Show W Writer iter Explains Ghostly L Legends Legends' g on 9 on l Lincoln's s De Death Death- th Myths After L Lincoln Refutes Belief That Assassin Escaped Escaped Es Es- Punishment By MASSOCK Fanciful stories that up up after attel the assassination of or Abraham Lincoln and became beme folk tale of a sort Ort arc aro narrated b by Lloyd loyd Lewis in Myths After Lincoln vl Le and Carl anI poet poet- el biographer o of ot time the Civil ar 11 president d dent nt are aro Chicagoans oan and Jl It Itis itis is mId said they agreed before o wr writing their books bools to divide tho literary spoils Sandburg t taking the story lor of ol Linc Lincoln's ln's life for tor- his his' Prairie Years Years' and Lewis Ute tile the post mortem nt m le At any rate Lewis h ha haa 3 gathered gather together the word of stories that spread as the great groat republic rocketed Abraham Lincoln the 1 prairie J lawyer into sainthood and mind has hns exposed their often fictional nal na na- na tur tune ture The Tho lm h half l lf circus Circus- half hat heartbreak eak clr circumstances s 's surrounding u r ro u nd I 11 g his funeral the myth of ot tho missing corpse the legend of ot tho the phantom funeral train train and the time various artous ver ver versions sl ns of ot what of-what what befell the assassin las ln are aro among the tho many many tales taJes reconstructed or analyzed I In t disposing of or th the tbs J. J 1 Wilkes Wilkes' Booth mystery complicated by bythe bythe the time claims of pretenders pretenders' to to th time the dubious dubious du du- bious honor of or being the actor Lewis has written ea a a. biography of the as mis- mis sassin He Le attempts to refute a widespread b belief th that t Booth escaped es escaped es- es s- s punishment ent and lived lI for Cor years in disguise evading justice as al all all' ll It had begun beg ho writes myths b begin gln with some b basis in fact and it had b been fed been fed with crazy melo drama The s secret service a announced In r 1865 t that Booth had b been n caught and killed in fn a. a burning burning- barn ban near Bowling Bowling- Green Va The question ques ques- tion immediately arose Was the corpse the they burled buried d Booths Booth's 1 l- l Eyewitness Eyewitness Eye lc c- c witness statements statement seem seeni to haebe have hae be been n doubted Lewis Lewis' convincing evidence ce of the execution was ob obtained ob tamed from William Villiam Lightfoot a Confederate veteran who said Mid h hh he h hoard heard ard the shooting and saw the body which be he recognized d as the actors actor's from rom familiarity with his photographs AP AP |