The Mad Hatter

[W. Gray]

Who was this individual?

What did he do to earn his claim to fame?


Tom was an internationally famous Englishman known for one specific deed in his life. To this day, he is still famous for that one deed. However, by 1878 he was down and almost out finding himself filing for a homestead claim in Cloud County, Kansas.

Although his fame did not originate from his religion, he was known as a religious fanatic. As a result of this fanaticism, he took a pair of scissors and castrated himself.

His official lifelong trade was a hatter.

Several years after settling down in Cloud County, he became a third assistant doorkeeper at the Kansas House of Representatives.

Less than a month later, he brandished a revolver and chased everyone from the capitol building threatening to shoot them all. Shortly thereafter, a judge declared him insane and sent him to the Topeka Asylum for the Insane. Mercury vapor used in the hat making business may have severely affected him.

The following year, he escaped from the Topeka asylum and rode south to a point thirty-two miles east of Howard. There he met up with an individual he knew from the Civil War telling the man he was on his way to Mexico.

He then disappeared.

Seven years later he was listed, among many others, as having perished in a Minnesota town firestorm. His death could not be confirmed, however, and to this day historians only presume he died in this fire.

[W. Gray]

Who was this individual?

What did he do to earn his claim to fame?


Tom was an internationally famous Englishman known for one specific deed in his life. To this day, he is still famous for that one deed. However, by 1878 he was down and almost out finding himself filing for a homestead claim in Cloud County, Kansas.

Although his fame did not originate from his religion, he was known as a religious fanatic. As a result of this fanaticism, he took a pair of scissors and castrated himself.

His official lifelong trade was a hatter.

Several years after settling down in Cloud County, he became a third assistant doorkeeper at the Kansas House of Representatives.

Less than a month later, he brandished a revolver and chased everyone from the capitol building threatening to shoot them all. Shortly thereafter, a judge declared him insane and sent him to the Topeka Asylum for the Insane. Mercury vapor used in the hat making business may have severely affected him.

The following year, he escaped from the Topeka asylum and rode south to a point thirty-two miles east of Howard. There he met up with an individual he knew from the Civil War telling the man he was on his way to Mexico.

He then disappeared.

Seven years later he was listed, among many others, as having perished in a Minnesota town firestorm. His death could not be confirmed, however, and to this day historians only presume he died in this fire.

The man is Thomas "Boston" Corbett. As a US Army Sergeant in 1865, he was the slayer of John Wilkes Booth.

Born in England in 1832 his death in Hinckley, Minnesota, is presumed to be September 1, 1894, at about age 62. The fire destroyed Hinckley and killed over 400, including, presumably, Corbett.