I watched an interesting segment on the Infowars.com site on April 29th dealing with some history I had written about somewhere in the distant past. It was narrated by David Knight. I have always enjoyed watching David Knight’s commentary. He is a Christian man who is not ashamed of his faith and he lets you know that in a quiet, humble way.
His commentary on April 29th dealt, in part, with the fact that it does seem that we have been lied to for the past 150 years about whether Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth was really killed at Garrett’s Farm in Virginia and buried in the grave that, supposedly, contains his remains.
It would seem now that this may not be the case. Years ago, back in the 1990s, some in the Booth family were concerned about this and they went to court to get permission to have Booth’s body exhumed so DNA testing could be done to prove whether it was Booth or someone else buried there. The court refused their request and the cemetery did not want to be bothered either. Just too much trouble to go into all that. The “history” books have all been written and generations of kids have all learned the way it was supposed to have been, so why change all that now and upset the Establishment apple cart that has trundled along unimpeded for over 150 years?
If the question were raised and it was proven, somehow, that Booth was not buried where he was supposed to have been, then the questions arise–how did that happen? If Booth is not there then who is? If so, what happened to Booth. If he somehow escaped, then who aided him? And why?
There have been stories on the internet over the years about Booth having escaped and lived out his life quietly in other places. I’ve read several of them.
Since DNA evidence does not seem to be an option, thanks to some judge, other methods need to be employed. It seems like they now have a new technology called “facial recognition technology” which can view pictures of someone taken at different stages of life, youth, old age or whatever, and they can prove from this whether the pictures taken in youth or old age are the same person or not. It seems there are certain facial features that do not change no matter how old you get.
Apparently this technique has been used in court cases to identify people they are not sure about and there has been a ruling in court that if a person’s picture comes within a 5% possibility of being the person in question, that is admissible evidence of identification. I am probably not explaining it quite right, but you get the idea.
They have a photograph of a David George from Enid, Oklahoma, taken in 1902, the year he died. He claimed before he died that he was John Wilkes Booth. I read about this several years ago and all the court historians claimed it was nothing but a “conspiracy theory.” Now all of a sudden, this new facial recognition technology has come along and they have used it on both John Wilkes Booth’s and David George’s photos–Booth’s when he was 27, back in 1865 and George’s when he was 64 in 1902. According to the results there is only a 1% chance that Mr. George was not the long supposed dead Lincoln assassin.
If this is accurate, and as of now, it does seem to be, then, again, it raises lots of questions.
For years after the War of Northern Aggression there was a campaign afoot to blame the South for Lincoln’s death. They tried to tie Jeff Davis to it as part of their attempt to try him for treason. That fell through, much like the Russian Collusion delusion regarding Donald Trump. Same people involved–spiritual ancestors for Lincoln and spiritual descendants for Trump. You see, there was a version of the Deep State around in the 1860s–and before. They just didn’t call it that then.
John Wilkes Booth
Over the years I have read books picked up at used book stores that claimed people in Lincoln’s own government were responsible for his assassination. In this vein I read Otto Eisenschiml’s thought provoking book Why Was Lincoln Murdered? and one by Theodore Roscoe called Web of Conspiracy which, amazingly enough, is still available on Amazon. I also read one called The Lincoln Conspiracy and this one noted that Booth had not been killed but rather a look alike, James William Boyd, had been killed and buried as Booth. If you look at photos of Booth and Boyd, even though Boyd was a little older, there is definitely a resemblance. All these books put forth the very distinct possibility that Edwin Stanton and others, both inside and outside the Lincoln administration were responsible for Lincoln’s death.
I also read one by Eisenschiml called Historian Without an Armchair which dealt somewhat with Booth. On page 183 there is an interesting quote about Lincoln’s last speech. It says: “On that occasion the President had promulgated his policy to restore to the Southern states their political rights. This would have cost the Radicals all the fruits of the Northern victory. Outnumbered and outvoted, they would have sunk to the status of a minority party. Lincoln’s last speech was his death sentence, Gilchrist concluded, and to him the general outline of Booth’s connection with the murder plot also appeared plain. The actor’s frustrated attempts to kidnap the President on or about the 20th of March was known to Stanton and the radicals by the disclosures of Louis Weichmann, one of Booth’s group, and they could have arrested all the conspirators at any time; but Booth was given a chance to avoid punishment, provided he agreed to execute the murder plot. This threat would explain his cooperation with men with whom he had nothing in common, and the protection afforded him during his flight. It also accentuated the necessity of having him killed in case he was captured.” It now appears that, with his escape, that was not a dire necessity.
Eisenschiml’s comment about the protection afforded Booth during his flight should also raise questions. We know that the Navy Yard Bridge was left open after Lincoln’s assassination so that Booth could escape over into Maryland, when everything else in Washington had been shut down.
So more questions about some of our rather dubious “history” need to be raised again about all of this in light of the information that the man in Enid, Oklahoma, David George, who died in 1902 could well be John Wilkes Booth.
May 1, 2019
~ The Author ~
Al Benson Jr. is the editor and publisher of “The Copperhead Chronicle“, a quarterly newsletter that presents history from a pro-Southern and Christian perspective. He has written for several publications over the years. His articles have appeared in “The National Educator,” “The Free Magnolia,” and the “Southern Patriot.” I addition to that he was the editor of, and wrote for, “The Christian Educator” for several years. In addition to The Copperhead Chronicles, Al also maintains Revised History.
He is currently a member of the Confederate Society of America and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and has, in the past, been a member of the John Birch Society. He is the co-author, along with Walter D. Kennedy, of the book “Lincoln’s Marxists” and he has written for several Internet sites as well as authoring a series of booklets, with tests, dealing with the War of Northern Aggression, for home school students.
He and his wife now live in northern Louisiana.
Mr. Benson is a highly respected scholar and writer and has graciously allowed Kettle Moraine Publications to publish his works. We are proud to have his involvement.