Assassination

[Craig Hipkins]

I have always thought that this incident between Edwin Booth and Robert Lincoln was just a little too coincidental. First, Booth only recalled the incident after Colonel Adam Badeau told him that Robert Lincoln had mentioned it. Second, Booth referred to the person he saved as a "boy." Even if taking the earliest date of 1863 as the time when this happened the "boy" Robert, would have been 20 years old at that time. You could hardly consider a 20 year old to be a "boy" or a "lad."

Train stations and the railroad tracks were dangerous places to be back in those days (still are today. As a railroad worker I know first hand!), and it was not uncommon for someone to walk out into the path of an oncoming train, or simply take a wrong step off a platform.

It is quite possible that Edwin did save a boy and not knowing what RTL looked like, or his proper age, assumed that it was him after Badeau told him what RTL was telling the public. We are going on RTL's belief that it was Edwin that had saved him, but it might have been a case of mistaken identity.

Also, the two accounts differ in the way the incident played out.

Just playing the devils advocate here! I have always liked the story after first reading it in "Ripley's Believe it or not" when I was a kid.

Craig