Texas lawyer Finis L. Bates was hired by one John St. Helen in the 1870s to handle his legal matters. Eventually, Bates asserts, his client revealed his true identity as Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Bates believed that Booth was not killed by Federal authorities shortly after Lincoln's murder, but instead escaped, lived under assumed identities for another 38 years, and committed suicide in an Oklahoma hotel while living under the name David E. George in 1903. The remains of David George were mummified and displayed by the Oklahoma undertaker for a period of time. Finis Bates ended up purchasing the mummy and showed it on the circus side show circuit.