18. The strange saga of James William Boyd
James William Boyd served as a captain in the Tennessee Infantry until Union troops captured him in 1863. In 1864 his wife died, and Boyd requested clemency and a humanitarian release. He based his request on the need to care for his seven children. On February 14, 1865, Edwin Stanton personally approved his release. From that point, Boyd vanished. According to one son, the former captain used his freedom to escape the United States for Mexico. None of his children reported ever seeing their father again. In 1977 the book The Lincoln Conspiracy postulated Boyd was killed in Virginia. Boyd was said to bear a striking resemblance to Booth, who had acted, according to the theorists, without the foreknowledge of Stanton. Stanton had been a leader of the kidnapping plot, and the assassination caused the Secretary of War to move quickly to destroy incriminating evidence.
Boyd’s accidental death, if it was accidental, allowed Stanton to control both the identification and autopsy process. Booth was known to have a tattoo of the initials “JWB” on his hand; Boyd’s body bore a similar tattoo. Meanwhile, the real Booth fled in the direction of Harpers Ferry, half-heartedly pursued by Lafayette Baker. Another version of the theory had Booth removed from the kidnapping plot, replaced by Boyd. Enraged at his removal, Booth killed Lincoln, and Stanton orchestrated Boyd’s killing to cover up the earlier plot. Another version has Stanton taking advantage of Boyd’s accidental killing in Virginia, claiming the former Confederate officer was really Booth. In this version, Booth escaped, eventually to India. Still another version claims Booth survived, eluding the authorities, and lived out his life as David Elihu George. George made an alleged deathbed confession that he was, in truth, John Wilkes Booth.
