Lincoln, the unknown

238•LINCOLN THE UNKNOWNfessed" that he was John Wilkes Booth. He declared that afterhe shot Lincoln, his friends had hidden him in a trunk and gothim aboard a ship bound for Europe, where he lived for tenyears.Bates, the lawyer, read about this in the papers, rushed toOklahoma, looked at the body, and declared that David E.George was none other than the asthmatic saloon-keeper ofGranbury, Texas, who had confessed to him twenty-five yearsbefore.Bates had the undertaker comb the corpse's hair just asBooth had worn his; wept over the remains; had the body embalmed;took it back to his home in Memphis, Tennessee, andkept it in his stable for twenty years, while trying to palm it offon the Government and claim the huge reward that had beenoffered—and paid—for the capture of Booth.In 1908 Bates wrote a preposterous book entitled: "TheEscape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth, or the First TrueAccount of Lincoln's Assassination, Containing a CompleteConfession by Booth, Many Years after His Crime." He soldseventy thousand copies of his sensational paper-back volume;created a considerable stir; offered his mummified "Booth" toHenry Ford for one thousand dollars; and finally began exhibitingit in side-shows throughout the South, at ten cents alook.Five different skulls are now being exhibited in carnivals andtents as the skull of Booth.