AFTER SIXTY YEARS

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1638, 7 May 1925, Page 6

AFTER SIXTY YEARS

A MURDERER'S BURIAL PLACE.

ALLEGED SECRET REVEALED,

Two contradictory statements regarding the burial place of John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Abraham incoln, President of the United States, on 14th April, 1865, were published in the New York Herald last month.

A message from Chicago stated that Colonel James Hamilton Davidson, a former commander of the 122nd Infantry, had revealed what 'he said wan the burial place of Booth. Coloiml Davidson, who lives in Chicago with a daughter, said that he believes he is the only living man who knows. Recently Mr E. H. Sampson, who said he was one of seven men who disposed of Booth’s body, died without revealing what had been c fr.e with the body. ■

iColonel Davidson said he was in command at Portsmouth, Virginia, on the night of Booth’s burial, and was told of it by Colonel Baker, head of the secret service of the army.

“Just after the shooting of Booth at Bowling Green, Virginia,” said Colonel Davidson, “ a report came to mo about a group of men acting mysteriously in the 'middle of the night round one of the warehouses. I didn’t have to wait long for my information. Colonel Baker came to me next morning and said 'he wanted to see me in pri-

vacy. “This is what Colonel Baker said: ‘ Last night I brought into Portsmouth the body of Booth. Six of my men carried it on a stretcher to the first warehouse to the north. We took it into the basement, where we dug a grave. The body was placed in there and covered with acid. Then the grave was filled with limestone and dirt. Every man of us is pledged to secrecy. Will you promise never to say a word?’” 'Colonel Davidson added: “That was nearly sixty years ago. There can't be any harm in telling it now. The country ought to know it.” A report received, from Washington on the day that the message was sent from Chicago stated: “Many versions of the burial of Booth have b :en in circulation for years, but the gener-ally-accepted belief here is that the body of the assassin was buried on the ground floor of the old Washington penitentiary and later was removed at the request of his relatives to Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore.” A message from Baltimore stated: “The records of Greenmount Cemetery show that Booth was buried in the Booth family plot there -m 6th June, 1869. According to the records of the Maryland Historical Society, Booth’s body was brought here from Washington on 18th February of the same year and was kept in a vault at Greenmount until final interment. The family fully identified the body as that of John Wilkes Booth, all statements to the contrary notwithstanding.”