The Mystery of John Wilkes Booth

I have read with approval the views expressed in your March 25 editorial, "John Wilkes Booth: RIP."

Nathaniel Orlowek believes that the man shot in Richard Garrett's barn in Caroline County, Va., on April 26, 1865, was not John Wilkes Booth. Further, he believes that Booth escaped to wander the earth and end up a suicide on Jan. 13, 1903, in a cheap hotel at Enid, Oklahoma Territory, using the alias of David E. George. Thus Mr. Orlowek contends that the body buried in Baltimore's Green Mount Cemetery could not be that of Booth. Just who is buried in that grave gets a bit murky in his account -- maybe a man named "Ruddy" or "Roby."

This complex story of a high-level "conspiracy" and resulting "cover-up" has been making the rounds for years. Along the way it has gathered many adherents, true-believers, unshaken and unshakable. Their cause was given a boost last September in the sensational NBC television show, "Unsolved Mysteries."

It is remarkable that the Enid suicide had blue eyes, while John Wilkes Booth's eyes were brown. That fact might take a tad of explaining. Well, perhaps Edwin M. Stanton and Col. Lafayette C. Baker engineered this genetic switch. After all, they were powerful men and would stop at nothing, absolutely nothing, to conceal Booth's identity and maintain the "cover-up." So a simple little detail like changing the color of Booth's eyes from brown to blue was surely not beyond them. Nothing to it, really.

Following the NBC television show, the Surratt Society (Box 427, Clinton, Md. 20735) opened its columns in the Surratt Courier for a lively debate on the question of the alleged "escape" of John Wilkes Booth. The issues for November 1991 through March 1992 included articles by historians and researchers. Mr. Orlowek contributed, as did Dr. Arthur Ben Chitty, who agrees with him on basic points. Other contributors considered the whole thing to be utter nonsense.

But it goes on. Now Mr. Orlowek has filed a petition in court to have the remains in Green Mount Cemetery exhumed. There is no need for all this. The evidence is overwhelming that John Wilkes Booth was buried in that grave. So I hope the management of Green Mount Cemetery will take this evidence into court to resist exhumation.

Historical curiosity is not sufficient reason to disturb a grave.

James O. Hall

McLean, Va.

Maryland Should Act

Here is another slow-growth opinion from a white, college-educated, middle-class, nuclear-familied suburbanite who already has a good quality of life and who doesn't want to see it lost to growing environmental degradation.

Your stance on the amendments to the growth control bills is troubling.

It is begging for trouble to let growth in the Chesapeake Bay watershed continue to be managed by county governments and their powerful developer friends. Strong incentives are needed to counter their demonstrated lack of discipline in managing land use. Troubling are the results we get from the population increases and resource demands that come along with growth managed in the conventional fashion.

Just look at the environmental troubles we have now in this region -- from oyster harvests at record lows to landfills reaching capacity and nowhere left to put our tremendous waste stream. Almost every day there's yet another story or two in your paper, describing a bad situation getting worse because of the ever-increasing population burden.

We can implement all the recycling programs and energy conservation programs ever thought of. But until we can successfully manage growth on a regional basis, our waste stream will continue to increase, overwhelming our ability to handle it safely.

The high quality of life enjoyed by the landed few (and the regular quality of life enjoyed by those who make a living from land development) may suffer in the short-term, but by taking a strong stance for slowing growth and against more strain on the watershed, we'll all have something better to pass on to our children and begin to regain sustainability.

On our present course, we are taking away the ability of Maryland's land to comfortably and safely support the humans who live on it as well as making it increasingly difficult for much of Maryland's flora and fauna to even survive.

You don't present any facts to back up your claim that the "enormous undertaking" to manage growth is impractical. I don't understand your comment on the second amendment. As for the third comment, if you replaced "farmers" with "farmland owners," it would ring more true. There ought to be some higher level of authority over farmland owners who want to sell out our farming heritage and transform the rural farm landscape into nasty, yet profitable suburban sprawl.

Our nation is rapidly spending its resource capital and Maryland should take a strong first step locally to stem this foul tide. Maryland's future generations would then be in better economic shape to make it through the coming decades of gradual global warming.

K? The economic chaos has already begun and is sure to worsen.

Dan Helfrich

Elkridge

Nonsense, He Says

I must dispute the nonsense promoted by Frank L. Morris of Morgan State University, who claims (March 22) that black graduate students are deliberately denied adequate financial support by our universities. In my field, mathematics, every qualified black graduate student will be completely supported, and provided with a modest income, by his university.

During my years at Howard University I would receive, annually, about 20 to 30 letters from our leading graduate schools soliciting the names of mathematics majors qualified for admission. Unfortunately, I was never able to meet the demand.

Paul Slepian

Baltimore

Police Budget

According to a recent survey by the University of Maryland, 24 percent of the citizens in Baltimore suburbs were victims of crimes. With statistics like that, why would anyone think it wise to furlough or lay off policemen?

Currently the population of Baltimore County is 700,000. The Baltimore County police force has less than 1,100 officers on patrol. That is roughly one officer for every 630 citizens.

But that number drops when officers are furloughed, sick or on vacation. And unlike teachers, they do not have the luxury of substitutes.

When the number of officers drops, policemen's lives are endangered because there are fewer officers on the street to back them up, and citizens' lives are endangered by less efficient protection.

Last year the budget for education was $488.9 million. The Police Department, whose job it is to protect all the citizens, received $73 million, less than one-sixth of the education budget.

What message are you sending the criminals when the Police Department budget, already small, continually gets cut? Is it, "Come to Baltimore County where crime pays, but police work doesn't?"

My husband serves the citizens of Baltimore County. He puts his life on the line every day to protect the lives of citizens, and for this he earns $26,000 per year, less next year if furloughs continue and raises are eliminated.

My husband is the sole support of me and our three children. We don't work on projected budgets spending money we do not yet have. We don't disown one of our sons for five days because of lack of funding. We cut costs. And costs must be cut wisely, not arbitrarily.

Do you know that in an effort to cut expenses, police officers must park their police cars in one spot until a call is received? They are no longer patrolling, protecting homes and businesses. Instead, the upper echelon of the department (above lieutenant) are given unlimited mileage.

Before those who represent us make decisions about cutting the police budget, perhaps the citizens should know that they are not just making us pull our purse strings a little tighter as a family, they are endangering the lives and property of citizens and taxpayers.

Wendy M. Reece

Baltimore

Rogues

We now learn that the House of Representatives check overdraft scandal is worse than first reported.

Our representatives really represent only themselves.

They are insulated from the realities of the nation. They bask in counterfeit righteousness and arrogantly give themselves an outrageous increase in pay. And not satisfied with that, they increase their income by writing checks on empty accounts. And this income is unreported and untaxed!

Can anyone still oppose term limits? And when are we going to stop addressing these rogues as "honorable"?

John R. Reid

Baltimore

Repeal Drug Laws

Once again politicians spend a lot of taxpayers money on a governor's "crime summit" as a way to try and drum up more support to spend more money to chase down and lock up more drug users and dealers.

It's a waste of taxpayers' money to hold these summits when our leaders are unwilling to face the obvious. The reason the violent crime rate continues to increase is the drug war.

The same thing happened in the 1920s during alcohol prohibition as happened during the 1980s during drug prohibition. The violent crime rate escalated and the prison population doubled.

Vigorous enforcement of laws prohibiting alcohol or drugs only creates a vacuum when one dealer is arrested and removed causing the bootleggers or drug dealers to then fight it out over the vacant territories, often killing innocent people in the process. The general atmosphere of lawlessness and violence only breeds contempt for the law and more violence among the young.

When the Great Depression made it obvious we could not afford to chase down and lock up all bootleggers, we repealed Prohibition in 1933. The murder rate and violent crime rate promptly dropped since bootleggers no longer had to use guns to settle disputes but could instead go to court.

Since the repeal of the 18th Amendment, we still have alcoholism, but liquor store or tavern owners rarely, if ever, resort to shooting each other over trade disputes.

How broke are we going to have to get before we realize drug prohibition is an expensive failure which is only causing violence,

death and more hard drug addiction?

S. Douglas Bowers

Annapolis

Selfish 'Sun'

Doesn't it border on hypocrisy for your editorial writers to continually extol the virtues and need for the regressive tax increases being considered by the General Assembly while at the same time your business officials appear in Annapolis to testify against the proposed sales tax on newspapers?

Perhaps it is just a little selfishness.

Carol E. Shear

Ruxton

What We Taught and Now Need To Learn

Having recently returned to Baltimore after a year in Japan, I am disturbed by the frequent negative ads, media commentary and other Japan-bashing.

My wife was a participant in the Kawasaki Exchange Teacher Program, and I was employed by a consultancy service. It was one of the greatest experiences of our lives. The Japanese were extremely gracious and hospitable hosts, and we were treated respectfully our entire stay. We were able to travel extensively throughout the beautiful country and received the same treatment wherever we went.

We are African-Americans.

My wife and I were accepted in the community in which we lived, invited into homes, attended many social events, met wives, husbands, sons and daughters and generally participated in community meetings. We discovered that the Japanese are very proud of their culture and strive to keep it as pure as possible. I, personally, see nothing wrong with that.

The Japanese have learned much from the United States since the "Black Ships" of Commodore Perry entered Japan in 1853. They have, for the most part, been able to use the positives and discard the negatives of our American culture to their great advantage.

They adopted American ideas on education, work ethic and political thought and made them fit into their culture. Therein lies part of the problem in American-Japanese relations. They diligently studied (and still study) our culture while we half-heartedly study theirs.

It is no surprise to me that Japan's infant mortality rate is one-half that of the United States. While we are quick to state that "our children are our most precious resource," the Japanese live it and believe it. In the entire year there we did not see an ill-fed, ill-clothed or abused child.

We observed children from birth receiving tender, loving care. We observed children almost from birth being talked to, taught, engaged in organized activities. They were taught not only academics but also responsibility (personal and group), loyalty and respect. It was an ongoing never-ending process.

Although the process engenders dependence it eventually evolved into a self-sufficient individual. Not only are the children the parents' responsibility but also the neighbors', the business community's, and the government's.

If the process sounds familiar, it should. We taught that to them

also. But, we forget about our own.

Maurice S. Dorsey

Baltimore

Shame: Stadium vs. Libraries

There are still some of us who were delighted with Memorial Stadium -- and question the new thing.

While there is apparently much to celebrate with the opening of the appropriately politically correctly named new thing, it should be said that these fetes further separate an expanding sector of people from the basic tenet that they belong to and therefore participate in a productive society. I think it's obvious to all of us at this point in time that there is a real danger emerging.

I truly believe in capitalism. It is a tool that has served us well, and it will continue to do such.

But I strongly suggest that no amount of money will resolve our current slate of dilemmas. It doesn't require an immense knowledge of history to reach this antagonistic conclusion.

Solutions come from people -- you, me and the rest of us along with a lot of common sense. Simple stuff works.

Money can't buy me love.

My main objective in making this effort is to underscore one current irony -- that is how can we celebrate and support a new ballpark while we close libraries?

) This situation shames me.

Mike McConnell

Phoenix