All language subtitles for b05744bf75ab4669a9a1bde3658cc524_track3_eng

- 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".