Did John Wilkes Booth Survive?
The ultimate fate of President Lincoln's assassin may be in doubt
It isn’t a well-known historical fact, but there were actually four people hanged for their role in the conspiracy to assassinate US President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865.
However, the list of the executed did not include John Wilkes Booth, the person who many people mistakenly believe was solely responsible for the death of America’s 16th president. Booth escaped after shooting the president at Ford’ s Theater in Washington, D.C., and met his maker 12 days later in Virginia at the end of an exhausting chase.
This is the official verdict of history. But believe it or not, some scholars are skeptical of this story. They claim to have uncovered evidence that proves John Wilkes was not shot and killed by a marksman while hiding from a posse in a rural tobacco barn on Garret Farm’s on April 26, 1865, but instead escaped and went on to live several decades as a free man.
This theory may sound farfetched. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
The Official History
The accepted story of John Wilkes Booth’s death is as follows:
Having surrounded the barn where the president’s assassin was hiding, Union soldiers waited as a lone man meekly made his way out from inside. This man, later identified as 21-year-old David Herold, was one of the conspirators behind the Lincoln assassination. Convinced that Booth was still inside, Lt. Edward Doherty ordered the barn set on fire in an effort to smoke out the fugitive. The occupant of the barn stubbornly refused to submit to this tactic and was subsequently shot by an impatient soldier named Boston Corbett.

Or at least, someone was shot inside that barn The pivotal question behind this entire conspiracy was: Who exactly was inside the barn in the early hours of April 26th, 1865? John Wilkes Booth? Or an unknown confederate?
Evidence Suggesting it Wasn’t John Wilkes Booth
Nate Orlowek is a historian who disagrees with what history states. Orlowek is convinced Booth wasn’t anywhere near Garrett Farm at the time of the soldier’s arrival. He isn’t the only one either. In the years following those events, even some of the United States military have called into question the official events.
Just after the turn of the century, John Schmuker was General Counsel to the Department of the Army and went on record insisting that evidence supporting the conclusion that Booth was executed at Garrett Farm would not stand up to cross-examination in a court of law.
“It Doesn’t Look Like Him”
When Herold exited the barn, the first thing he was reputedly to have said was Booth was not inside the barn. This has been hotly debated for many years now. After the second individual was shot, Doctor John May was summoned to make an identification. Being acquainted with Booth, he calmly let the presiding officer know that whoever the victim was, it was not John Wilkes Booth. May’s statement is now inside the National Archives and in summation, it read:
“I’m sure this is Booth. But it doesn’t look like him. But this is certainly John Wilkes Booth.”
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