Bowie Knife

[Wesley Harris]

I have talked with the employee who made the switch. It was based on an incorrect interpretation of a notable assassination researcher's findings plus a belief that the Liberty knife "seemed like something Booth would use." The confusion goes back even farther to the end of the 19th Century, when both the large Bowie knife and the Liberty knife appeared in separate news articles as the correct knife. The 'real' knife is almost identical to the Powell knife at the Huntington. And that brings up another problem--the 'Booth knife,' 'Powell knife,' and Herold's knife found in Atzerodt's room are all nearly identical Rio Grande Camp Knives. Since these were never tagged or labelled, the possibility of confusing which is which is great.

Dave and I conducted our research of the knives more or less independently of one another and came to the same conclusion--the wrong knife is on display.

Side note: Because of my wife's stroke last year, it doesn't look like I'll have my book on the weapons, "Tools of the Assassins," ready for the 2015 conference. Slim possibility but unlikely since I don't have it completed much less to the publisher. She's doing well and returning to work for the first time next week.