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John Wilkes Booth Legend The Booth Legend and Enid, Oklahoma Contact us to be listed or advertise on this page - Buzz Us! |
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 The legend says that John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, died in Enid around 1903. A man named David E. George, committed suicide in Enid, Oklahoma Territory, in 1903 and is believed to have been Booth himself. John Wilkes Booth was a noted actor and Confederate sympathizer and had originally planned on kidnapping Lincoln in exchange for Confedrate prisoners. Due to a change in plans Booth decided to assassinate President Lincoln on April 14, 1865, at the Ford's Theater in Washington. After shooting the President, Booth jumped to the stage, caught and broke his leg on a flag and fled the theater. History states that Booth escaped, but was found by federal soldiers several weeks later. He had hidden in a barn near Port Royal, Virginia, and would not surrender. The barn was eventually set on fire. Booth was supposedly shot and killed by Sgt. Boston Corbett of the Sixteenth New York Cavalry. Conflicting stories still exist about the identification of Booth's body, and there were errors made in the identification process along with errors in supplying information to the public about the identification. Legend tells that Boston Corbett, the man who shot Booth against orders, was involved in identifying the body as Booth's. This has fueled the speculation that Booth may not have been killed that night, but some other individual.
Many years later on January 13, 1903, in the Grand Avenue Hotel in Enid, (upstairs in the current Garfield Furniture building) Oklahoma, a man calling himself David E. George was found dead. A doctor diagnosed his death as self-administered arsenic poisoning. George had been a house painter who did not know how to paint and always had access to money but died penniless. Legend has him quoted as saying ". . . I killed the best man that ever lived." After George was embalmed, he was placed in a chair in the window of the furniture store/funeral home so that the public could view him, and a photograph was taken due to his "remarkable likeness" to Booth. George's leg had also been broken above the right ankle-the same break that Booth had suffered in jumping from the Ford's Theater balcony. However, the doctor who had set Booth's leg had reported it to be the opposite leg. About that time, a man named Finis L. Bates came to Enid to inspect the body. Bates identified George as an old friend and client of his named John St. Helen. Bates claimed to have known St. Helen (George) as a client and friend in the early 1870s. Bates stated that St. Helen had become seriously ill at one point and confessed that he was John Wilkes Booth. He supposedly gave information about the assassination and escape that only Booth would know. Many facts that Bates published about St. Helen were proven to be inconsistent with documented facts. However, the body, which had been embalmed, was given to Bates, who began to lease the body to interested parties. The body was even displayed at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 and also at many sideshow carnivals. The body then went on a few more adventures and eventually disappeared. Warning Some places listed in the Haunted Places require permission to visit or investigate. Many of the places are patrolled by the authorities, trespassers will be prosecuted. The first cemetery in Enid was started in 1897.
The cemetery was created out of neccessity as new settlers had to bury their deceased but lacked an official cemetery. After the first person was buried it didn't take long before another was buried nearby in the area and thus the precedent to use the area as a cemetery was well established. There were more than 200 people buried in the early day cemetery before many, but not all of them, were moved to our present day cemetery. Years later when the old unofficial cemetery was developed as a housing addition construction workers reported striking old caskets while excavating for foundations for new homes. Many families were unable to afford the cost of moving their relatives to the new cemetery, thus several graves remained in the area even as the large homes were being built. Where was this early day cemetery? It was located near the corner of South Van Buren and Wabash streets in what is now known as the Kisner Addition! SO, if you live in the area and you think you've heard ghosts in the attic . . . you just might be right. Enid - Briggs Auditorium - Reports of an apparition of a man seen in the balcony.
Enid - Clay Hall, Old Phillips University This haunted dormitory was condemned by state in the early 1980`s. Voices have been heard here along with piano playing. Recordings of ghostly women singing have also occurred.
Enid - Earl Butts Dormitory - Dormitory said to be haunted because of being constructed on an Indian burial ground. Reports of students being visited by spirits at night. Spirits disappear and are never seen by same person more than once.
Enid - Longfellow Jr high school - in the night you can hear a person yelling. Sometimes during the day you can hear footsteps and lockers shutting and in the 2nd floor science room you can hear an explosion.
Enid - Imo Cemetery (west outside Enid) - there is said to be a glowing head stone in the cemetery but when you walk up to the head stone it will stop glowing and if you go south of the head stone there are claw marks on another head stone and if you go to the back of the cemetery there is an old Indian burial ground they say you can hear voices and people touching you.- April 2004 Addition - the Imo story about the grave has been completely investigated and is in fact tower lights across the street from the cemetary that give a reflection off the marker... the burning effect takes place as soon as it gets dark and goes away as soon as it gets light, when you walk up to it - at any point you can clearly see the lights in the background... from the ground point of view. It does infact look like it is on fire, esp from the road at night but is in fact only an illusion.
Enid - former home of the Gaslight Theatre (Alton Mercantile Company Building), where the owner hung himself. It is said you can hear his foot steps and other strange noises.
Enid - Enid High School Auditorium. (right side of photo) This slightly lighter note leads well into the stories of the Enid High School Auditorium, a large fourteen hundred-seat facility built in the 1930s. Reputed to be constructed on the site of an ancient Indian burial ground, and having the curses to match, its history has also given rise to unique stories.
"Spirited" Stories Surrounding the Places and People of Enid's Oldest Theatres. Eerie Oklahoma a paranormal research team based in Northwest Oklahoma. We are also interested in Ghost Towns of Oklahoma, local ghost stories, folklore, superstitions, and urban legends. WANTED: Ghost Stories of Oklahoma. Eerie Oklahoma and GHOULI (Ghost Haunts of Oklahoma and Urban Legends Investigations) are working on a book of Oklahoma ghost stories, Urban Legends, and historical locations with strange or obscure history. If you would like for your story to be included, please submit it using the Submission page. We will review your story and contact you. We can't do it without your stories, so be sure to send them in! You can post your ghost stories, paranormal experiences, and local folktales by filling out the form in the Submissions area. http://www.eerieok.com Tammy Wilson, founder email: tammylynwilson@gmail.com Fox's Barbershop in Enid, Oklahoma, was a real barbershop, something few of our younger Brethren have ever experienced. You took half a flight of stairs down from the sidewalk, opened the door, where a little, spring-mounted bell rang, and it was another world. The wooden floor had long since lost its varnish, but it was polished to a patina by the leather soles of shoes and the constant sweeping of hair. more......... In its +100 year history, the City of Enid has lost three of its law officers in the line of duty. Considering that this area where many early-day outlaws gathered, we have been very fortunate. However, since the loss of even one police officer diminishes us a city and as a department, the stories of the murders of these three officers need to be told. They served their city with the ultimate they had to give, and they should never be forgotten. These were three police officers who lost their lives defending their city. The most chilling thing about these deaths, at least for police officers, is that all three deaths happened in the same location. The corner of Grand and Broadway has become a place that officers view with an almost superstitious fear, feeling that if it could happen there three times, it could easily happen again. And it did, another murder at the same place. Marshall E. C. Williams, June 26, 1895 Around dusk on the evening of June 26, 1895, events that would forever change the lives of two families were set into motion. When the dust cleared, two men were dead, and a third, the caused of all the trouble, barely escaped. All three of these men were prominent Enid citizens. Ironically, the two who died were close friends. One was R. W. Patterson, Registrar of the United States Land Office. Patterson was appointed to his position through the influences of his cousin, Hoke Smith of Georgia, Secretary of the Interior at that time. The second, E. C. Williams, was City Marshal of Enid. A native of San Francisco, Williams had been raised in Boston, attending the best schools they had to offer. He moved west to Denver, where he was a newspaper reporter for a while, then came to Enid with the opening of the Cherokee Strip. more........ Marshall Thomas Radford, January 10, 1906 Marshal Thomas Radford was a popular figure in Enid in 1906. He had been elected City Marshal on the democratic ticket in May, 1905, and in December, the Chairman of the Police Committee declared, in an open Council meeting, that Radford was the best Marshal Enid ever had. He had the support and confidence of the city administration and the people of Enid. In his strict adherence to the laws and ordinances of the City of Enid, he had naturally mad some enemies. A local man, John Cannon, had been threatening Radford. Cannon had told several people, including that Mayor and the Police Judge, that he in tended to kill Marshal Radford. more........... Officer Cal Palmer, July 8, 1936 Forty-one years after the first Enid Policeman died, the last one to give his life in the line of duty, was murdered. Police Officer Cal Palmer was a big,jovial man with a ready smile. He had been an Enid Policeman for two years, coming from Fairview, where he was a Major County Deputy Sheriff. It had been a hot July in 1936, and Officer Cal Palmer wasn't feeling very well. He had returned to duty at 4:00pm that day, following a short vacation, and Officer Bert Utsler offered to work for him. Palmer declined, saying he thought he would feel better after the sun went down. The heat had been bothering him. Around 11:00pm, July 8th, Jim O'Neal, a former police officer who was operating the German Village beer parlor at the corner of Broadway and Grand, noticed a man come in and take a seat in a front booth. more.......... The fourth murder: February 15, 1905: WAS SHOT DOWN. Prominent Enid Man Killed Enid, Okla., Feb. 14.—Robert O. Beers, deputy sheriff, ex-policeman and ex-volunteer in the United States army, was shot down Sunday night in the hallway of the Anheuser-Busch building (corner of Broadway and Grand) in this city, by Jacob Erickson, a telephone lineman. Beers was a candidate for the office of city marshal, and just before 6 o'clock a telephone message purporting to come from the office of the city attorney, asked him to meet that official at his office at once. He went to the office, found it locked and was turning away, when he was confronted by J.W. Walton and Jacob Erickson, both employees of the telephone company. Angry words were followed by Beers drawing his gun and Erickson shooting him in the head before he had a chance to shoot. Beers died early this morning. He was 28 years old and had an honorable record as a soldier in the volunteer army in the Philippines, where he won distinction by killing Aguinaldo's chief of staff, as a sharpshooter. He leaves a widow. The body will be buried in El Reno. The cause of the killing is reported to be the improper relations existing between a woman and Beers. Walton and Erickson are both in jail awaiting a hearing. What is it about the corner of Broadway and Grand?? see more interesting stories under Enid Trivia Does your business or product need it's own web page? Enid Buzz will create an Enid Buzz page specifically for you and about you! Your page will look much like this page but will only feature your Enid business and we will link to it from our site map, your listing and any other appropriate page. Get your own web presence today! $150 per year. 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