An assassin’s skull was stashed in this Central Florida town. Here’s where, why

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Florida is no stranger to strange history, but this tale connects all the way back to the Lincoln assassination.

More specifically, one of John Wilkes Booth’s conspirators is buried right here in Central Florida — or at least his skull is.

According to historians, that man — Lewis Thornton Powell — was tasked by Booth to kill then-Secretary of State William Seward.

“The night of April 14, as Booth went to Ford’s Theatre, Powell gained entry to Seward’s Washington home by saying he had medicine for the secretary, who had been injured in a carriage accident,” the Smithsonian’s website reads. “Powell forced his way into Seward’s bedroom and stabbed him repeatedly, although not fatally.”

Following the botched assassination, Powell fled from the home, but he soon realized he’d been abandoned by his two co-conspirators, who were supposed to help with his getaway.

Instead, he returned home, hiding out until he was arrested a few days later. Within a couple of months, Powell was sentenced to death and hanged alongside the other conspirators at just 21 years old.

But that’s not where his story ends.

It turns out that his body was buried in the prison courtyard, but it ended up being moved several times.

At some point, a caretaker removed Powell’s skull, which ultimately made its way into the Smithsonian’s Department of Anthropology, according to researchers.

In the 1990s, Native American tribes asked the Smithsonian to return some of their Native American remains for a proper burial. It was around this time that a skull in the museum’s collection was found, tagged as belonging to Powell.

Powell’s father had been a pastor in Central Florida, founding the Oviedo Baptist Church and acting as the first pastor of the Geneva Baptist Church. As a result, Powell’s skull was brought to Geneva, where his surviving nearest relative lived.

“A service was held and the skull was buried in the Geneva Cemetery near the grave of his mother, Patience Caroline Powell,” according to the University of Central Florida. “His body was buried in a pauper’s grave outside of Washington, D.C.”

The skull is still buried to this day at the Geneva Cemetery, along with a multitude of other Confederate veterans from Powell’s time.

His grave marker can be found on the side of the cemetery, near the entrance. Appropriately, the marker is located adjacent to his mother’s.