Booth escape route north

[L Verge]

Trust me, Jerry, I have thoughts of a heinous crime right now...

1. The New York arsonists were a lot closer to Canada and didn't have to transfer trains.

2. At that point of searching for Booth, I don't think that any authorities would trust others before them to make a thorough search and be lax in their own assignment.

3. What are Starkey's citations for his thoughts on the trains? Also, as I said before, while very readable, Starkey's book is not considered an authoritative source on the assassination and it is also very dated.

4. Surratt hid successfully in Canada because of his Catholic contacts. He also had not murdered the President of the U.S. Would the church have also sheltered a non-Catholic assassin?

5. To me, there is a big difference between moral treatment of a woman and the use of violence and self-protection in order to prove one's political points through murder - especially in the 19th century.

6. You already know that I do not believe that Booth lied about where he broke his leg. I am a definite proponent of the fact that it was broken at Ford's Theatre.

7. I believe that Mary Surratt had determined when the pickets en route to Surrattsville were relieved of duty while on her April 11 visit to the tavern. There was no need to send her back for that purpose on the very afternoon of the assassination.

8. Sam Arnold was not a lifelong buddy of Booth. They had been childhood friends from school, but there was little communication until Booth was seeking help from Confederate sympathizers.

9. And finally (and I do mean FINALLY): Aside from knowing the traditions and folklore of my area, more important to me is the fact that my feelings and knowledge on the assassination are steeped more in the wonderful, detailed research of people such as Hall, Brennan, Keesler, Hanchett, Kauffman, Steers, Tidwell, Gaddy, Trindal, Larson, Jampoler, and others who provide documentation to support their points.

As far as the tall grasses of Southern Maryland to hide in now, Jerry, I'm afraid that Yankee developers began chopping those down in the 1950s. The closest we get to moonlight and magnolias in Southern Maryland now is a moon pie now and then. And, we are occasionally plagued with moonbats.