Every American knows the story of John Wilkes Booth. He was a successful actor, and many people loved him. Some of his best plays were Richard III and The Marble Heart, and many of these plays were preformed at Ford's Theater. Booth was a proud supporter of owning slaves, and became enraged when Abraham Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation. This law was rejected by many Southern slave owners, and they claimed that they could keep owning slaves. On the day of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot Abe Lincoln in the back of the ear at Ford's Theater. Booth went on the run for 12 days until he was tracked down by Union soldiers. He was cornered in an old, abandoned barn. The barn was set on fire to get Booth to walk out. Booth was a stubborn person, and he wouldn't go down without a fight. A man named Boston Corbett became impatient, and shot John Wilkes Booth. He claimed that the want of God directed him, because he was a faithful Christian. After the event, he said to his government: "God Almighty directed me." In reality, insanity directed his actions. Corbett was placed in an insane asylum in 1886.
As for the body of John Wilkes Booth, many things became strange. After the autopsy, the doctor reported that the right leg was fractured. After John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln, the doctor who set his leg reported that the fracture was on the left leg. Also, when John Wilkes Booth was pulled out of the barn, the soldiers reported that he had red hair and freckles. The real John Wilkes Booth had black hair and no freckles. The soldiers believed that this wasn't John Wilkes Booth. They believed that this body was James William Boyd, who was a military officer for the Confederates.
When John Wilkes Booth's body was pulled out of the fire, he wasn't wearing his signature ring and wasn't carrying his watch. His body was buried in Green Mount Cemetery in Maryland, and no questions were asked. In 2006, with the advancements of technology, the vertebrae was asked to be tested on by the National Science Foundation, but the request was denied. It was denied because the government feared that the skeleton would be damaged.
Nate Orlowek, who has spent most of his life trying to find out what actually happened to John Wilkes Booth, is convinced that he fled to Oklahoma in a series of disguises and spent of the rest of his life in hiding. Many people believe that John Wilkes Booth didn't die that night, but the fate of this case hangs in the balance of science.
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