Autopsy on an Ironclad: the Medical Evidence Proving John Wilkes Booth Was Killed
By James H. Sterling
Skeptics immediately questioned whether the military had cornered the real assassin or gunned down an unfortunate patsy. To remove all ambiguity, the federal inquest summoned Dr. John Frederick May, a Washington physician who had surgically removed a fibroma tumor from Booth's neck eighteen months earlier.
Dr. May boarded the USS Montauk and examined the body. While exposure, smoke, and decomposition had altered the actor's pale complexion, May pointed out the distinctive jagged scar tissue on the left side of Booth's neck where his scalpel had excised the benign growth in 1863. The scar remained exactly where Booth had complained it interfered with his stage costumes.
Corroborating witnesses, including actor Charles Dawson and theater staff from Ford’s Theatre, boarded the ironclad and confirmed the face. Dawson pointed out an India-ink tattoo between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand bearing the letters "J.W.B.", which Booth had pricked into his skin as a boy. More than ten independent witnesses who knew Booth personally confirmed the body's identity under oath.
James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.
