--- title: John Wilkes Booth Cadaver Photos: 1938 Carnival Display description: During the 1930s, a traveling carnival displayed a cadaver it claimed belonged to John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's assassin. canonical: https://time.com/3769589/john-wilkes-booth-cadaver/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-15T12:00:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:47:47.579Z og:title: The Undying Conspiracy of John Wilkes Booth's Body og:description: During the 1930s, a traveling carnival displayed a cadaver it claimed belonged to John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's assassin. og:url: https://time.com/3769589/john-wilkes-booth-cadaver/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5c4a0390a576309/6987867ae53aba5d754d864a/150402-john-wilkes-booth-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: John Wilkes Booth Mummy og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Undying Conspiracy of John Wilkes Booth's Body twitter:description: During the 1930s, a traveling carnival displayed a cadaver it claimed belonged to John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's assassin. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5c4a0390a576309/6987867ae53aba5d754d864a/150402-john-wilkes-booth-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Undying Conspiracy of John Wilkes Booth's Body  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Apr 15, 2015 12:00 PM UTC  Caption from LIFE. Twenty-five cents admission is charged to see the mummy. "Barney" Harkin tends gate. His wife does explaining. Caption from LIFE. Twenty-five cents admission is charged to see the mummy. "Barney" Harkin tends gate. His wife does explaining.William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Apr 15, 2015 12:00 PM UTC Twelve days after John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, he was fatally shot by an army sergeant as the barn he was hiding in burned to the ground. Or at least that’s the conventional narrative of Booth’s final hours. Despite the fact that Booth’s body had been identified by a number of people who knew him well, some conspiracy theorists maintained that Booth escaped to Texas, and that the man shot outside that barn had merely been a look-alike. In Finis L. Bates’ 1907 book _Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth_, the author contends that Booth assumed a new identity, John St. Helen, and lived in exile until taking his own life in 1903. Following the success of his book, Bates began to display the mummified cadaver he claimed was Booth’s at traveling carnivals. According to LIFE, the mummy, which was for some reason “always clad in khaki shorts,” changed hands several times, “bringing bad luck to its owners.” By the time LIFE photographed it at Jay Gould’s “Million Dollar Spectacle” in 1938, both doctors and historians had weighed in on the matter: --- > “” --- Though the public lost interest for a few decades, a 1977 book and subsequent movie adaptation, both called _The Lincoln Conspiracy_, thrust the controversy back into the mainstream. The book and film offered new theories about Booth’s alleged escape, chief among them an elaborate cover-up of a plot to kidnap and ultimately remove Lincoln from the presidency. Historians and Booth descendants have attempted to obtain permission to exhume Booth’s corpse for DNA testing, but all requests so far have been denied.  Caption from LIFE. Twenty-five cents admission is charged to see the mummy. "Barney" Harkin tends gate. His wife does explaining. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images   Caption from LIFE. Speaking of pictures…is this John Wilkes Booth's Body? William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. An X-ray of mummy's stomach, exhibited by Mrs. Harkin, shows signet right with"B," supposedly swallowed by Booth. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. The mummy's white hair is lovingly combed by Agnes Harkin. It's dried-up skin is dressed frequently with vaseline. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. The left leg is shorter. It was broken. Booth broke his left leg jumping to the stage after having shot President Lincoln. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. The back is opened by a flap, so that the customers can look inside. The mummy is always clad in khaki shorts. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Fingerprints are taken by a curious sheriff. This proves nothing because Booth's fingerprints were never taken. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Is this Booth? This is the mummy that might be Booth, wrapped up for the night in his Indian blanket. He lies at night in the truck where Mr. & Mrs. Harkin sleep. 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