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Finis Langdon Bates

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Finis Langdon Bates

Birth
Itawamba County, Mississippi, USA
Death
29 Nov 1923 (aged 75)
Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, USA
Burial
Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, USA
Plot
Chapel Hill # 347 Gr. 8
Memorial ID
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Author, Attorney. His book entitled, "The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth" (1907), tells of an early 1900's death bed confession to Bates from a man named John St. Helen who claimed to be John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln.
Finis' son, Langdon Doyle Bates, is the father of actress Kathy Bates.

It can be quickly argued that Finis Bates' association with John St. Helen is the most interesting and certainly the most unusual episode of Bates' life. And a strange story it is. Bates wrote in 1873 he met St. Helen, a tobacco and liquor merchant, in Granbury, Texas. Granbury is located about 35 miles southwest of Fort Worth. They remained friends. In 1878 St. Helen became ill, saying he was dying. It was at this time that St. Helen told Bates that he was in fact John Wilkes Booth. St. Helen recovered and moved to Colorado to pursue mining. Bates moved to Memphis, losing touch with St. Helen.
Author, Attorney. His book entitled, "The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth" (1907), tells of an early 1900's death bed confession to Bates from a man named John St. Helen who claimed to be John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln.
Finis' son, Langdon Doyle Bates, is the father of actress Kathy Bates.

It can be quickly argued that Finis Bates' association with John St. Helen is the most interesting and certainly the most unusual episode of Bates' life. And a strange story it is. Bates wrote in 1873 he met St. Helen, a tobacco and liquor merchant, in Granbury, Texas. Granbury is located about 35 miles southwest of Fort Worth. They remained friends. In 1878 St. Helen became ill, saying he was dying. It was at this time that St. Helen told Bates that he was in fact John Wilkes Booth. St. Helen recovered and moved to Colorado to pursue mining. Bates moved to Memphis, losing touch with St. Helen.

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