TO: Anthony Marsh [J], 72127,2301 FROM: M. Duke Lane, 76004,2356 DATE: 5/17/95, 10:54 PM Re: J. W. Booth in the News Judge asked to allow John Wilkes Booth grave opened Reuters World Report 05/17/95 4:15 EST Copyright 1995 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved.@bThe following news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Reuters Ltd. By Robert Kearns BALTIMORE, May 17 (Reuter) - Descendants of President Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth asked a judge on Wednesday to allow their family burial plot to be dug up to find out if a stranger is lying there rather than Booth. It was a family affair in the Baltimore circuit courtroom as Judge Joseph H.H. Kaplan listened to relatives of the man who shot Lincoln in the head 130 years ago tell him they want to put to rest for good rumours that an imposter may be buried under the Booth family obelisk in Green Mount Cemetery. "I want to know if there is a stranger there," 73-year-old Virginia Kline of Pennsylvania told the judge in no uncertain terms after relaying a tortuous tale of family lore. She and Lois Rathbun, 44, of Rhode Island, represented some 20 declared distant relatives of Booth who want the bones of the man buried in 1869 dug up and examined by scientists. The judge gave no indication of when he would rule. Adopting what one of about a dozen historians present at the two-day hearing described as "let the sleeping dog lie attack," a lawyer for the cemetery said whoever is buried in the grave is entitled to stay put under Maryland law. "In Maryland," lawyer Paul Gorman told the judge, "a decent burial is regarded as letting a man rest in peace." In any event, Gorman said, those behind the move to unearth the body were two "obsessed people" who were basing their case on what he called a hoax by a man named Fennis Bates. Bates wrote a book in 1907 saying a mummy he was willing to sell was actually Booth. As with presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald nearly a century later, this sparked a rash of conspiracy theories about Booth, a hero to some in the Confederacy and a villain in the north. "That story was false, it was a hoax," declared Gorman, who said the man in the 12-place burial site was John Wilkes Booth himself and no other. But Lisa Booth of Lynchburg, Virginia, showed the judge a page from her family Bible that she said proved Booth fathered a child in Mississippi in 1865 after he was reported to have been shot and killed in a gunfight with Union troops. She said her grandfather was that man's son and told her about it, so "I don't believe he is in the grave and I never have." The traditional version of events has Booth, an actor who believed in slavery and hated Lincoln for ending it, slipping into the president's box and shooting him as he watched a play on Good Friday, 1865, at Washington's Ford Theatre. Booth, a Confederate secret agent, then leapt onto the stage, ran out the door, jumped on a horse and fled, aided by conspirators. Twelve days later, Union troops shot and killed a man identified as Booth when he refused to surrender in a town in Virginia, south of Washington. But the barn where he was hiding burned to the ground, making positive identification of the body impossible at the time. Over time, a legend grew that he ran off to live another 38 years in Mississippi, Texas and the Oklahoma Territory. Experts from Washington's Smithsonian Institution told the judge that by using modern methods they think that can settle the issue by looking for a broken leg and thumb, suffered when he leapt to the stage from Lincoln's box. Booth's Grave AP US & World 05/17/95 7:22 EST Copyright 1995 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.@bThe information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of the Associated Press. By MARY BOYLE Associated Press Writer BALTIMORE (AP) -- Relatives of John Wilkes Booth asked a judge Wednesday to allow experts to open his grave to determine if a stranger lies there instead. "I don't believe he's in the grave. I never have," Lisa Booth Booth said. Most accounts say soldiers tracked Booth to a Virginia farm 12 days after he shot President Lincoln in 1865, then shot him in the neck as he tried to escape a burning barn. But rumors abounded that the actor-turned-assassin escaped and that the body in the family plot wasn't his. A man using the name David E. George, who committed suicide in 1903 in Oklahoma Territory, claimed to be Booth. Twenty-two of Booth's descendants petitioned to exhume the remains after several historians expressed doubt that Booth's body lay in Greenmount Cemetery. Three of the relatives were in court Wednesday. "I feel very strongly that my daughter and I should know who is buried in that plot," said Lois Rathbun of Hopkinton, R.I., Booth's great-great grandniece. "I want to get it settled and squared away for our family history and history in general," said Virginia Kline of Warminster, Pa., a first cousin twice removed. The hearing was to continue Thursday. Lawyers for the cemetery argued that the body should not be exhumed because it would disturb the remains of at least three infants buried in shallower graves. "The family's case is high on publicity and low on legal principles," Francis G. Gorman, a second cemetery lawyer, told Circuit Court Judge Joseph H. Kaplan. "It's low on dignity for those laid to rest." The 20-by-32-foot Booth family plot contains 13 graves, said William C. Trimble Jr., a cemetery lawyer. The precise location of Booth's grave within the plot has been kept secret to deter graverobbers. Gorman said the relatives fighting for exhumation are not immediate kin and "too remote" to make such a request. There is no question that most of the claimants are related to Booth, although Lisa Booth Booth, of Lynchburg, Va., acknowledges there are doubts about her claim to be Booth's great-great granddaughter. Gorman also questioned the worth of opening the grave. "An exhumation is unlikely to be scientific or conclusive," he said. "But even an inconclusive finding would bring exploitation and gain." Douglas Ubelaker, curator of physical anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History, would be one of several forensic experts to exhume the body if the petition is approved. He said ground penetrating radar would likely be used to locate the remains. The area would be excavated "slowly and carefully, like a crime scene," he said. The remains would be taken to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington. Although any identification would hinge on the condition of the remains, Booth's prominent lower jaw could play a key role in helping scientists determine if the body is Booth's, Ubelaker said. Is John Wilkes Booth's body in Baltimore cemetery? Reuters North America 05/16/95 12:15 EST Copyright 1995 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved.@bThe following news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Reuters Ltd. (corrects location of bowling green in 6th graf) By Robert Kearns WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Is it really John Wilkes Booth's body that lies moldering in a Baltimore graveyard? Or is a Booth imposter buried there, part of a 130-year-old cover-up by the U.S. government of what really happened after Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln? Judge Joseph H.H. Kaplan will hear arguments in Baltimore Circuit Court Wednesday on whether the remains under the Booth family obelisk in Green Mount Cemetery should be dug up and examined by scientists to determine if it was really Booth. Historians and Booth descendants have lined up on both sides in the court case. Three women who signed a petition to the court to dig up the remains claim to be related to Booth through a woman with whom he allegedly fathered a child a year after he was said to have been killed. The traditional version of events taught to American schoolchildren for more than a century has Booth, an actor who despised Lincoln, sneaking into the presidential box and firing a shot into Lincoln's head during a performance on Good Friday at Washington's Ford Theater. Booth, a supporter of slavery and a Confederate secret agent, then leapt onto the stage, ran out the door and escaped into the night, aided by conspirators. Twelve days later, Union troops shot and killed a man identified as Booth when he refused to surrender at Bowling Green, Va., about 45 miles south of Washington. But the barn where he was hiding burned to the ground, making positive identification of the body impossible at the time, and from the start there were rumors that Booth got away. Over time, a legend has grown that has him running off to live another 38 years in Mississippi, Texas and the Oklahoma Territory where he killed himself in the town of Enid in 1903. The Enid man's body, which was mummified and later sold to a carnival and exhibited on tour as John Wilkes Booth, disappeared sometime in the 1930s. To help settle the dispute, some relatives of Booth, the Smithsonian Institution, researchers and several Maryland officials want to exhume the remains in Baltimore. They argued in court papers that scientists could now determine with reasonable certainty whether it was Booth by matching such physical characteristics as a broken leg and thumb, suffered when he leapt to the stage from Lincoln's box. But other historians and the cemetery have filed motions dismissing the notion that he survived as conspiratorial nonsense and a desecration of the Booth family grave site. In 1869, the cemetery promised Booth's mother, Mary Ann, that the graves would remain undisturbed. REUTER Is Lincoln assassin's body in Baltimore cemetery? Reuters World Report 05/16/95 12:45 EST Copyright 1995 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved.@bThe following news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Reuters Ltd. By Robert Kearns WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuter) - Is the body buried in a Baltimore grave for 130 years really that of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, or an imposter? Judge Joseph H.H. Kaplan will hear arguments on Wednesday on whether the remains under the Booth family obelisk in Green Mount Cemetery should be dug up and examined by scientists to determine if it was really Booth. Historians and Booth descendants have lined up on both sides in the court case. Three women who signed a petition to the court to dig up the remains claim to be related to Booth through a woman with whom he allegedly fathered a child a year after he was said to have been killed. The traditional version of events has Booth, an actor who despised Lincoln and sympathised with the South in the American Civil War, sneaking into the presidential box and firing a shot into Lincoln's head during a performance on Good Friday, 1865, at Washington's Ford Theatre. Booth then leapt onto the stage, ran out the door and escaped into the night, aided by conspirators. Twelve days later, Northern troops shot and killed a man identified as Booth when he refused to surrender at Bowling Green, Virginia, south of Washington. But the barn where he was hiding burned to the ground, making positive identification of the body impossible at the time, and from the start there were rumours that Booth got away. Over time, a legend has grown up that has him running off to live another 38 years before killing himself in 1903 in Enid, Oklahoma. To help settle the dispute, some relatives of Booth, the Smithsonian Institution, researchers and several public officials want to exhume the remains in Baltimore. They argued in court papers that scientists could now determine with reasonable certainty whether it was Booth by matching physical characteristics. But other historians and the cemetery have filed motions in the court dismissing the notion he survived as nonsense and a desecration of the Booth family grave site. In 1869, the cemetery promised Booth's mother, Mary Ann, that the graves would remain undisturbed. REUTER Obit-Lincoln AP US & World 05/12/95 12:01 a EST Copyright 1995 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.@bThe information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of the Associated Press. By JEAN CHRISTENSEN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- Evelyn Norton Lincoln, who was personal secretary to President Kennedy, died Thursday in Georgetown University Hospital of complications after surgery for cancer, the family said. She was 85. Mrs. Lincoln was Kennedy's personal secretary from January 1953 when he started his first term in the Senate until his death Nov. 22, 1963, when she was in the motorcade in Dallas when he was assassinated. She had been hospitalized since April 2, said Francis McGuire, a family spokesman. Mrs. Lincoln was born June 25, 1909, on a farm in Polk County, Neb., and her father, John N. Norton, was a member of the House of Representatives. She came to Washington in 1930 with her husband, Harold W. Lincoln, and the two got involved in politics. She was known for visiting Kennedy's grave at Arlington National Cemetery every year on the anniversary of his death. In 1988, on the 25th anniversary, she went alone to the grave and laid three red roses near its eternal flame. "I always come. I haven't missed a one. I feel that I should honor him. It's the least I can do," Mrs. Lincoln said then. She said she "wouldn't give anything" for the experience of working in the White House with Kennedy. "That's why I'm grateful and I come out to the grave to thank him," she said. Mrs. Lincoln also was the author of two best-selling books, "My 12 Years With John F. Kennedy" and "Kennedy and Johnson." After Kennedy's death, she worked on his personal papers, many of which are in the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston and in the National Archives in Washington. She also worked for former Rep. James Kee, D-W.Va., from 1967 to 1973. Mrs. Lincoln graduated from George Washington University, where she majored in English and dramatics. She also attended law school for two years at George Washington. She is survived by her husband, to whom she was married 64 years. They resided in Chevy Chase, Md. Kennedy's secretary Evelyn Lincoln dies at 85 Reuters North America 05/12/95 1:17 a EST Copyright 1995 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved.@bThe following news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Reuters Ltd. WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Evelyn Norton Lincoln, personal secretary to former president John F. Kennedy for more than a decade, died of complications related to surgery Thursday, a family friend said. She was 85. Lincoln, 85, wrote two books about her experiences as Kennedy's secretary, "My Twelve Years with John F. Kennedy," and "Kennedy and Johnson". Every year on Nov. 22, the day Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, she made the pilgrimage to Arlington National Cemetery to place three long-stemmed red roses on Kennedy's grave. She was one of the few people who knew Kennedy secretly taped conversations in the Oval Office, and when that fact became known in the early 1980s she valiantly defended it. "There wasn't any sinister motive on the part of the president to get any information on anyone in order to blackmail them, or whatever. It was just a recording of the events," she told the Washington Post in an interview in 1982. Raised on a farm in Polk County, Nebraska, Lincoln came to Washington with her husband Harold Lincoln in 1930, when he was working on the campaign of Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1951, she was working for a Georgia congressman when she identified young Massachusetts representative Kennedy as a shooting star and decided to volunteer in his office. "She decided he had what it took to go somewhere, and she was right," family friend Francis McGuire told Reuters. When Kennedy won his Senate seat in 1953, she was offered the job as his personal secretary. When he moved to the White House in 1960, she went along. And she was there in Dallas that fateful day in 1963 when he was assassinated. She kept a diary the whole time, and although she published bits and pieces in her books, the diary itself has remained secret. She told an interviewer in 1982 she would make it public only after her death. Asked if there were any bombshells in the diary, she said, "Oh, I think maybe there would be some. Some of the things that were said about other people." She said she only thought about leaving Kennedy's service once. That was in the Senate, when she spent half her time screening calls from young women who wanted to meet him. "He was charming. He had an Irish temper and when things didn't go right, he'd tell you about it," she told the Post. In another interview, she talked about booking appointments for Kennedy with his girlfriends. After Kennedy's death she worked on his presidential papers for several years, then worked on Capitol Hill as a secretary until her retirement in 1973. She is survived by her husband of 64 years. REUTER