While Bates waited for the government to answer his claims he continued caring for the body of David E. George, which had become mummified. Bates regularly lathered the corpse with petroleum jelly to keep it from drying and cracking. In between his lawyer duties he began writing a book in which he told his amazing story—or rather the amazing story of David E. George-John St. Helen-John Wilkes Booth. And what a story it was. In 1907 Bates published his evidence in a book titled The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth; or, the First True Account of Lincoln’s Assassination, and Containing a Complete Confession by Booth, Many Years after the Crime. At first it created a mild sensation, selling some 75,000 copies,8 but it soon became discredited by critics who wrote of its numerous flaws and inaccuracies. Bates had failed in his attempt to make his fortune based on a personal relationship with “John Wilkes Booth,” but Bates wasn’t finished yet. Always the businessman, he still had his “mummy,” and George’s confession.
Bates next tried to interest Henry Ford in buying his “mummified Booth.” Like Bates, Ford was an entrepreneur, although one who made Bates’s efforts pale by comparison. Ford had a sharp nose for making a buck.9 He had purchased from the widow of John T. Ford the rocking chair that Lincoln had sat in the night he was shot. Ford then put the rocker on display in his museum village in Dearborn, Michigan. Bates thought that Ford’s exhibit would be greatly enhanced by adding the mummy to the rocker. For a brief moment, Ford also thought the mummy might prove worthy. Ford put one of his investigators on the case and asked him to find out what he could about Bates’s mummy. Ford’s investigator was Frederick Black, an attorney and editor of Ford’s Dearborn Independent. Bates lost out again when Black reported back to Ford that the whole story was without foundation and bordered on the silly.
Bates was not through, however. He took the mummy on the road, exhibiting it to thousands of wide-eyed spectators willing to be gulled by his fantastic tale. He showed the mummy at fairs and various circus sideshows until he tired of the travel and finally sold the mummy to a small traveling carnival. The mummy toured the country traveling to nearly as many places and covering as many miles as the authentic John Wilkes Booth had done when he was alive. Although a popular attraction, it never generated the income that Booth had as America’s matinee idol. The mummy eventually ran its show-business course and simply disappeared from sight sometime around 1940.
For a while Bates’s story of Booth’s escape and his mummy faded from the public’s attention, but never completely. In 1991 the producers of Unsolved Mysteries became interested in the story. They were approached by the two men who later sought to exhume Booth’s body. The producers concluded that the John St. Helen-David E. George caper would make for interesting television. But rather than rely on the Bates evidence that had been previously discredited, they introduced new evidence that they claimed had “never been published nor heard before.”10 The core of this evidence centered on the recollections of four individuals who were said to have viewed Booth’s body shortly after his death. Two of the four individuals were Union soldiers: Sergeant Wilson D. Kenzie and Lieutenant William C. Allen. The third witness, Basil E. Moxley, was an employee of John T. Ford at his Baltimore Opera House who claimed to have served as a “pallbearer” during the reburial of Booth’s body in Baltimore in 1869. The fourth eyewitness was one of Booth’s physicians, Dr. John Frederick May May was called to the Montauk by the government to identify Booth’s body the same day it arrived back in Washington.
Wilson D. Kenzie has been called “the linchpin of the Booth escape theories” for good reason.11 A Union soldier who had served the majority of his military service in the First United States Artillery, Kenzie claimed that he was among the soldiers at the Garrett farm and that the man killed there was not John Wilkes Booth. On March 31, 1922, fifty-seven years after Booth’s death, Kenzie swore in an affidavit that he rode with the troopers as they closed in on Booth and Herold at the Garrett farm:
I went in pursuit with them [the Sixteenth New York Cavalry]; and we all brought up at the Garrett barn where Booth was supposed to be; and Corbett’s company surrounded the barn. Boston Corbett shot the man through a crack in the barn and killed him instantly. They brought the man out and put him on the porch and covered him with a blanket except his feet. Joe Zisgen had discovered that it wasn’t J. Wilkes Booth and then they covered him up so no one could see his face, as I rode up Joe Zisgen called “Here, come here Sargent, this ain’t J. Wilkes Booth at all.” As he attempted to uncover the corpse, he was stopped by some of the officers, but the face was exposed enough so I could see the color of his hair and side of his face and from the fact that this man had sandy hair and Booth had very dark hair, I knew at once it wasn’t he. His body was exposed, the lower part of it and he had no injured leg that I could see and he did not have on riding boots, but I think ordinary shoes and I sized him up as being an ordinary Virginia farmer. What I do know and positively state is that it was not the body of John Wilkes Booth.12
A few months after his first statement, Kenzie produced a second statement in which he wrote, “This fellow’s a red-headed Virginian ... he was red-headed and red-haired. There was no chance of a mistake ... one of the three officers of high rank [Conger, Baker, Doherty] seized the blanket and shouted to me: ‘Don’t repeat that.’... My company commander, Lieutenant Norris [Lieutenant Hardman P. Norris, commanding Battery F, First United States Artillery], husband of a niece of Secretary Stanton, warned me also to keep quiet.”13
These two statements form one of the principal legs supporting the claim that the body in the barn was not that of John Wilkes Booth. Kenzie claimed he was personally acquainted with Booth, having met him while he was stationed in New Orleans during the war and while Booth was appearing on stage in that city. Kenzie tells of his meeting with Booth:
Our quarters in New Orleans was a very attractive place and visited by a great many people, among them being John Wilkes Booth, who was a frequent caller.
The first time he came there he had a pass and all were required to have passes who came to enter our quarters. He attracted my attention and the second time he called I introduced myself to him and at that introduction he told me he was John Wilkes Booth.
Booth was very fond of good horses and we had a great many in the service and during these meetings and interviews we became very good friends and associates, covering a period of about four months so that my knowledge and acquaintance with him was impressed upon my mind. Afterwards the whole Company knew him.14
Booth was in New Orleans in 1864 but only one month, not for four months as Kenzie stated. Booth arrived the first week of March and remained until April 9, when he left for an engagement in Boston.15 While Kenzie is not specific as to the dates of Booth’s visits to Battery F’s quarters, he does say that shortly after Booth’s visit Battery F was ordered “out on the Red River expedition.” This campaign took place in May of 1864, which is consistent with Booth’s being in New Orleans in March and April of that year.
In August 1864, Battery F was transferred to Washington, D.C. Its ranks depleted as a result of its engagements in Louisiana, Battery F was consolidated with Battery A after the two units arrived in Washington. The newly consolidated unit went into camp on Arlington Heights, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, where it was located at the time of Lincoln’s assassination. Kenzie claims he was at Ford’s Theatre on the night of the assassination: “Norris [second lieutenant in command of the company at the time of its transfer to Arlington Heights] left the Company while we were at Arlington Heights about the time of the assassination of President Lincoln, which left the Company in my charge as First Sergeant acting as Quarter-Master Sargent which entitled me to a monthly pass, and gave me the privilege of going anywhere in Washington, night or day, and I frequently went to the theaters.”16
One such occasion was the night of April 14: “I was looking at my program and did not see Booth when he jumped. I heard the shot and saw Booth standing
on the platform and recognized him instantly. I then looked at my program to see if Booth was in the play but did not find him. Then I discovered the commotion on the stage and in Lincoln’s box, and then I stood up and saw Booth with his hand raised shouting “Sic semper tyrannis.” As Booth turned to move off, I noticed that he was dressed with high riding boots and limping in his right [sic] leg.”17
Ten days later, on the afternoon of April 24, Kenzie claims he joined the members of the Sixteenth New York Cavalry as they set out in search of Booth:
Everybody had been looking for Booth in a kind of free for all game as there had been a big reward offered. Corbett’s Company or the Company with which he was connected, as they came out [from the Lincoln Barracks in Washington, D.C.] I enquired where they were going and they told me they were going out looking for Booth; and I said wait till I get my saddle on my horse and I will go with you. I went in pursuit of them; and we all brought up at the Garrett barn where Booth was supposed to be; and Corbett’s company surrounded the barn.
Boston Corbett shot the man, through a crack in the barn, and killed him instantly. They brought the man out and put him on the porch and covered him with a blanket except his feet.18
At this point in his story, Kenzie makes his way over to the porch where the dead man was lying under a blanket. Kenzie describes what he saw: “As he [Zisgen] attempted to uncover the corpse, he was stopped by some of the officers, but the face was exposed enough so that I could see the color of his hair and side of his face and from the fact that this man had sandy hair and Booth had very dark hair, I knew at once it wasn’t he. His body was exposed, the lower part of it and he had no injured leg that I could see and he did not have on riding boots, but I think ordinary shoes and I sized him up as being an ordinary Virginia farmer. What I do know and positively state is that it was not the body of John Wilkes Booth.”19
The man referred to in Kenzie’s affidavit as Joe Zisgen is important to the story and appears to be the connection between Kenzie and the Sixteenth New York Cavalry. Zisgen had been a member of the First United States Artillery stationed in New Orleans. At the end of his tour with the First U.S. Artillery, Zisgen reenlisted in the Sixteenth New York. According to Kenzie, he and Zisgen had become good friends while serving together in Battery F in New Orleans. It was at this time that the two men got to know Booth when Booth visited their quarters in New Orleans. “Joe Zisgen of our Company knew Booth as well as I did Joe Zisgen ... knew Booth in New Orleans.”20
Zisgen enlisted in the First United States Artillery (Regular Army) in September of 1858 at Albany, New York. In September of 1862 his unit was transferred to New Orleans where Wilson Kenzie was already stationed as a member of the Sixth Michigan Volunteer Infantry. When Kenzie’s enlistment in the Sixth Michigan expired in November of 1862 he reenlisted for three years in Battery A of the First United States Artillery where he became friends with Joseph Zisgen, then a member of Battery F. But Kenzie and Zisgen were together in New Orleans only until September 1863, a period of ten months, when Zisgen’s enlistment ended. At this point, Zisgen returned to his home in New York state where he enlisted in the Sixteenth New York.
Kenzie began his affidavit by describing his meeting with Booth in the spring of 1864 just before the Red River campaign in May. According to Kenzie’s statement, Joe Zisgen was a part of these meetings. Here Kenzie’s story begins to unravel. Zisgen was not in New Orleans in the spring of 1864. He was in Vienna, Virginia, serving with the Sixteenth New York Cavalry at the very time Kenzie claims Booth was a frequent visitor to Battery F’s quarters. While Kenzie and Booth may have been acquainted, Zisgen was serving in Virginia.
Kenzie’s next reference to Zisgen occurs in the early morning hours of April 26 at the Garrett farm. Zisgen was one of the twenty-six troopers of the Sixteenth New York Cavalry who were present at the Garrett farm. While the record does not show a Wilson Kenzie among the capture party, Kenzie maintained he was there. How did a member of the First United States Artillery get to the Garrett farm with the Sixteenth New York?
The First United States Artillery had been transferred to Washington, D.C, in August of 1864 following the Red River campaign, and had been stationed on Arlington Heights overlooking the District of Columbia from the Virginia side of the river. The Sixteenth New York, on the other hand, was stationed in Vienna, Virginia, also south of the Potomac River and not far from the camp of the First United States Artillery. On April 24, however, the Sixteenth New York was in Washington, D.C., and not Vienna, Virginia. It had been transferred to Washington where it had been assigned to march in Lincoln’s funeral procession as it made its way from the White House to the Capitol Building. The transfer occurred on Wednesday, April 19.
When Lafayette C. Baker received permission to use the Sixteenth New York Cavalry to pursue Booth into Virginia, it was still located in Washington, not Vienna, Virginia. For Wilson Kenzie to join the Sixteenth New York Cavalry he would have had to be in Washington on a pass. Kenzie claims to have been a first sergeant and acting quartermaster of Company F at the time. Because of his rank and quartermaster position he was free to go into the District as a part of his duties. His service records disagree, however. Kenzie was not commissioned as first sergeant until July 24, 1865, three months after Booth’s capture. There is no record of his ever serving as regimental quartermaster at any time during his service. At the time of Booth’s capture, Kenzie was a corporal and had been promoted to that rank only one month before. As such, he was not free to go into the District as he claimed, but would need to secure a pass through regular channels.
There is another problem with Kenzie’s story. At no time does he mention traveling down the Potomac River by steamer. He appears to be unaware that the Sixteenth New York left Washington aboard the John S. Ide. The men of the Sixteenth New York boarded the Ide in Washington and started down the river to Belle Plaine located on the Virginia side. Belle Plaine is reachable overland from Arlington Heights and from Vienna. Had Kenzie returned to Arlington Heights, saddled his horse and ridden all night toward Belle Plaine, he could not have reached it as quickly as the John S. Ide did.
Kenzie knew that the Sixteenth New York had been previously bivouacked at Vienna, Virginia. In recreating his story he apparently was unaware of their transfer into the District and assumed they left from Vienna, not Washington. If Kenzie believed the Sixteenth New York left camp from Vienna, it would explain his failure to mention traveling several hours by steamer down the Potomac River. Kenzie’s story of traveling with the Sixteenth New York cavalry is completely at variance with the facts.
Kenzie was wrong about several important points in his affidavit. Joe Zisgen could not have met Booth in New Orleans. Kenzie was not a sergeant at the time of Lincoln’s assassination, nor was he ever company quartermaster. There is no record of his receiving a pass into Washington on April 14, and he could not have traveled with the Sixteenth New York aboard the John S. Ide.
Kenzie’s service record shows that he was a good soldier who served his unit and his country well. His military exploits, however, are better documented than his extramilitary search for John Wilkes Booth. When Kenzie prepared his affidavit in 1922 he was seventy-eight years old and in the twilight of his life; an old soldier filled with memories of exciting times, some of which he may have shared vicariously through his old comrade, Joseph Zisgen.
Joseph Zisgen never left a statement or reminiscence on the subject. It seems incredible that he kept silent for so many years about such a startling observation as the wrong man’s being captured at the Garrett farm. Kenzie and Zisgen can be placed on the list of doubtful eyewitnesses, which brings us to our next eyewitness, Lieutenant William C. Allen.
Allen is another of the important eyewitnesses that the proponents of the “Booth escaped” theory use to support their claims. Allen’s name first surfaced as a witness to the events at the Garrett farm in 1937, seventy-two years after Booth’s death and twenty-nine years after Lieutenant Allen himself h
ad died. Hannah Allen, widow of Lieutenant William C. Allen, attended a Grand Army of the Republic convention in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1937 where she stole the show with her revelations about her late husband’s alleged claim. Mrs. Allen regaled reporters covering the convention with her claim that her husband had been present at the Garrett farm on April 26. He had witnessed the capture of Booth and had seen his body after he had died. Hannah claimed her husband confided to her that the dead man on the Garrett porch had red hair. Allen knew Booth had “hair like a raven.”21 Allen is the second eyewitness to claim that the dead man had red hair, not black. Just who was William C. Allen and how did he get to the Garrett farm on April 26?
Allen was a member of the 151st New York Volunteer Infantry, having enlisted for three years as a private on August 27, 1862. He was promoted to sergeant on October 22, 1862, and to second lieutenant on February 18, 1865. He ended his service on June 26, 1865, having served thirty-four months. In July 1864, Allen was captured at the battle of Monocacy during Jubal Early’s failed raid on Washington, D.C. He was taken to Libby Prison in Richmond where he was exchanged on December 21, 1864, and returned to his regiment at Petersburg, Virginia, on inauguration day, March 4, 1865. The 151st served at Petersburg until that town fell on April 2, and then chased Lee’s retreating army to Appomattox Court House. It was present at the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9.
Following Lee’s surrender, the 151st New York marched seventy miles south to Danville, Virginia, arriving on April 27, the day after Booth died. While the 151st New York was en route to Danville, however, it appears Lieutenant Allen was several hundred miles to the north at his home in LeRoy, New York. On April 20, Allen applied for emergency leave to return home and visit his ailing father who was seriously ill and dying. Leave was granted on April 22, and Allen headed north to New York. There is nothing in the record to indicate that Allen decided to detour from his trip from Danville to New York and join in the search for Booth 175 miles to the northeast.
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