Garrett Farm

[wsanto]

Troy,

I assume you believe Herold was involved with Booth as a conspirator to Lincoln's murder. If so, you must take into account Herold's need, at the time of his capture, of an aliby to explain his being in Garrett's barn that night with Booth. I realize you don't believe it was Booth, but if it was, Herold needed to come up with some story to convince his captors that he was an innocent.

So he starts by claiming he doesn't know Booth and that the body in the barn was, to his knowledge, some guy he just met named Boyd? Ok maybe. Was Herold telling the truth? Of course not. We know he was lying. And Wiiliam Garrett relating what he remembered Herold saying is no evidence that Herold was telling the truth.

The report of a confederate sympathizer that probably had no love lost for Lincoln or for the Federal Government might have been willing to believe, and hope, that Booth escaped that night and that the evil government was covering up the facts. He might have even relayed that story, as fictitious as it might be, to his family. He probably even convinced himself it was true. But like most conspiracy theories--it most likely wasn't

Bill Carnevali