Truth or Legend?
144 years ago this month President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and I thought I would share one of our local legends with you:
The legend says that John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, died in Enid around 1903. A man named David E. George, committed suicide in Enid, Oklahoma Territory, in 1903 and is believed to have been Booth himself.
John Wilkes Booth was a noted actor and Confederate sympathizer and had originally planned on kidnapping Lincoln in exchange for Confedrate prisoners. Due to a change in plans Booth decided to assassinate President Lincoln on April 14, 1865, at the Ford's Theater in Washington. After shooting the President, Booth jumped to the stage, caught and broke his leg on a flag and fled the theater.
History states that Booth escaped, but was found by federal soldiers several weeks later. He had hidden in a barn near Port Royal, Virginia, and would not surrender. The barn was eventually set on fire. Booth was supposedly shot and killed by Sgt. Boston Corbett of the Sixteenth New York Cavalry.
Conflicting stories still exist about the identification of Booth's body, and there were errors made in the identification process along with errors in supplying information to the public about the identification. Legend tells that Boston Corbett, the man who shot Booth against orders, was involved in identifying the body as Booth's. This has fueled the speculation that Booth may not have been killed that night, but some other individual.
Grand Avenue Hotel in 1903, Enid, OK, upstairs behind boarded windows are rooms,
one of which was where John Wilkes Booth committed suicide
Many years later on January 13, 1903, in the Grand Avenue Hotel in Enid, (upstairs in the current Garfield Furniture building) Oklahoma, a man calling himself David E George was found dead. A doctor diagnosed his death as self-administered arsenic poisoning. George had been a house painter who did not know how to paint and always had access to money but died penniless. Legend has him quoted as saying "I killed the best man that ever lived."
After George was embalmed, he was placed in a chair in the window of the furniture store/funeral home so that the public could view him, and a photograph was taken due to his "remarkable likeness" to Booth. George's leg had also been broken above the right ankle-the same break that Booth had suffered in jumping from the Ford's Theater balcony. However, the doctor who had set Booth's leg had reported it to be the opposite leg.
About that time, a man named Finis L. Bates came to Enid to inspect the body. Bates identified George as an old friend and client of his named John St. Helen. Bates claimed to have known St. Helen (George) as a client and friend in the early 1870s. Bates stated that St. Helen had become seriously ill at one point and confessed that he was John Wilkes Booth. He supposedly gave information about the assassination and escape that only Booth would know.
Many facts that Bates published about St. Helen were proven to be inconsistent with documented facts. However, the body, which had been embalmed, was given to Bates, who began to lease the body to interested parties.
The body was even displayed at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 and also at many sideshow carnivals. The body then went on a few more adventures and eventually disappeared.
(If this interests you and for more on this being true, see the part called "and another article" at John Wilkes Booth)
The legend says that John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, died in Enid around 1903. A man named David E. George, committed suicide in Enid, Oklahoma Territory, in 1903 and is believed to have been Booth himself.
John Wilkes Booth was a noted actor and Confederate sympathizer and had originally planned on kidnapping Lincoln in exchange for Confedrate prisoners. Due to a change in plans Booth decided to assassinate President Lincoln on April 14, 1865, at the Ford's Theater in Washington. After shooting the President, Booth jumped to the stage, caught and broke his leg on a flag and fled the theater.
History states that Booth escaped, but was found by federal soldiers several weeks later. He had hidden in a barn near Port Royal, Virginia, and would not surrender. The barn was eventually set on fire. Booth was supposedly shot and killed by Sgt. Boston Corbett of the Sixteenth New York Cavalry.
Conflicting stories still exist about the identification of Booth's body, and there were errors made in the identification process along with errors in supplying information to the public about the identification. Legend tells that Boston Corbett, the man who shot Booth against orders, was involved in identifying the body as Booth's. This has fueled the speculation that Booth may not have been killed that night, but some other individual.
Grand Avenue Hotel in 1903, Enid, OK, upstairs behind boarded windows are rooms,one of which was where John Wilkes Booth committed suicide
Many years later on January 13, 1903, in the Grand Avenue Hotel in Enid, (upstairs in the current Garfield Furniture building) Oklahoma, a man calling himself David E George was found dead. A doctor diagnosed his death as self-administered arsenic poisoning. George had been a house painter who did not know how to paint and always had access to money but died penniless. Legend has him quoted as saying "I killed the best man that ever lived."
After George was embalmed, he was placed in a chair in the window of the furniture store/funeral home so that the public could view him, and a photograph was taken due to his "remarkable likeness" to Booth. George's leg had also been broken above the right ankle-the same break that Booth had suffered in jumping from the Ford's Theater balcony. However, the doctor who had set Booth's leg had reported it to be the opposite leg.
About that time, a man named Finis L. Bates came to Enid to inspect the body. Bates identified George as an old friend and client of his named John St. Helen. Bates claimed to have known St. Helen (George) as a client and friend in the early 1870s. Bates stated that St. Helen had become seriously ill at one point and confessed that he was John Wilkes Booth. He supposedly gave information about the assassination and escape that only Booth would know.
Many facts that Bates published about St. Helen were proven to be inconsistent with documented facts. However, the body, which had been embalmed, was given to Bates, who began to lease the body to interested parties.
The body was even displayed at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 and also at many sideshow carnivals. The body then went on a few more adventures and eventually disappeared.
(If this interests you and for more on this being true, see the part called "and another article" at John Wilkes Booth)
posted by Ann at
2:20 PM
9 Comments:
I'm intrigued and creeped out at the same time. Never knew this stuff! I assume that hotel was haunted? I can't believe Booth got away with killing Lincoln - free and clear. So why would he kill himself??? I need answers, GrannyAnn!
Awesome article Granny. Couldn't stop reading - really interesting.
That was a cool story. I had seen a documentary on Booth in the not too distant past and don't remember them mentioning. There's a lot of intrigue around this. I wonder what happened to the body.
Marissa: in the other article (down at the end of this article) it says: David George but was eventually tracked down by Jesse James and William Lincoln (a distant cousin of Abraham Lincoln who had spent 14 years searching for the real Booth). James and Lincoln then tricked Booth to drink a glass of arsenic-laced lemonade.
You can take a tour on once a month Saturdays and tour that room. I haven't been because you have to climb stairs but they say it is very tiny.
Jim: we probably weren't mentioned because people tend to poo-poo that he died here. Did you read the other article?
Yeah, Jim, why didn't you read the other article? LOL.
Sorry!! My attention span is not always that great, especially when reading. It would be cool to see all this in a TV documentary.
Jim I wasn't getting on to you for not reading the other article but I wanted you to since it is really interesting and puts more credence on our part. Have you or Marissa ever heard of the Knights of the Golden Circle? I had not. That has my curiosity peeked. I loved DaVinci Code and also Angels and Demons by Dan Brown and that sort of goes with the KGC and I love the mystery of it all.
There is ALOT of history in Enid! I read about the ghosts too. Secret societies and all that cult-ish stuff is fascinating. Can't wait for Angels and Demons movie to come out.
Grannyann, it wasn't you, it was Marissa!! There does look like some books over at Amazon on Booth and the theory of his escape, you might want to check them out if you have not already.
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