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Show aaaaaafaweMaMeaeaaaaaaaaaaaAaaaaaaaaaaaeaM WILKES BOOTH'S BODY. HOW IDENTIFICATION WAS OFFICIALLY OF-FICIALLY MACE. Wahlntton riiutograpbnr Trlls Ilor 1 and Ilia Father Were Called Out of llxd fur the Purpose No Dnulit About It. From time to time stories are started to create the belief that John Wilkes Booth, the slayer of Lincoln, was not killed by Corbett's bullet but that another victim was made to answer for the crazed actor, to appease public wrath. Mr. Lawrence Gardner, of Washington, was one of the few who saw the body of the dead Booth, and gives the following account of the official of-ficial identification of the remains: "I was on the monitor at the navy yard when Dr. William May and his father came on board, and can corrobor. ate the doctor's testimony. Very early one morning the assistant secretary of war, General Thomas J. Kckert, drove to my father's residence and asked that ho prepare at once to go with hira to the navy yard on a secret mission. "We had for two or throe days previous pre-vious been engaged in making photographs photo-graphs of the different prisoners who had been arrested as suspects in relation rela-tion to the- assassination of President Lincoln. I had been assisting my father, Alexander Gardnor, and I accompanied ac-companied him on that occasion. On the way up capitol hill General Kckert Informed us of the capture of Itooth; stated that his body was then at the navy yard, and he also told us that they proposed placing it on board one of tho monitors. "After reaching the yard we were ferried out to the Monitor, which lay in the stream. On the vessel's deck on a carpenter's bench, and covered by a tarpaulin lay the body of Uooth. ".Shortly after reaching tho Monitor wo were joined by Surgeon-General Barnes and one or two other medical officers. On board tho bout, according to my recollection, were taker, chief of the secret service, and one or two of his prominent officers. "On removing the tarpaulin from the body we were all struck by the lack of any resemblance to Itooth. We had a number of photographs with 113 and endeavorod by comparison to llnd a likeness between the photographs and the body, but there was no resemblance. Tho hair was very black and the cheek bones quito prominent, and these wero about the only things that gave it any semblnnce to tho photograph. On the face was (pate a growth of beard, probably prob-ably that of a week or ten days, and it was evident from the features that there had boon great bodily suffering. ' -I had seen Itooth but once in my lifo and that was at the National theater for a moment on tho afternoon of the assassination, and I must say I could soe but little resemblaneo to the man I met on that day. His face was very much freckled, a result of exposure. ex-posure. "The object of my father's visit to tho Monitor was photography and tho body in question was to be tho subject. Did we take a picture? No! After everything had been prepared General Eekert concluded that inasmuch as there was so little likoness in tho remains re-mains to the photograph in existence of Itooth perhaps it would be best not to make the picture and the plan was abandoned for that reason." "Was it Booth's body?" "Of course it was. There could be no question about it. On one leg of the body was a cavalry boot and on tho other foot an army shoo; the bootless leg was bandaged. It having been stated that Itooth's Initials were marked on one of his nrms, I unbuttoned the shirt cuff on his left arm and displayed, on one forearm, the letters J. W. it., surrounded by a wreath of stars. That was sufficient testimony, but tho con- elusive evidence was uncovered by Dr. Frederick May. "For some time previous to the assassination as-sassination Dr. May had been treating Itooth for a carbuncle, which was located lo-cated on the lower part of his neck, on the shouldor. At the time when this carbuncle was most painful Charlotte Cushman was playing -Meg Merriles' here and Booth was one of the company. During 0110 of the performances per-formances Charlotte struck Booth and spoiled tho carbuncle. The result was a slow-healing wound. Dr. May described the appearance of this to Surgeon-General Barnes, and when the garments were cut open the scar was found. That mado the identification complete and all those present were satisfied. I "I remained abroad the Monitor during the time of the post mortem examination, and in tho afternoon the remains were rolled in tin army blanket aud taken off in a small boat. The same afternoon we in ado a photograph photo-graph of Horold. who had been captured with Booth, and while the picture was being made he gave utterance utter-ance to some remarks about the death of Booth which show conclusively that he was present at the time of the shooting and knew that the body on the forward part of the Monitor was that of John Wilkes Booth." |