Those Booth Horses Again -

[L Verge]

Bill, once you "sanitized" your first edition of LCH, I have had no qualms about recommending it - so no digs needed. My comment about Sanders was made to support more work being needed on that unstable man. You and now Jerry are some of the few other than the Come Retribution trio that even acknowledge the man may have had something to do with the Lincoln conspiracy. I think he had his hands in a lot of piles of dirt back then.

Now, I'm going back to the campfire about Booth's hat and throw another log on the fire. This is strictly a thought off the top of my head to see what becomes of it, but what is the possibility that Booth grabbed Peanuts Burrough's hat as he dashed away? We know that Peanuts said Booth struck him (on the forehead?). Could it have been done in the process of snatching the hat?

By all accounts (none of them proven, to my knowledge), Peanuts is always portrayed as somewhat slow-witted. In the pandemonium that broke out as more and more people piled out of the theater and into the back alley, maybe he didn't even realize he was missing his hat. He might have chalked it up later to having had it knocked off his head by the crowd and trampled underfoot.

Booth knew that he needed a hat in order to blend in at some point. It was readily available sitting on top of Peanut's head and probably nearly level with the mounted Booth's arm. It was easier to get than riding about six blocks to the boardinghouse and taking a chance of having others see and hear him and then cutting across more streets to get to the bridge.

OK, Ready. Aim. Fire!