Confronting Bad History -- How a Lost Cause and Fraudulent Book Caused the John Wilkes Booth Exhumation Trial

How a Lost Cause and FraudulentBook Caused the John Wilkes Booth Exhumation TrialConfronting Bad History is about our history's most infamous villain and debunks the conspiracy story that Lincoln' assassin escaped justice. John Wilkes Booth's assassination of President Lincoln is the most infamous political assassination in U.S. history. The assassination of Lincoln suddenly ended the prospect of peace with malice toward none, with charity for all. The collective expectations of the people - reconstruction, reconciliation, and equality -- were shattered. The assassination irrevocably joined Lincoln and Booth. The full history of Lincoln's presidency cannot be told without Booth, and the life of Booth is defined by his dastardly deed. How Booth met his fate cannot change Lincoln's life and presidency, but it can diminish trust in our own history.Booth was captured, shot, and died at Garrett Farm in Virginia. This is traditional history, but it was contradicted by a 1907 book entitled The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth written by Finis L. Bates. The book ebbed in and out of public consciousness until two Booth escape proponents talked Unsolved Mysteries into producing the Bates escape story in a 1991 episode. This emboldened the escape proponents to request the exhumation of Booth's remains buried in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, MD. An impasse was reached and the proponents sued, resulting in a 1995 trial that included anthropologists, a medical examiner, history scholars, and historians.In Confronting Bad History, Frank Gorman who represented the Cemetery at trial, recounts the trial, the testimony, the tactics, and the surrounding history. He describes the testimony and evidence that the Bates book is unreliable and fraudulent. Gorman also exposes the Bates book as a Lost Cause false narrative.Yet the Booth escaped story persists, in large part because the trial is either unknown or ignored. This book gives voice to the trial that confronted bad history, confirms that Booth met his fate at Garrett Farm in 1865, and debunks the conspiracy story that Lincoln's assassin escaped justice.

Francis J. (Frank) Gorman practiced law as a trial and intellectual property attorney. He represented Green Mount Cemetery in the Kline v. Green Mount Cemetery trial and appeal. He is Of Counsel at the Gorman & Williams law firm. He is a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a recipient of the Lee A. Caplan Award for Pro Bono Services. Frank graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and its Law Center. He has written law review articles and blogs on legal topics and on history. He resides in Baltimore with his wife, Pat.