Hi Everyone,
I was watching this case on my UM legends DVD, and this thought came to me. I am not aware if this has actually been done before, and I hope I am not missing the boat on anything (it would be really silly to pose this idea, only to find out someone has already done it!)
Anyhow, the case I am referring to is the John Wilkes Booth story, abuot the theory that instead of dying in a shootout in 1865, Booth committed suicide in 1903. NOw, Booth as we know was born into a relatively famous acting family. His father was Junius Brutus Booth and his brother was Edwin Booth. So, is it possible to test the remains of Edwin or Junius, and compare them to the man who killed himself in 1903? Or, could they compare the remains of Edwin/Junius to the man who died in the 1865 shootout--the man who everyone assumed was Booth? Has DNA testing ever been done on the Booth family? With all this scientific technology, there should be some defininitive way to prove (or rule out) the claims that John Wilkes Booth survived.
After all, DNA testing eventually proved that Ana Anderson was NOT Anastasia.
Also, if anyone knows if any DNA testing was ever done on JW Booth, could you send me some more information or links? Thanks!!!

Hi Everyone,
I was watching this case on my UM legends DVD, and this thought came to me. I am not aware if this has actually been done before, and I hope I am not missing the boat on anything (it would be really silly to pose this idea, only to find out someone has already done it!)
Anyhow, the case I am referring to is the John Wilkes Booth story, abuot the theory that instead of dying in a shootout in 1865, Booth committed suicide in 1903. NOw, Booth as we know was born into a relatively famous acting family. His father was Junius Brutus Booth and his brother was Edwin Booth. So, is it possible to test the remains of Edwin or Junius, and compare them to the man who killed himself in 1903? Or, could they compare the remains of Edwin/Junius to the man who died in the 1865 shootout--the man who everyone assumed was Booth? Has DNA testing ever been done on the Booth family? With all this scientific technology, there should be some defininitive way to prove (or rule out) the claims that John Wilkes Booth survived.
After all, DNA testing eventually proved that Ana Anderson was NOT Anastasia.
Also, if anyone knows if any DNA testing was ever done on JW Booth, could you send me some more information or links? Thanks!!!

It would be possible, however, the DNA would have (by now) likely degraded to the point it would be unusable. Also, the family would have to give consent to exhumation of the body/bodies. The Ana Anderson case was figured out, as I recall, by using some hair from a brush or something like that.

It would be possible, however, the DNA would have (by now) likely degraded to the point it would be unusable. Also, the family would have to give consent to exhumation of the body/bodies. The Ana Anderson case was figured out, as I recall, by using some hair from a brush or something like that.

I think I heard somewhere that they were going to do DNA tests on the remains but the Booth family refused to cooperate with the exhumation.

Actually, some descendants of Edwin Booth (JWB's brother) are willing to have DNA tests done on vertebrae taken from the body of the man in the barn, mostly to clear up the crazy theories about his fate.

JWB's grave site is unmarked in the Booth plot and there are claims that it can not be properly located; a judge refused to allow any attempt of exhumation:

http://articles.philly.com/2010-12-23/news/26356230_1_booth-descendants-booth-family-edwin-booth

From the article:

Three cervical vertebrae from that body are in the collection of the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington.

Sorry, but I think the theory advanced on UM was complete BS. Davey Herold said the man in the barn was Booth. Booth's body was identified by at least ten people who knew him, including his dentist and the surgeon who had removed a tumor from the back of his neck. Booth was identified by this scar, the 'JWB' tattoo that was on his wrist, the vest that the body was wearing and basic recognition of his facial features. He was disinterred and re-identified in 1869 by his brother Joseph before being buried in the Booth plot.

Yes, that's been discussed here before. http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=203073&highlight=Wilkes

Note that the mummy of the alleged Booth disappeared right around the time testing became available.

I hope they do test the remains held in the Mutter museum. It would mean no disturbance of the Booth family graves and an end to the mystery. They'll find the same thing as when they tested Jesse James, Lee Harvey Oswald, the Lindbergh baby, and the Romanov family--in each case the person purported to be those remains, really was.

Unfortunately, the Lindbergh baby was cremated. Can you get DNA off of cremated remains?

Unfortunately, the Lindbergh baby was cremated. Can you get DNA off of cremated remains?

Lindbergh scattered his son's ashes over the Atlantic, from his plane. I've never heard of any crazy theory that it wasn't the child's remains that were found in the woods, but then the other death/identity conspiracies Cori mentions were just as ridiculous.

Anyway, the cremation process destroys DNA.

Lindbergh scattered his son's ashes over the Atlantic, from his plane. I've never heard of any crazy theory that it wasn't the child's remains that were found in the woods, but then the other death/identity conspiracies Cori mentions were just as ridiculous.

Anyway, the cremation process destroys DNA.

A thorough cremation process will destroy DNA. Surprisingly, most cremations aren't particularly thorough, so it may be possible to extract DNA from remains.

A thorough cremation process will destroy DNA. Surprisingly, most cremations aren't particularly thorough, so it may be possible to extract DNA from remains.

As of this point, I've never heard of this being viable.

All of this discussion is off topic, but in many cremations, it's not possible to recover all particles of the cremains from the chamber. Some of the cremated particles might remain as residue and are mingled with residue of other cremated remains remaining in the cremation chamber. I don't if all do, but some funeral homes do give a written notice about this to families when they decide on cremation. I have a friend who works with her family in this industry, so I'm going to take their word for it.

In any case, none of this applies to the Lindbergh child or the actual topic.

Lindbergh scattered his son's ashes over the Atlantic, from his plane. I've never heard of any crazy theory that it wasn't the child's remains that were found in the woods, but then the other death/identity conspiracies Cori mentions were just as ridiculous.

Anyway, the cremation process destroys DNA.


Please forgive the OT, but do some google searches on baby Lindbergh, you'll find several folks that strongly believe that they are Charles Lindbergh, Jr.

Please forgive the OT, but do some google searches on baby Lindbergh, you'll find several folks that strongly believe that they are Charles Lindbergh, Jr.

Well, I can't say that I'm surprised -- I just find it silly that someone would discount historical evidence that entirely. I hadn't heard about the Oswald exhumation either. Of course, there's all these people who think their dad was the Black Dahlia killer or some other famous murderer.

While a conclusive DNA test would be nice (especially a mitochondrial DNA test between the vertebrae and the known remains of Edwin Booth, as siblings with the same mother always have identical mitochondrial DNA), I doubt that any type of proof will ever put an end to the conspiracy theories (see: OBAMA BIRTHERS). I believe that--as most evidence indicates--Booth died on the Garrett farm on April 26, 1865.

Yes, the Lindbergh baby was cremated, and even if you could get DNA from cremated remains, you could never find them after being scattered from a plane. The DNA came from hair and teeth saved in a police evidence file. The family requested, and received them, tested the remains against the baby's surviving siblings, and sure enough, they matched.

It was also found Lindbergh had several illegitimate children from an affair with a woman in Europe. Uncharacteristic and a big surprise for his family, but when those children's DNA matched his children's they accepted them as relatives.

In the meantime, long before DNA tests were available, some 14 people led themselves to believe, or were led to believe by others, that they were the Lindbergh baby, starting when the first claimant was as young as 4.

This is the best website on what actually happened: http://www.lindytruth.org/

As for Oswald, conspiracy theorists convinced his widow that maybe someone else was buried in his place, despite his own brother being sure he saw him in the casket. She okayed the exhumation and the body was found to be that of Oswald. He was reburied in a new casket and the original just sold for big bucks.

It would be possible, however, the DNA would have (by now) likely degraded to the point it would be unusable. Also, the family would have to give consent to exhumation of the body/bodies. The Ana Anderson case was figured out, as I recall, by using some hair from a brush or something like that.

The DNA should still be OK.

The Romanovs were identified from DNA taken from their bodies - which had been covered in acid, burned, etc. - DNA's pretty hardy stuff. Anna Anderson was proven to be a fraud based on tests on both medical slides from an operation she had and strands of hair - both samples matched each other, didn't match the mitochondrial DNA of GD Anastasia and did match the mitochondrial DNA of the Polish peasant Anderson was long suspected to be.

The DNA should still be OK.

The Romanovs were identified from DNA taken from their bodies - which had been covered in acid, burned, etc. - DNA's pretty hardy stuff. Anna Anderson was proven to be a fraud based on tests on both medical slides from an operation she had and strands of hair - both samples matched each other, didn't match the mitochondrial DNA of GD Anastasia and did match the mitochondrial DNA of the Polish peasant Anderson was long suspected to be.

Yes, and like the Lindbergh baby, Anna Anderson was actually cremated, but still left behind enough samples to test.

The DNA should still be OK.

The Romanovs were identified from DNA taken from their bodies - which had been covered in acid, burned, etc. - DNA's pretty hardy stuff. Anna Anderson was proven to be a fraud based on tests on both medical slides from an operation she had and strands of hair - both samples matched each other, didn't match the mitochondrial DNA of GD Anastasia and did match the mitochondrial DNA of the Polish peasant Anderson was long suspected to be.

It all depends upon the area it's buried in how fast degradation occurs. DNA degradation is sped up by warmth and moisture, but slowed by cold (as is most cellular degradation and decay). It's not all that surprising that the bones of the Romanovs still contained viable DNA samples, given Russia's climate. However, in other locales, it doesn't fare quite so well. I remember there was a child victim of the Titanic that had been buried in Halifax a few months after the sinking. The child was unidentified when buried. A few years back, researchers had narrowed the possibilities down to a couple of children, and had the remains exhumed. There were very few bones left, and of those bones, only one had yielded viable DNA. They said that they believed the only reason that one had survived was due to a copper plaque that had been mounted onto the cover of the coffin, and had eventually come into contact with the bones, after the coffin had largely rotted away. Obviously, sometimes it survives, but after a century passes, it's pretty difficult to find usable samples...

Too bad the only photograph seems to have disappeared! http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Documenting-the-Death-of-an-Assassin.html

It might not be convincing to all given that the doctor who examined Booth said his appearance in death was changed greatly, but it would be interesting.

Wonder how they are getting along with extracting DNA from the vertebrae at the Mutter Museum and having something to compare it to.

Brad Meltzer's Decoded is doing this among other mysteries. I haven't seen all the segments so don't know their conclusions, just that they are covering a lot of the stories UM explored.

Just dropped by to say that The Why Files on YouTube has just done a segment on John Wilkes Booth. There are a few mistakes, such as a date being wrong and a random Revolutionary War guy turning up at the conspirators' meeting during which everyone spoke with British accents, but it is mostly excellent. You should catch it by all means!