Mark Owen (Jan. 19, 2011)

The outlaw Jesse Woodson James killed the actor John Wilkes Booth at the Grand Avenue Hotel in Enid, Oklahoma in 1903 after Booth continually reneged on his oath to never talk about his secret membership in the Masonic-oriented Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) and to never mention the murder of Abraham Lincoln.

John Wilkes Booth did not die in Garrett’s tobacco barn in 1865 as is commonly supposed. Booth was saved by his brother Knights and spirited immediately down into Texas after the assassination. He lived and worked for many years in Granbury under the alias ‘John St. Helen.’

His own granddaughter Izola Forrester affirmed in her 1937 book This One Mad Act that Booth had been aided and abetted in his escape from Washington by the KGC. It was common knowledge in the Booth family that he never died in the barn.

The man shot and killed in Garrett’s barn was James Boyd, a former confederate agent working for the War Department. He bore a passing resemblance to Booth aside from his red hair and moustache. Booth’s hair was jet black and he had shaved off his moustache at the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd shortly after escaping from Washington.

Full story