Booth autopsy

[Houmes]

(08-18-2013 06:52 PM)J. Beckert Wrote:  Thank you, Bill. So, if this is a posterior view, it's safe to say the bullet entered from the front right quadrant of Booth's neck and traveled, as Woodward said, with a slight inclination downward and backward. I think from your response that you favor the theory that Corbett shot Booth, but being it entered from the front, I think it also makes it more feasible that Booth shot himself. No?

Booth's possible death by suicide has often been a favorite talking point, and was even suggested that night while they were dragging him out of the barn. It still remains unlikely for several reasons. When men commit suicide by shooting, historically and today--as a rule--it involves a fatal wound to the head, mouth, or chest. It can involve the neck, but this is really quite rare and even more rare to succeed. I once saw a victim who shot himself multiple times in the face and head before he was successful, but those wounds (except for one) were nonlethal, and a hefty dose of alcohol in his system had been a factor in his inept aim.

Booth had two revolvers with him: a Colt Navy 1851 and a Colt Army 1861. Each weighs about 2.5 pounds. A current automatic Glock 19, by comparison, weighs about 1.8 pounds. Both of Booth's guns were percussion type, producing smoke and frequently a small flame when fired--some Ford's Theatre eyewitnesses recalled seeing a brief flash when he pulled the Deringer trigger. At autopsy, neither Dr Barnes nor Dr Woodward observed any contact wound (skin or clothing burns from smoke and fire) or nearby stippling (from unburned powder exiting the gun barrel, tattooing the skin). If present, they surely would have included this in any report for two reasons: it would have confirmed the entrance site for a through-and-through wound (both Drs. Barnes and Woodward described the entrance wound as from the left, which didn't correlate with Corbett's position outside the barn), and it would have confirmed suicide, which would have been a disgrace to Booth, proving his cowardice to a nation hell-bent on revenge for Lincoln's death. And even if they hadn't notice any burns, don't you think after being challenged by the officers on the Montauk that Dr. May would have seen evidence when he looked more closely at Booth's head and neck during identification? To be fair, Booth's body was decomposing, but it wouldn't have effected clothing that was singed or burned.

Photographs in Dr. Lattimer's book clearly show how awkward it would have been to successfully hold a long-barreled gun (that's one of Lattimer's sons playing the impending victim) angled to reproduce Booth's wound. Now add the factor of a heavy gun, then add balance problems from a broken ankle and using a crutch.

If Booth had been truly worried about disfiguring his pretty face, why would he have chosen to shoot his neck? Other than innate talent, an actor needs his face (for emoting), his extremities for movement and gesture, along with his voice. About the only way to efficiently use a gunshot to the neck for suicide is placing the barrel right up under the angle of the jaw, near the ear. That's where you can take out the carotid artery and jugular vein. Coincidentally, it's also where you place a hangman's noose for legal execution.

Mr. Booth's hand could have easily slipped from the desired neck site if he chose this method of shooting, but usually when that happens you take off your face (some medical examiners call it the Ernest Hemingway effect) or your larynx (and voicebox) or you end up paralyzed. It would have been far easier (and less messy) to take a gunshot wound to the chest, directly to the heart. That's probably why he whispered "useless, useless." He knew all that false bravado in the swamp, when he was sweating, swatting bugs, and scribbling in his diary that he could easily return to Washington and defend himself was wasted, and that if he survived he could have used that voice for speech and those arms for dramatic gesture--staging one last grand performance, either at the trial or while standing at the gallows.