another suicide rumor; Corbett this time

[Steven G. Miller]

“Over the Line in Arizona. A Rumor that Boston Corbett Committed Suicide,” THE LOS ANGELES HERALD, June 3, 1895. “Judge Street received a letter Monday from a gentleman in Topeka. Kan., inquiring if Boston Corbett, the slayer of John Wilkes Booth, had committed suicide in Arizona. A rumor had in some way reached Kansas that the celebrated sergeant had wandered to Southwestern Kansas from his home in Cloud county, was heard from at various points in Texas and New Mexico and had at last found a home in a mining camp in the southeastern part of the territory, where he had ended his eventful life. Several gentlemen were in the city from that part of Arizona but none had heard of Corbett's death or the recent suicide of any one not well known in the locality in which he died.”

Point of clarification: Corbett moved from Cloud County, Kansas to Topeka where we went to work in the state legislature. He was arrested after he threatened several people with a pistol and was adjudged as insane, but he made a dramatic escape and headed for southeast Kansas where he visited Richard Thatcher, a man he had met in Andersonville prison. Corbett was dropped off at a railroad station near Neodesha, KS, and may have headed for Texas, but the evidence is not clear about what happened next.

[BCorbett1865]

Steve,
That is interesting. I have never been of the belief that Corbett died in the Hinckley fire. Without any evidence other than Thatcher's "he was going to old Mexico"  I think that is where Corbett headed for after engaging Thatcher's hospitality. It makes sense that he would have wanted to shuck himself from the States where he would have been considered a fugitive. A look in the Mexican archives might be worthwhile, though admittedly a long shot. He was probably dry-gulched in the desert somewhere. What do you think? Know anyone that speaks good Spanish?

Craig

[Randal]

si