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Under Atlantic Ave: John Wilkes Booth's Diary?
By
Jen Carlson
Published Sep 23, 2009
Modified Sep 23, 2009
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Sep 23, 2009
Modified Sep 23, 2009
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The man who found the abandoned trolley tunnel under Atlantic Avenue thirty years ago, Bob Diamond, is now hoping to find some historical booty down there. The Brooklyn Paper's got a serious skeptical tone in their report, but even National Geographic is interested enough to finance, produce and staff an archeological dig that might go down this coming January.
The plan is to bust through a wall in the tunnel, to get to another portion of the passageway where one, all or none of the following items may be discovered: an old steam locomotive, John Wilkes Booth’s diary (that will obviously "reveal who hired him to shoot Abraham Lincoln"), vampires, the bones of bomb-making German solidiers, and probably Jimmy Hoffa.
Booth's diary is clearly the bold-faced-item here, and it's not entirely absurd to think it may be found underneath the busy Brooklyn street; "historical novelist G.J.A. O’Toole wrote in his 1979 detective thriller The Cosgrove Report, that the missing pages of the assassin’s journal were hidden in a steel box under Atlantic Avenue. Next to a lost steam locomotive." The explorer declared, “They could be in there. The first time I crawled into that tunnel, I felt like Indiana Jones. I am nervous with anticipation of what will happen this time.” Dun dun dun! Now we wait til winter.
Tagged
atlantic avenue
bob diamond
diary
John Wilkes Booth
national geographic
tunnel
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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