Booth escape route north

[wsanto]

(09-07-2013 11:17 PM)Troy Cowan Wrote:  Wsanto said, "We will all agree that it is a fact that Booth leapt from the box after the assassination and landed on the stage 12 feet below. By most accounts he landed awkwardly. I assume we can all agree that this is a way a person might break their fibula."

I can't agree, I need more information. I have heard that the stage was 8 feet, 10 feet, or 12 feet above the stage. Several sources have stated the floor of Lincoln's box is 8 feet above the stage. It seems it would be easy for someone to prove or disprove.
I also think that any broken bone would be from compression forces on the bone and it would result in splintering or a ragged fracture. Dr. Mudd said it was a straight break just above the ankle. During the war that kind of break was common when a soldier's horse stumbled and rolled over the soldier's leg.

Troy,

Booth jumped over the railing which increased the distance he fell from the box. We know for a fact he did this. This fall might have resulted in no fracture or any number of injuries from a sprained ankle, to fibula fractures of all varieties to other potential injuries.

My point is that we know he dropped this distance and, by many accounts, landed awkwardly; therefore, with Booth having a broken leg and knowing this is a likely mechanism of injury to produce the type of broken fibula Booth suffered, it can not be discounted for another fiction that is being used to support another theory.

I've never heard anyone claim that Booth was complaining about his back more than his broken leg and I doubt this is true. Dr. Mudd did not treat Booth for an injured back but for the broken leg. Also Dr. Mudd did not have x-ray . He would not be able to tell if the fracture was traverse or straight across versus a spiral fracture from a simple physical exam. All he could say was that the fracture was simple (not an open fracture) and minor compared to other fractures.

On the other hand, IMO, there is no credible evidence of a horse fall. Booth and Herold told several folks that he broke his leg in a horse fall as part of their cover story during their escape. Herold continued this story to the gallows. None of this is proof of a horse fall as it all may have been a story concocted with the rest of their cover story.

There are no statements that I know of from Mudd's farmhand, John Davis, beside the one in "The Evidence". This statement does not describe the bay mare as injured. In fact he claims the mare was "in fine trim". He makes no remark with regard to the mare having a "badly swollen left shoulder" in this statement. Perhaps there is another statement but I have not seen it. I am not a researcher.

Harbin, Jones and George Mudd are all on the record that hey believe Booth broke his leg at Ford's. Harbin claims Booth reported this to him directly; Jones, intamely involved with Booth for several days in the pine thicket, reports it so in his book; and Mudd relates this as his belief during an interview with a reporter after the fact.

I understand that the horse fall is critical to your theory and to Jerry Madonna's theory and others i suppose but I don't see much evidence that his horse actually ever fell. It doesn't mean it didn't happen so it doesn't fully discount your theory or the others. But, in my opinion, it doesn't support them in any way either.