Anatifacts

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John Wilkes Booth's 3rd, 4th and 5th Cervical (Neck) Vertebrae

On April 26, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, on the run from the law after assassinating President Abraham Lincoln, was shot through the neck while holed up in Garrett's barn in Caroline County, Virginia. Booth was removed from the barn and brought to the front porch of the Garrett house, where he died three hours later. On April 28, his body arrived at the Washington Navy Yard where Surgeon General of the Army Joseph K. Barnes and Assistant Surgeon Joseph J. Woodward, both of the Army Medical Museum now known as the National Museum of Health and Medicine, performed the autopsy aboard the USS Montauk, a 1,335-ton Passaic class ironclad.

This picture shows Booth's 3rd, 4th and 5th cervical (neck) vertebrae viewed from the back. The plastic probe follows the path of the bullet, which traveled from right to left. (AFIP 34646)