Booth's crutch

[Rsmyth]

The following info is from my notes, the Maude recording and Dave Taylor:
When the neighbors saw the flames from the Garrett barn they all rushed over and there was nothing left of the structure. They found the crutch which the broke up and passed out to each other.
Mrs. Reeta Gray’s father received a piece and proceeded to give a big part of it to the women he was “courting”. She showed this 3 inch piece to Maude, stating this was all that was left.
When Fort A.P. Hill took over the area, Mrs. Gray left her 72 acre farm near upper Zion and moved to Saint Stevens Church area in King and Queen County. Later she was placed in a nursing home in Saluda, Virginia. When Maude went to visit her, Rita took her hand and placed the crutch into it. Rita said I cannot take it, it belongs in your family, Reeta responded “They don’t give a straw about it.”
Maude had the plate put on it by a jeweler in Richmond. The engraving says “Booth Crutch April 26 – 1865. Maude, who claimed to have known the Garrett’s and Lucinda Holloway, was living in Bowling Green and when the Booth Escape Tours came through she would meet the bus and display the relic.
The crutch stayed in Maude’s family ending up in the possession of the son of her first cousin who stated that Miss Reeta Gray's father acquired it from Lucinda Holloway.
Another version of a crutch related is a story told to me by Dave Taylor. It is related by Richard Baynham Garrett follows. At the Garrett farm, son, Jack Garret who had been wounded in battle gave his crutches to John Wilkes Booth. Jack’s younger brother, Richard Baynham Garrett asked Booth for the crutches he had with him when he arrived at the farm. These were presumably the ones Doctor Mudd had fashioned for Booth when the doctor treated his leg. Richard, cut the ends off the crutches and used them in playing a wounded soldier. After Booth’s death when it was learned that he had assassinated the President, Richard burned the crutches.