By Brian Rukes, El Reno Historian, April 2025

This post, is perhaps the most astounding, most fantastic, and arguably the most unbelievable of all the stories which are connected to this great city we call El Reno–even though there is a high probability that this may just be a fabricated story. What is it, you ask?

Well, hang on tight… and are you SURE you’re ready for this?

El Reno has a VERY interesting tie to what has become known as the “Booth Legend” or the “Legend of John Wilkes Booth,” who was of course the assassin of the iconic U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.

There are quite a number of people–including current living relatives of John Wilkes Booth, along with some historians and experts in other fields–who actually believe the Booth Legend, including that the infamous assassin lived in El Reno, Oklahoma Territory, for several months under an assumed name and shortly thereafter successfully committed suicide in Enid, Oklahoma Territory, on January 13, 1903 (yes, 1903, nearly 38 years after the end of Civil War and Lincoln’s death–and, interestingly enough, some eleven months before the Wright Brothers made their first historic flight).

Wait, what? HOW???

President Lincoln was shot on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, in Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., dying the next day. History then records that Booth was killed less than two weeks later. On April 26, 1865, just twelve days after Lincoln’s assassination, Union troops caught up to John Wilkes Booth and surrounded him in a tobacco barn at the Garrett farm in Virginia. Booth refused to give himself up, so the barn was set afire, and Union soldier Thomas “Boston” Corbett shot Booth (without orders) through a gap in the side of the barn. Fatally injured but not yet dead, Booth was moved by the troops from the burning barn to the steps of the nearby farmhouse, where he died within a matter of hours.

But the Booth Legend says that John Wilkes Booth somehow fled from the barn, escaped capture by Union troops, and ultimately moved from town to town over the ensuing decades while using a variety of aliases. The legend also says that under the assumed name of David E. George, he made his way to El Reno around 1899, lived here for a couple of years, then in mid-April 1902, when feeling convinced that he was about to die, he made a startling confession: that his real name wasn’t David E. George, but that he really was none other than John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln. Some people believe that David E. George had taken poison to commit suicide at that time, accounting for his feeling he was “about to die.”

After making this confession, though, he did NOT actually die then, instead moving to Enid in December 1902, where he then DID successfully commit suicide in his hotel room of the Grand Avenue Hotel on January 13, 1903. The story about his deathbed confession in El Reno quickly made its way to Enid, and efforts were made to carefully preserve / embalm the body for further identification purposes. The preserved body (mummy, if you will) was even put on public display in Enid, and the story of his supposed true identity spread like wildfire in the press.

Getting wind of the story, an attorney named Finis L. Bates who was now living at Memphis, Tennessee, instantly made a trip to Enid, walked in, and had an immediate, profound reaction when saw the body of the man people in El Reno knew as David E. George. For Finis Bates, though, this man’s name wasn’t David E. George: it was his friend John St. Helen whom he had known while working in the Granbury / Glen Rose, Texas area–about 225 miles directly south of El Reno, not far from Fort Worth.

Having a profound interest in the body of this man and the tales associated with him, Bates wrote a book about this whole tale, and was himself absolutely convinced that John St. Helen, or David E. George, was truly none other than John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln. As Bates recounts in his 1907 book The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth, or The First True Account of Lincoln’s Assassination, this man (known to him as John St. Helen) had earlier made YET ANOTHER deathbed confession to Bates himself there in Texas that he was none other than the infamous assassin John Wilkes Booth. He even provided Bates with a photograph of himself when he was younger to prove that he was the famous actor and infamous assassin, imploring Bates to reach out to his family after his death, as well.

There are FAR more people who believe this story than you might initially think. Do I believe it, you may ask? I’m really not completely convinced of its veracity, BUT it is a story that many have associated with El Reno and Enid for over 120 years now. Whether it is true or not doesn’t change the fact that El Reno is, without doubt, a part of the “Booth Legend.”

It’s a story (legend) that is intriguing or compelling enough that multiple books have been written about it, as well as hundreds of newspaper stories from across the country, along with dozens of magazine articles (including the likes of Life Magazine and The Saturday Evening Post), including some that themselves engaged in some very thorough investigations of the Booth Legend. Several websites deal with the topic in some fashion, and even the famous TV show “Unsolved Mysteries” with host Robert Stack did a major piece on it years ago. More recently, the History Channel featured it in an episode of History’s Greatest Mysteries (Season 1, Episode 4, aired December 5, 2020). Oklahoma City’s “big three” network news stations (KFOR Channel 4, KOCO Channel 5, and KWTV News 9–with stories here and here–have all aired stories about it. The Oklahoma Historical Society acknowledges the legend’s existence, and one of its early presidents even believed it. While not every one of these stories mentions El Reno, a person doesn’t have to dig very far to find out how critical a role our city unknowingly played in this tale.

Enid’s newspaper continues to run stories about this legend, the most recent (that I know of) in May 2024 stating that recent scientific (photographic) evidence and technology have supposedly basically proven that this outrageous story is true, that the David E. George from El Reno who died in Enid in early 1903 was almost certainly the real John Wilkes Booth who killed President Lincoln.

I must say, though, I’m STILL not 100% convinced, even after doing quite extensive research on this compelling story myself, hoping to either prove or disprove the claims of the Booth Legend. I, like basically everyone before, have heretofore fallen short in that attempt, however, despite my efforts thus far.

How could so many people believe such a far-flung, outrageous story, you ask? How could such a story have stuck around for over 120 years? The reasons are many, in fact, including the particularly bothersome fact that the U.S. government did not CLEARLY, DELIBERATELY provide unquestionable evidence that the man killed in Garrett’s barn was actually John Wilkes Booth. Questions arose almost immediately, for a variety of reasons, including conflicting reports, somewhat secretive or deceptive-seeming “burials” (yes, plural) of what was supposedly Booth’s body, several witnesses who claimed the dead man from Garrett’s barn did not resemble John Wilkes Booth (even supposedly having red hair instead of Booth’s jet black hair), and more. Even the best attempt by the government to try to settle the question in 1869 fell far short, and by that time enough people believed that Booth had indeed escaped that the cover-up conspiracy stories persisted.

In 1869, Booth’s relatives received his body after an examination of it, oddly enough in the same place Lincoln died (across the street from Ford’s Theatre where Lincoln was shot). Though the body was much deteriorated, Booth’s brother and friends acknowledged that it was indeed that of John Wilkes Booth. That should end the argument then, right? Well, not so fast! There were a couple of other problems that some present–and others who have examined the testimonies of those who were there–have had serious questions about. Furthermore, some argue, it could be conceivable that if the family actually believed or even knew that their relative John Wilkes Booth was really still alive (but, if true, had not yet been apprehended by authorities), their deceptively claiming that this was his body might prevent further searches to arrest, charge, convict, and probably execute him if he was indeed still alive. The family had the body buried in its final resting place, the Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.

So why don’t they just exhume the body buried at Green Mount Cemetery now and perform DNA testing on it, comparing it to known living Booth relatives? Well, there are a number of interesting problems with that, and those problems just “add fuel to the fire” for those who believe the Booth Legend. I won’t go into all those now, but the reasons are, well, let’s just call them interesting and arguably frustrating. Nevertheless, there were people who witnessed Booth’s final burial who firmly attest that the body was his, John Wilkes Booth’s, buried there in the Green Mount Cemetery. Interestingly, though, he simply lies in a plot marked “BOOTH” where multiple relatives are buried, with his given individual name not inscribed on any marker at the cemetery.

And what, you ask, of the mummy of the man known as David E. George who lived in El Reno and committed suicide at Enid? Well, the mummy was on display in Enid for some time (and you can easily find the creepy photographs of it in its more deteriorated state online with a simple search). The mummy eventually went on to be a traveling spectacle in freak shows and the like–almost always promoted as the real body of John Wilkes Booth, a profitable venture, indeed–then over time it was eventually lost. The story of the mummy of David E. George (whom Finis Bates believed was his old friend John St. Helen, and whom Finis Bates also believed was indeed John Wilkes Booth) is quite the tale in itself. But the whereabouts of the mummy, so far as I can ascertain, has long been unknown. If the mummy could be found, modern DNA testing could almost certainly prove or disprove the Booth Legend.

A Persistent Question, at least for some:

Was David E. George (and/or John St. Helen) really John Wilkes Booth? Did John Wilkes Booth really die in Enid in early 1903 after having lived in El Reno a couple of years, after having decades before escaped capture after assassinating President Lincoln?

I’ll let you reach your own conclusions–I have already stated my position above. I do, nevertheless, completely understand WHY this legend still persists. Definitive DNA testing of the body buried at Green Mount Cemetery, in my humble opinion, compared with existing known relatives of John Wilkes Booth would almost undoubtedly solve it, but all efforts to that end have been denied, much to the chagrin of those who believe the legend is actually true. Honestly, though, even those who believe or want to believe the official account of Booth’s death back in 1865 should be interested to have the DNA testing done, as well, as it could also prove that position, as well.

The Things We “Know” about the man David E. George:

As much as we DON’T know for sure in relation to the Booth Legend, there ARE some things I absolutely DO know about the man David E. George who reportedly made the deathbed confession to be John Wilkes Booth, whether that claim is true or not:

The man David E. George did indeed live here in El Reno. He stayed for a time at the Anstine Hotel and even at the famous Kerfoot Hotel, both here in town, and also in a cottage he reportedly purchased at 107 South Macomb in El Reno. (According to online records, the current house at that address was built in 1930, so it’s NOT the same house that David E. George–who some believe was really John Wilkes Booth–lived in.)

Furthermore, David E. George was described by most who knew him as an eccentric, not your “ordinary Joe,” so to speak. It is often reported that he was well versed in Shakespeare, and most also claim that he had a noticeable flair for the dramatic. It is also known that he at least occasionally worked as a house painter and decorator, even consistently advertising as such in the local newspaper–I have several documented cases of his placing such ads. The quality of his work is contested, though, some praising it, others saying he was utterly incompetent in that realm. It is also generally believed that he never was short on money and he typically dressed quite well, but the source of his finances was a mystery to basically everyone. He moreover was often drunk and depressed, according to a number of testimonies.

Finally, of course, we know that David E. George then died in Enid on January 13, 1903. And we know that his body was preserved (“mummified” in a sense), was displayed publicly in Enid for some time, then toured the country, then was eventually lost.

While there are many people who believed his confession (or confessions) that he was really John Wilkes Booth, there are many more people who simply can’t believe such an outrageous claim.

But, boy oh boy, what a doozy of a story that is–and I haven’t even told you everything: the tales and the connections and the claims and the sundry accounts actually are pretty astounding, and even after MUCH research I still can’t make “heads or tails” out of many of them.

My Personal History related to this Legend:

I’ve known for a long time that my Dad has in his collection an original 1907 first edition of that shocking book by Finis L. Bates. It was acquired many decades ago here in El Reno by my paternal grandmother, and ever since then it has at least somewhat intrigued my family. Not only is this an original first edition of the book, its previous owner (who had passed away just before Grandma acquired it) apparently was much intrigued by the legend himself, the book being filled with pasted-in and several loose newspaper clippings from several different newspapers. ALL of the attached pictures are of that specific copy of the book and those articles that are still in our family collection. (I haven’t read all the articles yet, but I have read the entire book.) While I’ve known about this legend for a long time, most of my own personal research into the subject has only come in the past few years.

By the way, once upon a time, most people in El Reno knew this amazing story. Only a handful, so far as I have been able to tell, are still aware of it. Like so many things–including, of course, the meaning behind the name of our Memorial Stadium that we rediscovered back in January 2018–this story too has been largely forgotten. I wouldn’t be much of an El Reno Historian, though, if I didn’t share this story with you. It’s out there, it’s pretty astounding, people here ought to at least be aware that such a legend exists, and…

Final Thoughts (for now):

As incredible as this tale is, there is one more really cool fact that simply cannot be denied:

Our humble little town is right in the midst of this amazing tale, like it or not!