I have to admit, I knew the basics of the assassination, everyone does, but it did not really interest me until, by chance, I found a CDV on ebay that looked like that infamous Booth. The UK seller had many UK and European noted actor and singer CDVs (Carte de Visite) but this was in a lot simply listed as 'miscellaneous'. I put the only bid in and won the lot for well under $20 even with shipping. (I am fascinated with early photography and photographica)
That is when my interest was peaked and I read all I could about the assassination and those involved.
There was a conspiracy that John Wilkes Booth was not the one shot and killed in Richard Garrett's barn by Thomas P. 'Boston' Corbett (a truly bizarre character), and the entire assassination, search for/apprehension of, trial and what followed, left many unanswered questions and strange inner-twining events.
Anyway, the back of the CDV I acquired listed it was taken by the photographer Walter A. Smith in the UK, and on further investigation I found the photographer was in business AFTER John Wilkes Booth was killed. Curious.
John's sister, Asia, moved to the UK shortly after the death of her brother, so the only conclusions I can come up with are either said photographer made copies of an already circulated CDV of Booth (although there are some slight differences between them, as you can see in the photos below), or it is someone who uncannily looks like and dressed like Booth and had the photograph taken, or it is, indeed, the actual John Wilkes Booth which would mean he was not the one shot and killed at Garrett's farm?
There are many strange coincidences involving the Lincolns and the assassination, for instance it was none other than Edwin Booth (John's brother and fellow actor) that had previously rescued young Robert Lincoln when he had fallen from a train platform in Jersey City, New Jersey.
And what happened to the missing pages that were torn from Booth's calendar/memo book but were never found?
Also there is John Surratt, one of the co-conspirators and son of the executed Mary Surratt, who escaped and made his way to Egypt posing as a Canadian (there were many Canadians sympathetic towards the South during the Civil War) where he became a Papal Zouaves but was apprehended, arrested, returned to the U.S, exonerated and went on to do lectures.
And, that after the death of their son, William Wallace Lincoln (whom it is believed mostly likely succumbed to typhoid fever which was prevalent at the time in Washington), Mary Todd Lincoln became interested in spiritualism and one of the 'psychics', Charles Colchester, that Mary visited and that visited her at the White House was also a friend of John Wilkes Booth and had, at least at one time, warned the President to be cautious.
Also, take note, that Robert Todd Lincoln (Abraham and Mary Todd's eldest son) was contacted by two other Presidents just before they were assassinated, James Abram Garfield and William McKinley, both of whom it is said, had premonitions of their deaths similar to Abraham Lincoln's, thus their reason for wanting to speak with Robert.
Actually, the original conspiracy was said not to assassinate the President, but to kidnap him and hold him as ransom in trade for the Confederate soldiers that were being held in prison by the North.
I do not know what was blackened out in the upper left hand corner, it was like that when I got it. There is a resemblance, whether or not it is or isn't John Wilkes Booth. People can appear differently from one photograph to another, as well as their appearance can change from year to year, if even ever so slightly.
Was it all a conspiracy? Maybe? Maybe not...
Bedspread said to be from Lincoln's deathbed tested for bloodstains