Confronting Bad History

How a Lost Cause and Fraudulent Book Caused the John Wilkes Booth Exhumation Trial

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on April 14,1865 was perhaps the most pivotal moment in our nation’s history with respect to who we were, as well as what we became as a nation and people in the ensuing years. After four years of war, gone was not only the message of hope put forth by the president in his first inaugural address, imploring us to seek out the “Better angels of our nature,” drawing upon our inherent goodness and penchant for peace and preservation of the union, but so too was the prospect raised in his second inaugural address that we heal our character and nation without malice, but with charity for all.

The prospect of peace without malice and reconciliation with charity and common purpose had been shattered, and it would take generations of survivors and their descendants well into the 20^th century before the wounds of our nation’s darkest hour would begin to heal.

History records John Wilkes Booth, an accomplished Shakespearean actor of the mid-19^th century, as having assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC on the night of April 14, 1865, during a presentation of the popular play, “Our American Cousin.” John Wilkes Booth would be captured and killed at the farm of Richard Garrett near Front Royal, VA on April 26, 1865. In 1907, an American lawyer, author, and conspiracy theorist proffered the notion that Booth in fact eluded capture completely and lived for many years afterward, ultimately committing suicide in 1903. Eighty years later, two Booth escape conspiracy theorists convinced the television program, “Unsolved Mysteries,” to produce an episode based upon this theory.

The conspiracy theorists would subsequently and unsuccessfully petition Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, MD, the resting place of John Wilkes Booth, to exhume his remains. Upon failing in this effort, they would file suit against the cemetery, resulting in a trial that provided expert testimony from expert witnesses in anthropology, history and medical science.

In Confronting Bad History — How a Lost Cause and Fraudulent Book Caused the John Wilkes Booth Exhumation Trial, Frank Gorman who represented the Cemetery at trial, recounts the trial preparations and strategies, lining up expert witnesses, the historical testimony and evidence, and trial tactics. He describes the overwhelming testimony and evidence showing that the Bates book is unreliable and fraudulent, with citations to the trial testimony in the Appendix. Gorman also exposes the Bates book as a Lost Cause false narrative.

“Confronting Bad History is about our history’s most infamous villain and debunks the conspiracy story that Lincoln’s assassin escaped justice”

Francis J. “Frank” Gorman practiced law as a trial and intellectual property attorney, and is currently Of Counsel with Gorman and Williams, Attorneys at Law. Frank is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and Law Center, earning his juris doctorate in 1969. He has written extensively, both in practice and as a favored pastime on topics of law and history.

Green Mount Cemetery enthusiastically supports and promotes this important work by Frank Gorman and remains forever grateful for his expertise in representing the corporation at trial.

Frank’s book can be purchased at Amazon in both hardcover and paperback editions.

**Source material for this post drawn from “Boothtrial.com” © 2025 Francis J. Gorman