MUSCATINE, Iowa — It was three score and several years ago when, as a child, Gladys Mittman’s father first told her about the man buried on the family property in Muscatine County.

It wasn’t until 60 years later, in 1996, that Mittman would learn that the man, John Henry Stevenson, may have been linked to one of the most important events in American history — the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

Mittman will tell the story of that discovery, her research and the work of a pair of college professors and authors during a free program at the Musser Public Library at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, at Musser Public Library.

Indiana University professor Leonard F. Guttridge and author Ray A. Neff co-wrote the upcoming book, “Dark Union,” which tells the story of  Lincoln’s murder and the alleged connection to Muscatine County.

Before his death in 1890, John Henry Stevenson claimed in a manuscript that he grew up with  John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s assassin, and that Booth was never really brought to justice, despite official historical accounts to the contrary.

Stevenson alleges that Booth escaped to India and some historical records indicate Booth may have died there in 1883.

Stevenson also claims to have later married and divorced Izola before moving to Muscatine County to live out his final years, where he took up residence with Clara and Emma Brandt, owners of the property that is now Wildcat Den State Park.

Mittman, who herself acknowledges that the truth behind the story may never be known, said that people can still immerse themselves in the intrigue behind the mystery during her presentation.

Online 

Read the entire transcript of Michael O’Laughlen’s (alias John Henry Stevenson) dictated autobiography at the Indiana State University Web site: http://odin.indstate.edu/about/units/rbsc/neff/PDFs/stevenson_olaughlin.pdf