THE CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 20, 1939. TO-DAY'S STRANGE STORY OF REAL PEOPLE
NO. 89-DID WILKES BOOTH ESCAPE?
BY VINCENT TOWNE
1
"The body buried in Greenmount was not that of Booth," declared Basil Moxley, a pallbearer at the alleged funeral of Lincoln's assassin in Baltimore,
"I do not believe that Booth was ever killed in that barn," added Mox- ley who for nearly a half century had been doorkeeper in Baltimore at the Holiday Street Theatre and at Ford's Opera House, He was а trusted friend of the Booth family and cyclopedia of information cerning the stage folk of his time.
con-
THE BARN WAS FIRED BEFORE THE CAPTIVE WAS SHOT.
for
probable as the many theories
as to his escape may seem, and after all of them have been sifted out and dis- carded Wilkes Booth has nevertheless bequeathed to the world a mystery that has never been solved. as- Where lie the bones of
JAPANESE TACKLING GUERILLAS
Seven hundred Japanese troops moved out of Shumchun yesterday morning, up the Kowloon-Canton Line, according to Chinese from the New Territories.
reports
Japanese planes flew ahead of the troops. The Japanese "reoccupied" Tin Tong Wei and were
yesterday afternoon reported moving further northwards to Wanglik.
WOMEN BACK FROM SHEKKI
Representatives of the five women's war relief associations who proceeded to Shek-ki last Friday on an inspec- tion tour through war striken areas and on the front, returned this morn- ing to Hong Kong.
Many men have shared Moxley's doubt as to the most commonly ac- cepted version of the capture, shoot- ing and burial of Lincoln's assassin.
termine the identity of the embalmed According to that version the de-
which, corpse of the suicide, mented actor, after shooting the
four years, had been kept by an Enid President, and after breaking
his undertaker. In his communication to leg while making his escape, took Congress. Mr. Bates stated: refuge in Garrett's tobacco barn, near
"I knew Booth as John D. Heley Bowling Green, Virginia. The barn
while living in 1872, and was
The party was headed by Miss Hu was surrounded by 28
the man Muk-lan, daughter of the late Mr. Hu veterans of sociated with him as my client until shot in the Garrett barn, whose body Hon-min, the 16th New York Cavalry, who, the Fall of 1877, when we separated was brought to Washington and dis-Chinese Women's Relief Association.
who represented the fearing to go in and capture one in western Texas, he going to Lead-sected? defiant man, set the building on fireville, Col., and I returning to Mem-
Among the other were Miss Yung and then shot Booth as he appeared phis.
of the Booth left with me a small
Mei-ying,
Chinese Women's to take aim at his pursuers.
Chinese Y.W.C.A., Club, Mrs. Wong Wah-lam, of the The commonly accepted story of
Hei-woon, of the Women's Soldiers' and Miss Yung what next happened relates that
Relief Association.
up
in
а
tintype for his future identification. This picture was taken some 12 years after the assassination of Lincoln and has been identifled by Junius Brutus Booth, eldest nephew of John Wilkes Booth, as being the picture of his uncle. It has also been identified by the famous actor, the late Joseph Jefferson, and many others."
In..
Booth's body was sewed saddle blanket and carried aboard the monitor Montauk, where it was laid in the carpenter's bunk of the turret. After an autopsy in Washing- ton, it was placed in a pine gun box and secretly buried beneath the floor About forty years ago one Chris- of a cell in the old Washington Peni- | topher C. Ritter, while lying very tentiary. After nearly four
low in a hospital in Anderson, years had elapsed the great actor, Edwin diana, is alleged to have unburdened Booth, persuaded President Andrew his conscience by confessing that after Johnson to allow the pine box to be having been initiated into the Knights removed to Baltimore for secret of the Golden Circle by Booth, he burial in Greenmount Cemetery.
had been pressed to take part in а Since the black tragedy of '65 there kidnapping of President Lincoln, have been advanced more than 50 but that before the plan was carried theories to the effect
Ac- that Wilkes out Booth killed the President. Booth escaped to enjoy or, at least, companying the assassin to Philadel- experience life for a considerable timephia, Ritter claimed that he sailed with after his corpse was believed to have him for South America, where Booth molded in the grave. General Eckert, became "Enos," the famous actor of who was Assistant Secretary of War Latin America. when Lincoln was assassinated and who later became president of the Western Union Telegraph Company, was once quoted as having confessed. to his nurse, on his deathbed, that with three other men he had taken the body of Booth out on Delaware Bay and thrown it into the water. A secret service man assigned to the assassination was quoted as stating that the identification of the corpse supposed to have been Booth's was never satisfactorily made. Such doubts and contradictions reiterated In New Orleans, Louisville, Denver, by men closely concerned in the Albuquerque, San Francisco, and search for the assassin led to the Montreal the man who shot Lincoln suspicion that greed for the $75,000 was "located" at various times.
reward offered for Booth by the
Government resulted in the shooting
of another man.
an the
About a quarter century ago Laura Ida Booth (Mrs. L. A. Howard) actress who has claimed to be daughter of Wilkes Booth, announced that her father lived until 1903, when his long-troubled conscience led him to commit suicide at Enid, Oklahoma. A Memphis attorney, Finis L. Bates, who knew the Enid suicide and who believed him to have been Lincoln's assassin, published a book in support of the theory. Some years ago Mr.. Bates appealed to the national House of Representatives to definitely
de-
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No one knows. It is generally believed that the mound alleged to mark the assassin's grave in Greenmount Cemetery, Bal- timore, covers no human remains and that for fear of vandalism the Booth family hid the corpse.
COOLIE
GANG FIGHT ON PRAYA
IN A 'GANG FIGHT BETWEEN SOME 30 COOLIES NEAR THE
WHARF MACAO
YESTERDAY, WHICH LASTED ALMOST HALF
THREE-DAY SENTENCE
Lo Tung, a shoe-black who pleaded guilty to manslaughter of another shoe black was this morning sen- tenced to three days' imprisonment by Mr. Justice R. E. Lindsell at the Criminal Sessions.
Mr. Lindsell said it was ear from the evidence that there was no in- tention of causing grievous bodily harm. The shoe black died of in-
Sentence dates from Friday, when the plea was taken.
AN HOUR PASSERS-BY WERE HIT juries received during a fight.
FLYING PIECES OF BY USED IN THE BATTLE.
WOOD
A four-year-old boy standing on the pavement was injured and was sent According to another story, Booth to hospital for treatment. became an Episcopal clergyman and The fight followed an argument be- settled in a Georgia town, where hetween wharf coolies and "private" was visited by his brother, Edwin | coolies over the removal of cargo from Booth. He continued to limp until the vessel "Fook On." death and failed also to disguise his love for liquor and his imperious tem-coolies. per. Still another story has it that the assassin spent the latter days of his life under the name of David E. George, and that he married a Ken- tucky window, their child, a daughter, winning success on the stage.
Kitty
10-6
Retoured by The Bell (radicale, Tar. 3
Im-
Love in a cottage' is smooth and lovely until the rent comes due.
LOCAL DOLLAR
The demand rate on the Hong Kong dollar to-day was 1/2-7/8. -
The London on New York cross rate was quoted at £-U.S.$4.02
The police arrested seven of the and New York an
£-U.S.$3.89-7/8.
LLOYD TRIESTINO
London at
REGULAR FORTNIGHTLY SERVICE
OUTWARD: for SHANGHAI
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(London Overland), · via · MANILA, SINGAPORE, COLOMBO, BOMBAY,
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