he had a sordid life and confided in someone that he was not the man they thought he was, but actually john wilkes booth. reporter: the legend here is the man soldiers killed in virginia was not booth. booth actually escaped to texas, then oklahoma. there was controversy from the beginning because the man that was murdered in the barn did not look like booth. reporter: it gets creepier. after his death mortician embalmed the body and this is a picture of the mummified corpse posed in a rocking chair that he believes was john wilkes booth. the mortician kept the body and put it on display until he sold it to the circus. they would open the tent and you would see the body of john wilkes booth.