will say that whoever they would brought up and whoever they captured at garrett s farm, that s whose bone fragment they have. that s the best evidence we have. whoever they captured that day is the person we think is john wilke zoo booth. you ll get the answer if dna is good. do you think edwin booth s dna would match that of john wil wilkes dna if it s possible to extract it from these bone fragments? i really do not know, and that s why we would like to continue, you know, looking for the dna samples and my feeling is that whatever the outcome is i would be fine with it. history should be as accurate as possible. brad, i mean, is it possible that john wilkes booth actually got away with it, lived 40 years
if you re on your death bed why not dig up john wilkes booth? one, you can t disturb a body. it s against the law. it s a family plot. some people don t know where it is. some say they know exactly where it is but they are worried that the dna that comes out of that test might be the actual dna of john wilke zoo booth so you just want to know who is in there. the bone fragments that are do we know for sure do we know for sure they belonged to john wilkes booth? they belong to who was thought to be john wilke zoo booth. the problem with the bone fragments, that s in walter reed and i ve been there and note guys there. they are incredible. seen their work and are incredible what they have there. the problem is we don t know if the dna in there is still good. that s the one problem, but i
after the assassination of abraham lincoln, lived a happy and free man, a free man, at least? if it were possible you wouldn t have all his family members on national television saying my family told me a secret or i believe it, and what we have to realize here, this is one of the greatest stories in all of american history. this isn t just a conspiracy theory. this isn t some dreamed up idea. you saw the clip from dakota that we haired on history channel this week, and you see a family member telling me my family told me a secret and the secret is john wilkes booth lived and you can t tell anybody. we all have our family secrets, not like that one, and you realize this is changing history if this happens. this is rewriting the history books, and to me that is absolutely as lois said so well, that is a question that is worth asking. all right. it s a question that s worth asking. your episode aired last thursday on history channel. brad meltzer of brad meltzer s decoded, thanks f
john wilkes booth. the idea is to test edwin booth, his dna, compare it to the dna of one of the vertebrae that are believed to belong to john wilkes booth to see if there s a relation. if not, then what? what are some of the theories out there? well, the theories and the reason this story starts is as you heard because some family members have heard these stories passed down, and one of the stories that started was that john wilke zoo baht when he escaped didn t die that night, took on the alias john wilkes booth, a guy smart enough to evade capture, not the name that you would take, but the name that everyone sticks within is john st. helen and the reason everyone sticks with this story is that john st. helen towards the end of his life, on his death bed, confesses this one secret that nobody knows and says i am john wilkes booth.
us and lois trebiasacci, the living descendant of edwin booth, thanks for joining us. a complicated story but very interesting, potentially putting question mark there next to one of those things that we thought were fact there regarding john wilkes booth, the assassin of abraham lincoln. you re watching cnn. up next, a christmas scene is destroyed and now a reward is being offered for anyone who can help catch the vandals responsible. like what you get from centrum silver ultra women s, the most complete multivitamin for women over 50. it has vitamin d, which emerging science suggests supports breast health, centrum silver ultra women s. [ ted ] for years, i was just a brewer. until one of the guys brought in some fresh bread that he d made from our pale ale. and from that first bite, i knew my business would never be the same. [ male announcer ] when businesses see an opportunity to grow, the hartford is there. protecting their property and helping them plan their employees retireme