Breaking a leg

[Laurie Verge]

These telegrams are in the Hall files at the Surratt Research Center, and I believe that Joan Chaconas used them a few years back when she gave a talk on the Old Capitol Prison and William Wood. I remember seeing them once again just a few months ago.

We have the Davis comment about the injury to the horse, but we also have the comment by the D.C. stablehand (Fletcher?) that the horse had an injury derived from a saddle "malfunction." Let's speculate one more time and say that Herold and/or Booth told Mudd that Booth's leg had been broken at Ford's. Mudd then turned that around and suggested the cover story be the horse falling. Maybe one of the farmhands had a private talk with Wood?

My point is that we can go on speculating over this til the cows (or horses) come home. I do not believe that there is concrete evidence either way.