My first post: thoughts on Booth leg fracture

[MaddieM]

(02-16-2013 01:05 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Heath - First, welcome to the forum; and of course, with this post, I am personally delighted to have you joining us. I'm getting tired of trying to stand ground about the broken leg on my own!

One thing: I don't consider Booth's diary entries lies. To me, they are exaggerations - but not that far off the mark. Booth did go through a thousand of Lincoln's friends at the theater. Jim Garrett may correct me on the exact number, but Ford's had packed in upwards to 1500 people that night - all of them there to celebrate with Lincoln (and hopefully Grant). "In jumping broke my leg" is more likely meaning the theater jump to me unless the mare was forced to jump a fence along the road to Surrattsville. "Riding sixty miles the first night" and "the bone tearing at my flesh" are perfectly logical statements. As I have said before, Booth did not have an odometer to tell him how far he had ridden; and even if he had a simple fracture, that bone had to cutting into flesh within the leg.

All I can say is that this debate will never end. I have been living with it now for over ten years at Surratt House.

For what it's worth.. I think Booth broke his leg jumping onto the stage. It was probably just bad luck for him. The percussion would surely have been enough to break that bone, and you'd only have to land badly to quite easily do that. People have broken bones in lesser falls.

Something that may well have already been discussed but I'll bring it up again is that there was a third horseman at the bridge after Booth and Herold rode over that night of the 14th but he was turned away by the guards. Would that have been Powell or someone else?