Hi everyone, and welcome once again to History Week. I'm Tim, and today's topic is an interesting character by the name of Boston Corbett. Boston Corbett was a Union Army soldier who shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Boots. He had a very interesting life and a lot of weird stuff going on with him, so we're going to talk about him today.
But before we get started, let's go around the room and introduce everyone. I'm joined as always, and this is kind of a sad day, because we're joined by young Brittany, and this is actually young Brittany's last podcast. Aww. Chuck.
It's a very sad day of all this. It really is. If Brittany would have listened to me and not held out like she did, she'd still be here, but they canceled the contract. And I think it's going to do Brittany so good to be out of our own and hopefully get into the rehab that she needs, get the treatment that she needs, and maybe she could come back as a whole person.
That is not true. Brittany is going on to bigger and better things. Brittany, do you want to discuss that? Yeah, I accepted a position with a crisis center outside of Cincinnati, so I'll be traveling a lot, and when I come back, I will hopefully be able to call into a podcast, or you guys know I'll listen to all of them.
Yeah, we definitely have to have you in as a guest, but we love working with you, and you've done a great job on a podcast. I'm like, what's this podcast going to do without me? It's going to go to hell. Is it going to be hard?
It might be a little bit tough. Here's my question. Who's going to take care of you, if you ain't here? I've already thought about this.
I don't know. Who's going to walk over to the family aisle, get your toothpaste, get whatever you need? I don't know. Who's going to bring you lunch?
I don't know. You're going to come back, y'all, emaciated, with dirty hair, looking like you're living on the streets. No, no. If it weren't for me and Brittany, you'd just be a mess.
Watch, I'm going to come back here from now and be thriving. You will be thriving. I'm sure you'll be thriving, but you just won't have lunch. True.
No, you will be thriving. Sometimes Chuck brings me cake. I'm going to bring you a real cake. He's having a bad day, bringing some chocolate, bringing some cake, or something, and what not.
But then Brittany tells me he yells at me and stuff. Well, speaking of which, hi, Brittany. How are you today? Hi, Brittany.
I'm abused. How are you? I'm doing well, thanks. You can come to the Crisis Center.
Yeah. Because I'm in crisis. Well, you said you're abused. I am abused.
Brittany will help you, assist you. But I don't think that anybody there is qualified to help me. I am. I don't think you are.
No. No. No, no, no. I did not believe that Dr.
Freud came back to life today. He could help you. Really, Pot? Let's go ahead.
All right. Let's move on. We also joined, of course, as always, by the distinguished and honorable Colonel Charles Beauregard, Hawk Waters III. I'm going to miss hearing that.
Officially known as the Southern Gentleman. How are you today, Charles? I'm going wonderful, Timmy. I have to say that I'm happy that one of my boys is in town.
Oh, which one? Taylor. Taylor, cool. Taylor, the one that I call.
I call Brittany Taylor. He does. Taylor is a brilliant young man, but he ain't got the sense of God getting goose. So he's saying, I don't have sense?
Because you're stupid. That's what he's saying. No, no. Taylor, Brittany, a very, very smart girl.
But she don't remember to eat lunch. Yeah, I do. She barely remembers the shower. This is not true.
This is not true. You always love her. The girl has fine hygiene, but she has no sense of minority. She does look like Miss Sunshine.
She has a yellow dress on, and she looks outstanding. You look very young. Thanks, Tim, for just being respectful. And all the, all, what else I got big news is you all sitting around here with your Coke bottles.
I got my Coke bottle in the mouth yesterday. You ordered it, Logan? It says Hawk. It says Hawk.
That's pretty awesome. First of all, I give my shout out every week to our loveliest man, Dodie Scott. Dodie, how did you want to take something? Just a moment of silence for my fish.
My beloved beta spike. Okay, one moment. It's over. Yeah, it's done.
Move on. Turn the page. Brittany, young Brittany, decided to torment me by putting pictures of Spike everywhere. Yeah, that's good.
You murdered me. You flushed me down the toilet. Why didn't you feed me? You were terrible by it.
Well, we're not sure Brittany did that. I didn't do that. How can you just accuse me of things like that? Because you're ridden her off.
That's the only reason that she's leaving. Yeah, because beating down, telling me I don't wash my hair, I don't eat, I post things. What's wrong with you? So you're the victim now?
Yeah. Okay, blame the victim. I'm the victim. I'm a little bit disturbed because all this hype about Donald running for president, well, see, that's the thing.
And people don't talk clearly. So you're picking up stuff, and I'm thinking, you know, when I look at all the candidates, he's probably the most qualified. He's probably the most qualified. I'm sure he's got good ideas.
You know, Huey, Doe, and Louie have been following him for a long time. They ain't never really gotten in trouble. They're Donald Trump. Trump, not Donald Duck.
Exactly. I was all pumped up about Donald Duck being running, and now it's Donald Trump. Aw. So now I'm kind of sad.
Yeah, I'm sorry. Okay, let's talk about Boston Corbett. I can't really get no parts to talk about. We're going to talk about Boston Corbett, but we're also going to talk about John Wilkes Booth's body, which is what the colonel's going to talk about.
It's an interesting story in itself. But anyway, we're going to talk about Thomas P. Boston Corbett, who was a Union soldier, as I said, who shot, killed Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Corbett was born in London.
That's England. It is. Sometimes. It's not a while.
Yeah, no, no. This was actually London, England, in 1832, and he immigrated with his family to New York City in 1839. Probably come along on a boat, you might guess. Would you come along on a boat?
Right. That's what I'm saying. That was my guess. Maybe walk, as far as I know.
Anyway, the family eventually moved and settled in Troy, New York. Corbett worked as a hatter. Man hatter. Yeah.
Didn't we do a podcast with someone else? It was a hatter. There's a very good reason they call people a man hatter. Right.
Well, because you work around noxious chemicals. Yeah. Yeah. He was exposed to mercury nitrate, which was used in treatment of the fur to produce felt used on the hats.
And many historians believe that's what made him so wacky, because he is a wacky kind of guy. Excessive exposure to the mercury nitrate can lead to hallucination, psychosis. And twitching, which is known as hatter's shake. The hatter's shake.
The hatter's shake. Which was a popular dance back in the 50s. The hatter had a shake. The hatter had a shake.
Yeah. He had rats. But you're right. I think that is where the origin of the mad hatter comes from.
So he grew up and he worked as a hatter in Troy, New York. And he was married, but his wife and child died during childbirth. And as I said, following that, he moved to Boston. And he became very despondent over the loss of his wife and his child.
He began to drink heavily. He turned to liquor. As Brandy did when she has wrong. Yeah.
And as Brandy does every weekend. Yeah. Like you're judging me and I don't know that that's right. But anyway, he was unable to hold a job because of his drinking and his depression.
And eventually he became homeless. And then one night he was on a bench. And he was confronted by a street preacher who actually persuaded him to join a Methodist church. And he did.
And he immediately stopped drinking and became very devout. And he became very devout. He was baptized. And he changed his name to Boston because that was the city where he was converted.
Amen. So he was trying to change his life. He really did. He turned his life around.
He started at the regularly attending meetings at the church. And his enthusiastic behavior earned him the nickname, the Glory to God man. That's a strong name. I'm telling you, who has that handle?
You don't get that nickname. You've got to earn that. Yeah. I told Chuck something similar to that.
Yeah. Well, in an attempt to imitate Jesus, Corbett began to wear his hair very long. What Jesus? Yeah, like Jesus.
But he was forced to cut it. Did he wear sandals? I don't know. I don't know what his footwear was like.
But he did wear long hair. But he eventually went and joined the army. And they're kind of a stickler for short hair. Although Custard had long hair.
Custard? Why do you keep calling him Custard? Whatever. Anyway, in 1857, he was working as a hatter.
And he was now reported to be a very proficient hatter. But he would keep getting fired because he would start preaching and singing to his co-workers and would berate them if they used profanity in his presence. Imagine if people got berated for profanity around him. Yeah, we'd be in trouble.
We'd be in trouble. He also began to work as a street preacher himself and would sermonize and distribute religious literature on the street. And he became soon to come to earn a reputation in Boston for being a little eccentric. A little eccentric.
Yeah. And a religious fanatic. So on July 16, 1858, Mr. Corbett was walking down the street when two ladies of the evening.
Prostitutes, if you will. Ladies of the evening. Yeah, two ladies of questionable character. Excuse me.
Just because they hoes don't mean I got questionable character. Well, I'm just saying. They're working their way through school, I think. Yeah.
Two hoes approached him while he was walking home from church. And he was deeply disturbed by this encounter. Upon returning to his room at his boarding house, Corbett began reading chapters 18 and 19 in the Gospel of Matthew. And what did they say?
I don't know if I read it. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let me read it because it's wonderful.
All right. And if by right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. And there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. That's not like what my mom used to say.
For heaven's sake. But don't say anything in there about the one-eyed dragon. It's eunuchs. You know, one-eyed.
Unic. You know, one-eyed dragon. No, but eunuch. And we already went over what a eunuch was.
What a one-eyed wonderlizard or a... Cut it off. Okay. So...
You're a wiener. Yes. That has a whole new term to the... A whole new meaning to the term.
I can look up eunuch. Yeah. So anyway, he went to... He went back to this apartment.
He started reading the Bible. And he decided to avoid any type of sexual temptation. And to remain holy, he would castrate himself. And he castrated himself with a pair of scissors.
Yeah. Of course he did. It's that book. It's Eat, Pray, Castrate.
Yeah, he got it out. Yeah, he got castrate, eat, pray. Castrate, eat, pray. Yeah, whatever.
So, yeah. So now, he did a... You know, he's Caitlyn Jenner running around. He has things to do.
Yes. So now... Hold on. You had to take a mean, sexy shot at Caitlyn Jenner.
Yeah, I know. It was tasteless. It was tasteless to me. Yeah, so...
Disappointment sometimes. I am sorry. So where are we at with the story now, guys? He ain't got no...
So he got no pecker. No, he doesn't have a pecker, and I think that's horrible. I was looking at eunuch to see if that involved the Tallywecker or not. Yes.
Either way. Evidently, the definition for that story broad. Okay, so in April 1861, it was early in the American Civil War, and Corbett enlisted as a private in company... He enlisted as a no private.
Yeah, he did. He got no private. In company I of the 12th Regiment in New York Militia. His eccentric behavior quickly got him into trouble.
He carried a Bible with him all the time, read passages aloud from it regularly, and held unauthorized prayer meetings. You know, ministers don't even like people to do that. No. And he argued with his superior officers, which you really can't do in the military.
They don't like that. They frowned on that, and that is not the way to get on the fast track. It's not. So, he also, making friends all over the world, he also condemned officers and superiors for what he perceived as a violation of God's word.
In one instance, he verbally reprimanded Colonel Butterfield, which everybody knows not to do that. Exactly. Everybody knows. You don't fool Colonel Butterfield.
No. But he got on him for using profanity and taking the Lord's name in vain. Well, Colonel Butterfield wasn't wrong. Well, it doesn't matter.
You don't do that to Butterfield. He could have read a strongly worded letter to his lawyer. He could have. Yeah.
Yeah, I'm sure there's paperwork. But he was sent to the guardhouse for several days, and he refused to apologize for his and subordination. So, because of his continued behavior and refusal to take orders, Corbett was court-martialed and sentenced to be shot. What?
I'm telling you why. Butterfield. They won't. It's around.
Butterfield is not in us around. So, his sentence was eventually reduced, and he was discharged from the military in August of 1860. Wait a minute. He went from being sentenced to death to being discharged.
Got a break there. Right. So, then, he re-enlisted later that month, because evidently things weren't on computer or microfiche, and he was a private in Company L, 16th New York Cavalry Regiment. On June 24, 1864, he was captured by Confederate Colonel John S.
Mosby's men in Culpeper, Virginia, and he was held prisoner in Andersonville Prison for five months. He was released in an exchange program in November of 1864, and admitted to the Army Hospital in Annapolis, Maryland, where he was treated for scurvy. Scurvy? I know, scurvy.
One of my favorite diseases. Yeah. I can't have enough scurvy. You really can't have it.
My friend Natalie has scurvy. Right now? No. He has scurvy.
Does he? She thinks she has it. She's probably wrong. Give her an orange.
An orange? Okay, Natalie, eat an orange. It's a citric. It's a vitamin C deficiency.
Oh. Yeah, she's probably good. I thought she was, like, dying. No, she's not dying.
So, she can die from it, but it's pretty preventable. Okay. Unless she's a pirate. Unless she's a pirate.
They don't go to Kroger. Kroger don't let him in those peg legs. He gets to the floor. I could get her an orange from Kroger.
Oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry. It's already dead.
It's hard to feel an orange with your hook. Right. So, there's that. You could choose it.
All right. Peg leg. You just have to have a peg leg and a hook. You've got bigger problems.
You know what? That would be a pretty good problem. Well, you have a parrot. You get a parrot.
Well, you get a help. Well, once you help the parrot. See, if you lose a hand, you lose a leg, you get a parrot, you automatically lose an eye because a little vest is plucked out an eye. It's a helper parrot.
It's a helper parrot. Service parrot. Service parrot. Service parrot.
Service parrot. Service parrot. Otherwise, you can't take them all. So, anyway, he's promoted.
Let's see. So, he's treated for scurvy. Still funny. Malnutrition and exposure.
On his return to his company, he was promoted to sergeant. So, that's not a bitch got a promotion. So, he was going to get shot. He was court-martialed.
He was court-martialed. He was going to get shot. He was just generally discharged. And then, he turns around and joins up again.
Right. His first time's too good idea. Yeah. Apparently, they didn't do a background check on him.
This was before Google. Yeah. This was for any kind of... So, he later actually testified for the prosecution at the trial of the commandant on Andersonville, Captain Harvey Wurz.
Yeah. Andersonville was in a horrible nightmare. Wurz in a prison work in himself. It was really a fat camp.
It was a fat camp. It was a fat camp. You went in there, 160 pounds came out of it. Yeah.
Something like 70% of all the guys that went in there have never made it. So here's where things get interesting for Boston. Hold on. What?
The guy cut off his head. This is what he just did. I don't see you dedicated enough to do anything to cut off your own dick to spite your face. Well, I need it.
Your lack of dedication is for you. He will be a pirate. He will walk with a peg leg. He will walk with a hook, but he will not cast for himself.
This is the one thing that keeps me in a lifestyle I'm accustomed to. I see. Oh, wow. So on April 24th of 1865, Corbett's regiment was sent to apprehend John Wilkes Booth, the guy who shot Abe Lincoln, on April 14th, 1865.
He just gave it up, but Booth refused. So they set the barn on fire in an attempt to force him out into the open, but it didn't work and Booth remained inside. Corbett was positioned near a large crack in the barn wall, and in an 1878 interview, Corbett claimed that he saw Booth aimed his carbine, prompting him to shoot Booth with his Colt revolver, despite Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton's orders that Booth should be captured alive.
Eyewitness Lieutenant Edward P. Doherty, the officer in charge of the soldiers to capture Booth and Harrell, stated that the bullet struck Booth in the back of the head, about an inch below the spot where his shot had entered the head of Mr. Lincoln. What's he doing?
His final cord was severed, and Booth's final cord was severed, and he died a couple hours later. Lieutenant Colonel Everton Conger initially thought Booth had shot himself. After realizing that Booth had been shot by somebody else, Conger and Doherty asked which officer to shot Booth. Corbett stepped forward and admitted that he was the shooter.
He could answer a lie. That's correct. When asked why he had violated orders, Corbett replied, Providence directed me. I mean, Providence can tell you something, you do it.
Well, how many times Providence is directed? I mean, I get directed by Providence all the time. I don't think Providence Yes, that's number two for him. Yeah, along with Doherty.
How many people can say they've been court-martialed twice by military? And, well, and self-castrination. When questioned by Edwin Stanton about Booth's capture and shooting, both men agreed that Corbett had, in fact, disobeyed orders not to shoot. However, Corbett maintained that he believed Booth had intended to shoot his way out of the barn, and he acted in self-defense.
He stated, and I quote, Booth would have killed me if I had not shot first. I think I did right. Stanton paused and then stated, the rebel is dead, the patriot lives. He has spared the country expense, continued excitement, and trouble.
Discharge the patriot. Yeah, just like, okay. Hold on, hold on. Just shudder, shudder.
That's what we're going with. Every once in a while, now we just before the show talked to my lovely bride. One of her favorite things to say is, discharge the patriot. Get off me.
Discharge the patriot. Get off me. Sometimes that. Yeah.
Sometimes it's discharge the patriot. Oh, absolutely. So he's, uh, so upon leaving the war department, Corbett was greeted by a cheering crowd as he made his way to Matthew Brady's studio to have his official portrait taken. The crowd followed him asking for autographs and requesting that he tell them about shooting Booth.
Corbett told the crowd, and by now, half of what he's saying is probably bullshit. I aimed at his body. I didn't want to kill him. I think he stooped to pick something up just as I fired.
That may probably account for his receiving the ball in the head. Yeah. Not his ball. Not Corbett's ball.
You know that, um, he probably pissed off a lot more people, too. When the assassin lay at my feet, a wounded man, and I saw the bullet had taken effect about an inch back of the ear, and I remembered that Mr. Lincoln was wounded about the same part of the head. I said, what a god we have.
Gotta avenge. I am Lincoln. Gotta get it again. Oh, yeah.
So I witnessed this shooting contradicted Corbett's version of it, and expressed doubts that Corbett was responsible for shooting Booth. Officers who were near Corbett at the time claimed that they never saw him fire his gun. Corbett's gun actually was never inspected, and eventually it was lost. They claimed Corbett came forward only after Lieutenant Colonel Conger asked who had shot Booth.
Richard Garrett, the owner of the farm on which Booth was captured, and his 12-year-old son, Robert, also contradicted Corbett's testimony that he acted in self-defense. So we don't really know if he shot him or not. Both maintained that Booth had never moved. While there was some criticism of Corbett's actions, he was largely considered a hero by the public.
One newspaper editor declared that Corbett would live as one of the world's great Avengers, like Captain America. Yeah, that didn't happen. I mean, he didn't go down history. No one knows his name.
Right. For his part in Booth's capture, Corbett received a portion of the $100,000 reward money, amounting to $1,653.84. In today's money, it would be right along, what did we say the ratio was? It would be about $25,000.
No, he received $25,000, but the reward money would have been what, like almost $900,000? So after his discharge from the Army in August of 1865, he went back to work as a hatter in Boston and frequently attended the Broomsfield Street Church. When the hatting business in Boston slowed, Corbett moved to Danbury, Connecticut to continue his work and also to preach in the country around about. By 1870, he had relocated once again to Camden, New Jersey, where he was known as a Methodist lay preacher.
Corbett's inability to hold a job was attributed to his fanatic behavior. He was routinely fired after continuing his habit to stop work and to pray to his coworkers. In an effort to earn money, Corbett capitalized his role as the Lincoln Avenger. Yeah, so he's trying to earn a living off of this man, right?
Yes. He gave lectures about the shooting of food accompanied by illustrating lantern slides at a Sunday school with a group of women in tech meetings. What is so damn fun? I love this part of the story.
Oh. No, I just want to how long did the message last? I drew my gun, I fired, and he was back in the back of the day. But go on, it gets better.
But you know it's going to be, so there I was, outside the barnum, I heard crickets chirping in the background. It was a docking storm. Exactly. I'm so confused.
It just gets better. Okay, okay. Corbett was never asked back due to his increasingly erratic behavior and incoherent speeches. It's like four hours to talk about how we find it.
It's just like some homeless guy on the street, he's just rambling about whatever. He's never asked back. He can't come back. So his parents were furthered by hate mail he received for killing John Wilkes Booth.
He became fearful that Booth's avengers or organizations like the Secret Order were planning to seek revenge upon him and took to carrying a pistol with him at all times. There we go. So not carrying a pistol around. Yeah, he's not just carrying a pistol.
I think he probably has a valid point there. They were probably Why would you go to a reunion of the blue and the gray when there are going to be folks there from the south and you kill their, you know, you kill John Wilkes Booth. It's okay. Let me guess, what did he do when he got into this argument?
That's pretty predictable. So the men questioned if Booth had really been killed, which enraged Corbett. He then drew his pistol on the men. Yep.
And he was removed from the party by the time he could fire at anybody, which is interesting. The funny thing is, the guy, he's like bonnie-fied. Did he even have a bullet? I don't know.
Because he blows his gun around all the time, but he said for Booth, he ain't have a shot. Well, he probably had a, like I said, he can understand his paranoia. Yeah, yeah. He can understand his paranoia, because I'm sure that there was a lot of people who would, you know, take a sensitive and kill him, but he's just out of control.
Hold on, you say I can understand this paranoia like you're a rational person. Can we come back to the part where you cut this down and whack off? Yeah, I'm not saying he was a rational person. I'm just saying you can understand under the circumstances that there'd probably be some people out there.
I'm sure he did receive actual hate mail. Probably. How long do you think it takes a bunch of junk off? I don't know.
I know, that's why I don't know. It seems horrible to even think about. I wonder if you could use one of those knives you use for cutting up the turkey. One shot would be the best way to go, I guess.
I think it would be for cheese. Oh. I was thinking going down to the woods. Yeah, you're right.
You did. A tree stump and a big axe to get off on you to come in, like a little penis guillotine. Because I don't think we got scissors at the house to go. Okay, Colonel.
So in 1878, Corbett moved to Kansas where he acquired a plot of land through a home setting on which he constructed a dugout house. There's a hole in the ground with a tarp. So he wants to live in the ground, but he did continue working as a preacher and attended rival meetings very frequently. So now he's living in the ground in a hole of Kansas.
He's going underground. Due to his fame as the booth killer, Corbett was appointed assistant doorkeeper at the Kansas House of Representatives in Topeka in January of 1887. That's an honor. Who was the head doorkeeper?
No one has that responsibility. But how do we go from living in a tent to that? He's not living in a tent, he's living in a hall. I know, I get it, but that's just it.
Well, anyway, but he's assistant doorkeeper. But he doesn't live there, it's just his job. But what would the duties of an assistant doorkeeper be? When the head doorkeeper cannot fulfill his duties and the assistant doorkeeper steps in to turn it off.
I don't think I want that guy hanging out at the door greeting people. No, he's got a lot of paranoia because I'm very good team. Well, he was convinced that officers of the house were discriminating right to HR. I'm telling you he didn't deserve a raise.
Maybe, but no one was hurt and he was arrested. And he was just going two more weeks to get his 30-day probation. Right, yeah. They're not into the union.
In the following day, the judge declared him insane and sent him to the Topeka asylum for the insane. Wait, but guys, it gets so much better. On May 28th of 1888, he escaped from the asylum on horseback. Of course he did.
So he's believed to have settled in a cabin he built in a forest near Hickory in Pine County in eastern Minnesota. I mean, he's all over the place. He is believed to have died in the Great Hickory Fire on September 1st, 1894. Yeah, the Hickory Fire.
It killed like 400 and some people. Hickory was down in the Minnesota. It killed like 418 people. And I think he might have been involved.
No, it was a forest fire thing. There's no proof though, but he appears on the dead and missing list. In the following years, Corbett's presumed death, several men came forward claiming to be Lincoln's avengers. A few years after Corbett was last seen in Kansas, a patent medicine salesman in Oklahoma filed an application using Corbett's name to receive pension So that guy, after the investigation, it was proven that he was not Boston Corbett and he was sent to prison.
I think a lot of people did that during 9-11. Oh, yeah. That was good. Yeah.
Well, they would disappear or whatever. Wow, that's crazy. In September 1905, a man was arrested in Dallas, also claimed to be Corbett. He was also proven to be an imposter and was sent to prison for perjury and then to the government hospital for the insane.
In 1958, Boy Scout Street 31 of Kansas built a roadside monument to Boston Corbett. It is on He Road in Concordia. Sounds good to me. A small sign was also placed to mark the dug hole where Corbett had been for a long, long time.
Man, I wish I had it. How about that still there? Like, didn't it fill with dust and stuff? He had a mole problem for a long time.
He didn't go around. You know, like, did he have a crawl space? There's a sign there. That doesn't mean the thing's there.
So this story gets an even odder twist because we're really sure John Wilkes Booth was in that barn, so we don't know if Corbett actually killed him or not. And the girls want to tell this little weird little angle of the story. Well, it ain't a weird angle to me. You gave me a junkie talk in the story.
It's not. It's interesting. And I know what you're doing. I know what you're doing.
How do we minimize the crime? We do that by podcasting when you're out here. Right. So this guy finished Bates in 1907.
He writes a book about the escape and suicide of John Wilkes Booth. Now this author condemns his Booth assumed a new identity, John St. Helen, and lived in exile until taken his own life in 1903. This book becomes pretty popular.
And Bates begins to display a mummified cadaver. He claimed it was Booth at traveling the circus. He became a carny man. And the mummy, which was for some reason, always cladding khaki shorts.
Yeah. He had some fairies. It was the Nike baseball hat to give it away. But anyway, there were some photographs of it.
They called it the million dollar spectacle. Yeah, if you go to our Facebook page, you can see a big story about it. Now, it passed hands, passed through a lot of hands. And it was like the King Cut thing.
Everybody got John Wilkes Booth. And it wasn't John Wilkes Booth, but people, you know, it was a guy who claimed it in John Wilkes Booth. Anyway, it really was not him. But there's no DNA.
They wanted to exhume John Wilkes Booth and it got rejected for some reason. And Corbin allowed him to do it. Corbin was probably like, this is stupid. We're not doing this.
The only thing he had was a short left leg, a distorted right thumb, and a scar on his neck that was similar to John Wilkes Booth. It seems like many things that are similar. Well, no. I mean, short leg, everybody got a short leg.
Like, significantly shorter? If you measure them out, and look at my thumbs. My left one's all nagled up, my right one's small. Boston Corbin has a significant shorter something.
A penis. It's gone. Wiener. Wiener.
Wiener be gone. Huh? Wiener be gone. Wiener be gone.
He was Wiener be gone on himself everything. Aw. No sausage press there. You know what he did?
That's why warning labels are on everything. You know what he did? He was the first customer of NAF. He got confused.
That's why in kindergarten, they give you those little scissors with the little plastic protecting things on them. If you're in the first grade in kindergarten, if you eat crayons, you eat paste, you eat the almost glue. Now, I don't care if you grow up to be a senator, a famous politician, a movie star, whatever, you're always going to be the kid who ate glue in kindergarten. I don't know.
You get all the checks. Yeah, but you do get the checks, but you don't pay for it. It's like throwing up on a school bus. Wait, if you throw up on a school bus, you are forever.
No, king in your pants. Or poop in his words. Someone told me to eat the macaroni and cheese, Grant. What?
I did it. I'm certainly glad I was sitting down for that relationship. I'm shocked. We tried to get the Colonel on the sideline by giving him this short little cover, and he still goes on for 20 minutes.
Let me get back to my notes on John Wilkes Booth. Ow. Okay, final thoughts, everyone. Brittany, final thoughts.
That was a great last podcast, and he's a really crazy person. We are going to miss you, Brittany. That was fun. And whenever we think of people castrating ourselves, we'll think of you.
Oh, great. That was good. Yeah, that was good. Brittany, any thoughts, last thoughts on Ballston Corbett?
No. No. Colonel? No.
I am opposed to... Self-castration? Yeah. Alley-wacker removal?
You're going to remove that. We're going to be gone. We're going to be gone? Don't buy we're going to be gone.
I think the younger older older is on to something. If I come home, and Renee says, do you carry the groceries in, and I see a big, natural large, heavy-duty industrial strength can, we're going to be gone, then I'm going to be worried about it. Yeah, you should be. We're going to be gone.
All right. Thank you, everyone. Where can you find us? WPG?
Brittany. You can find us on Facebook, or you can find us on iTunes, or our website, History Tweets. And this is your last show, so give us one last plea for them to... Please leave us a podcast, and if you...
Please leave us a podcast. I mean, please leave us a request. She's getting fired. I request a review.
I'm going to say, girls, you get grown before you get married, you're fired. She's doing a lot of public speaking in her new job. I am. That's a problem, because I say things that are not supposed to be said, but please leave us a review.
If you do, I will come back and give you a shout-out. Cool. All right. Do we have any shout-outs today?
I think we... I don't... Thanks to all my fans. Peace.
Thank God and all your fans. Yeah. Yeah. And we've already mentioned our show's sponsor a number of times.