Two years ago, I wrote a post about John Wilkes Booth's
DNA. A post which has become, by far, the most read post on my blog. It stemmed from an article I read that stated the family of Edwin Booth was trying to conclusively determine if it was actually John Wilkes Booth that was killed in a tobacco barn in Port Royal, Virginia, or if he survived and went on to lead a relatively obscure life.
Their family legend is that John Wilkes Booth survived and lived for many more years. Using modern DNA testing, the family was hoping to compare the remains of Edwin Booth (John's brother) with those believed to be John Wilkes Booth to definitively conclude that it was indeed John that was killed.
As it turns out, their efforts have been thwarted. The family had hoped to obtain access to three vertebrae that reside in the collection of the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C., which is managed by the U.S. Army Medical Command but the Army rejected their request. The fear of degrading the 150-year-old specimens was just to great for the museum.
From the beginning of Booth's killing the identity of the body found in the barn has been in question. It looks like it will remain so for the foreseeable future.
To read a full article about the John Wilkes Booth DNA saga, click
here.
