# Claim Map

## Official record

- John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre.
- Booth fled Washington after the assassination.
- Booth died in Virginia in April 1865.
- The official record identifies the recovered body as Booth.

## Local lore

- Booth survived the official Virginia death account.
- Booth eventually came to Mississippi.
- Guntown preserves a local version of the Booth survival story.

## Family tradition

- Dr. John Fletcher Booth sheltered Booth near or in Guntown.
- The hiding place was upstairs in Dr. Booth's home.
- Jennie Booth Epting carried food to the upstairs hiding place.

## Physical artifact

- A marker associated with John Wilkes Booth is reported in the Smith Cemetery tradition.

## Place memory

- Smith Cemetery is connected to the Booth legend.
- Dr. Booth's home reportedly burned down.
- The exact location of Dr. Booth's home or alleged house site remains a research question.

## Unverified / needs source

- The gold cufflink story mentioned in the local-lore retelling.
- The metal casket / grave-location story mentioned in the local-lore retelling.
- The original 1995 Tupelo Daily Journal / Phyllis Harper interview.

## Public handling

The public site should keep these categories visually distinct. The local-lore claims can be compelling without being styled as authenticated historical findings.