Author: thalecha000

The Elusive Boston Corbett
Thomas H. “ Boston “ Corbett, the killer of John Wilkes Booth, Lincolns killer, an escapee of a mental institution, never to be seen again.

Life in the states
Thomas Corbett was born in England in 1832 and immigrated to America at age seven. He lived in Troy New York, and soon pursued the great profession of being a Hatter, he then moved to Danbury Connecticut, where he found a lovely wife who tragically died in childbirth. This destroyed Corbett, he was so distraught, he turned to the bottle for solace. He was wandering around England, drunk, and one day when he was walking, he found a sidewalk church, and he felt a call from God to join. After which he got his famous nickname, Boston, he got this name when he was on Boston Corner after he joined the church that saved him from the bottle, and his “rebirth” after baptism, he re-named himself, Boston Corbett. That’s what compelled him to join the army in the first place. He wasn’t a model solder, he was rebellious because of his religion, he never put country before God, and that didn’t make him extra popular.

Time in the Cavalry
Boston fought in the Civil War, the bloodiest war in our history, he was in the New York 16th Cavalry, and fought for four years. On the fated April 15th John Wilkes Booth shot our president, Abraham Lincon. While jumping off the balcony yelling “Sic Semper Tyrannis!” The clear meaning of the Latin statement is unknown, but it loosely translates to “thus always to tyrants”. Booth jumped about twelve feet down to the stage, breaking his leg. And whilst we were all keeping a vigil over our dear president, Booths made his escape south. After the president passed away, the country looks the New York 16th Calvery to bring Booth’s justice. The troop left on April 24 via steamer and headed about fifty miles down the Potomac. Then made landfall at Belle Plain Virginia, the searched all day but had no leads until a fisher and his wife called in a tip about a man who matched Harrold, one of Booths accomplices, they said that he had crossed the Rapanhok river. And the search started anew. They crossed the river and found themselves in Caroline County, where they knocked on doors until they found a soldier who had been said to help Booth and Harrold. His name was Wille Jett, and he wasn’t about to give up Booth and Harrold, but he eventually caved when they threatened his life, he led them roughly twelve miles to land near Port Royal, to the barn owned by Mr. Garret and his wife. Where Jett had left the men two days prior. They were told that Boothe was still in the barn, fate had finally caught up with him. The calvary surrounded Booth, and unsuccessfully tried to draw him out. Once his comrades were done waiting, one of them lit some dry hay and threw it into the barn where it quickly caught and the barn started burning. Booth then made his choice to fight his way out of the barn, when he raised his gun, he was shot. Corbett had shot him through a small crack in the wall, defying his orders to get him alive. But in Corbett’s eyes, justice had been served.

The Aftermath
After Booth had been shot, Lafayette Baker pulled him up and brought him to the house so they could deal with later. He was fortunate enough not to get a court marshal, he instead was declared a patriot. He was then known as “Lincon’s Avenger” he collected his small fortune and began the hatting business once more. But his story isn’t close to over yet. They believe that he went crazy from a mix of mercury poisoning and paranoia. He was getting dozens of hate letters each day, some saying that Booth was still alive and coming for him and others just letting him know what’s coming his way. He was terrified to the point where he ran away, he was getting old anyway, so he saddled up on his favorite horse Billy and rode off. He made himself a dugout in the West. Where his paranoia took on a more violent role, he never left the house without a pistol, the only time he ever went out was to go to church on Sundays, after the sermon he always said “The Lord wants me to say a few words.” Then he’d remove a pistol from each boot, place the guns on either side of the Bible, and hold forth.” That was from the Washingtonian. Anyone who came near his small home was threatened to leave, and if the children got too close, he would fire shots to scare them off. As the years went on, he stopped making money of any kind but his pension, so he demanded more. He was getting far too old to work and his mental condition was slowly falling away, they were getting very concerned about him.

The life after with
The government took pity on Corbett and gave him a job as an assistant doorkeeper’s post at the Kansas State Legislature in Topeka. His employment didn’t last long, after a dispute of some kind Corbett brandished it, and just like that, he was sent off to a mental asylum in Topeka. But that isn’t the end of the wild tale of Boston Corbett, one day when the inmates were exercising, he made his great escape, he watched as the mail-man tethered his horse, went inside and that was the moment to strike. He ran out got on the horse and sped out like a bullet from a gun. The Washingtonian states ¨ Corbett rode to Neodesha, Kansas, to the home of fellow Andersonville inmate Richard Thatcher. There he tied a note to his “borrowed” horse, explaining who its rightful owner was, and set it free. Then a relative of Thatcher’s took him to Brooks station, a train stop on the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway. He said he was going to Mexico, but no witnesses remembered anyone matching Corbett’s description boarding the train.¨
Where was Corbett, nobody knows for sure, there are many theories, the most promising of which was from a survivor of the Great Hinckley Fire, who said who in 1954 wrote an account of the conflagration and recalled an older Boston man named Tom Corbett, who was good with a rifle and was hired to hunt game for the crew at Gus Sexton’s Minnesota logging camp in 1890. In this version of his demise, the real Corbett wasn’t able to keep up with the younger men who escaped the flames by foot.) After he was thought to be dead, there was one man who claimed that he was the Boston Corbett that killed Booth, but he was a fraud. So where is Thomas H Boston Corbett? Nobody knows.