The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
Learn Finis Bates’ theory about the demise of one of history’s most notorious criminals, John Wilkes Booth. Bates argues that contrary to official reports, Booth successfully escaped from Union troops shortly after Lincoln’s assassination. In 1872, a man named John St. Helen visited Bates’ house and made the claim. Bates verified the claim with Booth’s closest living relatives and Booth’s stage counterpart Joe Jefferson. Though Bates did not believe St. Helen initially, he later came to accept his claim to be John Wilkes Booth and presents his case in this book.
Learn more about Abraham Lincoln with the Abraham Lincoln Collection (6 vols.).
Key Features
- Offers a theory about the demise of John Wilkes Booth
- Presents an engaging narrative
- Includes pictures and illustrations
Contents
- Chapter I. Lincoln-Booth
- Chapter II. John St. Helen
- Chapter III. John St. Helen Lectures Roland Read
- Chapter IV. St. Helen’s Illness
- Chapter V. St. Helen’s Identity Revealed
- Chapter VI. The Assassination
- Chapter VII. The Separation
- Chapter IX. The Pursuit of Booth
- Chapter X. The East Potomac Bridge
- Chapter XI. The Hand of Secretary Stanton
- Chapter XII. A Baltimorean Still
- Chapter XIV. Informing the War Department that Booth Lives
- Chapter XV. Gen. Albert Pike Identified Booth
- Chapter XVI. Press Comments on the Suicide of David E. George
- Chapter XVII. These are Pictures of John Wilkes Booth
- Chapter XVIII. Reading the Palm of John Wilkes Booth
- Chapter XIX. Joseph Jefferson Identifies John Wilkes Booth
- Chapter XX. Junius Brutus Booth Identifies His Uncle, John Wilkes Booth
Finis L. Bates
Finis L. Bates (1848–1923) was a lawyer from Memphis, Tennessee. His book The Escape and Suicide John Wilkes Booth proposed that Booth had not been killed by Union troops on April 26th, 1865, but had escaped and become David E. George who died in Enid, Oklahoma, on January 13, 1903.