he'd lived after that.

I, in a way, hope that he did die,

because he deserved to die right there in the barn.

But if he didn't, then let's find out why,

or where, and how he escaped.

-[fishburne] theories about booth's possible escape

often include a mysterious figure named james william boyd.

The majority of historians agree that john wilkes booth

was killed at the garrett barn by union troops

on April 26th, 1865.

His accomplice david herold was arrested and later hanged

with fellow co-conspirator lewis powell,

george atzerodt, and mary surratt.

After his arrest, david herold had given testimony

that booth was using the alias boyd

when they crossed into virginia

and met the confederate cavalry there.

And one of those rebel troopers, willie jett,

testified that booth gave his name as james william boyd

when they took him to garrett's farm.

Yet some researchers and booth family members believe

booth wasn't at garrett's farm that night.

Some suggest he escaped the manhunt in the company

of a young man named edwin hynson.

But if booth wasn't traveling with david herold,

then who was the man with herold in that burning barn?

And who was james william boyd?

It's well-documented that a confederate soldier

named james w. Boyd existed,

and that while a prisoner of war,

he petitioned secretary of war

edwin stanton for his release.

What happened to boyd after his release

is where the mystery lies.

In a statement purportedly made by the confederate officer john singleton mosby

shortly before his death in 1916,

mosby claims he sent james william boyd

to help booth kidnap lincoln.

If mosby's statement is authentic,

it's a stunning claim.

Author troy cowan asserts that when the kidnap plot failed

and booth impulsively killed the president instead,

boyd fled south along the same path as booth.

John wilkes booth and david herold met up with him by accident

at cox's farm, the next house after dr. Mudd's.

James william boyd led david herold and john wilkes booth into the swamp.

-[fishburne] according to cowan, boyd arranged

for their successful river crossings into virginia.

Cowan: At the rappahannock, after they crossed,

booth reached in his pockets to pay james william boyd

and he didn't have his money,

and he thought he left it in the wagon.

-[fishburne] cowan believes booth sent boyd back across the river to get his money

while booth rode on ahead.

Cowan: Booth arrived at the garrett farm on the 24th,

and the next day, he left for harper's ferry.

On the 25th, late at night, herold and james william boyd

came to the house looking for booth,

and booth had already left.

They needed a place to sleep,

so they offered them their corn crib to sleep in.

-[fishburne] dr. Robert arnold describes how he believes boyd came to be killed,

not by boston corbett, but by a shot from above.

It began with the arrest of willie jett.

Dr. Arnold maintains that the frightened confederate

participated in a dark scheme to cover up booth's escape.

Willie jett was a marksman.

He's gonna kill boyd by shooting him,

then he's going to kill herold.

Then when the barn burns down,

there will be enough fire and everything

that they'll be so disfigured

that nobody'll really know who it is.

And then they would take the corpses back to washington and be heroes.

-[fishburne] dr. Arnold says conger's plan went awry

when david herold wanted to surrender.

Arnold: Doherty opened the door and let david herold surrender.

The next thing was james boyd decided to surrender also.

And jett shot him and everybody saw it,

and the trajectory was 20 degrees from horizontal,

so he probably shot from up in the hayloft.

And instead of letting him burn,

they all ran in and took the body out,

and he could be easily identified as not being booth.

-[fishburne] but there was a lot of reward money on the line,

and letting booth escape would have been a national embarrassment.

Arnold: They kept the dead man there at the farm

long enough for stanton to gerrymander the autopsy onboard the montauk,

and then quickly get him underground and pass him off as booth.

-[fishburne] but would it have been possible

to pass off boyd as booth?

Investigator art roderick went to virginia tech

to see if cutting edge facial recognition technology

can provide an answer.

Our website is called civil war photo sleuth.

We actually allow people to try to identify

unknown soldiers and sailors from the civil war era.

How many photos do you have in the database here?

Right now we have almost 30,000.

- Wow. - So it is using a combination of human intelligence

- and artificial intelligence. - Right.

Kurt luther: The artificial intelligence is face recognition.

We provided him two different photographs of john wilkes booth

as sort of a test subject.

-[fishburne] dr. Luther's software

matched the two completely different photos of booth

out of 30,000 possibilities.

The system clearly works.

But what can it say about james william boyd's

resemblance to john wilkes booth?

Was he similar enough that his body

might have been mistaken for john wilkes booth?

-[fishburne] but while dr. Luther's software matched two picture of booth

out of 30,000 options,

there was no match between photos of booth and boyd.

It turns out that there are about 200 results

that look similar enough to this gentleman

to show up as results.

What we're not seeing are any of the photos of booth...

- Right. - ...That we've uploaded.

Another dna donor, matt wilkinson,

who believes his ancestor may have been born to john wilkes booth

after history says he died in 1865.

The relation goes through this guy right there.

Ansaldi: Harry jerome stevenson,

who would be your great-grandfather,

was the son of john wilkes booth.

- That's correct. - He was born in '71.

- Right. - -[fishburne] if wilkinson proves to be a booth,

he must deal with a dual legacy.

Part of a renowned acting family

and a descendant of lincoln's assassin.

My grandmother chose not to discuss it.

If we prove that you are indeed a booth family match...

- Yes. - ...That would mean that booth

couldn't have died in the barn,

because then your great-grandfather

could never have been born. Harry's the ringer.

Clearly, this would wipe away a chunk of history around all these events.

This notion that john wilkes booth survived

is one the fuels a lot of myths

about the time period.

Elle harvell: 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.

The confederacy had a win.

And so all of this is sort of out there and stirring the pot

of whether or not john wilkes booth got away with it,

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 claim to be john wilkes booth makes sense

because that person would have the support,

would seem like a movie star of sorts.

Some of the girls would line up,

maybe sneak out their houses to see him--

getting away with wooing girls

and leaving town with babies behind.

-[fishburne] but before john wilkes booth could live to woo young ladies

and father children, he would first have to elude the union manhunt.

Cowan: People have been discussing and arguing

whether it was really booth killed in the garrett barn

or not for a hundred 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 I can discover whether

that's really booth or not.

-[fishburne] 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 artifacts,

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?

-[fishburne] 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 them to exhume john wilkes booth, examine the body,

and use what's known as tinal radiology,

where they x-ray the skull in the same plane as a picture and match it.

That's a very good way of identification.

-[fishburne] 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 green mount cemetery

was an issue from the very beginning.

-[fishburne] john wilkes booth's body,

or the body of the man said to be booth,

was released by the government to the family in 1869.

According to the documentary record,

the body was brought to green mount

on February 18th, 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 mary ann booth

actually purchased the lot in green mount cemetery.

Just 13 days later on June 26th, 1869,

there was indeed the burial of john wilkes booth's body

in the booth plot somewhere.

-[fishburne] somewhere, but where exactly?

In 1995, frank gorman represented green mount cemetery

in a case brought by booth family members to exhume booth's body

and determine of it's really their infamous relative buried there.

After four days of trial, the judge decided

that 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 dig him up.

I read something somewhere about the amount of people

that are buried in that particular plot.

- Was that an issue during-- - yeah, it was.

The cemetery and others really don't know

- exactly where in the cemetery he is. - Right.

Approximately ten or more booth 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 there?

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,

I think that would be a terrible thing to happen.

It would-- to this country, at this time especially,

it would glorify booth,

and kind of diminish

a 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 admired presidents

would have the end of his story kind of upset.

So, I'll leave it this way, I'm glad that he is in here,

- and I think that he is. - So, you're sure that he is in there?

- Yes, art, I am. - Okay.

Truth in history is so difficult to get to.

Historians want

to get to the truth,

but they also insist on having evidence.

It's hard for a mainstream historian or an academic

to buy into some of these alternate theories

because that would mean that many, many generations of,

you know, whether they're lincoln historians

or historians of the assassination,

that they were wrong.

-[fishburne] the team met with another

possible john wilkes booth descendant.

Like the relatives of harry jerome stevenson,

lisa booth agreed to dna testing,

but she has a different family tree.

When did you find out that you were a descendant of john wilkes booth?

My father's john wilkes booth iii, so early on.

So if your granddad was john wilkes booth ii,

then his father, when was he born?

Lisa booth: In December 1866.

- A whole year after the barn. - Correct.

Our family always said that he did not die in garrett's barn

and continued to travel south.

So that would have him traveling into texas

and then meeting up with your great-great-grandmother at that point?

I don't know her name. It's not listed in this bible.

- This is your family bible? - It belonged to my grandfather, yes.

That's where births and deaths were recorded.

So this says john wilkes booth

was born 8th of December, 1866.

We think that this was the son of john wilkes booth.

They just didn't add the "junior" to this one.

Ansaldi: Sitting with lisa, her showing me

her family's bible and the handwritten account

from a family member in a spiral notebook,

she was told as a child that what the government said,

what history said, wasn't the truth.

This is the truth.

He meets up with, obviously, a young lady in texas?

In shelby county, texas.

This child was of that relationship,

and then he took off to parts unknown.

You're providing us with a sample dna for you.

We actually have a control sample of booth dna

that really can prove whether or not any of this could potentially be true.

- What does that feel like? - I just think it's great to have an answer,

one way or the other.

Good, bad, or indifferent,

you are who you are.

There have been many stories

about john wilkes booth escaping,

and where he went, and what happened to him.

-[fishburne] where did booth go?

According to author troy cowan's version of the story,

by 1870, booth was living incognito in the wild west.

Cowan: He went to granville, texas,

where he lived for another five years.

He used the name john st. Helen.

-[fishburne] during this time, the man known as john st. Helen

met a young lawyer names finis bates,

who wrote a book published in 1907 entitled

"the escape and suicide of john wilkes booth."

booth became very sick and he thought he was going to die.

So he confessed to bates that he was really john wilkes booth.

-[fishburne] but according to bates' and cowan's tale, booth did not die.

He eventually moved further west

to the frontier town of enid, oklahoma.

While in oklahoma, his alias was david e. George.

Shortly before his death, david e. George confessed

to his landlady that he was really john wilkes booth.

-[fishburne] the man known as david e. George

died in enid in 1903.

His death was reported as a suicide.

Newspapers across the country ran with the story of his confession.

Finis bates read an article in the paper about the death

that this man confessed to being john wilkes booth.

So he wanted to go down to oklahoma and see

if david e. George was john st. Helen,

and discovered that it was the same man.

And they had him preserved with extra embalming fluid.

So, david e. George was so embalmed that he became a mummy.

There's no question that david george was mummified.

The question is is david george john wilkes booth?

On that, the evidence is overwhelming that he was not.

If you compare the many pictures of john wilkes booth during his life

to the pictures of david e. George produced by finis bates,

they are not the same person.

-[fishburne] art roderick bpictures of david e. George

and john st. Helen, who finis bates claimed were the same man,

to professor kurt luther at virginia tech

to see if either of them match john wilkes booth.

Now this individual, david e. George,

says that he is john wilkes booth.

This is obviously a postmortem photograph.

It's gonna be difficult to use this

to make a identification for a couple of reasons.

- People's faces change as they get older. - Right.

The other issue here, of course, is this individual's deceased.

And we can see that the body's starting to undergo changes in the facial structure.

And those changes are gonna make it difficult

to compare with an identified reference image.

So given the passage of time

and the decomposition of this body,

I think it's very difficult to make any strong claims

that this is a photo of john wilkes booth.

-[fishburne] but what about booth's other wild west doppelganger?

This individual is john st. Helen,

who claimed he's john wilkes booth.

- This is a tintype? - Looks like it, yes.

But we're missing a whole other side of this gentleman's face.

People's facial features are different on both sides of their face.

Because of this damage, we're not able to use automatic face recognition technology.

-[fishburne] with the tintype too damaged to use,

dr. Luther loaded a painted reproduction

of the tintype into his database

to see how closely it matches the two photos

of john wilkes booth in the system.

Luther: So we have over 1,000 possible matches,

but we're not seeing anybody like john wilkes booth.

The top result is actually a confederate general names james holtzclaw.

-[fishburne] next, forensic document examiner robert floberg

evaluated a notarized affidavit

by the owner and clerk of the enid, oklahoma hotel

in which david e. George died in 1903.

This supposedly is an account done by two individuals

regarding the death of david e. George in 1903

that george is telling these two individuals

that he is john wilkes booth.

There's a phrase at the end of the document,

"george declaring on his deathbed

that he was john wilkes booth."

-[fishburne] those words are the only reference in the entire document

to david e. George's alleged confession.

This is the phrase in question that appears to have been added

onto the original document.

How can you tell it was added on?

When the document is magnified,

the phrase "on his deathbed" is blotted.

There's a notary stamp, and when one writes over an indented notary stamp,

the quill pen hangs up in the indentations

- and it leaves an ink blot. - Oh.

-[fishburne] floberg then examined the signatures

on two documents signed by david e. George.

Is his signature a match for booth's?

You compare the uppercase "d" in "david"

and the uppercase "d" in "dear."

it's interesting that there are some very similar letter forms,

but however, the rest of the story, art,

is that everything has got to line up.

All of the lowercase letters have to be consistent

to make a positive comparison.

In studying booth's writing, he's very artistic

and has a very flowery cursive writing.

David e. George, not so.

Now could age have made the difference in his writing?

No, I don't think so. The letter forms are formed so differently

that people don't alter their handwriting to that extent.

So I believe that these are two different individuals.

-[fishburne] this evidence contradicts the stories that john st. Helen

and david george were actually john wilkes booth.

But what about the mystery surrounding harry jerome stevenson?

Was this young man, born five years after booth

was supposed to be dead, truly his son?

Amily members believe john wilkes booth

fathered children after his supposed death.

If dna testing proves that's true,

the history books will need correction.

Junius brutus booth, sr., was the assassin's father.

Junius had a sister named jane,

who is joanne hulme's great-great grandmother.

Since joanne has been genetically proven to be a booth,

the possible booths have been tested against her dna.

Dna samples were taken from four descendants of harry jerome stevenson,

the alleged son of john wilkes booth,

born five years after history says booth died.

Lisa booth also gave a dna sample.

Her ancestors include men named john wilkes booth,

john wilkes booth, jr.,

and john wilkes booth iii.

It's time to see if dna testing can help settle

one of history's greatest mysteries.

We've been waiting for this moment for months,

and in joanne's case, almost 50 years,

so we'd love to hear the results

from your analysis of the dna that we've collected.

The dna of the descendants of harry jerome stevenson

doesn't match booth dna.

Wow. That was the one I thought--

so we have to rule those out.

Ansaldi: That would be andy gorto,

linda casey,

dennis farley, matt wilkinson.

- Wow. - And then the descendants

of the john wilkes booth from mississippi.

Ansaldi: That would be lisa booth.

That dna doesn't match either.

Roderick: And she had the three descendants

that actually had the name of john wilkes booth.

Ansaldi: John wilkes booth iii, the second.

Dna doesn't lie when it tells you about relationships

and whether people are connected or not.

Did the ogarita descendant match the booth dna?

- No, he did not. - Wow.

Ansaldi: That also now means that ogarita

- was not a descendant... - Has no relationship...

Both: ...Of john wilkes booth.

Ansaldi: Izola paige forrester,

who penned the book "this one mad act,"

she was thought of to be john wilkes booth's granddaughter.

We can prove, based on this science today none of that is true?

There's just no scientific evidence supporting it, let's put it that way.

Roderick: There is absolutely no connection

between ogarita's descendants

and the stevenson descendants to john wilkes booth.

There's no dna evidence he had any children.

He has not, based on our scientific study,

fathered children after the barn.

And it doesn't mean that he possibly

couldn't have escaped from the barn.

- Right. - None of this proves

whether john wilkes booth survived or not.

Because we don't have his dna to compare.

All we can do is say that the people we have tested,

the jerome stevenson group and the ogarita descendant,

they're not descendants of john wilkes booth or the booth family.

You have to go back to izola martha mills and start thinking,

- "hmm, what was she up to?" - what was going on?

Yeah. She had something going.

-[fishburne] the investigators sat down with joanne hulme

and the descendants of harry jerome stevenson

to share the dna test results.

At the heart and soul of the project

is whether or not john wilkes booth

actually survived the barn,

and not only that, had children,

one born after the barn incident

by the name of harry jerome stevenson.

And you're all descended from harry jerome stevenson, correct?

- All: Yes. Correct. - Okay. We collected all of the dna--

and you all matched, by the way.

You guys are all related for sure.

So congratulations.

We used joanne, who is a confirmed booth,

and we made the comparison,

and you guys are not biologically

related to joanne.

You guys are biologically

not related to john wilkes booth

- based on this study. - That's a no?

- Ansaldi: That's a no. - That's a yes or a no, yeah?

I'm sure it's not. It was just a rumor.

Did you always think it was just a rumor?

- I always thought it was a rumor. - Why is that?

Because my uncle tom had mentioned something about it,

and he said he had his doubts about it.

Now, uncle tom was a very smart man.

That's my father. You know, he had his doubts.

For me, I mean, I'm not surprised.

I wouldn't have been shocked either way.

Everything in our family, you know, kind of originated

out of the book, "this one mad act."

we have disproven that harry jerome stevenson

is a descendant of john wilkes booth.

I did not know this until today,

and I am much more devastated than you are.

I believed in the stories. I wanted to be related to you.

And I had no idea my day was gonna start and end this way.

We spoke to our expert, and she's perfectly fine

that if she had to testify in court,

that this is exactly what she would relay back to you.

I'm comfortable with the outcome. You know, it's good to know.

Finally somebody has solved the mystery.

- Yeah, yeah. - The rumors now can stop.

You guys are in some ways off the hook.

Roderick: Yeah.

-[fishburne] at this point, there's no scientific basis

to support claims that john wilkes booth fathered children

after he was supposed to have died at garrett's farm.

But other unresolved mysteries linger.

Joanne seems to be more devastated than anybody else...

- Yeah. - ...Because she thought she had all these cousins.

But she walked away hanging her hat on the fact

that she still believes that john wilkes booth was not killed in the barn.

- Ansaldi: Right. - Wasn't in the barn.

Ansaldi: We now know that he didn't father children

after he supposedly died at garrett's farm.

But we still haven't proven who actually did die at garrett's farm.

- Right. - For me, it's not over yet.

We know exactly how to wrap this up.

Exhume the body from the cemetery.

And secondly, test the stuff that's in the museum in washington, dc.

- The vertebrae and the spinal cord. - Ansaldi: Right.

Roderick: Maybe there's enough information there now

to possibly reopen the green mount cemetery case.

We're talking a case that was 25 years ago.

The way dna evidence has advanced would possibly

make a good case getting the body exhumed.

Ansaldi: Make sure, just for history's sake

that they did actually get john wilkes booth.

-[fishburne] the role of assassin

was one john wilkes booth relished.

But while some believe tantalizing questions remain,

the evidence supports the historical account.

The infamous performers last act

took place with his death at garrett's farm.

I'm laurence fishburne,

thank you for watching "history's greatest mysteries".