For 130 years, a cloud of controversy has surrounded John Wilkes Booth's escape from Washington after he assassinated President Lincoln.
Mainstream history texts say John Wilkes Booth was shot to death after Army troops cornered him on a Virginia farm. Booth's body was buried first in a Washington prison cell, moved to another site in the prison, then reburied in the family plot in Baltimore.
But some of Booth's relatives tell another tale. They say he escaped to Enid, in what was the Oklahoma Territory, where he lived under the alias of David E. George until he committed suicide in 1903.
Last week, some of the assassin's relatives asked a Baltimore Circuit Court judge to allow the grave to be opened so the remains in Booth's burial case can be identified. Attorneys for the cemetery argued against reopening the grave because of the strong likelihood that the remains of other family members would be disturbed.
On Monday, June 28, 1869, The Sun ran the following account of the reburial service at the Booth family plot:
The Dead of the Booth Family -- Reinterment of Remains at Greenmount -- At Greenmount Cemetery on Saturday afternoon, Christian burial was given the remains of Johns Wilkes Booth, and at the same time, the dust of three other members of the family brought from the estate in Harford County, received final sepulture. The remains of all the deceased members of the Booth family in America are now gathered in one spot, and repose beside the ashes of elder Junius Brutus Booth and of his father, Richard Booth, who died in 1839 aged 76, the resting places of the two latter having been changed very recently from Baltimore Cemetery to Greenmount. The new family burial place is in a very eligible location in the vale near the spring, to the right of the chapel and within easy access of one of the main drives. On this spot has been re-erected the well-known monument to the elder Booth, which formerly stood in Baltimore Cemetery bearing in relief on its shaft a medallion of the great tragedian and suitably inscribed to his memory, "Hic Jacet Matchless Booth!" with dates of birth (May 1st, 1796) and of death, (Nov. 30, 1852.) To those inscriptions commemorative of the father have been added on the side of the shaft previously left blank the following:
Tomb inscription
"To the memory of the children of Junius Brutus Booth and Mary Ann Booth: John Wilkes, Frederick, Elizabeth, Mary Ann, Henry Byron."
At the reinterment on Saturday the remains of John Wilkes Booth, enclosed in a handsome burial case, were conveyed from the vault of Mr. Weaver, the undertaker, at the special request of the family, by pall-bearers chosen from among the members of the theatrical profession, who knew the deceased. Among these was Mr. Gallagher, who, it is stated, is the only surviving pall-bearer of those who assisted at the burial of Junius Brutus Booth, nearly seventeen years ago. The remains brought from Harford County were those of the children, Frederick, Elizabeth and Mary Ann, and the casket containing their dust was placed at the grave by the side of John Wilkes. About forty or fifty persons were assembled at the grave, including relatives and friends of the family, the larger portion of the latter being ladies. The ceremony was simple and unostentatious, but thoroughly impressive. The Rev. Fleming James, assistant minister of St. Luke's Hospital, New York, robed in gown and surplice, officiated, standing at the head of the grave and reading the simple and beautiful service for the dead according to the ritual of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Near the clergyman, in a group, were the aged mother of the deceased, the elder sister, Rosalie, and the brothers, Junius Brutus and Edwin. The family seemed to feel keenly the grief of the occasion, and had the heartfelt sympathy of those present. At the conclusion of the service the remains were lowered into the grave with the consignment "earth to earth and ashes to ashes," and left to the profound repose of the tomb.
