Blood on the Moon

by Edward , Jr. Steers

  A. I did.

  Q. Describe to the Court the scar which is alleged to have been on his neck.

  A. The scar on the left side of the neck was occasioned by an operation performed by Dr. May, of this city, for the removal of a tumor, some months previously to Booth’s death.

  Q. What was its peculiar appearance, if it had any peculiar appearance.

  A. It looked like a scar of a burn, instead of an incision; which Dr. May explained from the fact that the wound was torn open on the stage, when nearly healed.46

  Following May’s examination of Booth’s body on the Montauk, Barnes and Woodward removed two cervical vertebrae and the damaged spinal cord from the neck. The path of the bullet was determined and the vertebrae and spinal cord were wrapped in brown paper and taken by Dr. Woodward to the Army Medical Museum as specimens. Barnes wrote up a report that was submitted to Stanton the same day, April 27, 1865. In his report Barnes stated:

  The left leg and foot were encased in an appliance of splints and bandages, upon the removal of which, a fracture of the fibula 3 inches above the ankle joint, accompanied by considerable ec-chymosis, was discovered.

  The cause of death was a gun shot wound in the neck—the ball entering just behind the sterno-cleido muscle—2-1/2 inches above the clavicle—passing through the bony bridge of fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae—severing the spinal cord and passing out through the body of the sterno-cleido of right side, three inches above the clavicle.

  Paralysis of the entire body was immediate, and all the horrors of consciousness of suffering and death must have been present to the assassin during the two hours he lingered.47

  The last paragraph has less to do with objective medical observation and was probably added by Barnes to indicate to Stanton that Booth did not die easily or without the “horrors of . . . suffering and death.’ One year later Dr. Janvier Woodward, the surgeon who performed the autopsy aboard the Montauk, wrote a letter to Major General G.W. Schofield stating: “the fracture was of the left fibula just above the malleolus.’48 Woodward’s is the final word on the question of which bone was broken in which leg.

  There is one last physical piece of evidence that relates to Booth that can be used for positive identification—the initials “J. W. B.’ that appeared as a tattoo on his hand. These initials were located on the back of the left hand in the crotch formed by the thumb and index finger. The most compelling evidence concerning this tattoo can be found in the writings of Booth’s older sister Asia. In describing her brother, Asia wrote about Booth’s great charm and physical beauty, including his hands. “He had perfectly shaped hands, and across the back of one he had clumsily marked, when a little boy, his initials in India ink’ (emphasis added).49

  These initials were known to everyone well acquainted with Booth. There are so many references to them that even the proponents of the “Booth escaped’ theory acknowledge their existence. In attempting to explain away the identifying tattoo, the proponents of the “Booth escaped’ theory simply state that the corpse examined on the Montauk did not have the tattoo. One proponent writes: “If the initials really were on the corpse’s hand why didn’t the government permit any pictures to be taken of it and why didn’t they permit the dozens of Booth’s family and friends who were nearby to identify the body? . . . Clearly the body did not have the critical initials.’50

  Alexander Gardner, who had left Mathew Brady to become an independent photographer, was allowed to board the Montauk with an assistant, Timothy O’Sullivan, and photograph the body. Gardner returned to his studios accompanied by a military guard who had instructions to confiscate the photographic plate and subsequent print and bring them directly to Stanton.51 It is not clear why the government should have allowed pictures to be taken or what the photographs would prove that eyewitness testimony would not prove. Presumably Stanton wanted to personally see the corpse of Booth to satisfy himself that Booth had been killed. But photographing the body is one thing, taking a close-up photograph of the initials was another. It would be virtually impossible to photograph the initials so that they would be legible in a photograph and still see the rest of the body including the face. Rather than rely on photographic evidence that is subject to alteration, there are several witnesses who described the initials on Booth’s hand and those seen on the corpse.

  Sergeants J.M. Peddicord and Joseph H. Hartley had been assigned as guards on the Montauk in anticipation of receiving the prisoners arrested for Lincoln’s murder. At 1:45 A.M. on April 27, the steamer John S. Ide pulled alongside the warship and transferred Booth’s body. Hartley, who had relieved Peddicord at midnight, was on duty when the body was brought on board and placed on a carpenter’s bench on the deck of the ship. At 6:00 A.M. Hartley awakened Peddicord and led him to the carpenter’s bench where he pointed to Booth’s body still wrapped in an army blanket. The two men laid open the flap of the blanket revealing the face of a man who had been dead for nearly twelve hours. Several years later Peddicord would read the story in the newspapers that claimed the body on board the Montauk was not that of J. Wilkes Booth, but another man. Peddicord knew better and, realizing his special place in history, wrote an article about his experience of April 27, 1865, that was published in the Roanoke Evening News:

  One evening I noticed that the officers were looking for something to come up the river, and when I awoke Sergeant Hartley at midnight, I told him of this and turned in until 6 o’clock. In the morning when he called me saying, “Come out here. I have something to show you.’ I turned out on deck where he was along side a carpenter’s bench on which lay the body of a man wrapped about in a soldier’s blanket. My order from Hartley was “Take charge of this body and allow no one to touch it without orders from Colonel Baker.’

  It was the body of the assassin, John Wilkes Booth, which had been brought up the river during the night by the detachment of troops who had captured him. At breakfast when I was relieved by Hartley while I was eating, we unwrapped the face and compared it with a photograph, and I also remember the letters in India ink on the back of his hand in pale straggling characters, “J.W.B.,’ as a boy would have done it.52

  In 1926, Sergeant Joseph H. Hartley, Peddicord’s comrade who helped guard Booth’s body on the Montauk, wrote a letter to William Curtis White:

  As you requested the other day, I write the following statement in relation to my personal knowledge of the death of J.W. Booth, whose body was laid out, on the deck of one of the monitors waiting its final disposal. I had some doubt myself as to its being the remains of Booth. He looked so much like a boyhood friend of mine that had his initials picked in India ink on his arm that I was impelled to strip up his sleeve to see whether I was right or not. Instead of “A.W.’ I found the initials “J.W.B.’ convincing proof to me of the identity of whose body it was, and I thought no more of the matter until years afterwards when I saw an article in the papers claiming he was still alive. ... I was a sergeant [sic] in the Marines detailed from headquarters with a squad for duty on the monitor, on which the conspirators were temporarily held April 1865.

  There seems no doubt that the body on the Montauk had the distinctive mark of initials tattooed on the left hand in the base of the “V’ formed by the index finger and thumb. The tattoo joins with the other physical evidence supporting the conclusion that the body returned to Washington from the Garrett farm was that of Booth and not someone else.

  Among all of the witnesses who left commentary on the identity of the body in the barn there is one eyewitness whose credibility stands out among all others. He is David Herold. Herold accompanied Booth for most of his escape. After his capture, Herold was taken back to Washington and placed aboard the Montauk where he was held until transferred to the Washington Arsenal. On Thursday, April 27, detectives questioned Herold. He described what happened on the night of Tuesday, April 25, shortly after the Sixteenth New York Cavalry rode past Garrett’s on their way to Bowling Green in search of Willie Jett. Herold tells what happened
after the soldiers rode past.

  Garrett says, “I would sooner that you would not stay here all night.’ I said, “All right. We would sooner not stay here.’ Booth had told them that he had shot one or two soldiers in Maryland, and asked them to warn him if the Yankees should come so that he could escape. It was then after dark. We didn’t know where to go. Garrett says, “I don’t want you to stay in the house.’ Booth asked if he could stay in the barn. Garrett said “Yes.’ We went down & were locked in the barn. Just before daylight, Booth waked me up, & said that the cavalry had surrounded the barn. I said, “You had better give up.’ He said, “I will suffer death first.’ Mr. Garrett then came, and said, “Gentlemen, the cavalry are after you. You are the ones. You had better give yourselves up.’53

  Herold went on to describe the negotiations that took place between Booth and the officers outside the barn. In the course of Herold’s account of what happened at the Garrett barn he mentioned Booth by name a total of eight more times. Herold stated unequivocally who the man was who had just been shot in barn: “As I turned round I heard a pistol shot, looked around, and saw one corner of the barn in a light blaze. They jerked the barn door open. Booth was lying there [emphasis added].’54

  Herold’s statement could not be clearer or more positive an identification. The man lying on the barn floor was “Booth.’ Herold had nothing to gain and everything to lose by identifying his companion as Booth. By doing so he placed himself in lethal jeopardy. Herold would have been far better served to insist that the man in the barn was not Booth, that it was anybody other than Booth. By denying that the man in the barn was Booth, Herold could at least claim he did not know his traveling companion was the murderer of the president. But he didn’t. He said the man in the barn was “Booth.’ It doesn’t end here.

  The dying man was carried to the porch of the Garrett house, where he was laid on a straw mattress. Baker and Conger then took several items from Booth’s pockets. Among the items was a memorandum book with notes in it describing the assassination and the escape and a small gold pin that held Booth’s undershirt together at the neck. On the back of the pin were engraved the words, “Dan Bryant to JWB.’55 The pin with Booth’s initials has never been explained by the escape theorists, presumably because the shallowness of their research left them unaware of its existence. It appears unlikely that someone would go so far as to plant a small identification pin on Booth’s undershirt just to mislead the authorities. Finally, there is a bank draft in the amount of 61 pounds, 12 shillings, 10 pence made out to “John Wilkes Booth.’56

  A scar, a “plugged’ tooth, tattooed initials, and several personal effects all point to the positive identification of the body in the barn, the corpse on the Montauk, and the remains interred in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore as those of America’s matinee idol turned assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Any conspiracy suggesting it was not Booth’s body would have to involve the complicity of literally dozens of people, many of whom had no motive to lie.

  The people sitting in the audience fidgeted nervously waiting for the bailiff to announce the momentary appearance of the judge. Several minutes passed before the words sang out over the anxious crowd: “All rise for the Honorable Judge Joseph Kaplan. This Court is now in session.’ Judge Kaplan entered the courtroom and took his seat behind the bench. The audience sat in complete silence anxiously awaiting the judge’s ruling. After what seemed several minutes the judge spoke: “the unreliability of the Petitioners’ less than convincing escape/cover-up theory gives rise to the conclusion that there is no compelling reason for an exhumation.’57

  John Wilkes Booth would remain undisturbed in his grave. The court had decided the body in the barn was his. The plaintiffs slumped in disappointment. Was this just another instance of a government cover up? No doubt, conspiracy theorists will now add Judge Joseph Kaplan to their growing list of official deceivers.58

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Goodbye, Father Abraham

  Rest, noble martyr; rest in peace;

  Rest with the true and the brave,

  Who, like thee, fell in freedom’s cause

  The Nation’s life to save

  Phineas D. Gurley

  The president was dead. He had been comatose for the past nine hours giving the impression of being in a deep sleep. The small bedroom of young Willie Clark had held an impressive assemblage of men. In all, fifty-seven individuals are believed to have visited the room during the early morning hours to view the dying president.1 Not all fifty-seven visited at the same time. The room was too small to accommodate even half or a quarter that number. It is not known for certain who was in the room when Surgeon General Barnes said, “He is gone.” As the years passed scores of people claimed to be at Lincoln’s side at the moment of his demise. In reality, there were probably no more than twelve.2 All had anticipated it and wanted to be present when it came. Not everyone made it.

  In the front parlor Mary Lincoln lay prostrate on a sofa moaning in-consolably. Reverend Gurley kneeled by the side of the sofa offering a prayer for Mary’s sake. When he finished, Robert helped his mother to her feet and, with Gurley’s help, escorted her to the front door. Mary, braced by her son, paused at the door. Looking at the theater across the street she exclaimed, “Oh, that dreadful, dreadful house!” Mary and Robert then climbed into the carriage and rode back to the White House.3

  Back in the Petersen house someone noticed that Lincoln’s eyelids were no longer closed but had relaxed in death and opened slightly. It was an unpleasant change to the countenance he had shown while comatose. Someone reached down and smoothed the eyelids shut then placed a silver coin on each eye to keep them from opening again. This simple act of respect for the dead president would become a source of controversy for four otherwise honorable men. Colonel Thomas McCurdy Vincent, a member of Stanton’s staff; Maunsell B. Field, assistant secretary of the treasury (New York); Colonel George V. Rutherford; and Dr. Charles Leale, all swore that they had placed the coins on Lincoln’s eyes.4 It seemed a matter of special significance to each man. Such was the greatness of Abraham Lincoln that this simple act held such importance for these distinguished men. Yet, only one was telling the truth.

  The president lay in bed for another hour and a half while several members of the cabinet held a meeting called by Stanton moments after Lincoln’s death.5 He ordered that the door to the room where Lincoln’s body lay be locked and a guard posted to make sure no one entered without his express permission.6 The war secretary was in control of the government. It is not known what was discussed during this special meeting, but whatever it was it required an hour of critical time. When the meeting ended, a contingent of soldiers from the Veteran Reserve Corps carefully wrapped the naked body of the president in an American flag and placed him in a plain pine box that General Daniel Rucker had ordered sent to the Petersen house.7 The Baltimore Clipper reported the scene in its Monday morning edition: “The President’s body was removed from the private residence opposite Ford’s Theatre, . . . at half-past nine o’clock, . . . wrapped in the American flag. It was escorted by a small guard of cavalry, Gen. Augur and other military officers following on foot.”8

  This unusual gesture of wrapping the president’s body in an American flag is worth noting. The Baltimore Clipper’s claim that the body was removed from the private residence “wrapped in the American flag” is supported by Mary Lincoln’s close friend Elizabeth Dixon. Dixon had hurried over to the Petersen house at Robert Lincoln’s request to help comfort his mother. She accompanied Mary Lincoln back to the White House and stayed with her for two more hours before returning home. On leaving the White House, Mrs. Dixon started down the stairs from the second floor where she met the military guard coming up the stairs carrying the body of the president. In a letter to her sister, she wrote: “I met the cortege bringing up the remains of the murdered President which were taken into the great State bedroom, wrapped in the American flag.”9

  Leaving the Petersen house, t
he hearse along with its escort moved north on Tenth Street to G Street where it turned west and headed toward the White House. The escort included General C.C. Augur, General D.H. Rucker, Colonel Louis H. Pelouze, Captain Finley Anderson, Captain D.C. Thomas, Captain J.H. Crowell, and Captain C. Baker.10 Arriving at the White House, the body was taken to a guest room located in the West Wing on the second floor. Here the body was placed on a table that had been set up just for the autopsy. It was 11:00 A.M.

  Present were Surgeon General Barnes; Dr. Robert Stone, the family physician; army surgeons Charles Crane, Charles S. Taft, and William M. Notson; Assistant Quartermaster General Daniel Rucker; Lincoln’s close Illinois friend Orville Hickman Browning; and army assistant surgeons Janvier Woodward and Edward Curtis. Woodward and Curtis would perform the autopsy. Curtis later described the scene:

  Dr. Woodward and I proceeded to open the head and remove the brain down to the track of the ball. The latter had entered a little to the left of the median line at the back of the head, had passed almost directly forward through the center of the brain and lodged. Not finding it readily, we proceeded to remove the entire brain, when, as I was lifting the latter from the cavity of the skull, suddenly the bullet dropped out through my fingers and fell, breaking the solemn silence of the room with its clatter, into an empty basin that was standing beneath. There it lay upon the white china, a little black mass no bigger than the end of my finger—. . . the cause of such mighty changes in the world’s history as we may perhaps never realize.11

  The bullet was a small sphere of soft lead 0.44 inches in diameter. The force of smashing through Lincoln’s skull had flattened the bullet into the shape of a small coin. By slicing away successive layers of the brain, the surgeons were able to expose the path the bullet had traversed. A line of coagulated blood left in the bullet’s wake marked the track of the ball. While the path of the bullet together with its final resting place were obvious from a careful examination of the brain, four of the doctors disagreed in later reports as to where the bullet had lodged. Woodward and Stone said it lodged on the left side, while Barnes and Taft said it was located just behind the right eye. One hundred years later the doctors and attendants performing the autopsy on President John F. Kennedy would create confusion by leaving different descriptions of what they saw. To both presidents, the details little mattered.12